Four Guiding Paths
for piano

Work no. 228
2022

Two of these pieces are very old, back from when I was teaching myself musical notation; they unexpectedly appeared in my thoughts in 2022. The originals were mere sketches; I revised them extensively (they were longer and had no dynamics nor tempo indications) and composed two new pieces to complete the series. It took quite a bit of effort to create new material which would blend well with the older music – a kind of a miniaturized Letter Variations experience.

The older two pieces reflect my teenage self's fascination with minimalism, which made its way into some early pieces (such as Movement Variations, Work No. 11/2009). Having completed Four Guiding Paths, I kept thinking about minimalism, and eventually composed O Zaman, which is less analytical than these four pieces.