Transparent Preludes: For Solo & Multiple Pianos

By Al Kryszak

The Transparent Preludes are a collection of 12 works for solo piano, with alternate versions for two pianists, where sections of the 12 movements are musically "overlayed" to create a 3-dimensional iteration that culminates in an optional 6 piano coda, within the Composite Preludes chapter. The premiere recording of all versions, solo & composite, was performed by Ukrainian-American pianist Ivan Docenko, a legendary mainstay in the Buffalo, N.Y. classical, film & accompanist scene. The double CD is available at Apple Music & all major outlets. Al Kryszak is a composer, filmmaker, pianist & guitarist based in Maine. Work includes Turner Classic Movies, The Film Society of Lincoln Center, The New England Film Orchestra, The American Festival of Microtonal Music, Mabou Mines, June-in-Buffalo, Symphony Space, LA Directors Guild, & KINO. He is on the Creative Arts/Media Faculty at the University of Maine at Machias, Unity College & Southern New Hampshire University. Kryszak studied at SUNY Buffalo with Lukas Foss, Morton Feldman, Bill Kothe, Louis Andriessen & Lou Harrison. REVIEWS: "Overall, there is a dreamily introspective quality to many of the preludes, punctuated occasionally by briefer animated episodes, such as the one titled "Cheer up if it kills you", a number written in ragtime that the composer describes as "a vision of two bar room piano players from the Old west being pushed down a staircase with pianos in tow". - Jan Jezario: Artvoice "... certain preludes, simple and lyrical, do engage the listener. No. 6, beginning with a jazzy low bass line, is a lot of fun and builds to ingenious cacophony. No. 8 also has a kicky jazz spirit. Kryszak describes it as "a vision of two barroom piano players from the Old West, being pushed down a staircase with pianos in tow." It does sound like that! Docenko, a marvelously versatile professional who for good reason is well-known around town, performs with clarity and an intrepid spirit." - Mary Kunz Goldman: The Buffalo News Other Piano Works: "Lux Internum" "... the twelve Nocturnes Kryszak presents here do form a cohesive whole. Not all of them are designed to induce sleep, and in this respect maybe some are closer, in spirit if not in voice, to the "night music" of Bartók. The shifting, almost minimalist patterns of the second piece feel somewhat jittery (similarly the ninth Nocturne, albeit with a more mystical bent when the music concentrates on the piano's upper reaches), while the third does actually move closer to Bartók harmonically. Belsky is ever sensitive to these shifts, pinpointing the muted drama in the harmonies of the fourth and commendably unhurried in the tolling bell of the sixth (reminiscent, to me at least of Debussy's "Cathédrale engloutie"). " - Fanfare

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0CQKDVGZ6
• ISBN13: 9798872185444
• Release Date: December 2023
• Publisher: Independently published
• Length: 156 Pages
• Weight: 1.04 lbs.
• Dimensions: 11.0" x 0.4" x 8.5"