1. Boléro
2. Waltz
3. Tango

For years, I had considered writing a set of three dances, in familiar forms. Though these were intended to be fun to hear (audience-friendly), they were to be far more than "light listening"; these pieces were to be virtuosic, and at times dramatic. (The plan also was for them to sound every bit as difficult to play as they actually were.) After writing several other compositions in 2005 that were more or less spontaneous—in which the idea for a piece led quite quickly to writing it—I decided it was time to write these dances I had been contemplating for years. They were written in the order they are numbered: "Boléro," "Waltz," and "Tango." The three pieces are in sharply contrasting styles, and there really is no direct musical relationship one to another. The "Waltz" provides the necessary middle movement that is somewhat more sedate, and the sequence of key signatures and moods is such that these pieces are effective when played as a set.

A boléro is a passionate dance in compound meter, generally characterized by a rhythmic ostinato (a rhythm pattern that repeats incessantly throughout the piece). In orchestral boléros, the rhythmic ostinato is usually played on a snare drum or other percussion instrument. In one fine piano example by Isaac Albéniz, the ostinato is played on a repeated note in an accompanying voice. So far as I know, this particular boléro is unique in that the ostinato is applied directly to the melody (at least in the A sections). The piece is written in ABCAB form, and the final statement of the B theme features very lively tremolo ornaments in the rippling upper voice (melody being in the tenor range at this point), intentionally in the manner of some of the more exuberant piano dances of Enrique Granados.

The "Waltz" is patterned after the many beloved examples by Johann Strauss Jr., with a slower, dreamy introduction, a series of contrasting waltz themes within the larger piece, some of the later of which are more rapid and impassioned, finally leading to a return of the first waltz theme (A theme) at the end.

The "Tango" is the most intense piece of the set, with "over-the-top" dramatic moments. With or without the other two pieces, this is intended to be an attention-getting finale for a recital.

I played the premère of the set on May 20, 2006, at Culver.

—John Gouwens