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Haewon Yang plays the Piano Works of Harry Bulow

Harry Bulow composer
Haewon Yang piano
John Noel Roberts piano

Release Date: January 10, 2025
Catalog #: NV6694
Format: Digital
20th Century
21st Century
Solo Instrumental
Piano

The melting pot of American music has a rich history of bending and transforming genres, and Harry Bulow’s PIANO WORKS continues this tradition with expressively modern flair. Five pieces for piano explore the effects of time and play on compositions, showcasing how tweaks and changes to work over the years expose new elements, like a river carving through stone, revealing new layers of textures and vibrant colors.

Bulow’s style draws from Copland, Beethoven, pop, jazz, and minimalism to create much more than an eclectic menagerie. PIANO WORKS thoughtfully captures a portrait of the composer’s catalog, spotlighting a fresh and vibrant sound honed by decades of experience and a serious knack for incorporating genre into new work.

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Track Listing & Credits

# Title Composer Performer
01 Mixed Motives Harry Bulow Haewon Yang, piano 9:00
02 Sonata for Piano: I. Primal Impulses Harry Bulow Haewon Yang, piano 6:06
03 Sonata for Piano: II. Interludes Harry Bulow Haewon Yang, piano 6:15
04 Sonata for Piano: III. Pointillistic Play Harry Bulow Haewon Yang, piano 6:04
05 Suite for Piano: I. First Impressions Harry Bulow Haewon Yang, piano 5:21
06 Suite for Piano: II. Quiet Elegance Harry Bulow Haewon Yang, piano 5:55
07 Suite for Piano: III. Purposeful Play Harry Bulow Haewon Yang, piano 4:56
08 High-Rise Harry Bulow Haewon Yang, piano 10:57
09 Boulevard Blues for Two Pianos Harry Bulow Haewon Yang, piano; John Noel Roberts, piano 6:44

Recorded July 29-August 2, 2024 at Loeb Playhouse, Purdue University in West Lafayette IN
Mastering Melanie Montgomery

Executive Producer Bob Lord

VP of A&R Brandon MacNeil
A&R Chris Robinson

VP of Production Jan Košulič
Audio Director Lucas Paquette

VP, Design & Marketing Brett Picknell
Art Director Ryan Harrison
Design Morgan Hauber
Publicity Aidan Curran
Digital Marketing Manager Brett Iannucci

Artist Information

Harry Bulow

Composer

Harry Bulow received his bachelor's degree in music education from San Diego State University, and his M.A. and Ph.D. in music theory and composition from UCLA. His principal composition teachers include Aaron Copland, Henri Lazarof, Roy Travis, and David Ward-Steinman. His works have received numerous awards including First Prize at the International Composers Competition in Trieste, Italy, the “Oscar Espla” Prize from the city of Alicante, Spain, a National Endowment for the Arts Composer Fellowship, and 35 consecutive ASCAP Plus Awards from the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers.

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Haewon Yang

piano

Korean-born, Canadian-American pianist Haewon Yang has been hailed as an expressive, intelligent, and meticulous performer. She is an active performer across North America for her solo, chamber, and concerto performances, and is a champion of works from the familiar canon, as well as those from off the beaten path. Yang is a prize winner and finalist of several competitions, including the Shean Music Competition, the Canadian Music Competition, and the Indianapolis Matinee Musicale Competition. Yang is also an active educator, and has been on the faculty of Indiana University East, and University of New Mexico – Los Alamos.

After receiving her undergraduate degree in Piano Performance with distinction and full scholarship from the University of Toronto Faculty of Music, Yang went on to complete graduate degrees with full financial support from the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music and finished with a Doctor of Music in Piano Performance and Literature with a minor in Music Education. She attributes the entirety of her pianistic formation and musical training to her teachers, Paulette Price, Marietta Orlov, and Arnaldo Cohen.

haewonyang.com

John Noel Roberts

piano

John Noel Roberts has demonstrated his interpretive skills, technical ability, and his wide-ranging piano repertoire in solo and concerto performances in Australia, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, India, Italy, Great Britain, Japan, Canada, and the United States. Highlights of his career have been recitals in Carnegie Weill Recital Hall, NYC, Teatro Olympico, Vicenze, and National Concert Hall, Taipei. Roberts pursued undergraduate studies at the Eastman School of Music of the University of Rochester, where he was a student of Eugene List and Barry Snyder and was awarded the Performer’s Certificate in Piano. He continued graduate studies at the Yale University School of Music, where he earned the Doctor of Musical Arts degree. At Yale, he studied with Claude Frank and Ward Davenny and won the Sprague Hall Competition. Formerly Artist in Residence and Head of Music at the Western Australian Conservatorium of Music of the Edith Cowan University, Roberts has also served on the music faculties at Furman University, the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, Mercer University, Stephen F. Austin State University, and Concordia College. Roberts is a Steinway Artist.

johnnoelroberts.com

Notes

Mixed Motives was first performed as an improvised piano solo by the composer on May 30, 1985 at the Garvin Theater of Santa Barbara City College. The title is a play on words which both reflects the nature of the composition and the unique circumstance around its creation. The composer, planning to have various ensembles perform together on an evening concert, came up short when one of the groups canceled at the last minute. To fill out the concert, the composer decided to play an improvised piano piece. The result was Mixed Motives.

