Earth Hour [Live excerpt] - composed by Frank Horvat

A portion of a live performance by the composer at The Assembly Hall, Toronto, March 27, 2010 (Earth Hour). Earth Hour is a composition for solo piano from Frank's 2010 album, A Little Dark Music.

On March 28, 2009, I was invited to perform at an Earth Hour party hosted by a law firm in one of Toronto’s skyscrapers in the Financial District. As the who’s who of Toronto’s elite hobnobbed admiring the lack of lights in the sprawling skyline, I quietly improvised. Once 8:30PM hit, the lights went out and all the partygoers congregated in a room on the opposite side of the building to listen to speeches. I was left alone quietly playing away, immersing myself and enjoying the darkness…this is where Earth Hour, this composition, was born.

Composing a 60-minute continuous piano piece is something that at first seemed a little daunting. As a composer, I was challenged – how do I make a composition interesting where both the performer and listeners are immersed in the dark and ensure that the sound of the piano and the darkness are equal partners in the experience? I quickly realized that creating a soundtrack to being alone in one’s thoughts can be so many different things: reflective, calming, scary, empty, or happy, just to name a few. This made me realize that even though it was one cohesive piece, the music could change thematically to reflect the many varied emotions that one can feel when being in the dark.

From beginning to end, Earth Hour takes exactly 60 minutes to perform, not a second less or more. Performers are to use an earpiece so they can play along with a metronome to ensure accurate timing. Earth Hour is divided into 12 sections/themes, each lasting exactly 5 minutes. The first 6 themes are contrasting from each other based on a sort of random note picking pattern formula I created that is correlated and based on the letters of my name and my wife’s. The last 6 themes are variations of the first 6 themes, except that they’re presented in reverse order giving the overall composition a palindrome structure. One of the reasons I did this was so the ending of the piece could be seamlessly connected to the beginning, allowing a performance of the piece to last more than just one hour, if a performer (or performers) so desired. A sense of start or completion isn’t as important as the experience itself.

Whether you listen to the entire piece or just a snippet, my hope is that a listener will be able to find peace and time for inner reflection when listening. Giving them time to think about how they can make themselves and the world a better place. Sitting in the dark doesn’t just have to occur on the last Saturday of every March. – Frank Horvat

PERFORMERS:
Frank Horvat (piano)

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ALBUM:
Produced by Frank Horvat
Engineered by Dennis Patterson
Recorded January 2010 at CBC Studios, Toronto, Canada

ABOUT FRANK HORVAT:
“An accomplished multi-genre composer and pianist who has made the tricky musical leap that allows him to pursue a niche of his own” (Edmonton Journal). With a manic drive to create, his discography is continuously growing and his compositions have been premiered on four continents. His works have been performed in a variety of venues and been featured in festivals, plays, film, television networks and radio stations internationally. His music is both aggressive and introspective. The consequence of being born in a world of Gershwin, Glass and Zappa, he’s influenced by the post-modern idea of eclecticism. His compositions have a driving minimalism and a haunting reflection and are most often based on social injustices or the wondrousness of life, love and longing. Frank presently resides in Toronto with his wife/manager, Lisa. Educated at The Royal Conservatory and the University of Toronto, he is an Associate Composer at the Canadian Music Centre and member of the Canadian League of Composers.

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