Delay (2023)

Duration: 4’00”

Ensemble: Piano (with optional electronics)

Premiere: January 21, 2023, Hood River, OR

Program Note:

My first big purchase out of college was a Yamaha Avantgrand N2 electric-acoustic hybrid piano. A true 21st century luxury, it had the engine of a traditional Yamaha grand piano–moving hammers and all–but a purely digital sound, allowing me effective practice late into the night with headphones as to not bother my neighbors. Before long, I began experimenting with the MIDI capabilities this instrument afforded me when interfacing with my laptop. My favorite special effect was the use of a digital “delay pedal”, mimicking the analog tools employed by many of my favorite electric guitarists.

Delay pedals can be attached to the output of any electric instrument and effectively create an echo, replaying every sound after a short delay (typically less than one second). This effect is often creatively used by guitarists to simulate an impressive avalanche of notes, whereby the musician plays a steady rhythm of notes while timing the delay such that the echo lands on the off-beats between each note. What appears to be a dizzying display of virtuosity is in fact an electronic sleight of hand, as the performer is really only playing every other note (albeit at challenging metronomic accuracy).

This piano etude was borne out of a desire to write a piece which could be played with or without a delay pedal. If desired, the pianist could perform the piece “acoustically”, doubling the amount of notes otherwise played if using electronics. The primary challenge of composing a convincing piece in this manner is to ensure that the resulting piece still fits the hands.