About: Patterns and Fantasies on the Way to Parnassus: Roger Reynolds’s Piano Etudes Books I and II
Despite the reward promised by the commonplace saying, practice at most bears an asymptotic relationship to perfection. Still, the very act of striving “to exploit and perfect a chosen facet of performing technique” – to quote Grove Music’s primary definition of the purpose of the instrumental etude – has inspired artistic breakthroughs that seem incommensurate with such utilitarian goals. “Forgive me – I sound as if I’ve just discovered music,” Debussy wrote after completing his Études in 1915, overcome by a spirit of artistic rejuvenation near the end of his life.
