This week, we hear from Naftali Schindler about his new piece, Norfolk In Summer:
I sketched the themes for this piece while staying at the Chamber Music Festival in Norfolk, CT. The atmosphere was idyllic and the setting ideal for composing. I was working on a piece for standard piano which I was dedicating to my first piano teacher, Shlomo Schnall. Since he is a big fan of the music of Alexander Scriabin, I played around at the piano with Scriabin’s “mystic” chord. The estate on which we were had a bell tower which rang every fifteen minutes, putting bell sounds into my head. These sources inspired the main theme of the piece which consists of repeated chords which eventually find their way to the “mystic” chord.
The bell tower, together with my long-standing interest in sounds derived from the overtone series, also inspired the tolling theme that begins the piece which traces the overtone series. The chirping of the birds in the local woods inspired the twittering, nervous second subsidiary theme that intertwines the chirping lines of both hands.
When I read that Phyllis was searching for toy piano pieces, I immediately thought of these sketches since they seem to really have a toy piano sound to them. I used the melodica for the sounds that needed more of a sustain to them. I put the sketched themes together in a rondo-esque arch form, in which each section is based on the ending chord of the preceding section.
Bio:
Naftali Schindler is a graduate of the Master of Musical Arts program at the Yale School of Music where he studied with Aaron Jay Kernis, Martin Bresnick, Ezra Laderman, and David Lang.
Naftali studied composition and music theory at Boston University, graduating summa cum laude with a Bachelor of Music degree. His teachers at BU included Martin Amlin and Theodore Antoniou. He presented his work in master-classes given by Lukas Foss, Samuel Adler, and David Liptak, among others.
Naftali’s music has been performed internationally, including performances by Alea III, Yale Philharmonia, Pykka Quintet, and the BU Symphony Orchestra (who included his Petrarch Sonnets on the 2006 honors concert) and at venues such as Bang on a Can Festival, Woolsey Hall and the Felicja Blumenthal Center in Tel Aviv. He has been commissioned by Alea III, Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, and Steve Parker, among others. He is a member of Pi Kappa Lambda and Eliezer Society, and is a recipient of the John Day Jackson and the Rena Greenwald Memorial Prizes. Naftali is also an aspiring throat-singer in the Tuvan manner.
Naftali studied composition and music theory at Boston University, graduating summa cum laude with a Bachelor of Music degree. His teachers at BU included Martin Amlin and Theodore Antoniou. He presented his work in master-classes given by Lukas Foss, Samuel Adler, and David Liptak, among others.
Naftali’s music has been performed internationally, including performances by Alea III, Yale Philharmonia, Pykka Quintet, and the BU Symphony Orchestra (who included his Petrarch Sonnets on the 2006 honors concert) and at venues such as Bang on a Can Festival, Woolsey Hall and the Felicja Blumenthal Center in Tel Aviv. He has been commissioned by Alea III, Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, and Steve Parker, among others. He is a member of Pi Kappa Lambda and Eliezer Society, and is a recipient of the John Day Jackson and the Rena Greenwald Memorial Prizes. Naftali is also an aspiring throat-singer in the Tuvan manner.
