| First Publication | 2015-2016 |
|---|---|
| Genre Categories | Pieces; For piano; Scores featuring the piano; For 1 player |
| Work Title | Focused Music |
|---|---|
| Alternative. Title | |
| Composer | Toub, David |
| I-Catalogue NumberI-Cat. No. | IDT 19 |
| First Publication. | 2015-2016 |
| Average DurationAvg. Duration | 4 hours, 15 minutes |
| Composer Time PeriodComp. Period | Modern |
| Piece Style | Modern |
| Instrumentation | piano |
focused music is a work for solo piano that is of extended duration (approximately four and a quarter hours).
It is entirely based on several improvisations to date beginning in 2015, and is in a free form. In keeping with the improvisatory, stream of consciousness quality of the work, some occasional wrong notes have been preserved.
From a pianistic perspective, this is a very difficult work requiring extreme concentration. Despite the use of fairly conventional rhythms, ‘focused music’ is a very challenging work to perform. Some sections are physically taxing, for the performer as well as the listener.
While music like this has often been called “minimalist,” “postminimalist” or worse, I’ve been fine with those terms, and have no desire to run away from an association with minimalism. However, I greatly prefer the term "focused music" for my works since the early 80's. That is because it’s perhaps more accurate to think of such music as being "focused" on certain attributes for a period of time, be it a rhythm, a small number of tones or both. That degree of focus, I think, is what makes this music what it is, hence the title.
