PIANO MUSIC



STEPS

My ongoing anthology entitled STEPS is projected to run throughout my life, as a sort of "travelling companion". Begun in 2001 it has now reached eleven large volumes - cycles comprised of smaller, often poetically entitled movements. Piano music was the medium by which I came back into composing after a twelve year silence. Two people were catalysts in re-igniting my desire to write: the first was my good friend Michael Bell, of Keele University, who threw down the gauntlet to me (pretty much signing a blank cheque - "You write it - I will play it!"); the second was a gifted young pupil of his whose precocious playing reminded me, somewhat belatedly, of what had lain dormant for too long; that music was indeed beautiful and the most powerful conveyer of thought and expression yet devised. Sometimes, perhaps, the 'obvious' needs to be re-spoken. I am eternally indebted to both.

Volumes 1-5 and 8 have been released on CD by Sheva Contemporary label, and Volume 6 by Willowhayne Records with numerous reviews in Gramophone Magazine, Piano News, International Piano, Musical Opinion, Hudebni Rozhledy and many more. They are available widely online. Vols. 7, 9 and 10 are already in preparation.

Steps - volumes 1- 11

Please explore below... A window will open where you will find printable scores, programme notes, audio and video.

If you wish simply to listen, this YouTube playlist has many performances.


Minjeong Shin
Still
from Steps Volume I
Giovanni Santini
Old Man with Water Studies
from Steps Volume 2
Michael Bell
Hammam Baths
from Steps Volume 3
Fabio Menchetti
Canto della Vita
from Steps Volume 4
Alessandro Viale
no.9
from Steps Volume 5
Michael Bell
The wind whispers in dry leaves
from Steps Volume 8