Julia Perry Seethes a Jazzy Seethe

You think that music academia wouldn't leave any modernist stone unturned, especially if the composer in question is one as interesting as Julia Perry (1924-1979), who wrote a heck of a lot of music in her unfortunately short life (including seven symphonies and an opera).  She's among a small number of African-American female composers, the club also consisting of the likes of Florence Price and Dorothy Rudd Moore.  She was talented and lucky enough to study with Luigi Dallapiccola and Nadia Boulanger, and got a number of works published during her lifetime, though not many recordings.  One piece of hers I've taken quite a liking to is this short Prelude for piano, nestled in the pages of Black women composers : a century of piano music (1893-1990).

(Click for larger view)

A welcome addition to the pseudo-repertoire of American piano works that straddle the line between impressionism and jazz, the Prelude is a dark and seething reflection of the deep internal.  Those stacked chords are awfully satisfying to play, and in my performance below (which I think counts as the premiere recording [!]) you can see me dig into the keys, fully appropriate to the music.  It's midnight music, best played in low light and perhaps with a scotch at hand, and I'm a little peeved it hasn't entered the piano rep (yet).  I'm really glad I was introduced to Perry this way, as other works I've seen of hers seem to be somewhat harder to pin down emotionally, but far be it from me to prevent a note adventure.  Check her stuff out, and I hope my crack at the Prelude isn't too grating.

~PNK