Ethan Gough: ...like the glint of the moon (2026), for solo piano, narrator and sound file

Completed Mar. 13, 2026 Premiered Apr. 10, 2026 by Raquel Wasson and Ethan Gough in D.F. Cook Recital Hall, Memorial University. …like the glint of the moon is a piece for solo piano, electronics and narrator based off of a Louis Wain painting entitled “Poem on Owls.” It is by far one of my most atmospheric and minimalist works, and is completely aleatoric, featuring no barlines or time signatures, but rather estimates of time in seconds. For me, night time is something that finds its beauty in how unsettling it can be, and the imagery that Wain paints of a parliament staring you down, while having pretty stars in the background really accentuated that feeling for me. In addition to the illustration, Wain also wrote a poem that sits below the image, which is what the narrator reads throughout the piece, while the nighttime ambience in the electronics helps settle the atmosphere. My dear friend and mentor, Raquel is a piano performance major, however also a visual artist herself, so when we had talked about me writing a piece for her graduation recital, I immediately knew I wanted to write a piece based off of a work of art. This piece takes many of my influences from not just music, but the arts in general, and with that creates a piece to close your eyes to, and bask in the atmosphere of walking by yourself at night. https://www.ethangough.com/