Hymns

version for two pianos (2006)
Duration: 8 minutes
Premier: June, 2006. Music06; Cincinnati, OH
Albert Muhlbach and Mabel Kwan, pianos
LISTEN: Muhlbach and Kwan, pianos

version for solo piano (2004, rev. 06)
Duration: 8 minutes
Premier: September, 2007. UMKC, Kansas City, MO
Keith Kirchoff, piano
LISTEN: Keith Kirchoff, piano

Originally written in 2004, Hymns was intended to be a piece with which I would tour in my solo recitals. However, I was startled and downright horrified to discover that, upon finishing the piece, I had composed something utterly impossible for one pianist to play. In disgust, I through the piece in a file cabinet where it sat for two years, until, in 2006, I rewrote it extensively for two pianos. It was after this performance that I determined I truly did want to have a solo piano version of the work, and composed the current, and final, version of the piece.

Hymns is an amalgamation of two different hymns: the first is an original, untitled hymn, and the second is a
colonial hymn entitled Autumn (a hymn which Charles Ives used in numerous pieces). The work begins with the original hymn, and as the piece progresses, the first hymn gradually transforms into the second.