While the work demonstrates minimal characteristics, its quality is largely eclectic. It consists of three basic sections. The two outer allegros focus upon simple melodic (geometric) figures in a changing field of harmonic movement that drives the piece forward. The slower inner section is more contemplative and coloristic in design. The work was completed as a formal written composition in 2018. The work was written for Gregory Kostraba and premiered as a formal composition on April 14, 2018 at the Patti and Rusty Rueff Galleries of Purdue University.

The Sonata for Piano was composed for Dr. John Roberts who initially proposed the idea of writing a sonata. It was completed in 1995 and premiered on April 26, 1997 at the Festival of New Music at Radford University. The work was awarded First Prize by the Tampa Bay Composers Forum in their Excellence in Chamber Music Composition Competition in 1998.

The opening movement loosely follows the traditional sonata allegro design of exposition, development, and recapitulation. However, its chromatic and percussive elements clearly place it in the modern era. The piece begins with what some might regard as a “rocket” motive, common in the music of Beethoven and other classical composers, but quickly moves on to textural focus more aligned with the pointillistic style of Anton Webern or early Stockhausen. The piece still has many tonal orientations throughout despite its dissonant focus and percussive elements. The movement ends with a well-defined cadential punctuation.

The second movement is more contemplative and reflective in nature. Its emphasis is more postmodern with its blend of atonal colors and tonal arrival points. Its title, “Interludes,” reflects the general formal shape of the movement. It begins with a 5-note figure that serves as a harmonic focal point throughout. Between these figures are phrases that grow in length and intensity.

The final movement, “Pointillistic Play,” is dominated by the interval of a major seventh and its complement, the minor second. It is a kind of helter-skelter rondo. The principal theme of the first movement returns and is juxtaposed with the principal theme of the third movement. Various other melodic and harmonic ideas are interspersed for balance and contrast. The work ends with a declarative and cadential arrival point.

The Suite for Piano was commissioned by the North Carolina Music Teachers Association and premiered by Dr. John Roberts at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte on October 25, 1997. Traditionally, the suite consisted of a series of stylized dances, typically rooted in European folk music. The current work gives reference to the Modern era deriving much of its musical language from America jazz and other popular forms of music. The initial movement, “First Impressions,” takes the form of a jazz waltz. The second movement, “Quiet Elegance” is more somber and delicate in nature with clear jazz overtones. Its simpler motivic and melodic characteristics flow freely with a wide variety of extended harmonies. The third movement, “Purposeful Play,” displays high energy with a quick moving minimalistic theme giving way to a middle section speaking a more bluesy popular song dialect. The composer regards the musical gestures of the final movement somewhat aligned to that of ballet. Its title, “Purposeful Play,” is related and in contrast to John Cage’s term “purposeless play.”

High-Rise was written for Haewon Yang and completed in 2023. The work is closely tied to the composer’s orchestral work titled Skyscraper. Although both works share many common characteristics, both retain their own unique character and qualities. The composition attempts to give reference to sounds associated with building an industrial architectural structure. At times, the piano is treated as a percussive device and at others as a beautifully coloristic and linearly expressive instrument. The overall tone of the piece is industrial in nature imitating the sounds of heavy machinery among other mechanical tools. Three elements are of particular note in this work:
1. The use of simple geometric melodic figures and motives as essential building blocks.
2. The use of harmonic and melodic sequences giving it a sense of forward momentum.
3. The use of dissonance and sound-mass approaches that give it an industrial tone.

Boulevard Blues was originally commissioned by Mercer University for John and Jean Roberts who gave its premiere performance on March 5, 2001 at the Grand Opera House, Macon GA. The initial title was Macon Boogie, a play on words since Mercer University resides in Macon, Georgia, along with its use of the boogie-woogie style. The name was changed due to the elimination of the drum set part and the consolidation of some of its materials. The new title, Boulevard Blues, was taken from the street name where John and Jean Roberts lived during their time in Macon. The work consists of a series of variations based on an original hymn tune written by the composer. It integrates elements of pop, jazz, and contemporary music in a fragmented design. The work is a loosely shaped ternary form while still holding to its essential variational approach.