Keep left, pass right (2019)
for solo piano
Afrikosmos Volume 4: No 1
Dedicated to Cathy Birkenshaw and Ron Hall
Composed 26 November - 1 December 2019, Saint-Léger-Magnazeix
Publisher: Bardic Edition
Available from Goodmusic Publishing
Score BDE 1284 (Volume 4 Complete)
Duration: 1'15"
Recording
Recorded by Antony Gray on 'Michael Blake: Afrikosmos’ (Divine Art DA 21374)
Première
First performance: 21 August 2021; Le Genesteix Concerts, Azat-le-Riz, France;
Antony Gray piano
Further performance: 22 September 2022; Chisholm Recital Room, Cape Town; Antony Gray piano
(South African première); 21 June 2023; Goldsmiths College London; Antony Gray piano
(UK première)
Programme note
Keep left, pass right came to me in August 2019 when I was travelling along the N2 to Grahamstown to record a new album. The sign below 'Keep left, pass right' appears regularly for motorists, but I envisaged a piano piece in which the hands did just that. Exploring a mode centred around F#, the left hand has more or less continuous 4ths/5ths, with the right hand playing descending melodic figures drawn from a range of scales.
for solo piano
Afrikosmos Volume 4: No 1
Dedicated to Cathy Birkenshaw and Ron Hall
Composed 26 November - 1 December 2019, Saint-Léger-Magnazeix
Publisher: Bardic Edition
Available from Goodmusic Publishing
Score BDE 1284 (Volume 4 Complete)
Duration: 1'15"
Recording
Recorded by Antony Gray on 'Michael Blake: Afrikosmos’ (Divine Art DA 21374)
Première
First performance: 21 August 2021; Le Genesteix Concerts, Azat-le-Riz, France;
Antony Gray piano
Further performance: 22 September 2022; Chisholm Recital Room, Cape Town; Antony Gray piano
(South African première); 21 June 2023; Goldsmiths College London; Antony Gray piano
(UK première)
Programme note
Keep left, pass right came to me in August 2019 when I was travelling along the N2 to Grahamstown to record a new album. The sign below 'Keep left, pass right' appears regularly for motorists, but I envisaged a piano piece in which the hands did just that. Exploring a mode centred around F#, the left hand has more or less continuous 4ths/5ths, with the right hand playing descending melodic figures drawn from a range of scales.
