John Burge

Premiere: September 27, 2009, School of Music, Queen's University, Kingston, ON by John Burge, pianist.

Program Note: Based on the title of a book of poetry by Anne Simpson titled, "Loop."

The series of piano etudes entitled, Studies in Poetry, was started in 2000 while John Burge was on a sabbatical leave from teaching at Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario. This leave coincided with the purchase of a grand piano and the etudes were a way of both breaking in the new keyboard and investigating some personal explorations in composition. An avid reader of poetry, the composer simply took the titles of some of his favorite books of English poetry and provided a musical response to the book’s title. The resultant works are really a tribute to each poet and the first three etudes were premiered by the composer in the fall of 2001. Through practicing these etudes consistently over many months, the composer was able to make a number of refinements and had thought to add a few more etudes to the series over the next few years. As often happens though, the demands of everyday life and more pressing commissions meant that he was not able to return to this series until his next sabbatical in 2008. At that time the composer added three more etudes to the series and these new etudes were premiered in the fall of 2009.

LOOP (Studies in Poetry No. 4) is inspired by a poetry collection of the same title by Canadian poet, Anne Simpson. This is a wonderful volume that includes a number of remarkable poems, one of which is a long text entitled, “Möbius Strip,” that really does double back on itself in a most ingenious way. The piano etude takes the book’s title literally and continuously repeats a loop of six notes, around which are added complimentary melodic lines. Technically speaking, this etude is a kind of excursion in minimalist music with the chief performance difficulty lying in voicing the resultant contrapuntal fabric with clarity and balance.

Please note that John Burge is currently preparing a new edition of the Studies in Poetry Series which will be published under the Red Leaf Pianoworks label for release in 2021.  In the meantime, please access the music through the Canadian Music Centre link at the side.