Tarantella


Tarantella is a work for slightly detuned piano and
 string piano percussion by Stacy Fahrion. 
It's in 6/8, but one of the recurring left hand patterns is in 7/8.
The percussive sounds are created by tossing a tambourine in the piano.

A Foretaste - by Stacy Fahrion

Sending love and light to all of you in these difficult times, and especially to my parents.
A Foretaste is the final etude in my upcoming Polyrhythms for Pianists book. It features a 5:4 polyrhythm, and is based on an F harmonic major scale with some excursions to F minor.

Undeserving - Stacy Fahrion

Undeserving cuts both ways.

 George Floyd didn't deserve to be murdered by the police.
 Breonna Taylor didn't deserve to have her home broken into
 and to be shot to death by the police.
 Elijah McClain didn't deserve to be put in a carotid chokehold
 and injected with ketamine and have his life cut short by police.
 The police don't deserve the power to harass and murder Black people with impunity. 

What hurts others hurts us all. What lifts others up lifts us all up.
 Black Lives Matter.

Sheet music for this piece is available here:

I will donate 100% of my portion of the proceeds from sales of the sheet music to Campaign Zero. https://www.joincampaignzero.org/#vision

Isolation - Joshua Trinidad, trumpet, & Stacy Fahrion, piano

I have deep respect for Joshua Trinidad and his music, and I'm excited to share this collaboration. Isolation features non-retrogradable/palindromic rhythms in the right hand of the piano part. The outer sections are in 5/4, and the middle section is in 9/8, in case you like to know such things.

Cascades - by Stacy Fahrion

"The snow is melting into music." ~John Muir
Cascades features a 5 against 3 polyrhythm.

Distant Bells - by Stacy Fahrion

Distant Bells is the first piece from my upcoming book, Polyrhythms for Pianists. The book has improvisation suggestions, instructional pages on how to play various polyrhythms, and 13 polyrhythmic etudes. Distant Bells is written in a way that makes 2 against 3 easy to play, and is in Phrygian mode.

Winter - by Stacy Fahrion

"I wonder if the snow loves the trees and fields, that it kisses them so gently?
 And then it covers them up snug, you know, with a white quilt; and perhaps it says,
 "Go to sleep, darlings, till the summer comes again." ~Lewis Carroll
Winter is loosely based on a motive from The Snow is Dancing, by Debussy.

Dance of Avoidance - by Stacy Fahrion

"Closed in a room, my imagination becomes the universe,
and the rest of the world is missing out." ~Criss Jami

Toccata - by Stacy Fahrion

Toccata is based on a double harmonic major scale, 
and features hemiolas all over the place. 

Swirling - by Stacy Fahrion

Swirling features a 3 against 5 polyrhythm.
"To paraphrase the great poet Dante, the heavens swirl above us
and our eyes are still cast to the ground." ~Vanna Bonta

The Gloaming - by Stacy Fahrion

"The snow had begun in the gloaming,
 and busily all the night
 had been heaping field and highway
 With a silence deep and white.”
 ~James Russell Lowell, The First Snowfall

Epilogue - by Stacy Fahrion

Epilogue is a melancholy waltz that features a fairly consistent hemiola.