Shameless Self-Promotion: Six Preludes (no fugues)

I know an actual goddess: Maila Gutierrez Springfield, Instructor of Music and Staff Accompanist at Valdosta State University. Her skills on the piano are incredible. How incredible? One summer at the Governor’s Honors Program, I dropped into a choral rehearsal for the All-Campus Chorus. Things were going fine, as these things go, when Maila hit a wrong note. The whole room gasped, and we had to stop for a moment to reorient ourselves in a universe where Maila Springfield could play a wrong note.

The composer and his muse in 2013

In 2009, she asked me to write something for her. In performances with her saxophonist husband David and others, they have fresh new music to play, but she’s always the accompanist. She wanted a star turn.

So I set about writing Six Preludes (no fugues) for her. It took me a while, but I finished them. She premiered them in the fall of 2011 at her faculty recital, but I was unable to attend. In 2013, at the faculty concert at the 50th GHP, she played them. (It is one of the few times I have actually heard my music performed without my having been in charge of making it happen.)

Six Preludes is not an easy suite, but it is beautiful, made moreso by Maila’s artistry. I will give the most outstanding example: Prelude #2 is a lovely little waltz. Here’s what Finale makes of it as a sound file:

I was stunned to hear what Maila made of it:

Right?

Here you will find the Six Preludes (no fugues), with computer realizations, scores, and Maila’s premiere performance. (I wish I had a recording of her 2013 performance; it was slightly more sure-footed than the premiere.)

But wait — there’s more. I shared the Preludes with an accompanist friend back home. She admired them but admitted they were too difficult for her to play. Fair enough, so I wrote Five Easier Pieces as a kind of apology to gifted accompanists who are not deities like Maila.

They’re perfectly lovely, each and every one. You are welcome to them.

Next post: Fun trivia about Prelude (no fugue) No. 6 (Tema con variazone).