Harbison: Getting the Upper Hand on America (Two Variations for America/Beautiful) for piano right hand

Description

For solo piano (right hand). Commissioned by Min Kwon, pianist, and Center for Musical Excellence.

Composer note The pianist Min Kwon "commissioned" (or was it "invited?") a large number of composers to contribute a short piano variation movement based on "America the Beautiful" for her very ambitious project America/Beautiful.

"The voices of these ‘United Composers of America,' " she wrote, "form a powerful chorus, a collective musical snapshot" of our country in this present moment, "shaken by concurrent crises across its social, racial, political, economic, cultural, and health sectors… in spite of all the difficulties we face, there is still so much beauty in this country of ours."

I think my idea of writing my piece for only one hand came from my awareness that she might need to rest at least one hand, and that the compression of content into what five fingers could handle might be a stimulating limitation, a kind of modest triumph.

— John Harbison