In 2024, Lainie Fefferman invited a few friends to spend 18 minutes writing little pieces for her to play on her piano, Fenchl (pictured below). The number 18 numerologically encodes the Hebrew word "chai," meaning "life," but the piece I ended up writing was more French than Jewish. It was inspired by a punny realization: "for Lainie" looks a bit like "forlane," a 16th-century dance form. In another case of cultural slippage, the dance is actually from northeastern Italy, but I associate it more with 20th-century French examples by composers like Ravel and Tailleferre, so that's what I decided to pay homage to.

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Download score (pdf)