Stafylakis: The Tender Scars of Memory

Composer: Haralabos (Harry) Stafylakis (1982-) Instrumentation: Piano, Oboe Work: The Tender Scars of Memory (2024) Binding: ISMN: 9790094006859 Size: 8.7 x 12.0 inches Pages: 18 Description The Tender Scars of Memory began as an idle musical idea, emerging organically during a late-night piano improvisation session in the isolating privacy of my home studio in NYC during the dark days of 2020. Its main theme – a high, wandering melody floating above a gently off-kilter arpeggiation texture – came to my hands and ears basically fully-formed and lingered in my memory for days. It suggested something of Chopin's and Scriabin's intimate nocturnal ruminations, with a dash of Debussy-esque coloration. This was quite alien to my usual style, which tends towards propulsive, mechanical chugging and dense chord voicings. That it was a stylistic deviation, and that it evoked flavors of long-dead composers, was not in itself an issue; by that point, I'd long shed any academia-i