- Enchanted’s Theme
- To The Sea
- Touching Down
- The Turn
- No Fear (for Marcel)
- The Only Thing
- After it’s Gone
- Ode
Ode is a collection of original, solo piano compositions by Matthew Giobbi. Enchanted’s Theme was written for my mother to celebrate her love for sailing and her sailboat, Enchanted. In the piece I attempted to capture the freedom, adventure, and realized dreams that I witness in my mother when she sails. The piece has been described as uplifting, triumphant, and purposeful.
To The Sea was written in the spring of 2017, upon returning to shore at Sandy Hook, New Jersey after a long winter. In the work I hope to share the overwhelming feeling that I encountered upon seeing the ocean after six months of inland, winter, living. I have always felt at home near the ocean and this solo piano work is a tribute to that love I have for the sea. Listeners may hear a strong harmonic influence from jazz artist Herbie Hancock, whose Maiden Voyage is referenced in the piece.
Touching Down was written for a young friend who was embarking on her life after college. It is a piece in which I explored the feelings of anticipation, hope, and arrival home from a long journey.
In The Turn, I explore a philosophical idea called a turn. A turn takes place when one’s worldview shifts and all that was once familiar becomes foreign. This solo piano work marks a significant turn in my own thinking and the result is the album you are listening to now.
No Fear is a piece I wrote in celebration of the life of my dear friend, Marcel Talangbayan (1973-2018). As roommates in New York City in the mid-nineties, Marcel and I listened daily to Bach’s Goldberg Variations for an entire year. Each evening, after our classes were completed at The Mannes College of Music, we would take a long walk down Broadway and share our dreams, fears, and thoughts. This solo piano piece adapts Bach’s theme in a new style that elicits those evening walks with Marcel.
Another work about hope, purpose, and realization of dreams is The Only Thing. The title is taken from text that came to my mind while writing the piece; “the only thing you have to be is you”. This is a work that serves as a message about being okay, being whole, and being content. It emotional theme is the idea of gratefulness in today, a sense of fulfillment.
After it’s Gone is the phenomenological exploration of endings and beginnings, and the ambiguous overlap of the two. Experiences that we have serve as an ending and as a beginning to the next experience. This is an overlapping dovetail of successive moments of life.
Ode is a contemporary take on Ludwig van Beethoven’s timeless theme from his final symphony. This piece is a reminder and a celebration of the capacity for good that exists in us all.
Release date: June, 2018.
Recorded using Korg & Kurzweil instruments in my studio in Wind Gap, Pennsylvania.
