Harpsichord Concerto

Written in trying times as the world around us crumbles, this harpsichord concerto lacks any extramusical narrative or concept, expressing Stravinsky’s famous neoclassical dictum that “music represents nothing but itself.” I don’t know if that’s true—the very act of looking away toward the timeless abstraction of art is I think itself a political gesture, but the idea that art may transcend the ugliness that surrounds us is I think a powerful one. Inspired by many of the most famous works for the instrument, most notably Bach’s fifth Brandenburg Concerto, Gorecki’s Harpsichord Concerto, and de Falla’s miniature concerto, there are three parts: two paired Allegro giusto movements with strings, similar yet different, separated by a solo cadenza utilizing material from both.