Composers have always written short musical pieces, either for casual use in social gatherings or as easy-to-play pieces for home use. In the 20th century, however, the musical miniature evolved into a highly sophisticated art form—composers such as Anton Webern succeeded in condensing complex emotional processes into a single musical gesture, thereby creating extremely concise music of extraordinary expressive power. A seminar at the Institute of Music explored this tradition, and this concert grew out of it—on the one hand, we’ll hear impressive examples from the music of the past 130 years; on the other, we’ll experience world premieres of miniatures composed by the students themselves.
