In a Perfectly Wounded Sky
Today\u2019s recording is a composition of my own, which I see I play a bit faster than I did three years ago. I like the new version \u2014 I think the faster tempo in the middle sustains the structural momentum a bit better \u2014 but of course I may have changed my mind about that three years from now. That\u2019s the fun of interpretation: it\u2019s never done!
\n\nThe title is based on my mishearing of a Tori Amos lyric (from Cruel). I generally go for titles that are evocative and somehow seem to fit, without actually having any clear meaning that listeners will try to impose on the piece \u2014 I want the title to be an opening into the music, not a box to stuff it in.
\n\nAnother one of those \u201copenings into the music\u201d is the little epigraphs I often put at the end of the piece. I almost always choose both the quote and the title after writing the music, so they\u2019re more a reflection on where I ended up than an explanation of what I was doing. The epigraph for this piece is a hokku by Masahide:
\n\n\n\n\nNow that my storehouse
\n
\nhas burned down, nothing
\nconceals the moon.
Music readers and visual aesthetes can follow along with the score.
\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nPaul Cantrell\n\n\n\n\u25b6\ufe0f\nIn a Perfectly Wounded Sky\n\n\nPaul Cantrell, piano\n\n\n\n\n\n\u2b07\ufe0f\nDownload\n\n\n(5:04 / 6.3 M)\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
For those following along with the audio engineering side of things, I used a touch of a look-ahead limiter on this one (which I usually don\u2019t do), because of the huge variance between the attacks on the harsher chords and the very quiet intervening sections. I also cranked the scaling on the Gain Shaper a hair higher than usual.
\n\nThe opening chord of this piece was the starting point for Saturday\u2019s recording, Lingle.