Gravity: Prelude and Fugue for Piano

In the mind of Isaac Newton, the mystery of gravity became solved when he realized the same phenomenon pulling a falling apple to the Earth also guides the moon in its orbit around our planet. Much like the force in the world of Star Wars, gravity bound everything in the entire universe together by the force of mutual attraction. That is, until Einstein came along, showing us that gravity may not be a force at all—rather, an apparent phenomenon of the curve of space and time themselves in the presence of matter.

Composers often like to say the notes they write have a kind of mutual attraction, a logic by which one tone may gravitate toward another. The first movement to Gravity experiments with this gravitational pull of notes, succumbing to it in some places and thwarting it in others. In sections of light character juxtaposed with heavy music, this short prelude explores mu­sical gravity and opens the door to question the existence of the force itself.

Subsequently, in lieu of jumping off the tonal cliff into 12-tone atonality—where all twelve notes of the Western chromatic scale would play an equal role—the second movement does the opposite. Instead of using all the keys on the piano, the piece restricts itself to only the seven white keys, making it a modal composition. The “Escape from Gravity,” as the piece is subtitled, occurs not in escaping the function of notes, but rather exploring the Locrian mode—the mode known for having the least tonal gravity. In exploring the edge of musical gravity, this piece finds its home in a jazzy, syncopated fugue built on a bluesy main subject and an infectious underlying groove.

Difficulty: Hard | Duration: 4 minutes