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After reading Theodor Adorno's work on Beethoven's Bagatelles, my “Five Bagatelles“ were composed in 2009 not only as repository for my continued admiration of the mind of Ludwig van Beethoven, but also to express a deep admiration for two solo piano traditions: the Sandaya from Burma (Myanmar) and jazz piano. I sought to write music not to appropriate those styles, but to be “intimate“ with them. In my collection of five bagatelles, #'s 1, 3 and 5 are inspired by the Sandaya, while #'s 2 and 4 are inspired by jazz piano and are both variations of the standard “All the Things You Are“ by Jerome Kern. The third and fourth of these bagatelles are featured in this clip, and played by young Filipino pianist Mikhael Lastrilla. For a complete video performance by pianist Karen Fatima Francisco of all the five bagatelles, see the following YouTube link. Photo credits: beginning and ending: my hand trying to play on a Hammerklavier (modeled after an early 19th century Hammerklavier) at the house of German pianist Katharina Olivia Brand in Wiesloch-Waldorf in 2012. Photo by Trish Baes in bagatelle #3:score of the first page of bagatelle #3 in bagatelle #4: me thinking (or sleeping?) while wearing an SMCC t-shirt during the Soundbridge Festival in Kuala Lumpur in 2015. Picture taken by Feliz Anne Macahis
