Aeon for solo piano Claudia Chan Pianist Gallery 345 March 25, 2012 by alicehopingyee

Aeon describes an aspect of time, and it consists of two parts “Melting Clock” and “Rapid Meditation”. These are imaginary titles inspired by Salvador Dali’s surrealist painting “The Persistence of Memory”. Among the many levels of enigma in this painting, the central figure is a dreamlike image of a soft melting pocket watch that symbolizes the relativity of space and time. The unconscious "softness" and "hardness" of matters are represented to the eyes as if one is meditating on the collapse of some fixed cosmic orders. Triggered by these dreamlike images and provocative concept, this piano piece is built on multi-layering of musical motives: imagine vertical clusters flowing slowly in the first section and breaks into fast horizontal chromatic passages in the second part. The “Meditative” idea is drawn from sustainable fragments of rapid piano figures. These music elements are presented in extended elevation or free fall, sometimes juxtaposed in different registers to create shifting nuances. The dramatic use of voicing and the nostalgic reference to Romantic piano signified a passage in the history of time.

This work is written especially for pianist Claudia Chan with the support of the City of Toronto through Toronto Arts Council.