mitosis

A short piece for piano quintet, which I composed, rehearsed, and performed on piano in concert.

“Mitosis” is an exploration of the beginning of an organism’s life, from the point of the first cell division through its development into a complex being. The piece begins on a single note repeated in the piano, which then multiplies into denser harmony before launching into the main theme of the work. This melody is then repeated in many different ways, alternated with contrasting ideas, until its final iteration where the first four notes of the theme are stretched out and become the harmonic basis for an energetic finale, reflecting the now large-scale, complex organism.