I wrote ALPINE PRELUDES in the summer of 1989 while I was performing at the Flagstaff Festival of the Arts.  This turned out to be a summer of piano music for me.  Along with these preludes, I also wrote Flagstaff Sketches and Four Morning Pieces at the same three-week festival.  

From the time I was ten years old, when my family acquired a piano, until 1980, almost all the music I composed was for the piano solo.  But by 1989, I hadn't written any music for piano solo in several years, and I haven't written any since, due to the fact that I spend so much time improvising.

These preludes are not only short, they are also compressed.  They use short ideas and develop quickly.  It is a form for which I have a real attraction; the most extreme example being the Six Miniatures (second movement) from my Three Pieces for solo double bass.

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