Series I, No. 1 from Pieces From A Distant Land (1978 – )

Quite some years ago, my mother, Mary Lois, asked me to write some easy-to-play pieces
in the tonal tradition which would be suitable for her to play during her church services.
This is the first piece I wrote for her and which she liked very much. Apparently, I didn’t
quite get the “easy-to-play” part of her request as she never was able to “play” these pieces
as intended. Nonetheless, she treasured the pieces I wrote for her while she was still
alive. She passed away in 2015, but I am still writing these pieces, indeed as much for
myself as for her. Thus, I subtitled this first from the initial group of pieces, “In
Memoriam”, in loving memory of my mother and all that she did for me by encouraging me
to continue writing music.
The title of the group of pieces, “Pieces From A Distant Land”, originates from my Paris
sojourn from 1976-1978. My wife, Irene, accompanied me, was my constant companion,
and shared with me the adventure of living abroad in Europe. During this time, I thought of
home, back in the San Francisco Bay Area, as the “Distant Land”. Beyond this, it also
occurred to me that “Distant Land” was a metaphor for the tonal language I grew up with
and in which I began composing. This was particularly salient for me at the time as I was
writing “The Ship of Death” which moved quite beyond this early language I was so used to,
combining in fact such diverse sources as live electronic processing of acoustic sounds,
open form of Earle Brown, complex contrapuntal textures and metric modulation
influenced by the likes of Elliott Carter, and of course the sonic and timbral richness of
much of the music I was listening to in Paris at the time (Xenakis, Messiaen, Cristóbal
Halffter, Heinz Holliger, and Stockhausen – to name just a few!).
Based on this view of “Distant Land”, I contemplated several series of works for solo Piano,
the first being written in the tonal tradition (Series I), the second being tonally more
advanced (Series II), and the third being experimental (Series III).

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