Dripped in Gold

for Piano

Dripped in Gold is part of an ongoing trend in my work that draws on pop culture and reinterprets it through my own experience and love of the western classical canon. This work began as a response to Arianna Grande’s song Imagine. I was initially drawn to the intimacy of the lyric “Me with no makeup, you in the bathtub, Bubbles and bubbly”. I took the overall shape and rhythm of the melody Arianna sings at this line and at times inserted into the piece, but it is recontextualized within my own harmonic language. Ultimately this piece is a love letter to my amazing partner with its title drawn from the pre-chorus of Imagine “Click, click, click and post, Dripped, dripped, dripped in gold, Quick, quick, quick, let’s go. Kiss me and take off your clothes.” This piece is not meant to resemble the song it is inspired by but is instead an honest and intimate response to the emotions it made me feel and the amazing companion it made me think of.

Premiered September 22, 2019 by Gloria Cheng