Between (2022)

for Solo Piano

Commissioned by Bucknell University for Qing Jiang, pianist

Dedicated to Qing Jiang

Duration: 7 minutes

About the piece

Between was commissioned as a short companion piece to Claude Debussy’s Études. Each of Debussy’s études focuses on a different technical challenge that a pianist strives to master in their study of the instrument. In my piece, I focus on the challenge of playing “inside the piano,” a practice that has become common in the hundred years since the publication of Debussy’s work.

I conceived of my piece as a dialogue between contrasting sounds and ways of engaging with the instrument: between the piano’s tempered tuning and its natural overtone harmonics, and between playing on the piano’s keys and upon its strings and structural beams. The piece follows the form of a lyrical chorale that crisscrosses and leaps across the piano’s range. It’s the pianist’s task to always sing the lyrical line amidst the technical challenges posed—finding meaning in what lies in between.

Between takes chorales and harmonies from my previous composition, In Between for chamber orchestra, and re-imagines them in the new form of a solo piano piece. I see this piece as a companion to the last three of Debussy’s études, which focus on opposing sonorities, arpeggios and chords. Between was commissioned by Bucknell University for pianist Qing Jiang.

– Eric Nathan

WATCH

Performed live by Qing Jiang, pianist
Civitella Ranieri Foundation, Italy