Yannis Ioannidi's 42 short pieces (1987) aspire, according to the composer, to familiarise musicians and audiences with an atonal idiom, so that it will no longer present any particular difficulties as an expressive medium.

The pieces encourage us to become acquainted with a concise and stark musical thought, characterised by structural clarity and expressive immediacy. They explore the compositional possibilities of distinctive motifs, selected intervals , and juxtapositions in texture and tempo. As the focus is on few and different 'ingredients' for each piece, it makes them easily accessible to pianists, not so much in relation to their technical difficulty, but because they can quickly appropriate the pieces material and mould it by using their own imagination. The clarity of the pieces captivates us and impels us to explore a multitude of interpretative renditions.

In their previous publication edited by Ermis Theodorakis (ed. Athens Music Society), the pieces appeared in order of increasing difficulty, which served a more pedagogic function. After being asked by the composer himself, and following his wish that this be done without his contribution, I suggest here an order which is purely based on musical associations, which also attempts to provide a structure to the entire collection, in case it is played as a whole. Besides, one can always choose the pieces that would fit in a given situation, whatever the order.

In close collaboration, o the contrary, with the composer, there has been an important revision of the use of the pedal (see Editor's Comments), some changes in tempi an metronomic indications, as well as many clarifications on dynamics. I thank him in particular for his trust and comments, which while allowing me a high level of responsibility, simultaneously led me to realise the particularities of the sound of the pieces and an appealing paradox hiding behind the bareness of their writing: often this needs to be rendered in a timber that has its roots in the Viennese tradition from the beginning of the 20th century, with its warm melodic lined played by strings, rich in resonance and harmonics while simultaneously asking for a complementary plasticity in the relationships between the beats of the bar.

I hope, in turn, that the pieces find the place they deserve alongside piano collections that are now classic and with which they share a common purpose: to reveal the beauty that lies beyond the consonances of the tonal system.
Lorenda Ramou

Edited by Lorenda Ramou
Score design: Vassilis Nikolaou
English translation: Chris Herbert Sakellaridis
Publication design: Dimitrios Doulias
Cover painting by Yannis Spyropoulos ''Construction II' (1958)