Tsunami, is a piano duet that was born of one of the most moving musical experiences if have had. It was written immediately after the devastating Tsunami in the Philippines in the autumn of 2018. It was a joint improvisation between myself and a pupil. As we played, you could feel our emotion being communicated through the music. Luckily, we had recorded it, and this is a direct transcription of that improvisation.

The music has an eerie quality; like an impending Tsunami, as well as a feeling of inevitability, as the repeated octaves in the bass and repeated octaves in the treble compounded with a crescendo and slight accelerando give us a relentless, unstoppable feeling; there is also a deep feeling of pathos as for just a couple of chords, the dissonances respite for a minor chord, giving a glimpse of the desperate sorrow, which we felt, as we felt as we played. After a brief crescendo, the piece simply fades away, leaving us contemplating the awful aftermath of the devastation.

You can’t put a price on something that has been born of such circumstances.

View score:

Listen: (the original improvisation between myself and my pupil)