Three Optical Allusions (Preview)

PROMETHEAN EDITIONS 

Stuart Greenbaum 

Three Optical Allusions 

Piano

Stuart Greenbaum 


Piano 

PROMETHEAN EDITIONS 

WELLINGTON

Three Optical Allusions (PE052), by Stuart Greenbaum (2001), for 

Piano 

© Stuart Greenbaum 2001 

First edition © 2024 Promethean Editions Limited 

Series Editor: Ross Hendy 

Editor: Thomas Liggett 

ISBN: 978-1-877218-52-1 (print) 

ISBN: 978-1-77660-052-6 (digital) 

ISMN: 979-0-67452-332-5 

Promethean Editions Limited 

PO Box 10143 

Wellington 

NEW ZEALAND 

https://www.prometheaneditions.com 

No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form or by 

any means without permission in writing from the Publisher.

Stuart Greenbaum (1966) 

Stuart Greenbaum has been working as a professional composer for over 30 years. His output 

is quite varied, comprising over 180 works for the concert and theatre stage. He studied 

composition with Brenton Broadstock and Barry Conyngham and has also taken an interest 

in composers influenced by minimalism. This is evident to some extent in his works which 

reveal a strong inclination towards modally-based chromaticism as found in Late Romantic 

harmony. In the context of pulsing motoric rhythms (the influence of pop and jazz) he 

tends to create music somewhere between the worlds of minimalism, pop and the Romantic 

symphonic tradition. 

Greenbaum’s music has been performed by ABC orchestras throughout Australia, the Oxford 

Philharmonia (United Kingdom), the Pacific Ocean Symphony Orchestra (Vladivostok, 

Russia), The Song Company (Sydney Opera House), Arcadian Singers (United Kingdom) and 

by Spitalfields Market Opera (London, United Kingdom). 

Latest information about the composer may be found at https://www.stuartgreenbaum.com 

Three Optical Allusions (2001) 

In each of these three pieces there is a constant element in the form of a musical fragment 

whose repetition permeates the whole. The effect is the suspension of sound in time, and the 

performer needs patience in playing this music, as one never moves far from home. 

The composer writes: 

These pieces present rhythmic puzzles which allude to corresponding visual illusions. 

Solar Eclipse explores the rhythmic ratio 3:4. The syncopation within this ratio generates 

a vortex of rhythmic gravity within a harmonic structure whose visual counterpart is the 

PE052 – iii

process of a perfect eclipse of the sun. In Time-Lapse Photograph, a simple rising motive in 

the left hand repeats over and over – each time becoming a little longer. Independently, 

the right hand develops a more syncopated, “blurred” melodic line. Once the photograph is 

“coloured in” it fades away (in a similar fashion to Solar Eclipse). A Möbius strip (as drawn 

by M.C. Escher) is a length of paper looped and joined at the ends but with one end turned 

around 180 degrees. This creates an object with only one plane, since the front merges into 

the back and vice versa. The musical “allusion” is based around the opening 5-note cell, 

which loops seamlessly upon itself, expanding and contracting like a Möbius strip. Toward 

the end it modulates pivotally through the flat cycle of keys, launching upwards into 

infinity. 

Three Optical Allusions was originally published in Firestarters 1 (PE068), a volume of five 

new recital pieces for piano aimed at younger players, published by Promethean Editions. 

PE052 – iv

PE052 – 1

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Three Optical Allusions © 2001 Stuart Greenbaum 

This edition © 2024 Promethean Editions Limited PE052 – 2 

ISMN: 979-0-67452-332-5 

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Three Optical Allusions (Preview)

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