Impressionist painter Claude Monet settled in Giverny near Paris in 1890, where he devoted himself to gardening, planting water lilies and willows, and building a Japanese-style bridge. From around 1899 until his later years, he continued to paint approximately 200 works on the theme of "Water Lilies." I composed this piece with the desire to express not only the garden Monet meticulously created and the paintings he continued to produce over many years, but also his inner feelings.

Compositional Structure

Modified ternary form.

• [A] [a1: measures 1-7, a2: measures 8-14]
• [B] [b1: measures 15-22, b2: measures 23-61]
• [A'] measures 62-72

About Tonality

• [A]: C minor → F minor → B-flat minor
• [B]: E-flat minor → G minor → C minor (pentatonic) → Atonal
• [A']: C minor

Performance Points

In this work, sections [A] and [A'] represent Monet's garden, while section [B] expresses the beautiful water lily flowers blooming despite rooting in mud, juxtaposed with people living amidst the difficulties of societal constraints. A contrast in harmonic progression is also created between section [A] (disjunct motion) and section [B] (conjunct motion). Furthermore, the pentatonic scale used in section [B] (C → E-flat → F → G → B-flat) closely resembles the sound of a blues scale; please perform it so that you can feel a beautiful, melancholic sound, like that of a water lily. The sound of open fifths, chromatic progressions, and an atonal world... meticulous expressive power is required to convey the distinct coloristic differences of each. While observing Monet's "Water Lilies" paintings, imagine the era he lived in and the daily life he experienced. It would be my pleasure if you could then layer your own life experiences onto the performance to achieve a profound expression.