For Piano Solo, or any other instrument or instruments.
Purchase the score and recordings here.
Available in two versions:
1. Text score for any instrumentation
2. Nine traditionally notated piano solo movements
Imperfect Intervals came together accidentally. This music did not start on the page, but rather as sounds. I recorded nine pieces as improvisations in October and November of 2020, and labeled the files "Sound Diary" on my hard drive. When I was making them, that's all they were: daily diary entries, documenting a period in my life of deep reflection.
But with each new recording, I started to notice an emergent improvisational process. It seemed like the improvisations were being guided by a logic. That logic had musical implications, to be sure -- there an abundance of fifths and fourths in these pieces, the so-called "perfect" intervals. But those intervals are mediated by all sorts of other intervals, some small and some as vast as the whole piano. And the sonority of my piano, which was beginning to drift out of tune while I was making these recordings, certainly made these intervals seem "imperfect" to my ears.
Moreover, the process that was unfolding wasn't really about musical intervals. I began to realize that it was more about a manner of approaching the instrument. It was a mindset, a headspace. Gradually, I began to realize that the notes were the least consequential aspect of the music. The notes could have been anything, as long as they were infused with the energy that I was bringing to the piano. That energy behind the music was the music.
The text of the score is the closest representation to this energy behind the music. If anyone, on any instrument, wants to play Imperfect Intervals, they can use that text as their score. Certainly, when I do an Imperfect Intervals improvisation, the approach laid out in this text is my guiding force.
Nevertheless, I've decided to reproduce transcriptions of my nine Imperfect Intervals recordings. These transcriptions are pieces all on their own. But they also provide a clue for how the diffuse process of improvising through this particular lens might manifest. Of course, the possibilities are limitless.