JAB

FOR SOLO PIANO (2019 - 2021), premiered by BEN SMITH

“One of the most chaotic pieces I’ve ever heard.” Michelle Hromin

“Jab is easily one of the most outstanding new works for solo piano I have heard in the last few years. To channel such an extraordinarily diverse array of musical ideas into a single, tightly constructed statement is impressive; to do so with such wildly inventive and riveting music as this is a staggering achievement. I expect that we will be hearing much, much more from this piece - Jab should enter the repertoire as a calling-card piece for pianists specialising in contemporary music.” Laurence Osborn

"One of the best things I've heard in many years. A work that was both brave and ludic, underpinned by technical mastery and searching imagination. It stayed in the mind long after the concert." Alastair White

"‘Jab’ is a glittering display of virtuosity that is full of surprises at every turn. Tay has written a significant work for solo piano that expresses the state of overload that defines our modern life: there is overwhelming angst, of course, but it is also overflowing with beauty and poignancy." Dr Tonia Ko, Lecturer in Composition at Royal Holloway

Jab is a simultaneous expression of turmoil and joy. It's my life between 2019 and 2021. In this time, I experienced frustration, anger, fear, rejection and loss. At the same time, there was laughter, exhilaration, discovery and rebirth. I constantly questioned what exactly I wanted to deliver: a joke or swear? A punch line or sucker punch?

The six contrasting gestures - a cluster that peels away to reveal diatonic harmonies and then a scale; twinkling two part counterpoints; boisterous wrecking ball spectacles; slow, ornamental, Finnisy-an melodies; Shepard tone textures; and lithe arpeggiations which excite ghostly harmonics - are combined and recombined; pushed through Risset accelerations and decelerations; thrown and muddied.

Jab was commissioned by the Park Lane Group through the RVW Trust. Covid prevented several premiers and so eventually the world premier was given by the incredible Ben Smith at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama on 01/06/22.

Jab is dedicated to Adam Łukawski, a gifted composer and researcher who changed many things about my approach to life, composition and research.