Aegean

This work is an arrangement for percussion ensemble of Psathas’ piano trio Aegean, written in 2012. Short and elegant, Aegean is perfect for ensembles wishing to add a dose of romance to a concert program. The work is inspired in part by the view from the composer’s parents' house, which overlooks the Aegean Sea. Arranger Omar Carmenates makes excellent use of timbre in this arrangement, as the vibraphones' shimmering resonance and the marimbas’ warm earthiness readily evokes the aqueous, sunlit colors suggested in the original version.

Aegean is the second of two companion works Psathas originally wrote for piano trio, the other being Corybas. The works were commissioned by Ian Graham as a birthday gift for his wife Agi Lehar-Graham (in the original manuscript Psathas adds a little wordplay to the work’s title, spelling Aegean as Agi-Ian), and in grateful recognition of the New Zealand Chamber Soloists (NZCS) Piano Trio – Katherine Austin, Lara Hall and James Tennant.

The work is inspired in part by the view from the composer’s parents’ house, which overlooks the Aegean Sea. Psathas’ substantial body of relentlessly high-energy works might lead one to assume that, in the case of Aegean the sea is visualized at its most stormy and tumultuous, the work being pushed forward with tempo surges depicting accelerated ocean currents. Instead, we are presented with a scene in which a calm sea gently rises and falls – the [marimba’s opening] odd-metered and softly articulated rhythmic figure evokes the irregular movements of the ocean’s surface, while [vibraphone] passages that add repeated two-note semiquaver patterns in its upper staff mirror the glistening of sunlight on the water’s rippling contours. - Publisher Notes

One thing I am always fascinated about when arranging a work is how the piece “behaves” when moving from one medium to another (e.g. - from piano trio to percussion quartet in this case). Will the lines and melodies from each part transfer smoothly to the new instrumentation? Will major musical “surgery” be required to patch the piece back together in this new instrumentation? These are questions whose answers, no matter how much I try to prepare for before writing, do not fully reveal themselves until I am deep in the arranging process.

Aegean was one of those pieces that made the jump to percussion-only instrumentation quite effortlessly. The transition was so easy, in fact, that I was worried that this new arrangement wouldn’t really bring anything new to what I thought was an already beautiful piece just the way it was. Even during our rehearsal sessions just before recording, I was searching for that magical “something” that would make this arrangement come to life. Lo and behold, just before turning on the proverbial “red light” to record, we managed to schedule an impromptu Skype session with us in South Carolina and John in New Zealand (oh, the wonders of technology!). If my memory serves me correctly, we literally only had about 20 minutes together due to scheduling issues, so we had to make each minute count. In that short amount of time, he shared some very intimate life experiences with us which became the inspiration for Aegean and which - after utterly stopping us in our tracks emotionally - completely changed the way we were playing the piece. What we saw as a sort of seductive, odd-metered bossa nova was actually something much deeper and heartfelt. Years later, I still get goosebumps every time I hear this piece as I think back to that moment and how John so selflessly gave us that “something” to bring this piece to life. - Omar Carmenates