Crush

The title of the piece describes what constitutes a large part of the piece, crushed notes, or grace notes. These are very fast notes that have no real time value but must fit in before, after or between the main notes.

Starting from small beginnings - just one grace note before each main note - the number of grace notes start to build up and form clusters of sound with specific patterns which in a way constitute the harmony which exists around the main pitches of a piece.

The main pitches, of which these clusters of notes hang upon, form a melodic idea or motif which unfolds slowly throughout the piece. Each of the pitches of the main motif remain in the same register that they first occur to provide strong points of reference for the listener. As the piece progresses the number of these reference points increase as more pitches are added to the motif and the density of the piece builds.