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The Four Moods for Piano were composed in 1993. The first (Playfully) uses the upper and lower extremes of the piano for contrasting effects. Although a lot of Alston’s music has driving rhythms, this piece sounds

The Four Moods for Piano were composed in 1993. The second piece features repeated notes on the low end of the piano. It is dissonant and has impressionistic elements like repeated notes used for texture. Rhythm is central to this piece,

The Four Moods for Piano were composed in 1993. The third piece is marked “sweet and singing, rubato always.” Frequent rhythmic interruptions make it difficult to be always singing, although there are chromatic, Chopin-like groups of notes

The Four Moods for Piano were composed in 1993. The fourth mood, Joyfully, is fast paced and rhythmic. It seems like the most technically challenging of the four pieces, mostly because of the speed. The dissonance and syncopation give this

These variations are inspired by the song “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” written by John Rosamund Johnson with lyrics by James Weldon Johnson for a group that was celebrating Abraham Lincoln’s birthday in the year 1900. It was sung

The first Rhapsody in this set is 4.5 pages. It is marked “well marked with motion.” It features rhapsodic elements typical of the romantic period like switching between duple and triple rhythms. One of the frequent rhythmic

The second Rhapsody is marked “Solemn,” and is slow- the quarter note is 60 bpm. It has a wide variety of meter, 6/4, 5/4, 4/4, 3/4, and 2/4. The third page begins with 2/4 meter and changes tempo markings to “marked with motion

The third Rhapsody in the set is 4 pages long. It is very fast, the quarter note is 132 bpm, but the beginning is mostly eighth and quarter notes. It is marked “playfully,” an indication that appears in both the Variations on Lift