The Celestial Matchmaker
for solo piano

Work no. 234
2022

Working on Star Colors quite naturally suggested the topic of an astrological match, and I've been making these small pieces, thinking of how many of my friends were interested in astrology, and how frequently I saw and heard references to it. As I consulted various resources to determine which music to compose for which sign, I was a little disconcerted to realize how difficult some signs were for me to imagine – almost invariably the signs which were the furthest away from my own. At times, this was becoming almost too personal, since I would be thinking of people in my life and their astrological signs, and some of those people are long gone.

From the point of view of technique, each piece is a set of variations. The themes are 10 to 15 seconds long. The variations are sometimes elaborate, sometimes compressing the entire theme into a chord or two. How obvious the variation principle is depends on the nature of the sign: Earth signs are the least chromatic, most straightforward, with pauses between variations. Air signs are the most abstract. Almost all of the pieces involve a lot of convoluted hand positions, like the magical spells of Suomi Jukebox. Listening to them, even for me, requires a lot of attention – so much is packed into just a minute of music – as much tension and hidden force as in a tightly wound spring... or a natal chart.