Program Note:

Prelude to Stars in Their Massive Dying is both a response to Bach’s “Prelude in C major” (BWV 846) and an homage to the legacy of The Well-Tempered Clavier. Serving as the skeleton of the piece, I derive form, harmony, and motivic material from the prelude. Moving between direct transcription and elaboration, fragments of other keyboard works throughout history emerge within the texture—ranging from Debussy’s own preludes to the etudes of Ligeti and Chin. This composition acts as a tracing of a musical lineage that I both aspire to and seek to distance myself from. The title is also a reference to the poem “Black Petal” by Li-Young Lee, which navigates themes of grief and memory. In this work, I confront the weight of transcribing Bach’s seminal piece while also recognizing that we are all, ultimately, formed from the dust of dead stars.