Five Impromptus (2019)
Solo piano
Duration: c. 15 mins.
Written for and premiered by composer/pianist Thomas Weaver in 2019 in Lenox, Massachusetts, Five Impromptus is a five-movement work for solo piano. The outer movements are the most rhapsodic, with a free-flowing succession of ideas, including a musical cypher of THOMAS (Bb–B–G–F#–A–Eb) WEAVER (C–E–G#–C#–F–D). The slow, contemplative, middle movement is quiet throughout, allowing the material to gently resonate and decay, creating an other-worldly, tranquil atmosphere. Flanking the central movement, the second and fourth movements are the most varied, with scherzo-like material juxtaposed with crisp, angular gestures, murky, resonant passages, palindromic chordal phrases, and highly decorative, trilled motives. The final movement builds to a thunderous climax, rapidly dropping over six octaves to the bottom register of the piano, concluding with a quiet, lyrical passage recalling a motive from the beginning of the movement, ending on the pitches C and D–the first and last pitches of the WEAVER cypher.
Five Impromptus—Premiere Performance by Thomas Weaver, piano
Boston University Tanglewood Institute Faculty Performance Series
Trinity Episcopal Church (Lenox, Massachusetts)—3 July, 2019