for Solo Piano

approximately 6 minutes

Recognition:

2023 Winner, ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composer Awards

Thomas Weaver – Piano

Gardyloo was written Winter 2023, inspired by the mounds of trash I see on the streets of New York City in the summers. The word “gardyloo” originated from Scotland as a warning for pedestrians when slops were about to be thrown from an upstairs window—similar to a yelling of timber—but with trash.

The piece follows the evolution of trash. In the first movement, portraying the phantosmia, or olfactory hallucination, from seeing a pile of trash that seems to emanate an odor, but does not definitively stink, the “con rubato” attempts to capture the lazy heat of a summer day, where all smells are more prevalent than usual. In the second, I present the point of view of a pedestrian hearing a shout of “gardyloo!” from above. In a paranoic angst, pedestrians wander below, yet worry to aim their heads up at the sky with the risk of trash landing straight on their faces. After the trash lands, the third movement shows the festering of the trash stew on the sidewalk. In soaking chords, the overtones fester in the un-ending pedal. Finally, the fourth movement moves to the sloshing of trash and scurrying of rats.