Ballade (2000) |

Performer:
Steven Masi, pian o

I have a quasi-religious relationship to Chopin’s Ballades.  Whenever I stumble upon one of the four works – notes wafting from a practice room, hotel lobby, or the car radio – I am transfixed.  I pause by the practice room, sit in the lobby, delay my destination, and wait for the inevitable awe, humility, and stupefaction to hit me like a freight train.  Years ago, I communed with the Ballades to such a degree that now I almost fear them.  I go near them in the comfort of my own home only when I am suitably prepared for such extended deep-sea diving.

Of all the Ballades, I was most deeply affected by the Fourth.  I had read that Chopin wanted this piece to possess a "sickly, creepy" feeling.  This reminded me of a comment by Thom Yorke of Radiohead that the goal of the album “OK Computer” was to make people feel emotionally “nauseated.”  In both cases these descriptions struck me as poignantly apt. With regard to both Chopin’s Fourth Ballade and many of the tracks on “OK Computer,” it was precisely this sickly, creepy, nauseating quality that drove the music deeper under my skin.

I wrote Ballade in response to my reaction to Chopin’s Ballades, particularly the Fourth.  I titled it Ballade not to suggest there are any similarities between this work and those of Chopin (in fact, the music of Ravel and Debussy figure just as prominently as influences, if not more), but rather as an homage to the works that had so inspired me and its creation.

Ballade is dedicated to the brilliant pianist and composer Laurie Altman, who was also my piano teacher throughout high school.