A SINGLE NOON
Instrumentation: solo piano
Duration: 45 minutes
Composed: 2010
Premiere: April 20, 2011 by Gregg Kallor at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall in New York City
A Single Noon is a tableau of life in New York City told through a combination of composed music and improvisation. The nine movements are evocative snapshots – moments of caffeinated bliss, embarrassing subway mishaps, the buzzing energy of a city driven by dynamic, thoughtful, talented, and slightly crazy people – that coalesce into a more complete story like an album of postcards, or memories.
Each movement develops an aspect of the Single Noon theme, and several movements (Broken Sentences, Straphanger’s Lurch, Giants, and Here Now) offer room to stretch the musical fabric through improvisation. Since not all pianists are comfortable improvising, it was important for me to find a way to make the sections for improvisation optional, sort of like scenic detours on a highway; the musical narrative won’t be compromised if you stick to the paved road, so to speak – you’ll just arrive a little sooner.
New York humbles me, and makes me feel part of something big – I have never felt more alive or at home anywhere else. A Single Noon is a love letter to this incredible city.
A Single Noon:
A Single Noon
Broken Sentences
Night
Straphanger's Lurch
Found
Espresso Nirvana
Giants
Things to Come
Here Now
“A SINGLE NOON is the work of an extraordinary pianist, a composer of great distinction and a true conceptualist... this ambitious and unique suite takes us somewhere that is very deeply heartfelt and dazzlingly executed. This is 21st-century music that has clearly absorbed the past and looks to a bright and borderless musical future.”