Elegy (for William)

After a sweeping run from the depths of the piano, the mood of elegy is unmistakably sombre, powerful, and dreamlike.
The opening chords are stately, strong and forceful; these are accompanied by the three lowest notes on the piano played simultaneously (i.e. "death-knocking") and a distant "music-box" motif played pianissimo under the held chords by use of the pedal. This music-box motif becomes an important feature throughout the work. Elegy also makes much reference to funeral marches, which is a simple stepwise downwardly-moving melody, developed already on the second page in octaves; presented in its entirety in the section marked Grave.
Like Liszt, Salecich demands much virtuosity from the performer. Elegy's rhapsodic form switches between its different motivic material ("music-box" motif, the opening run of the work, opening chords, the funeral march), bringing with it the extremes of emotion associated with the loss of a loved one. In a more reflective mood, Salecich uses moments reminiscent of Scriabin's piano writing, with soft, sweeping accompanying figures highlighted by trills and ornamental filigree.
Elegy has a fast extended coda that uses the the opening run of the work as a fughetta theme that is developed in three parts, accompanied by "death-knocking" and other variants of the "music-box" motif. The fugue material brings the performer to a frenzy, not before a short appearance of the opening chords played fff and, none other than "death-knocking" - taking the soul of the lost one to rest.
This work is also published with Improvisations, a more reflective and fluid composition for solo piano.