Patterns: Book II—Shapes

piano

Matthew Bengtson, pianist.

Each of the nine movements draw inspiration from their respective shape in one or more of these three ways: a musical cryptogram (i.e., using letters to represent musical pitches), extra-musical ideas associated with some aspect of the shape, or numerical qualities of the shape itself.

These pieces are a continuation of Patterns: Book I, a three-movement work that explores broader associations with pattern and color. Returning to a fundamental conception of geometry, the shapes in Patterns: Book II include a collection of basic two-dimensional shapes, and more complex polyhedrons.

All of the movements, in one way or another, use the criteria mentioned above to develop some kind of pattern. Whether a cycle of rhythms, an ostinato, scalar material, or a sequence of intervals, each movement establishes a distinct character, similar to a prelude, etude, or character piece.