Numbered Places [11 pieces for piano solo] Piano Solo - Digital Sheet Music

SKU: A0.596583

Juan María Solare: Numbered Places (eleven piano pieces) 

01 - One Way Flight to... (2:50)

02 - Twopenny Loaf [USA] (3:45)

03 - Three Bridges [UK] (2:25)

04 - Four Oaks [USA] (3:00)

05 - Five Pointz [NYC] (3:45)

06 - Six Mile Bottom [UK] (2:40)

07 - Seven Kings [UK] (5:10)

08 - Eight Streets [USA] (5:55)

09 - Nine Elms [UK] (2:50)

10 - Ten Ten Road [NC, USA] (3:25)

11 - Eleven Lands [UK] (3:30)

Total time: 39:15

Numbered Places * piano * music by Juan María Solare

The cycle Numbered Places starts from a simple idea: the piece nr. 1 would have a title that begins with the word One, the piece nr. 2 a title that begins with the word Two and so on up to an arbitrary number (in this case, eleven).

For everything to have more cohesion, English names of different places or regions in either USA or (mainly) UK were used.

In its own way, Numbered Places is therefore a conceptual album - already from the point of view of titles.

Also musically, this world of sound has cohesion: instrumental piano music, neoclassical aesthetics (a somewhat broad concept that encompasses composers such as Erik Satie or Ludovico Einaudi), a certain simplicity in its surface.

Let us briefly comment each of the titles:

- One Way Flight to ...: The imaginary journey starts here. Each person will complete the sentence with the destiny of their choice.

- Twopenny Loaf: This is a neighborhood (and geographically a cape) in the city of Gloucester, Essex County, Massachusetts, USA. It is believed to have gotten its name because it is shaped like a (bread) loaf that at the time cost two pennies.

- Three Bridges: It is a city somewhere between London and Brighton, and a nodal point where trains typically split. Musically, the most minimalistic of all the cycle.

- Four Oaks: There are numerous places so named, both in England and the US, and possibly in other countries. I can imagine that there were actually four oak trees planted near.

- Five Pointz: Neighborhood in Queens, New York. A graffiti mecca that was demolished in 2014 to build expensive buildings. And yes, it is spelled with z in this case.

- Six Mile Bottom: Is a hamlet near Cambridge in England. The hamlet derives its name from its distance from the start of Newmarket Racecourse and because it lies in a valley bottom. There is no public transport. The old train station, closed in 1967 for lack of use, is now a private residence.

- Seven Kings: It is a neighborhood in Ilford, East London. The earliest recorded use of the name is as Sevekyngg or Sevekyngges in 1285, possibly meaning 'settlement of the family or followers of a man called Seofoca'

- Eight Streets: it is a (very sought-after) neighborhood located in the heart of the historic South End of the city of Boston, Massachusetts, USA.

- Nine Elms: a district of South West London. Nine Elms Lane was named around the year 1645, from a row of elm trees bordering the road.

- Ten Ten Road: it is a place -actually the main road- in the town of Apex, North Carolina, USA.

- Eleven Lands: this place is mentioned in an old legal report from around 1782 as existing in North London ("a place called Eleven Lands, containing five acres of arable, formerly Cosby's, beonging to a farm in the said parish of Bletcheley...", in " A collection of the Reports of Cases, the Statutes, and Ecclesiastical Laws, relating to Tithes", volume 3). It has certainly changed its name. Musically, this last piece has a certain tango aura.