I’ve always thought there is something unique and indescribable about the resonance of a nice grand piano, the way a single note, when struck, will send faint sympathetic vibrations through the whole instrument, so that one note becomes all notes in some real yet intangible way. No one has quite captured this feeling the way Charlemagne Palestine has. Palestine is a composer/improviser and a contemporary of early minimalists like Terry Riley and Steve Reich. Palestine is best known for his intense piano improvisations in which he begins by playing one or two notes in rapid alternation, gradually building to huge clusters that generate layers of upper harmonics rarely heard from the piano.

While I delve into the textural world inhabited by Palestine in this piece, I wanted to employ formal and harmonic structures that were a little more meandering and mysterious. Lacking a nine-foot Bösendorfer grand piano, I also use electronics to artificially alter and augment the acoustic sounds. I wanted to feel like I was playing a piano with a supernaturally powerful sustain pedal that would extend the frequencies and resonances of the instrument far beyond what would ordinarily be possible.

Late in the process of working on this piece I saw a tenuous connection between Palestine’s spiritual ideas about music and the apocalyptic mysticism of Russian composer Alexander Scriabin, who once believed his music could end the world. Coincidentally, White Mass begins with the same dyad (G-B) that Scriabin uses to open his ninth sonata, often called the “Black Mass” sonata. Scriabin’s sonata is built upon a descending chromatic motive that seems as though it could plummet eternally, while the general trajectory of my piece is up. And so, White Mass.

Immense thanks to Aron Kallay for designing the electronic environment for this piece, and making my work as effortless as possible.

The excerpt below is from the final four minutes of the piece. It was performed by the composer on March 3rd, 2008, in the USC United University Church Sanctuary.