Nico Muhly » Piano

The Mezzo-Soprano’s Song

fmyers — Thu, 24 Mar 2011 15:17:44 +0000

Composed for the publication of the book
13 Words by Lemony Snicket and Maira Kalman.

There once was a Bird and there once was a Dog,
And the bird was Despondent, or sad,
A pensive frown on her Busy beak,
No matter that Cake could be had.

The Goat suggested a Convertible drive,
To purchase a cheering up Hat,
At a Haberdashery with a Scarlet door,
And a Baby to sell them just that.

The hats have Panache, of course, of course,
A sense of excitement and style,
The Mezzo-Soprano is done with her song,
So let’s all just eat for a while.

Tra la, tra la, tra la, tra la,
And sing those tra las once more.
Tra la, tra la, tra la, tra la,
Try not to get crumbs on the floor.

-Lemony Snicket

Recorded by Eve Gigliotti and Nico Muhly.

Drones & Piano

fmyers — Thu, 24 Mar 2011 14:28:57 +0000

Commissioned by the 2010 Gilmore International Keyboard Festival with assistance from Joan K. Sharda & the New England Conservatory of Music, for pianist Bruce Brubaker.

Pillaging Music

Nico — Wed, 16 May 2007 03:03:23 +0000

Muhly names Pierre Boulez as the inspiration for Pillaging Music, and it’s easy to hear the influence of pieces like Sur-incises and Répons on this metallic piano/percussion texture, with its wild, electronic antiphony. But where Boulez’s music wears, self-consciously, the sheen of the new, Pillaging Music has been painstakingly distressed. The percussion is complemented by a battery of found instruments, household objects chosen to approximate the pitches of the other instruments without matching them exactly. And the tape component was edited (by the composer and Valgeir Sigurðsson) with an ear-popping ruthlessness. More obviously, where Boulez’s convulsive rhythms and atonal harmonies reject the familiar, inhabitable spaces of classical music”””He takes the gargoyles,” composer Ned Rorem complained after hearing Répons, “and leaves the cathedral”””Muhly is willfully humane, pushing the drama of his tonal language across the threshold of camp. The aggression is ritualised, mitigated by an excess of style. A hushed, reverent interlude demonstrates that Muhly could never leave the cathedral too far behind, before the instruments literally race””Nancarrow-like””to the piece’s rhythmically virtuosic conclusion. – Notes Â© 2007 by Daniel Johnson

Pillaging Music is recorded on Bedroom Community Hvalur 001 (Nico Muhly Speaks Volumes).

Sam Solomon, percussion
Nico Muhly, keyboards

Nico & Sam during Pillaging Music rehearsal, Zankel Hall, 2007

Sam recording Pillaging Music in Brooklyn, 2006

Nico & Valgeir playing Pillaging Music in Rotterdam, April, 2007

Three Études for Piano

Nico — Wed, 16 May 2007 02:29:14 +0000

In preparation for writing a large (uncompleted) work for piano, I decided to write three short pieces to get certain musical tics out of my system. Each of these three eÌtudes addresses a specific rhythmic and harmonic gesture: the first, Ostinati, focuses on a gently lilting left hand contrasted with angular outbursts in the right hand, usually in octaves. The second eÌtude, “Quiet Music,” concerns itself with drones and chant-like music, and the third, “Running,” explores slowly shifting harmonies pitted against very fast cross-hand playing. These three eÌtudes were written from January “” March 2003 and were composed partially for performance in the VisionIntoArt / RockHotelPianoFest in New York City. These three eÌtudes were written from January “” March 2003 and were composed partially for performance in the VisionIntoArt RockHotelPianoFest in New York City. EÌtude #3 (“Running”) These three eÌtudes were written from January “” March 2003 and were composed partially for was premiered by Eric Huebner and is dedicated to him.

Quiet Music is recorded on Bedroom Community Hvalur 001 (Nico Muhly Speaks Volumes).

A Hudson Cycle

Nico — Tue, 15 May 2007 14:49:43 +0000

A Hudson Cycle was written as a wedding gift for two friends. This is music of longing and anticipation; losing a beautiful place, approaching a beloved person. The right hand and the left struggle to synchronise, now succeeding, now failing to coincide. The primary rhythmic figure””a restless polyrhythm of two beats in the right hand for every three in the left””should recall the onward rush of the titular river. – Program Notes Â© 2007 Daniel Johnson

Composer’s Note: One of the worst things that can happen to you when you live in New York is that your friends get married and move away. A Hudson Cycle is, while dedicated specifically to my friend Megan, dedicated also to everybody left behind.

A Hudson Cycle is recorded on Bedroom Community Hvalur 001 (Nico Muhly Speaks Volumes).

Nico Muhly, piano

Nico tracking A Hudson Cycle in Salurinn, Kópavogur