A Stage Is All The World (1985)

Piano and Tape – 8 mins.

Audio

Program Note

A Stage Is All The World is a fantasy for piano and tape, using as it’s point of departure a quote from Shakespeare (As You Like It): “All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players. They have their exits and their entrances, and one man in his time plays many parts.”

This quote is heard backwards at the beginning of the piece. What ensues is a virtuoso concertino, stringing together an eclectic assortment off styles and textures. The tape part was realized on determinedly modest equipment: a Casio MT70 portable keyboard, a 512 Macintosh with the first generation “Professional Composer” program, and old piano records the composer had lying around, all combined on a four-channel Yamaha cassette “home studio.”