Progressive Empathy by Harp Lane

In this cycle of pieces I follow a title scheme that has been appealing to me lately: getting the titles of the individual pieces, read together, to form a short poem (or at least a sentence with some meaning). In this case:

Progressive Empathy

Millpond
Lending an Ear
To a Snowflake
One After Another
Until the Dust Settles

It is basically an anthropomorphised pantheistic image: a pond listening attentively to a snowflake, but not just to one but to many, countless, consecutively and with infinite patience, until tempers subside and clarity returns.

From this image then comes the general title of the poem / of the cycle of works / of the album: Progressive Empathy. (You cannot imagine the number of alternatives I discarded, such as Inorganic Empathy or Recurrent Empathy.)

In addition, each individual title is - or alludes to - a (simple) English idiomatic expression. The score briefly explains such expressions.

These pieces are destined to Ms. Harp Lane, who released the five recordings during 2023 on Spotify and other streaming platforms: https://gyro.to/ProgressiveEmpathy

The difficulty level of Progressive Empathy is relatively low. Perhaps not for absolute beginners, but for intermediate students who have already mastered the basic technique. For example: I have minimised the use of the pedals (which gives a diatonic atmosphere to the whole cycle). Without forgetting that the aesthetic world suggested by these works -with a sense of serenity- is not the one that a minor usually requests.

With slight modifications, these pieces can be also played on a lever harp.

Going a little deeper into the harmonic aspects: the keys chosen form a whole-tone scale (G, A, B, C#, Eb). To be very consistent with the pandiatonism of the work, I should have chosen a pentaphonic scale (or written six pieces instead of five), but is it necessary to be absolutely consistent? Would this improve the music? Are these questions a pseudo-intellectual alibi for laziness?


As for the modes, they alternate major and minor, symmetrically:
G major
B minor
A major
C# minor
Eb major

What is less symmetrical are the time signatures: except for the fourth piece (6/8) they are all written in 4/4.

Although these pieces have been conceived for harp alone, it is perfectly possible to play them on the piano. Just in case, I have also written an ad hoc version for solo piano. Additionally, there is a version for flute and piano (at the time of writing, only of the first piece), but it is a matter of time - and occasion, context - to adapt them all. As chess players would say, the rest is a matter of technique.

The five pieces of Progressive Empathy were composed in Worpswede and Bremen (Germany) between 4 and 16 December 2022. Their total duration is about 12 minutes.


Juan María Solare
Worpswede, 17 December 2022

Pianist & composer. Tango Nuevo, electroacoustic, post-tonal music.

Tracing a line that subtly connects art music with light music and instrumental sound with electronics..

Pianist & Komponist. Tango Nuevo, elektroakustik, zeitgenössische Musik.

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