Three Etudes

The initial stimulus for this set of pieces was a painting by Kandinsky, Composition VII (1913). The painting represents a period when he was concerned with emotional, abstract paintings of two sorts: (a) improvisations ('unconscious, spontaneous expression of inner character, the non-material nature' that contain no recognizable objects, but coloured shapes that express feelings) and (b) compositions ('an expression of a slowly formed inner feeling, tested and worked over repeatedly' that include recognizable objects, but ones that have been 'stripped' and 'veiled'). Taking the latter idea as a starting point, I began to mould and form a tripartite piece which conveyed the energy and colour from canvas to notes. The movement titles are derived from the number of notes in the note rows for each movement, i.e., “Etude Four” uses a note row made up of four notes.