Ballade.Rauschen from Ballade.Rauschen by Hans Thomalla / Yumi Suehiro

In opposite to the more gestural writing of recent piano music, the instrument in Ballade. Rauschen (2014-15) presents one long and almost uninterrupted line. The narrative aspect of this focus is obvious, as the linearity evokes concepts such as "storyline" or the German Lebenslinie (the course of one's life). This ever-continuing melody does not remain unaffected by outside forces, though, the strongest of which might be quite drastic accelerations and decelerations that are pushing this Lebenslinie into temporal extremes.
Others are the sudden thickening of the melody into hand-or arm­clusters, the gradual changes in loudness, and, referring to the title's Rauschen (noise), a layer of pedaling that transforms the otherwise transparent line into tremendous buildups of resonance – a sonorous violence that seems to wipe out almost all melodic identity whenever it occurs.
Ballade.Rauschen was commissioned by WDR Radio and Wigmore Hall and it is dedicated to Nicolas Hodges.

Hans Thomalla, is a German-American composer living in Chicago. He has written chamber music as well as orchestral works and a particular focus of his activity lies in composing for the stage (“Fremd”, “Kaspar Hauser”, “Dark Spring.”)
Thomalla is Professor of Music Composition at Northwestern University, where he founded and directs the Institute for New Music.

hans-thomalla.com