In January of 2009 I started writing a chamber piece. As the music unfolded, I kept changing the scoring, changing the instrumentation, etc. and was never happy with the way it was working. Eventually, I realized the piece was a really a piano piece. I wrote on the manuscript paper: THIS IS A PIANO PIECE. DO NOT CHANGE THIS. In 2010, I participated in the RPM Challenge in which I had to compose and record an album’s worth of material in the month of February. I finally completed the piano piece, titled it Prelude, and recorded it for the album. I put off making a score, just leaving the awkward sketches behind.
In 2012, when my colleague Alexandra Mascolo-David asked me for any solo piano music, I told her about this piece. I sat down to write the score, but couldn’t make it work. Something else happened with the material and I couldn’t figure out why. The music was so simple, so plain, yet so lovely that I was slightly embarrassed to give it to her. The title, Lullaby Boxes, is meant to invoke a kind of music box.
Hear the whole piece and buy the disc here! Time Out of Mind by Alexandra Mascolo-David
Download the score: Lullaby Boxes