Shade Studies 2014
date completed
2014
duration
9'
instrumentation
piano and sine wave resonance
commission
Russ Irwin for Sarah Cahill in honor of Terry Riley
premiere
January 2015 in San Francisco, CA
Program Note by Samuel Adams
I wrote Shade Studies in the fall of 2014 as part of Sarah Cahill's commissioning project in honor of minimalist pioneer Terry Riley's 80th birthday.
The work examines the counterpoint between the acoustic resonance of the piano and sine waves. The music rests in a very narrow dynamic field and is built of cadences, silences, and repeated gestures. As the work unfolds, the two resonance systems engage through masking and illumination, creating a brief exploration of musical ‘shade.’
Though the work does not direclty reference the music of Riley, there's a certain openness to the form and harmonic development that I can't help but think was somehow informed by countless hours listening to Terry's playing.
I am grateful to pianists Sarah Cahill and Conor Hanick, both of whom have championed and recorded the work.
This work was generously commissioned by Russ Irwin and is dedicated to Sarah Cahill and Terry Riley.
-Samuel Adams
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press
"Pianist Mark Robson played bursts of single tones and chords that with the help of electronics resonated long and luxuriously. That was Samuel Adams’ riveting “Shade Studies."
Los Angeles Times ↗
"Samuel Adams’ 'Shade Studies' was a marvelously constructed meditation on a narrow dynamic field. Softly played notes accompanied by barely audible electronic samples forced our ears to find the spaces between the 'real' sound and the 'electronic' sound. It was magic.
San Diego Union Tribune ↗
