Oliver Searle

Programme Note

Whilst on a trip to London, I witnessed a hit-and-run incident, whereby a courier was knocked off his motorbike. I began to wonder whether this could have been some kind of macabre art installation, with the end product being a possible fatality. When I returned to Glasgow I noticed (on one of my regular routes through the city) a piece of graffiti that read, "Courier Deathletics". I immediately began thinking about how this might be translated into musical terms and whether it would be possible to create a piece that would render the composer a fugitive from either the law or (alternatively, and therefore less dramatically) the rest of the artistic and musical world. The closest I got to it was writing a work that deals with this idea introspectively and questions my own problems with the piano (with my personal performance ability and as an ensemble instrument). It is based around the pianist being unable to play a couple of short phrases of a piano rag (especially composed for the work). The pianist utterly alienates themselves from the ensemble and the listener, through the obvious ineptitude of their performance.

This work can be performed on a particularly bad example of a piano; if possible an upright which needs some work.

Notes

Written for the New Music Players.
For Gordon McPherson. With thanks and appreciation.