Chasm Reflected (2022)
for two pianos
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Khasma Piano Duo
video by Chris Craychee
video by Chris Craychee
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Khasma Piano Duo
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PROGRAM NOTE
Chasm Reflected, commissioned by the Khasma Piano Duo in celebration of its 10th anniversary in 2022, is a 13-minute work for two pianos. The title refers to Chasm Lake, a spectacular destination 11,823 feet above sea level accessed by a challenging hiking trail in Rocky Mountain National Park. In the early morning, when the lake is calm, a crystal-clear inversion of Longs Peak (14,259 feet) is reflected on the surface of the icy water. Chasm Reflected depicts this mirror image via its pitch structure: during the initial half of the work, pitch-classes fan out symmetrically below and above an axis of C, first by a major second (Bb, D), then by a perfect fourth (G, F), and finally by a major sixth (Eb, A). The concluding half reverses this process, resulting in a temporal instantiation of mirrored reflection. The piece's large-scale organization is an inverted reinterpretation of the formal design employed in Time Seems To Pass, composed for the Khasma Duo in 2012.
