Title: Clearing the Clouds from Our Minds, op. 157 (based on a phrase from Marcus Aurelius’s Meditations)
Instrumentation: marimba 1, marimba 2 (2 players), glockenspiel, xylophone, vibraphone
Commissioned by: The Rivers School Conservatory
Dedication: to Sarah Tenney and Marimba Magic
Duration: ca. 3 minutes
First performance: April 7, 2019 The Rivers School 41st annual Seminar for Contemporary Music
Title: Dona Nobis Pacem op. 155
Commissioned by: Word/Song
Instrumentation: string quartet
First performance: April 2018 First Church Boston Choir + string quartet
Date of composition: 2018
Perfomance time: ca. 3 minutes
Title: Sonata Sacre op. 151
Commissioned by: Delores August
Date of composition: 2018
Instrumentation: Baroque flute and harpsichord
Performance time: ca. 10 minutes
First performance: December 2018, Harvard University, Delores August-baroque flute, Robert August-harpsichord
dedication: To Peter Cokinias
date of composition: arranged for clarinet choir based upon the Madrigals, “A Cry Against the Twilight”
instrumentation: cl. in eb, 2 cls. in Bb, bass cl., contralto cl.
performance time: ca. 12
first performance: December 2017 Berklee College of Music
movements:
1. Overture
2. Double Mirror Canon
3. Waltz
4. Adagio
5. Arioso Recitative
6. Finale
dedication: for David Wallace. “Written in memory of the 26 people killed in Newtown, CT. in 2013”
date of composition: 2016
first performance: September 20, 2017 David Wallace-viola, Larry Bell-piano, Berklee College of Music
Title: Second Elegy
Instrumentation: Trumpet in Bb and Piano
Dedication: to Robert Thorpe
First Performance:
Duration: about 4 minutes
Opus number: op. 122
Title: Dazzling Duo
Instrumentation: Tenor Saxophone and Piano
Written for: James Houlik
Date written: 2013
Length: 12′
Premiere performance:
Subsequent performances:
Program notes:
Reviews:
Opus number: op. 112
Title: Serenade No. 4, Walk That Lonesome Valley
Instrumentation: Violin, Clarinet, and Piano
Written for: Zodiac Trio and the Boston New Music Project
Date written: 2011
Length: ten minutes
Premiere performance: February 3, 2012, The Zodiac Trio: Vanessa Mollard, violinist; Kliment Krylovskiy, clarinetist; Riko Higuma, pianist. Lawrence and Alma Berk Hall, Berklee College of Music.
Subsequent performances: August 19, 2012, Zodiac Trio, Cannongate Kirck Edinburgh. Edinburgh Festival. August 20, 2012, Zodiac Trio, City Hall Recital Hall, Candelriggs, Glasgow, Scotland
Program notes: This ten-minute work was written for the Boston New Music Project and the French trio, the Zodiac Trio. The fast- slow-fast three-movement structure is based on the old American folk song “Walk that Lonesome Valley” that was popularized by Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger. The movement titles, Overtures-Invitation-Chase, allude to the romantic subtext of the serenade.
The music, for the most part, is thoroughly chromatic and is based on my own 116-note atonal melody. In the first and last movements, however, this long melody is interrupted by the music of the folk song creating surprising contrasts and comic effects. The writing of all of the parts is virtuosic and demanding to execute.
Reviews:
Opus number: op. 111
Title: Serenade No. 3
Instrumentation: Trumpet, Tenor Saxophone, and Piano
Commissioned: Chris Gekker
Date written: 2010
Length: nine and a half minutes
Premiere Performance: November 18, 2012, Chris Gekker, trumpet, Chris Vadala, saxophone. Joseph & Alma Gildenhorn Recital Hall, University of Maryland School of Music.
Subsequent performances: Fall 2013, Berklee College of Music, David Friend Recital Hall
Program notes: The composition of this piece was suggested to me by friend, trumpeter Chris Gekker. Chris and I recorded Poems for Trumpet and Piano and Four Lyrics for Trumpet and Piano (Albany CD). Chris has most recently been working with saxophonist Chris Vadala and pianist Rita Sloan. His idea was for a piece with a reflective, elegiac, and yet jazzy tone, that would blend well with other pieces he was hoping to record.
Serenade no. 3 is a trio for trumpet in Bb, tenor saxophone, and piano. The movements are: Overture–with up tempo cross-accented phrase rhythms; Interlude–an arioso recitative with cadenza like arabesques in the solo winds supported by a harpsichord like accompaniment; Duet–a song without words much like the slow movement of a trio sonata; Chase–a propulsive four-voice fugue written in a jazzy swinging rhythm with a witty conclusion.
