Twelve Miniatures for Piano
Instrumentation: Piano
Year Composed: 1999
Duration: 21 minutes
Pages: 32
Cost: Purchase: $10.00
Movements:
| I. Ginastera II. Going By III. Games IV. Bells V. Dunes VI. Pulse VII. Playful VIII. Nocturne IX. Thorn X. For Gwyneth XI. Ragged XII. Birds |
Play select movements from Twelve Miniatures for Piano, from a live performance by James Lowe.
I. Ginastera
III. Games
V. Dunes
VI. Pulse
VII. Playful
XI. Ragged
XII. Birds
Review: Performance by James Lowe reviewed in the San Antonio Express News by Mike Greenburg (February 2001): "Heuser's idiom is in the modernist mainstream of stretched tonality and clear expressive purpose. His miniatures reflect back on several important currents of the past century. One is a percussive, rhythmically vibrant homage to Alberto Ginastera; another is a nervous rag. Others are variously jaunty, tender or pensive. All are exceptionally well-crafted, and all contain a lot more music than the term 'miniature' might suggest."
Program Notes:
These twelve short piano pieces were written between 1985 and 1999, although all of the earlier ones were revised and refined around 1998-1999. The impulses which led to the composition of each piece were varied, as were my original intentions for quite a number of them. Games, Bells, Ragged, Birds and Playful were all culled from a piano suite. Ginastera and Dunes were the only successes in an aborted attempt to create a set of twelve-tone preludes all based on the same row (but all quite different). The other five were all written at various times for various reasons, most notably number X, which was written after my daughter Gwyneth was born. The Nocturne was the last to be composed.
Why twelve? It seemed that it was time to put these in order, give them all names and send them out in the world. If I write some more (and I suspect I will), they can begin the next set.