Piano Concerto

About

This short concerto was written for the Taharoto Orchestra, a group consisting of students from Westlake Girls and Westlake Boys High Schools conducted by Liz Cable. It was the second work I had written for the group. The concerto is cast in the traditional three movement form: fast-slow-fast. Although there is no cadenza as such, the first movement does contain a short solo section where a cadenza might have appeared. The first movement is rather like an extended fanfare, making much use of the chords of F major and G major. Sometimes these two chords sound simultaneously, sometimes they are heard successively. The music opens featuring the percussion and low strings playing 'pizzicato', setting in motion the underlying rhythmic energy that pervades the whole movement. The second movement is a short, slow and serious movement., It uses a single theme which is divided into two sections, the first section in A minor, and the second section beginning in C major. This theme is heard three times, the final time allowing the piano to present a varied treatment of the opening section, while the second part of the theme is presented as a canon. The final movement, marked 'playfully', uses a mix of 4 beats and 5 beats in a bar. The music appears to have a slightly 'French neo-classical' feel to it, using short phrases and simple succinct melodic ideas. The whole work ends with an affirmative cadence in C major.