Piano portraits: a performer's guide to the solo piano music of Amy Williams

Abstract

The purpose of this document is to examine composer Amy Williams’s current catalogue of solo piano works: Astoria, Brigid’s Flame, Cineshape 4, Falling, and Piano Portraits: Books 1 and 2. The goal of this research is to introduce the composer’s solo piano repertoire to a larger audience and to establish a general description of Williams’s musical language and style. In addition, the document includes background information about each piece as well as interpretive and technical guidance to support accurate and informed performances of Williams’ solo piano music. To accomplish these goals, the author has conducted and transcribed interviews with Williams that explore her biography and professional history, her compositional language, and specific information about the conception and composition of each piece. Analyses of each piece’s melodic, harmonic, rhythmic, formal, and narrative content are presented within each chapter, as well as practice and perfo rmance guidance. The performance suggestions result from the author’s own in-depth study and performance of the works as well as insight offered by the composer. The document begins with an introduction to Amy Williams and her musical work, and goes on to justify the importance of this study. The document then presents Williams’s biography and explains general observations and trends within her approach to composition as demonstrated by the solo piano pieces. Individual chapters dedicated to each of the five aforementioned works follow. The analysis of each piece is unique to that work’s content and structure and aims to offer performers a starting point to guide their deeper study of the music, rather than serving as a dogmatic doctrine to each aspect of the compositions.