FOR RUTH CRAWFORD
Sander De Keere pays tribute to American composer Ruth Crawford with the solo piano composition for Ruth Crawford.
Ruth Crawford was a pioneering American musician of the early 20th century who began her career as a concert pianist and teacher. In 1930, she became the first woman to receive a Guggenheim Fellowship to study in Europe. Later, she became an expert in American folk music and took the name Ruth Crawford Seeger after her marriage.
“I was speechless when I first discovered her Piano Study in Mixed Accents - a rapid, unconventional stream of sixteenth notes that seem to go nowhere and everywhere at once, all within just two minutes. New times call for new music, and Ruth Crawford embodied this idea beautifully”
Inspired by Crawford’s piano work, De Keere composed for Ruth Crawford, a dynamic piece driven by speed and timing. “It demands intense coordination: the left hand repeats a steady four-note motif, while the right hand leaps around it, rhythmically and melodically trying to break free, just as we all try to find our own path in the rush of modern life.
This recording of for Ruth Crawford is played by pianist Emmy Wils and had its release in November 2023, 70 years after Ruth Crawford’s death.
PRIMITIVE STRUCTURES
2022
Limited Edition Cassette / Limited Edition CD
With his first album Primitive Structures (January 21, 2022), Sander De Keere delivers a brand new set of minimal classical compositions. A musical answer to our modern and hasty way of living. “The long repetitive patterns and slow evolving atmosphere in my work can be a musical antidotum to our short-term goals and fulfillments,” Sander says. While City Rush reflects on the hectic city life, Movement II feels like a classical slow second movement to catch your breath again. With Fading Notes Sander explores possible adaptions of one and the same rapid ten-note repetitive melodic figure for solo violin. While the track Con Moto demands a certain motion for piano and horns, the final 329 offers a meditative closing of Sander’s first album.
Instruments: piano, electronics, harmonium, violin, French horn.
Sander De Keere - ‘Fading Notes’ // live at Fondation CAB, Brussels
(violin: Ciska Vandelanotte)
LITTLE CREATURE
2020
digital release for Piano Day 2020
“After the release of my piano single 'It Was Night' (February 2019), I'm happy to share with you this new piano track I recorded for Piano Day 2020, on the 88th day of the year because of the number of keys on the modern instrument. Recently I'm captivated by the piano music of Frédéric Chopin. I can only imagine what it's like to be such a talented and personal pianist as he was. Chopin inspires me because of his personal stories and dancing melodies. To me, he's rather a narrator through the instrument than a composer for the instrument. His music is the answer to any question or mood.”
Listen to Little Creature on the official playlist of Piano Day 2020 (curated by Nils Frahm) on Soundcloud.
MUSIC FOR PIANO
2019
7” clear vinyl
limited edition of 200 personally sealed copies