Original Composition: Nietzsche's Bible for Solo Piano (2013)

[thecomposer10]

Haven't got around to recording this one myself yet...I will probably tackle that this summer when I have time to work on newer rep. Anyway, this is a solo piano composition I wrote this past spring, and the only "big" solo piano piece I've written to date. I'd love your feedback! 

About the music:
In composing Nietzsche's Bible, I attempted to loosely follow the form of Nietzsche's first essay in On The Genealogy of Morals. Of course, the music was also inspired by the other two essays, but I found the first essay particularly adaptable into music due to its "historical story-telling" approach, and the uncanny ability of music to easily accentuate extremes such as "good,"  "bad," and "evil." The piece opens with a motif that unifies the entire work -- a chromatic, tonally unstable set of notes in the high register of the piano. This represents a chaotic world without order, a pre-civilized mankind with no conception of good. As the piece progresses, the theme begins to morph into something significantly more stable, a representation of the nobles moving in to take control and, as we know, define the meaning of "good" action.  Over a canvas of cascading arpeggios, the theme becomes stronger and stronger until, in measure 43, three sharp chords signal their arrival. In uncharacteristically rhythmic music, the theme here demonstrates the nobles' conception of good, unadulterated by the church. As this section draws to a conclusion, it slows and the key changes, representing a power shift. Here, parallel fifths echo the main theme (parallel fifths were a favorite interval of Gregorian monks in their chants) to give it a religious flare and represent how the good of the nobles and the "bad" of the poor got reversed to mean the good of the poor and the evil of the powerful. Throughout this section, shades of the "noble" section return but are always put down by the parallel fifths. As rippling almost organ-like chords conclude this section, a sharp staccato in measure 96 signifies the impending battle between these two ideals, which musically is represented by a violent and virtuosic section. In a whirlwind of notes, religion decidedly wins as the opening chaos section returns, this time stated in parallel fifths. In an almost parodic way, the piece concludes on a d major chord, a symbol of mankind's unfortunate comfort, according to Nietzsche, with his current state.