élan – piano solos composed and performed by Tom Splitt
Do our musical abilities in any way reflect or express the larger design of the universe we find ourselves in? Composer and solo pianist, Tom Splitt, thinks so. When you decompose music into notes and octaves it is a precise mathematical language of its own. And yet music can also be a highly creative and spontaneous experience. How do design, talent, creativity, inspiration, and spontaneity combine to form music we love to hear? What does the creative process of music tell us about the creative nature of the universe? Listen as Tom describes the creative process behind several of the songs on this project, then close your eyes and let his music carry you down the rushing river and soaring with the wind.
“élan is an album of piano music. Most of the pieces relate to a place or person. For example, The River came after a visit to Eldorado Canyon in Colorado. I was back home walking across the Michigan Avenue Bridge–which spans the Chicago River–and could not get the sound of that rushing river in the canyon out of my head until I wrote this piece.
Three of the pieces came entirely spontaneously during recording; I had never heard them until they came out of my hands. The Wind and Soaring are two of these, and in listening to the playback, the titles came just as spontaneously. The third piece was a beyond-time experience of eternity, when I was fully aware of being played by the music, of being its instrument, not its source. It was, and is, Grace.” — Tom Splitt
Go here to listen to sample clips, read reviews or to order the élan CD from ARN.