Kay Ashley: Music
Viraha (Church of the Altered Sky)
(Kay Ashley)
2008-09
Composed by Kay Ashley
This is a short piano piece that I wrote with the theme of longing in mind; I was intrigued by the Sanskrit word 'viraha', which means 'love in separation' and is an oft-celebrated theme in Hindustani classical vocal music. The piece is also inspired by a large-scale sculpture called "Church of the Altered Sky" by my friend Stacy Rieger. Structurally, the piece is one of my attempts to compose a Bartok-like "microcosmos", but my penchant for Debussy made it in here, as well.