MUSIC SCORE - Piano Solo

Lopez (1950 - ) composed his First Adagio for Piano in 1973. Originally it was included as the middle movement of a three movement sonata, but Lopez felt that the Adagio was strong enough to stand alone, and so extracted this movement as a piece in its own right. In fact, this is the only movement of the sonata that was completed at that time, and Lopez performed the Adagio No. 1 in numerous piano solo concerts from 1973. Lopez ultimately submitted the Adagio No. 1 as his Master's Thesis, and it was in part due to the emotional maturity and contrapuntal sophistication of the piece that Lopez was subsequently invited to continue on in the doctoral program at the University of California at Berkeley.

In the years following, Lopez planned to write a series of these adagios for piano, and so he later titled this work Adagio No. 1. In fact, he jotted down sketches for several other piano adagios but never developed or completed any of these during his early years.

Years later Lopez would return to this early piece (Version 1a) to recompose the work for symphony orchestra. The orchestra version (Version 1b) is not merely a "transcription" of the early piece but a true re-rendering of the original concept for a fuller realization of the timbral and contrapuntal implications of the first version. Not satisfied with this, Lopez would go on to compose a third version (Version 1c) of the work for orchestra and piano solo.
About the Author: Peter Dickson Lopez (1950 - ) American composer and pianist, is best known for his traditional, though eclectic style. Peter began studying piano at the age of six. His passion for composition emerged early when as a child he began to write pieces emulating the style of Bach whom he was studying at the time. For Peter, performance and composition merged into one as he continued his studies in piano and composition in college. Indeed, this view of performance and composition was echoed by Ralph Shapey with whom Peter worked as a fellowship composer at Tanglewood: Composition is performance on paper! Prior to Tanglewood, where Peter also met Gunther Schuller and audited Leonard Bernstein's conducting classes, Peter had already earned his Ph.D. degree in Music Composition from the University of California at Berkeley. During his last two years in the doctoral program from 1976-78, Peter lived in Paris, France after having been awarded the prestigious George Ladd Paris Prize from the U.C. Berkeley Music Department. During this sojourn, Peter composed day and night and went to many concerts where he had the opportunity to hear the music of Xenakis, Messiaen, Boulez, Berio, Stockhausen, and many other European composers, often with those legendary composers in attendance. The personal connection Peter feels with this legacy has broadened throughout the years: as piano student of Edward Shadbolt at the University of the Pacific in Stockton (Ed had been a student of Béla Bartók and Zoltán Kodály); as composition student under Joaquin Nin-Culmell (himself an internationally known concert pianist and composer who had also studied with such luminaries as Manuel de Falla and Paul Dukas); and as a master class piano student of Karl Ulrich Schnabel (son of renowned Artur Schnabel). Lopez' propensity to explore and incorporate techniques from a variety of sources prompted a colleague at Tanglewood to comment, "You have the fortune (or misfortune) of falling through the cracks, of not belonging to any particular 'school'." Lopez' works have been performed in Europe and across the U.S. Learn more about the composer at http: //www.peterdicksonlopez.com.