Hammerstein

Schelle characterizes Hammerstein as "a brief, schizophrenic etude." The work draws it's aesthetic inspiration from the classic challenge etudes of Chopin, but more directly from two specific Beethoven sources, including brief fragments and references to Waldstein and Hammerklavier. The motifs fuse in development and extension of the work's original materials, notwithstanding a miniaturized quote from Rogers and Hammerstein's This Nearly Was Mine, as if a personalized autobiographical touch from each performer.