By Grant Woolard
In honor of the recent equinox, I’ve composed “Four Seasonal Sketches,” a set of four pieces that depict each season.
Yeah, Vivaldi, I know it doesn’t sound boldly original. However, I added an extra element: a video in which my surroundings change in accordance with each season. This includes pleasant seasonal phenomena as well as a wide variety of natural disasters. I’m not sure how my piano survived the elements.
This idea came to me while living in Japan, a country where walls are thin, insulation is lacking, and central heating and cooling systems are non-existent. Even indoors, one cannot escape the raw winter cold and merciless summer heat. This over-exposure to the seasonal flux inspired me to create this video.
While capturing the essence of each season, at the same time I tried to make the pieces as different from one another as possible. You’ll hear classical, jazz, 20th-century, and several genres I don’t know the names of. Sit back and enjoy the four seasons condensed into 3 minutes and 23 seconds.
Hey, random question for you–what’s your favorite song by Jacky Cheung? Here’s Grant’s: