In October of 2005, I had an idea, stolen from some other bloggers on livejournal.com.  I tried an "Iron Composer" challenge; I asked people who read my journal to suggest ideas for compositions.  You are hearing the results of one of those challenges, suggested by Mary Crowell:

Piece for Piano (one Player)

Use a pitch collection of only 4 different notes for the first half of the piece
Use a pitch collection of 5 notes for the second half of the piece
Octave reduction is in effect when determining your pitch collection, so C's in two different octaves don't count as two different pitches while selecting your 4 or 5 different pitches.
Meter is assymetrical (may change at will but must be some asymetrical meter.)
The entire range of the piano is available for your use.
Play with extremes in the dynamic range.
Use at least three different articulation markings over the course of longer phrases.
The Piece is called Twisted Metal in honor of my son's current favorite video game.

This sounded a lot like an academic assignment to me, and when I had a chance to speak with her about it for a few minutes at OVFF, she confirmed it was indeed something of a standard problem for a composition student.  In the end, she said nice things about my piece, so I choose to believe I would have passed that bit of homework.

 

Sound quality disclaimer:  You have downloaded the Midi score for the music you are now hearing, not an audio recording. Your computer is performing the music for you live, and if the instruments sound really cheesy, it's the fault of your web browser.

Copyright notice: This music is Copyright 2005 Peter Alway.  You may use this freely for your own amusement.  If you pass this along to others you must include authorship, copyright, and contact information. Please ask permission for public performance or use on your website.  If you use this music commercially (right, like that's going to happen), I demand a cut.

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