aix (“waters”), for two pianos, is a short study in rising and falling patterns, with alternating chordal and canonic textures. It’s a slightly unsettled lullaby, composed on “04 04 04” (April 4, 2004, the 36th anniversary of the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.).
The primary melodic shape, an ascending seventh followed by a descending second, is heard in several of my piano pieces of the early to mid 2000s, which I later grouped together as a cycle under the title “Kindred Pieces.” The piece is written in diatonic A-flat major, with a harmonic progression on the scale degrees 4-3-2-1-5-6.
Stephen Clarke, Wesley Shen, pianos Recorded live at The Array Space, Toronto by Daniel Tapper, November 21, 2020
Music and composer’s notes copyright Bruce A. Russell 2024
Bruce A. Russell aka Ibrahim El Mahboob (b. Kingston, ON, 1968) is a composer and self-taught pianist living and working in Toronto (Tkarón:to, the traditional territory of many nations including the Mississaugas of the Credit, the Anishnabeg, the Chippewa, the Haudenosaunee and the Wendat). He studied at York University with James Tenney and Phillip Werren. He has composed music for Artemis Musicians' Society, Gryphon Trio, the Madawaska Quartet and Thin Edge New Music Collective. Interest in his work increased in 2020, with performances since then by Arraymusic, Prism Percussion, Second Note Duo, San Juan Symphony and Idaho Falls Symphony, Grant Park Orchestra, Regina Symphony Orchestra, and the Isabel String Quartet and the Mill City String Quartet. He was the composer, music director and keyboardist for writer/performer Ian Kamau’s live multimedia work Loss, which premiered at Harbourfont Centre for the Luminato Festival in Toronto. He was the host of Radio Music Gallery, and has written for Musicworks and I Care if You Listen. His interests are in 20th and 21st century concert music especially postminimalism, and music of the African diaspora.
EL MAHBOOB 
I really enjoyed this piece. As always, I think there is a film piece or two out there that would benefit from works like this on their soundtrack. R
Thank you for the kind words and conversations, now and always.