This is a set of five two-part inventions and four interludes. The initial impetus for the set was a couple weeks spent in the Yorkville neighborhood of Manhattan and the walks I took there on hot August days. Each invention describes a walk — some leisurely, some more purposeful — through an ever-changing yet ever-similar urban landscape. The interludes, by contrast, are more inward and reflective.
At a technical level, these pieces explore a post-tonal strict counterpoint, where each interval is (randomly for each piece) designated as “consonant”, “dissonant”, or “preparatory.” Consonant intervals can proceed to any other interval. Dissonant intervals must resolve to consonant ones. “Preparatory” intervals must be preceded by a consonance and followed by a dissonance. The purpose of this system is to create constraints similar to those of tonal counterpoint, where — for example — the consonant fifth inverts to the dissonant fourth, posing a challenge to be overcome in composing invertible counterpoint.
The inventions are, rather obviously I think, modeled on two-part inventions of J.S. Bach. The interludes are, much less obviously, inspired by fragments from sonatas by D. Scarlatti.