Midnight Dance for Two

While working on the synthesizer portion of the cantata entitled "Case Study: A Young Woman's Suicide" at the Electronic Music Studio at UCSB, I performed and recorded this piece for piano and cello. At midnight I took a tape recorder into the piano booth and improvised for 20 minutes. I was lucky to have captured what is probably the most inspired bit of piano playing I will ever do in my life. I could not believe the results when I took the recorder back to the studio listened to the improvisation. I then used a multi-track recorder to mix in the improvised cello part. I did not want to disturb the "flow" of that evening, so I did not edit the piece at all. I improvised the cello part by listening to the preceding material, rewinding the piano recording to where I wanted to add new material, and then simply "played" the cello along with the piano. This piece, which took two hours to complete, is the result.

I suggest you listen to this piece with headphones on very late at night to get into mood of it. It is long an will take you on a musical journey. Pour a glass of wine and enjoy!

Tonality - 100%
Difficulty - N/A

This is a picture of the Electronic Music Studio at UC Santa Barbara in 1977/78... the time that I composed/improvised "Midnight Dance for Two"