Jennifer King, piano

Doolittle: Minute Études “Excerpts” (Live) features excerpts from a series of piano pieces by composer Emily Doolittle. Each piece explores one idea, whether it’s an interval, a rhythmic pattern, or an effect.

O Mistress Moon is a collection of two centuries of Nocturnes and night inspired music from composers Chopin, Britten, Satie, Debussy, Barber, Poulenc, Schumann, Scriabin, Respighi, and Juno award winning composer Derek Charke. The music promises to transport you to the moon and back on a peaceful, thought-provoking journey.

Snow Moon/ Snow Blinding (Folkloric/Mi’kmaq)

Composed by Derek Charke in 2014 as a commission by the Muzikon series for pianist Barbara Pritchard. The work is about the time of day known as dusk or twilight. In French this hour is known as ‘Entre Chien et Loup’ (translated as between dog and wolf). The mood begins from a recurring chorale to shimmering, repeated chord patterns opening to brooding moments and spaciously improvised solemn reflections.

Worm Moon/ Maple Sugar (Folkloric/Mi’kmaq)

As would be expected from the title, I have tried through this piece to create music evocative of nocturnal mystery, introspection and the revelation of hidden meaning, in the same manner that the obscurity of nightfall can be conducive to personal introspection. Within a restrained registral compass, and against a background of mysteriously ambiguous inner-voice chords, certain anchor tones gain prominence through the progress of the piece, ultimately revealing the hidden structural ‘meaning’ in the form of the 12-note chord which concludes the piece. Of course, the compositional point of departure was simply to create a succession of beautiful sounds, in this case for Janet Hammock, a pianist and friend of long duration to whom the nocturne is dedicated. The revelation of a hidden meaning was a serendipitous by-product, dictated to me by the music, during a period of intensely focused composition.

Pink Moon/Birds Laying Eggs
(Folkloric/Mi’kmaq)

Sophie-Carmen Eckhardt-Gramatté was a mostly self taught, Russian-born Canadian composer. She also was a virtuoso pianist and violinist. This Nocturne is a childhood piece she wrote around the age of 13 and then later returned to revise and expand as an adult in 1936 while living in Berlin. There are influences of Chopin and Schumann but this is clearly the work of an expressive and independently minded artist.