Kerouac Songs op. 6, no. 1, "swing & swing & swing & swing" (2016) piano solo

Kerouac Songs "swing and swing and swing and swing"

(2016)

for solo piano

by Bernie Walasavage

Duration: 4' 00

A woman is beautiful but you have to swing and swing and swing and swing like a handkerchief in the wind --Jack Kerouac.

Program Notes This short piano prelude takes inspiration from a variety of factors: the work of Jack Kerouac, his inspiration from improvisation (in his writing and his affinity for jazz music), and the general idea of love song. It seems somewhat ironic that "love song" and "Kerouac" be associated with each other. A short lived author and poet (1922-1969) Kerouac is still the subject of ridicule and controversy today.

Indeed he objectified women, though in a time where the social landscape of postwar America was much different. In his "On the Road," Kerouac writes about his various flings whilst traveling, how he "ached" and "hurt" and instantaneously fell in love with various women.

I wanted the piece to be radically simplistic, analogous to the late-1940s where the institution of the family, the idea of "love at first sight," etc. was seemingly radically simplistic. The work and the poem are not structured simultaneously, but rather encompasses the general idea and feeling of improvisation, simplicity, and moments where the piano itself is objectified - with spurts of cacophony, a drastic but short interruption of fast motion in between the slow and nuanced harmonies BW

"and swing and swing and swing and swing"

Kerouac Songs

for solo piano (2016)

Durations are spacially relative.

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w π w < 4'00 Summer - Fall, 2016 Kalamazoo, Michigan