Composer Barbara Heller has been challenging the artistic imagination for many years by using a limited amount of musical material in her works. An example of this approach can be seen in her work as early as 1984 in Scarlet Letters (Schott ED 8620), which is an entire cycle based on only 7 tones. In Five Finger Tower, Barbara Heller imposes two restrictions: five fingers–five keys. The pieces use only the black keys and are performed (nearly) without “thumb under”. Moreover, the title Five Finger Tower alludes to the Marriage Tower in Darmstadt, the city where Barbara is based.Barbara Heller’s works often straddle the border between composition and concept. While the pieces of this volume can be studied as recital pieces, they should be used primarily as models for your own experiments and further development. In fact, this volume contains suggestions that are designed to help you achieve this goal. Considered from this perspective, this approach is also an appropriate way to prepare the study of longer pieces such as White Keys, Black Keys (Schott ED 9918), Hidden Stream and others.

The Little Tower - Silence in the Tower - Waltz in the Tower - Trip to the Five-Finger Tower - In Front of the Tower - Climbing the Tower - Walking up the Tower - Blues in the Tower - The Water Reservoir under the Tower - The Angel of the Tower - The Saga of the Tower - The Solemn Tower - Exploring inside the Tower - The Ghost in the Tower - Walking Around the Tower - The Tower at Night - If the Tower Could Sing - The Roof Battlements - View from the Tower over the Countryside - The Tower Ghost - Upstairs-Downstairs - A Race inside the Tower - The Foundations - Echoes - The Tower Construction - Is the Tower Wobbling - Interlude 1, 2, 3 - The High Tower - Two or Four Hands - Interlude 6 - Contrary Motion - Resonances - Interlude 9, 10, 11, 12, 13 - Wandering Intervals - My Interlude