Some Current Projects

 

 

I've recently completed a new solo marimba piece for Las Vegas percussionist Alex Stopa, shown above, for his new CD to be recorded in Spring 2009. The new piece, Within Your Private Sky, is scheduled for a performance when Alex is a featured guest artist at the Montana Percussive Arts Society Day of Percussion on April 4, 2009 at Montana State University in Billings. Alex will also include this piece in his upcoming solo CD, to be recorded later this spring. The program notes are included, below:

Program Notes -- Within Your Private Sky

 

The basic idea for Within Your Private Sky began with a chain of coincidences.  I was teaching my freshman theory class about the circle of fifths – that wonderful ancient representation of all the musical keys, scales, and much more, in an arrangement that looks like a clock face (Have you ever wondered why there are 12 numbers on a clock face or why we divide the octave into 12 half-steps?) The students and I were drawing lines back and forth across the circle connecting the pitches in various kinds of chords, scales, etc., observing that each musical pattern creates a distinctive visual pattern.  

 

 

As usually happens, I was drawn into thinking about the relationships between the sound of these musical patterns and the kinds of designs they yield.

  At just that time (the first coincidence), I stumbled across Your Private Sky, a collection of the the writings of Buckminster Fuller, whom I hadn't read in many years. Fuller's amazing sense of rigorous adventure-whimsy drew me in as it always had, and the book also reprinteded many of his amazing freehand two dimensional drawings of three dimensional concepts (even more remarkable now in the age of digital graphics).  I noticed that, like the circle of fifths, many of his drawings also involved bisections of a circle or sphere and that, to me at least, they sometimes bore a resemblance to our classroom drawings of musical patterns within that ancient circle.

 

 

I wondered what sorts of musical elements Fuller's drawings could have served to express, and what those elements might sound like, which reminded me of all the ways in which composers try to represent three-dimensional musical space in notation, and also of the frustration I've felt when trying to sketch some paper and pencil version of the three-dimensional intersections of the hexachords I often use in composing. All those converging ideas had to lead somewhere, I suppose. And the third element in the chain of events was the request by marimba artist Alex Stopa for a new composition for solo marimba for his upcoming solo CD. Suddenly all those ideas had a place to go – into a composition built on those three-dimensional hexachord intersections, drawing on musical patterns that continuously connect all of the twelve points of the circle of fifths, and attempting to project a musical narrative with the spirit of thoughtful adventure that Fuller's writings inspire.

 

 

A new collaboration with The Irrelevants. the duo of Tim Deighton, viola and Carrie Koffman, saxophones, involved revisiting an earlier piece I'd written for them, creating a new final movement, and reconsidering the formal organization of the whole composition. Carrie and Tim premiered the resulting new piece in guest artist recitals at The University of Texas at Tyler and the University of Oklahoma in February, 2009. The new version of Relevant Dialogues will be featured in their new CD (release date in Fall 2009) Dialogue. More details about the CD will be posted soon on the "News and Events" page.

 

 

I am delighted to have been asked to compose a new duo for an upcoming CD by the remarkable ensemble Duo Hevans, the duo of Dutch bass clarinetist Henri Bok and his partner, saxophonist Eleri Ann Evans, shown above performing the opening music at the televised World Press Photo Awards last April, 2007, in Amsterdam. They began with my In a place of deep color, then segued into improvisation with Willem Tanke, the organist at the Oude Kerk, the venue for the ceremony. More details about the composition and the CD as they become available.

Click on this link to hear a brief excerpt from a performance by Ann and Henri:

Excerpt from In a place of deep color

 

 

Another exciting project, currently, is the premiere, by percussionists Tim Jones and Alex Stopa of a new composition for two marimbas at the Adelaide Fringe Festival in two concerts: March 2, 7:30 pm, Madley Space, University of Adelaide, Elder Conservatorium, South Australia and at the the event "Sin City at the Vines" at the Paxton Winery in McClaren Vale, South Australia.

 

 

 

In Beauty, for Symphony Orchestra

 

In spring 2007, I was approached by Taras Krysa, music director of the Henderson Symphony Orchestra, to compose a commissioned piece for the orchestra based, in some way, on the native peoples of the desert southwest. Since moving to Nevada, I had visited the Navajo Nation several times and become quite interested in Navajo art which I found both wonderfully successful as art and equally so as an expression of metaphysics, particularly the concept of Hózhó – an  experience that combines beauty, harmony and the balance of contradictions.  I was not knowledgeable about Navajo music but also was not interested in evoking any particular musical idiom in this composition.  An approach to exploring these ideas, musically, came from remembering the way that composer Morton Feldman often discussed his own music in connection with the visual arts, and, in particular, the antique Turkish rugs he loved and collected. Since weavings of unsurpassed beauty are among the most important artistic products of the Navajo culture, we agreed that this commission would involve my composing a piece in which the formal design and all of the individual musical elements were created in response to features I observed in two particular Navajo rug patterns (two examples shown above).  The composition, In Beauty, (the most common English translation of Hózhó), is in two movements, played without interruption; each movement is primarily concerned with a particular rug, but both movements, and the entire form, explore the ideal of Hózhó, as expressed in Navajo art. Click to read the announcement of the commission and premiere in the League of American Orchestra's newsletter, From the Field.

 

 

Some Recent Projects

 

 

Where Dream Begins

a song cycle for soprano and piano

 

On April 30, 2007, my wife, soprano Christine Seitz, and pianist Jessica Paul gave the world premiere performance of Where Dream Begins, a cycle of six songs with texts by May Sarton, at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Click on this link for the Program Notes for this piece.

For an MP3 live recording of the second song, click on this link:

"Understatement" from Where Dream Begins

 

 

 

Animas (There is a wild river...)

composed for the Penn State University Viola Ensemble

 

As a composer and as a violist, I love the incredible array of individual colors among violas: an ensemble made up entirely of violas produces deeply variegated colors and textures unlike any other string ensemble. And yet, the opportunity for violists to play in such an ensemble occurs all too rarely. So when it does, it's an opportunity for a kind of intense delight, and I wanted to celebrate that spirit of concentrated play. As I began exploring these ideas in sketches, I happened to learn of a wild river, the Animas (Spanish for "you animate"), that runs southward from Silverton, Colorado into New Mexico and is very popular with teams of extreme whitewater rafters. I loved the name, which reminded me, also, of the concept of anima – the unique inner spirit of each person. And I imagined that a trip down this river might have much in common with the kind of experience I wanted to offer this ensemble of violists. And so, Animas (There is a wild river...) composed for the Penn State Viola Ensemble, Tim Deighton director, is written with all of these ideas in mind – the notion of a cooperative adventure, the river itself – with its enveloping asymmetry, unpredictable rhythms, sudden changes of direction and moments of calm beauty, and the powerful inner spirit of each violist who will animate this score.

The world premiere of will be given by the Penn State Viola Ensemble in a "Collegial Concert", presented by the New York Viola Society, at St Paul's and St. Andrew's Church (on the northeast corner of W.86th St and West End Ave), New York City, at 3 pm on Sunday, April 1st, with additional performances at Penn State on April 3 at the Esber Recital Hall, 8:00 p.m., on April 5 at the Eisenhower Chapel, and on April 19, again at Esber recital Hall, in a Music Nova concert at 8:00 p.m., all at Penn State University, State College, Pennsylvania.

For an MP3 live recording from one of the Penn State performances, click on this link:

Animas (There is a wild river...)

 

 

 

 

Three Stories, for alto saxophone and bass clarinet

composed for Duo Hevans

 

Last Spring, I sent a new piece to Duo Hevans, the duo of Dutch bass clarinetist Henri Bok and his partner, saxophonist Eleri Ann Evans. Henri was a featured artist at the 2005 Las Vegas International New Music Festival, where we began discussing this collaboration and I'm very excited about the resulting piece, Three Stories. Their wonderful performance of the world premiere, recently, was stunning and more performances are planned. See "News and Events" for details. Two more pieces are also in the works for these artists. A solo bass clarinet piece, In Now is in progress for a November premiere in Rotterdam and a subsequent recording. And a new work for Duo Hevans, this time for tenor saxophone and bass clarinet is also in the works. More details soon.

 

 

 

Party Mode Mixture, for string quartet

composed for the Bergonzi String Quartet

 

This project began, as so many do, with a series of unexpected events. About two years ago, Ross Harbaugh, cellist of the Bergonzi Quartet, suggested that I compose a piece for the group that employed aleatory -- that would unfold differently in every performance. Finally, I finished such a piece in June, 2006, and the Bergonzi Quartet premiered is at the New Chamber Music concert of the Pine Mountain Music Festival (Houghton, Michigan) on July 15.Party Mode Mixture was performed again one week later (Erin Aldridge and Teresa Campbell, violins, Matt Turner, cello, and I get to play viola) in a Special Marvin Rabin Appreciation Concert on Saturday, July 22, 7:30 pm, Mills Concert Hall, UW-Madison.

