SCH nearly March, VE106 Chill Bach Prelude (2 works for piano)

SCH nearly March, for solo piano

This short piano composition is inspired by Piece No. 2 (“Military March”) from Robert Schumann’s Album for the Young, Op. 68. Recognizable melodic elements from the original piece are accompanied by harmonic structures that deliberately introduce dissonances, with simultaneous intervals of major/minor seconds or major/minor sevenths, or extended variations of these intervals across one or more octaves. The textural development also frequently recalls that of Schumann’s piece. A recurring feature is a harmonic structure formed by the notes corresponding to the first three letters of Schumann’s surname in German notation (S-C-H = Eb, C, B).

VE106 Chill Bach Prelude, for solo piano

This short piano composition is inspired by Prelude No. 4 in C# from J.S. Bach’s The Well-Tempered Clavier I. It incorporates selected fragments from the original (bars 1, 3, 5-7, 11-13, 29-32, and the second beat of bar 38 to the end of bar 39) and subjects them to harmonic variations, with a particular focus on the diminished octave interval and similar or closely related harmonic intervals. Between these segments, presented in the sequence mentioned above, a recurring sound element—related to the motivic structure of the original fragment—appears consistently. Additionally, various octatonic scale treatments are explored. All musical elements are crafted to create an enveloping atmosphere, where no process of sound tension fully resolves, maintaining an intentional sense of harmonic ambiguity.