Last autumn Joshua Anderson invited me to participate in a commissioning project of his in which various composers would each compose a set of two etudes, one slow and one fast, each one lasting one minute, in one of the major or minor keys. At the time there were only three keys left from which to choose, and only one minor key, b minor. I chose the minor key and created these two pieces within a matter of days. The slow one is a long arabesque-of-a melody, and the fast one is a tarantella.

Premiere performances by Joshua Anderson: October 23, 2023, Reno Little Theater, Reno, Nevada; and October 29, 2023, 46th Annual Festival of New American Music, Capistrano Hall, Sacramento State School of Music, Sacramento, California.