Concerto for Piano and Orchestra: Homage to Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart reflects the combined influences of modern and Classical composers on my compositions. The homage to Mozart takes place through allusions, quotes, and modeling of several of Mozart’s piano concertos, including Piano Concerto K.488, K.491, and K.467. The piece is in three movements, with a total length of 28 minutes. Instrumentation consists of an expanded Classical concerto orchestra with solo piano, without period instruments.
Several Classical elements are easily recognizable. For example, the three-movement structure follows a Classical fast-slow-fast movement scheme, with the length and proportions of each movement following that of Mozart’s piano concertos. The first movement is based on sonata form, apparent through the organization and development of musical ideas and concepts in place of melody and harmony. It also includes an orchestral ritornello and solo cadenza. The second movement consists of reverse variations on the theme of the second movement of Mozart’s Piano Concerto K.491. The third movement is a rondo modeled after the third movements of Mozart’s Piano Concerto, K.488 and K. 467.
Musical concepts derived from the work and writings of Carlos Chavez, Charles Ives, György Ligeti, and Maurice Ravel are heavily influential. Harmonic language, melodic style and development, instrumentation and orchestration, and rhythmic devices share an equal ground between the Classical tradition and the vast possibilities offered to modern composers today. For example, the octatonic mode is used as a scalar resource to reflect the Classical sense of balance and symmetry, and some ostinato figures (such as the Alberti bass) appear as they would in an original Mozartean score. Stylistically, this piece is not limited to the Classical rules and regulations of Mozart’s time; rather, they are used in a reflective fashion in order to achieve Classical allusions.