The Path (2025)
for Piano, Tres Cubano, Violin, Cello and hand percussion

total duration: ~60 minutes

In nine movements:

I The Forest
II - The Path
III - Tres solo
IV - EDA
V - Drum Solo
VI - Caravan
VII - Cello Solo
VIII - Kaleidoscope Violin
IX- Shifting Memories

Premiered by Richard Carrick Piano, Bengisu Gokce Violin, Jeremy Harman Cello, Rafael Heredia Horimoto Drums/Percussion and Mario Salvador Tres Cubano on March 5, 2025at Berklee in Boston, MA.

The Path was written in December and January 2024 in Boston and Holland.

If you are interested in how Richard is making these sounds in the piano, please check out Richard’s Extended Piano Techniques (2023) on YouTube

Program notes
The Path is a multi-movement, concert length work for piano, tres cubano, violin, cello and hand percussion. Originally conceived as a set of lead sheets for violin and piano to be played with bass and drums, the piece evolved its instrumentation to include tres, cello and percussion. This change encouraged writing out arranged and structured compositions for the longer movements, firmly positioning this piece precisely between the different worlds of lead sheets and notated compositions.

The Path is a reference to the opening line of Dante’s Inferno: he introduces the protagonist who states “I lost the path that does not stray.” The metaphors abound. Can it be a melody whose accompaniment strays wildly, or shifts the underlying groove unexpectedly? A polyrhythmic groove that straddles between two different pulses? Or is it my personal musical journey, which in this work leans more heavily on the music I listened to in my teen years. This might also be my first “Berklee” piece. I attended the Berklee summer program when I was 15, but took a different path in different musical genres and circled around the world before returning 30 years later.

There are many paths one can take, even if the path does not stray. The quintet sets out on a journey with the audience, between large structured compositions and solo/duo improvised threads that weave them together.

This is my sixth concert length work for chamber formation, including The Flow Cycle for string trio (2009), Stone Guitars (four electric guitars, 2014) the ballet Sea for violin and piano (2021),The Atlas for piano and string quartet (2023), and L’Algérie for piano, oud, violin, cello and percussion (2024).