• 11′
• piano & pre-recorded sounds
• published by Skitter Music Publications

       HyeKyung Lee performing “Essential Torque”.

Essential Torque (1995) was written for the Montague/Mead Piano Plus, a piano and electronics duo based in London, and is frequently featured in their programs. The virtuosic piano part must be exactly synchronized with the prerecorded electronic part for the majority of the work. The sounds found in the prerecorded portion of the composition have been created from samples of various piano sounds and of a metal ruler being struck against the top of a table. Essential Torque received Jury Mention in the 1995 Luigi Russolo International Electronic Music Competition.

REVIEW: San Antonio Express-News, Feb 19,1999
“Essential Torque seamlessly integrated a lyrical, stretched-tonality  piano solo with wildly percussive ratatats on stereo tape”

REVIEW: Society for Composers Incorporated Newsletter, March 6, 1999
“The electronic and the acoustic met tempestuously in the next work, Rob Smith’s Essential Torque.. It is breathtakingly ferocious…  I vividly recall that my reaction was, Wow!”

PURCHASE: Score & mp3 (PDF via e-mail)

PURCHASE: Score & CD (Printed via US-Mail)