Compositions – Piano

1. Sonata for Piano, Four Hands (1966)

Debuted with composer and Sara Fuxon-Heyman, pianists, U. S. Cultural Center, Tel Aviv — November, 1971, Recording: GS 1060 Grenadilla Records.

In Cotel’s own words:

“The first movement is concerned with musical architecture — the way themes and lines can be combined and set one against the other, how they interact. The second movement has a kind of invisible architecture. We’re concerned not with lines but with musical moments — sound color objects — and the permutations of these objects is what gives the piece its shape. The aggregate of these sound objects are combined in various ways according to density, ranging from very delicate permutations to much more massive ones. The third movement features three different kinds of tempo delineated by different kinds of tempo material. The final movement is a quilting together of material from movements 1, 2, and 3. It combines the rationalistic setting of the first movement with the frenzy of the third and the poetry of the second. The basic idea here is that when different materials combine, the result is more than just “a and b”. The result is unexpected, it’s more than the sum of its parts. These materials interact, pull together, yielding an unexpected resultant, and then they pull away. After many reactions, the movement loses its momentum and stops.”

Recording below is from Peabody Conservatory of Music, Moshe Cotel and Mark Wait, pianists.

2. Tehom for Three Pianos (1974)

Premiered at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Washington, D.C.— July, 1975 with Mark Wait, Meade Crane, Morris Cotel – pianists.

Cotel’s first overtly Jewish work, the title comes from the biblical Hebrew in the opening lines of Genesis, “Choshech al p’nei tehom” which means “darkness on the face of the deep.” This is an abstract and atonal piece which also features strumming of the strings inside of the piano.

In Cotel’s own words:

“Tehom is a tone poem that follows the textual drama at the beginning of the book of Genesis. ‘In the beginning’: all three pianos spew out the material of the piece. You don’t know what’s happening — it’s the Big Bang. Then, God created the heaven and the earth: the music divides into heavenly material and earth material…Until it ends with the spirit of God hovering over the face of the waters: the tone painting I use there is that pianos 1 and 2 strum arpeggios directly inside on the strings — a heavenly kind of association — hovering over piano 3 playing low chords at the face of the keyboard, to represent the face of the deep. And then it dies away into nothingness.”

The version below features Paul Hoffmann, Meade Crane, and Moshe Cotel on piano for the Music in American Life Series, Peabody Conservatory, May 6, 1979

3. Piano Sonata (1976)

Composer performing, Carnegie Recital Hall, New York — October, 1977, Recording: Grenadilla Records GS 1051.

4. Yetzirah for Two Microtonal Pianos (1979)

An abstract piece for two microtonal pianos. In Cotel’s own words: “This piece is based upon the proto-Kabbalistic text, Sefer Yetzirah, the Book of Formation, which states the mystical idea that the world was created from the twenty two letters of the Hebrew alphabet. I thought the number twenty two had to figure into this piece, but how could I get twenty two out of the twelve notes of the octave? Finally, it occurred to me that it had to be twenty two tones. I experimented with a twenty-two-note tuning, and I found to my amazement that there is only one interval in the twenty-two note scale that is congruent to our regular twelve note scale, and that is the tri-tone. And then I thought, this has to be for two pianos: twenty four keys, tuned to two pianos, minus the two notes in common — that’s 22, that’s perfect.”

Meade Crane and Paul Hoffmann, pianists “Meet the Moderns,” Brooklyn Academy of Music, October 29, 1981; Great Hall, Cooper Union, New York, October 30, 1981.

5. Haftarah for Piano Solo (1986)

Performed by the composer, Adalman Recital Series, Friedberg Concert Hall, Peabody Conservatory of Music, Baltimore, April 1, 1987

Based on haftarah trope, this piece draws inspiration from the cantillations (musical notation system) used to chant readings from the Prophets during Jewish services.

6. Betelgeuse for Piano Solo (1991) – Classical piano variations based on songs written by The Beatles. European Premiere at Musikpodium Biel, Switzerland, 1993.

This consists of two works for piano: Beatles Songs Without Words (includes themes drawn from Yellow Submarine, Michelle, Penny Lane, and All You Need is Love), and Variations With a Little Help (based on A Little Help from my Friends) which is written for the left hand alone.

Beatles Songs Without Words

Variations With a Little Help (Left hand solo piano composition)

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