Idle Hands

Local composer Jason Haney provides a world premiere this evening with his “Idle Hands” for three hands, a work commissioned for the 2006 Staunton Music Festival. This piece is intended to fill a notable gap in the literature: music for piano three hands, three players. In fact, “threes” abound in the work. Haney begins with an introductory idea heard three times in the piece; there are also three quotations from other piano compositions; triple rhythmic divisions appear much of the time; finally, “Idle Hands” makes prominent use of the augmented triad, a three-pitch harmony that divides the octave into three equal parts. Near the end, as you will see, the piece calls for some unusual choreography among the players, including creative use of each pianist’s free or “idle” hand. The climax comes in pages of fortissimo octaves, rapid chromatic scales that seek out every corner of the keyboard, and a final tom-foolery as the outer players cross paths in reaching for a final resolution.

(c) Jason Stell