La forma dei miei genitori

(the shape of my parents)

La Forma Dei Miei Genitori Score pdf
2012 for four or more pianos + voice
(for Kanoko Nishi, Regina Schaffer, Emily Packard, Naya Buric and Noa Charuvi)
Premiered April 13, 2012 at Piedmont Piano Company, Oakland California
Performed by New Keys Ensemble and Elise Cumberland

This piece is built around the interval of a fourth. Remarkably, this very basic interval does not appear anywhere in the overtone series and yet it is present and vital in practically every culture's music. However, if we invert the interval, a magical connection happens. For example, in the key of C, the F above is the fourth. If we invert this and put the F below the C, we have an interval of a fifth.  If we take the F another octave down, we have an interval of a twelfth, and suddenly C is the second overtone in the overtone series of F. So although F (the fourth), does not appear in the natural harmonic world of C, it is actually it's generator, because C is born out of the overtone series of F. In his book, Harmonic Experience, W.A. Mathieu writes, "...when you sing F you create C....That is the work of the Musical Mother. Hello, Mother. You who dare to sing F in the C world become the embodiment of the creative and the sacred." What you will hear in this piece is the delicate ringing of tones not actually played on the piano, but brought to life by the vibrational resonance of their acoustic 'mothers'. Perhaps it is no coincidence that in Indian sargam (the equivalent of Western solfège or do-re-mi), the fourth is called ma. I dedicate this piece to dear friends and mothers-to-be, Kanoko Nishi, Regina Schaffer, Emily Packard, Naya Buric and Noa Charuvi. I would also like to thank Regina, Kanoko and New Keys for bringing this piece into being.