Octavissimo is composed at Mark Robson’s request for his “Debussy project” – a collection of twelve pieces composed by different Los Angeles composers to commemorate Claude Debussy’s anniversary through alluding to one of Debussy’s “12 Études” (L 136, composed in 1915). Given an option, I picked Debussy’s “Étude V” (Pour les octaves), being attracted to intricate hexachordal patterns of quickly alternating sixteen notes, alternating between unisons and octaves, and framed by Romantic (not yet impressionistic) use of octaves in outer sections of this Debussy’s miniature. Apart from an inexact quote from this etude, I also loosely quoted another well-known Debussy composition – his Prelude II for piano from Book I “Voiles…” (1909), which precedes the quote from Pour les octaves. The humorous ending is in a spirit of yet another Debussy’s miniature – “Golliwogg’s Cakewalk” (1906-08) from his suite for piano “Children’s Corner” (L 119).

Octavissimo is composed at Mark Robson’s request for his “Debussy project” – a collection of twelve pieces composed by different Los Angeles composers to commemorate Claude Debussy’s anniversary