Audi Reliqua for Piano

Composed in 1998
Premiered by Joshua Nemith, CCM, 1999

The title of this short piano piece is a Latin expression that translates into English “listen to what remains.” Following this idea, Audi Reliqua for piano explores the concept of acoustic resonance. Its harmony is completely derived from (or is the acoustic resonance of) a four-part chorale, presented in the middle slower section of the piece. Furthermore, the entire piece could be understood as the harmonic or acoustic resonance of the pitch E that almost never ceases to sound.
The piece explores two basic rhythmic structures from Colombian folk music: the bambuco and the mapalé. Presented as antagonists in the fast and more rhythmic first two sections of the piece, the two dances are interrupted by the slow chorale and gradually awakened again, this time reconciling their differences as one single rhythmic structure.

This recording: Timothy Hoft, piano