Recommended Listening: Stanton Lanier - Awaken the Dawn

A New Age piano concert? Can you believe it? Yep. The pianist is Stanton Lanier at a Whisperings House concert given in Seattle I think.

Anyway, the reason I posted this is so I can 'break it down' for you. Let's take a look at how this pianist uses repetition and contrast to compose with. As far as I can tell there are just 2 sections here. Not a lot of material to be sure. But just listen to what he does with that!

The main theme is played and lasts a bit. Actually sounds like an 8-bar phrase. Then, at the 51 seconds mark, something new. Nothing drastically new here - but you can tell that new material is being used.

Then, it's right back to the main theme. Nothing complicated to be sure but a beautiful piece of music nonetheless. By going back and forth between sections, contrast is created. This keeps listener attention (hopefully) as a complete musical 'journey' is created.

If I were to break this piece down into it's final form it might look something like this: ABABA