Orchestration

solo piano

Commissioned by/Premiere

“Kiss Me” was commissioned by Matthew Mirapaul as part of Liaisons2020 and is dedicated to Anthony De Mare.

Premiered by Anthony de Mare at Kaufman Music Center’s Merkin Hall on March 26, 2022.

Note

When recomposing “Kiss Me”, I had in mind a statement I heard from Sondheim when he interviewed another famous Steve a few years back:

“Steve Reich is the king of the vamp.”

I loved the cheeky idea of Steve Reich’s work being “vamps,” moments before or after something happens in a play. Vamps stretch time, and Steve does nothing better.

So in turn my Kiss Me turns a minute-long song into four. It opens with a long vamp before compressing for the song’s climax, before luxuriating again in another long vamp—a simple piano ostinato augmented by fragmented layers of electronic sound.

Score

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