Synopsis
This compilation of music by Gary Lloyd Noland (1957-) represents a sampling of his compositions for piano spanning the last three decades of the 20th century until the time of this writing (2021). This is a multi-faceted collection of piano pieces ranging in level from lower intermediate to upper advanced. Included in this volume are three piano rags: Russell Street Rag Op. 5 (named after the street in Berkeley on which the composer grew up), Nerdfox Rag Op. 23, and Ragbones Op. 11 (which has been described as the first piano rag in history containing a bona fide development section), along with a deconstructed and abbreviated version thereof excerpted from the composer's multi-fascicle chamber novel Venge Art (Fascicle #5, Op. 54). Also included are two fugues: Deformed Fugue Op. 17 (which can also be played on the harpsichord) and Liebesschmerz Fuge Op. 95 (in memoriam Lukas Foss), the latter of which is an intricately complex, technically daunting contrapuntal study that took the composer upwards of 28 years to complete. Several of the works in this volume-notably the Prelude in E Minor Op. 34, the Allemande in F Major Op. 76, and both Two-Part Inventions (in D Major Op. 81 and D Minor Op. 70)-pay homage to J.S. Bach and are executable on both piano and harpsichord. The Andante in F Minor for piano four-hands Op. 46 was written in homage to Franz Schubert and is the only four-hand piece included in this collection. Several other works in this volume were composed in memory of various artists: Aeternum Vale Op. 93, in memory of author David Foster Wallace following his tragic and untimely death by suicide in September, 2008; Mortesque Op. 31, in memory of composer Stephen Albert following his death in an automobile accident in December, 1992; Funeral Waltz Op. 91, in memory of John Swackhamer, one of Noland's composition teachers at U.C. Berkeley; Obsequy Op. 41, No. 5, in memory of Ivan Tcherepnin (son of Alexander Tcherepnin), one of Noland's dissertation advisors at Harvard; not to mention the most recent work in this volume-the heretofore unpublished Adagietto Doloroso Op. 121-in memory of composer/pianist Frederic Rzewski (1938-2021), who passed away only a few short weeks prior to the time of this writing. Epicedium Op. 58 was written as a memorial to the thousands of innocent victims who died in the terrorist attacks of September 11th, 2001. Aside from these epitaphs, several other pieces included in this volume were written intentionally for young and/or beginning to intermediate level pianists: Broom Brigade Op. 25, Melancholic Moneymonger Op. 26, Three Little Bonbons Op. 59, Blues Flash Op. 42, in addition to most of the pieces that comprise the mini-sets Op. 40 and Op. 41. Suffice it to say that this initial volume of Noland's collected piano works provides a bounteous abundance of new repertoire for both amateur and professional pianists alike, as well as for students. More affordable volumes of Noland's piano, vocal, chamber, and orchestral music are planned for publication in the upcoming months and years.
About the Author
GARY LLOYD NOLAND (a.k.a. author DOLLY GRAY LANDON, visual artist LON GAYLORD DYLAN, and musicians ARNOLD DAY LONGLY, ORLAN DOY GLANDLY & DARNOLD OLLY YANG) was born in Seattle in 1957 and grew up in a broken home in a crowded house shared by ten or more people on a plot of land three blocks south of UC Berkeley known as People's Park, which has distinguished itself as a site of civil unrest since the late 1960s. As an adolescent, Noland lived for a time in Salzburg (Mozart's birthplace) and Garmisch-Partenkirchen (home of Richard Strauss), where he absorbed a host of musical influences. Having studied with a long roster of acclaimed composers and musicians, he earned a Bachelor's degree in music from UC Berkeley in 1979, continued his studies at the Boston Conservatory, and transferred to Harvard University, where he added to his credits a Masters and a PhD in Music Composition in 1989. His teachers in composition and theory have included John Clement Adams (not to be confounded with composers John Coolidge Adams or John Luther Adams), Alan Curtis (harpsichordist, musicologist, conductor, and one of the musical "stars" in Werner Herzog's film on Gesualdo, "Death for Five Voices"), Sir Peter Maxwell Davies (Master of the Queen's Music from 2004-16), William Denny (student of Paul Dukas), Robert Dickow, Janice Giteck (student of Darius Milhaud and Olivier Messiaen), Andrew Imbrie (student of Nadia Boulanger and Roger Sessions, Pulitzer Prize Finalist, 1995), Earl Kim (student of Arnold Schoenberg, Ernest Bloch, and Roger Sessions), Leon Kirchner (student of Arnold Schoenberg and assistant to Ernest Bloch and Roger Sessions, Pulitzer Prize, 1967) David Lewin (dubbed "the most original and far-ranging theorist of his generation"), Donald Martino (student of Milton Babbitt, Roger Sessions, and Luigi Dallapiccola, Pulitzer Prize, 1974), Hugo Norden, Marta Ptaszynska (student of Nadia Boulanger and Olivier Messiaen), Chris Rozé (student of Charles Wuorinen, Ursula Mamlok, and Vincent Persichetti), Goodwin Sammel (student of pianist Claudio Arrau), John Swackhamer (student of Ernst Krenek and Roger Sessions), Ivan Tcherepnin (student of Pierre Boulez and Karlheinz Stockhausen, son of Alexander Tcherepnin), and Walter Winslow (brother of Portland composer Jeff Winslow). Noland has attended seminars by composers David Del Tredici (Pulitzer Prize, 1980), Beverly Grigsby (student of Ernst Krenek), Michael Finnissy (leading British composer and pianist), and Bernard Rands (Pulitzer Prize, 1984), and has had private consultations with George Rochberg ("Father of Neo-Romanticism," Pulitzer Prize finalist, 1986) and Joaquin Nin-Culmell (student of Paul Dukas and Manuel de Falla, brother of essayist and diarist Anaïs Nin). For more information on the composer, please visit his website at: https: //composergarynoland.godaddysites.com/
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