Prelude for The Left Hand

This prelude was inspired by Maurice Ravel’s Piano Concerto for The Left Hand. Ravel’s masterpiece manages to trick the listener into believing both hands are present, as the music leaps fluidly over the full range of the keyboard. Matt’s prelude uses similar techniques, including rapid sustained arpeggios to help to build the harmonic structure, with the melodic lines picked out using the thumb at a louder intensity.

The central episode of the prelude moves away from the smoothness of the initial theme, towards more agitated rhythms, and increasing amounts of chromaticism. Through multiple modulations, the music snakes its way back to a grandiose repeat of the initial theme, with the firmly depressed sustain pedal leading to a wash of crashing chords. The composition ends sparsely, yet optimistically, with a delicate echoing of the theme.