The Long Game

The Long Game is based on an original tune. A former colleague was in the habit of whistling it whenever he entered a room.

It seemed like nothing remarkable at the time—just a sort of idle melody. But when I sat down at the piano, it turned out to have legs.

Beyond coming up with a fairly straightforward harmonisation, I enjoyed exploring the range—dynamics and pitch—of the piano.

The piano used in this recording has ninety-seven keys to the piano’s usual eighty-eight. The additional nine notes are all in the bass; the last measure of the piece contains an F₀.

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Piano Score

Analysis

During the opening measures of the piece, the theme is stated directly, three times consecutively:

In measures 7–10, the theme is restated, with slight melodic variation:

In measures 11–15, further melodic variation is introduced:

Finally, beginning on the fourth beat of measure 17, the melody is restated in full. This time, it is presented in augmentation. This means the original note durations are elongated: the sixteenth notes in the original melody become eighth notes; the eighth notes become quarter notes, then half notes; and the final note of the melody becomes two whole notes:

How This Piece Was Created

I composed this piece at the piano, beginning with the melody, then improvising.

After sketching a rough draft on paper, I produced the score using LilyPond and Frescobaldi.

My real-time performance is one continuous take. There are no edits, except normalisation of the final audio.

Software and Samples

• Cubase (sequencing and recording)
• Altiverb (convolution reverb)
• Audacity (audio editing)
• Vienna Imperial library (Bösendorfer Imperial 290-755)
• Wigmore Hall (London) at 15 meters (impulse response samples)

Hardware

• Kawai CA49 digital piano (MIDI controller)
• Steinberg UR22C (audio interface)
• Audio-Technica ATH-M70x and ATH-A900X (monitoring headphones)