A brilliant student percussionist/composer, Esteban Ganem, came to me to ask if I had any scores of music for a single percussionist and piano, for his duo with his wife, Viktoria Sarkadi. I couldn't find any. "Hell, I could write you a piece," I said. So I did. I wanted it to be a showpiece for them, so instead of my usual mellow I wrote punchy and loud (it's a relief to diverge from type occasionally). Soon after starting, I ran across the phrase "marvelous accidents" in Alan Watts's book The Way of Zen, and thought it was a perfect title for what I was aspiring to. In general, the piece evolves from hocketing between the percussion and piano to playing in rhythmic unison, and back.

Duration: 8 minutes

Kyle Gann

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