Corridor of Uncertainty
(2022)Orchestration
solo piano and electronics
Duration
4 minutes
Commissioned by/Premiere
Premiered by Nadia Shpachenko on July 22, 2022 at Bargemusic, New York, NY
Score
Electronics
Note
When I was asked by Nadia Shpachenko to write a piece inspired by the game of Soccer, I thought of a concept I had heard a number of times before: the corridor of uncertainty, defined by Collins dictionary as “an area of the pitch between the defenders and the goalkeeper, in which it is not clear who should take the responsibility of dealing with a ball played into it.”
In my piece, I tried to imagine these two roles—the defenders and the goalkeepers—broken between the left and right hands of the pianist. The left hand is steady and rhythmic while the right is jagged and rhythmic. Sometimes these hands act in accord; other times, they seem to almost work against each other, creating a rhythmic interplay that is reminiscent of such a moment of confusion. Against both the left and right hand is a layer of pre-recorded piano, which, to me, represents the opposing player — a force that both hands interact with in different ways in my short composition.