Seven Ways to Move: Piano Solo

Howard writes music that respects the pianist's intelligence while demanding genuine engagement with contrasting textures and physical gestures. The seven interconnected sections feel inevitable rather than arbitrary, bound by harmonic logic that rewards close listening and reveals itself through performance. This is the kind of piece that grows richer with each rehearsal.

Seven Ways to Move carries the energy of physical practice: sometimes hypnotic and driving, sometimes grounded and deliberate, sometimes fragmentary and exploratory. The piece pulses between states of motion and stillness, never settling into comfort, yet held together by an invisible harmonic logic that keeps everything coherent. You emerge from it energized and slightly disoriented in the best way.

This piece speaks to intermediate pianists ready to move beyond conventional narrative structure and explore how constraint (the unifying harmonic thread) can coexist with radical surface variety. It rewards players who enjoy contemporary music and are comfortable with shifting tonal centers, sparse textures, and rhythmic independence.

• Map the pulse shifts before you begin learning passages in isolation. Understanding which sections sit in hypnotic, driving rhythm versus grounded, deliberate motion helps you navigate the overall architecture rather than treating each section as a separate study.
• Treat the harmonic thread as your anchor. Even when the surface textures shift dramatically, the underlying harmony connects all seven sections. Following this thread helps you maintain coherence when the musical character changes abruptly.
• Attend to dynamic and textural contrasts with physical commitment. The piece explicitly explores movement through sound, so your body at the keyboard should reflect the energy shifts: fluid and lyrical requires a different physicality than abrupt or pulsing material.
• Listen to the overall shape across all seven sections. This is not a collection of separate pieces; the seamless flow between sections is essential to the work's meaning.

Program this alongside other contemporary solo works that explore texture and constraint, or pair it with classical or romantic era pieces to highlight how modern composers reimagine harmony and form. It also works well in a recital devoted to works by living composers, particularly those that prioritize physicality and gesture in performance.

• Reading and interpreting shifting pulse and meter without losing forward momentum
• Sustaining harmonic awareness across contrasting textural sections
• Coordinating hand independence in fragmented, non-traditional textures
• Balancing lyrical phrasing with percussive, rhythmic articulation
• Navigating seamless transitions between sections with distinct musical characters