Nico Muhly: Patterns: Organ

Nico Muhly 's Patterns is a work in four sections for solo Organ. Patterns was commissioned by the American Guild of Organists for the 2014 Biennial National Convention in Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.A. ' Patterns is composed in four sections, each of which is sort of a rhythmic étude. The first (“Move Along”) is a perpetual motion machine with staggered and angular rhythms thrown between the pedals and the left hand. The second movement (“Palindromes”) is calmer and is centered around an idée fixe in the left hand while the right hand interjects and ornaments. The pedals, here, are a clumsy cousin, constantly upturning the sense of rhythmic stability. The third movement(“Similar”) is all to do with ways to divide up the bar: seven, eight, six, five, four — it’s all there. Then the finale (“Very Fast Music”) is a perpetual motion machine on its highest setting — manic and hyper, with hiccoughs offsetting the regularity of some of the rhythms. ' - Nico Muhly Stephen Farr, in the September/October 2015 issue of Choir & Organ, writes that this work is "full of filigree figuration and no little rhythmic complexity."