Through over 1000 compositions I have shared the creative complexes, dreams and puzzles that make up my musical imagination. In my latest album Key Signatures, (moylanmedia 2019) I attempt to perform each of the 14 new original works on a different piano. Nowadays a CD-quality recording can be made with little more recording gear than a cellphone and a quality microphone. The challenge is to have practiced each piece sufficiently so that at the places where I intended to record, (studio, chapel, meeting hall, etc) I could simply sit at the piano, play, and record my tune. I selected the compositions by the energy I thought they conveyed, and I believe that some of the pianos added energy of their own, as well as presence to my music. Of course setting adds ambience into the mix as well, however, using this method of near-field recording I wasn’t able to capture much beyond natural resonance, and the buzzes and thumps that accompany the mechanical operation of the instruments.
This is the first album released under my name. As I wrote and produced dozens of albums it gradually became clear to me that I write too much music. How is a prospective listener supposed to find my music, when it appears in Instrumental, Rock, New Age, Classical, and Singer-Songwriter categories? Some albums feature mandolin, others feature full orchestral ensemble. I realized that I was offering a potential consumer a virtual roulette wheel of musical choices. Thus henceforth my music will be published and released under different entities. Orchestral works will be released under the Trois Mondes name; Progressive rock fusion will dominate the Bearded Crow label; and all of the rest- mostly solo piano theme-and-variations -will be released under my own name. A few albums will be re-released to correct the record, as it were.
Solo piano music can be intimate, despite the lumbering brass and wood furniture necessary to produce it. The instrument itself is suited to places as large as a concert hall, yet also as small as a living-room. When I first started learning the piano I fervently wished that nobody but me could hear the incessant scales and chords I practiced with the baby-grand piano my father had rescued and installed in our home. However, due to the fact that the house was situated above the street, and the living-room had windows on two sides, the plinks and plunks reverberated throughout the neighborhood. It became too easy for my friends to rag me over my practice exercises.
“So you learning a new tune, eh- That’s good, ’cause I sure was sick of the old one!”
Eventually I earned a chance to practice in actual ‘piano rooms’ at the local college. These were very small, acoustically isolated rooms where aspiring pianists could bang away until their fingers bled without making other people’s ears bleed in the process.
Over many years I had opportunities to play many varied instruments, some lovely in their tonality, some harsh and commanding, some petite and muffled.
These years happened to coincide with a period that saw an overall decline in the presence of pianos in homes, churches, and municipal halls. Most of our appliances and tools have gone from solid to solid-state, and pianos are surely heavy, hard to move dust-collectors. Just try finding a decent piano-tuner.
Music has also undergone the change that typically defines it, but there has also been a subtle shift in listenership. No longer do people expect ‘real music’ to come from ‘real instruments’. Electronic instruments have been edging onto the musical pallete since the 1950s, and today no major composer works without them to some degree, and many work exclusively with them.
Listeners can still experience vibrant ‘acoustic’ music in many venues, from bluegrass festivals to choirs and orchestras, and many swear that the actual vibrations of the instruments make the difference in their appreciation. It is said that some deaf people ‘listen’ to music through sympathetic vibrations, and we know that there are countless examples of resonant sympathy throughout nature. It is apparent that all living things react to the hum and thrum of the planet itself, and ancient philosophers considered the firmament to function musically.
So here, in brilliant digital audio, are new and nimble works written for piano and performed on instruments from uprights to concert grands. Thanks for hearing new piano music from Jeff Moylan!