Click on this link to hear a brief excerpt:

Excerpt from Party Mode Mixture

 

New Music for the Barossa Quintet

 

I'm also very pleased to be writing a new piece for woodwind quintet for the Chicago-based Barossa Quintet. This project follows beautiful performances last year by the ensemble of my 1994 woodwind quintet Five Witnesses. More details soon.

 

 

To Juggle, for Clarion Synthesis

One project for summer, 2005, is a new piece commissioned by Clarion Synthesis, an innovative duo comprised of clarinetists F. Gerrard Errante and D Gause-Snelson, whose music displays a wide variety of textures generated from an artful combination of clarinets, keyboards and electronics. While the focus of their programming is new music, their concert repertoire highly diverse and eclectic, reflecting the passion both musicians share for recently created music in all its disparate manifestations. This new piece started out as an opportunity to explore the motion of musical energy between two like instruments (much as Tai Chi practitioners manipulate and exchange energy). Meanwhile, I happened to read some essays by Penn Jillete (of Penn and Teller) and his childhood neighbor, Michael Moschen, which led to my studying Moschen's lyrical approach to juggling, which struck me as a kind of physical manifestation of what is imagined during Tai Chi. With that background, the two clarinet piece (with the working title To Juggle), now attempts to explore both the exchange of musical energy and also the rhythms and gestures of juggling. This piece will be premiered in late September at the 2005 International New Music Festival, Las Vegas, Nevada. More details soon.

 

 

 

Relevant Dialogues for "The Irrelevants"

"The Irrelevants" is the duo of saxophonist Carrie Koffman and violist Tim Deighton. Carrie teaches at the Hartt School of Music, at the University of Hartford and Boston University and Tim teaches at Penn State. I've known Carrie for years, admiring her playing in performances at the Pine Mountain Music Festival. At a performance of my music on the 2004 Las Vegas Intervational New Music Festival hosted by the Community College System of Nevada, I was thrilled to find Carrie and Tim in the audience, as they were also performing in the festival. That meeting led to this commission. When Carrie and I again crossed paths at the 2005 Pine Mountain Music Festival, we had a chance to discuss some sketches and possible venues for the premiere, not yet realizing that Carrie and Tim would be returning to Las Vegas for the 2005 New Music Festival. So this project eventually came full circle, with its premiere back here in Las Vegas. Since then, Carrie and Tim have given additional performances of Relevant Dialogues as part of the Pendulum New Music Series at the University of Colorado, and on their recitals at the University of Northern Colorado and the University of Wyoming. They are scheduled to give an additional performance on the Reading Museum Concert Series at the Reading Public Museum in Reading, Pennsylvania, in March 2006. The program notes for the premiere are included, below. For more information about this duo, visit The Irrelevants.

 

Program notes for Relevant Dialogues:

Composed for The Irrelevants, the duo of saxophonist Carrie Koffman and violist Tim Deighton, the title of the composition, Relevant Dialogues," refers to the duo, of course, but also represents two specific formal goals of the composition. "Relevant" is defined as "Having a bearing on or connection with the matter at hand," and I wanted these three movements to be entirely distinct and yet connected with one another in terms of specific pitch/interval motives (explored within tonal and atonal contexts) used in all three. A "dialogue" is "a conversation between two people," and I wanted to explore a kind of musical conversation in which the audience could follow both the introduction of new ideas by one individual as well as the unspoken processing of the listening partner. The two conversationalists exchange these roles, of course, and, sometimes, perform them simultaneously (as in the conversations we all have).

Movement 1 is filled with references to familiar bluegrass fiddle riffs, without the traditional song form of the real thing – a kind of synthetic bluegrass. Movement 2 is the most vocal, introspective and contrapuntal of the three. And movement 3, an homage to avant garde jazz of the 1950's and 60's, follows that tradition in being based on an essentially atonal melody. In this case, a 12-tone row within the opening tune forms the basis for a harmonic progression that unfolds throughout the movement.

 

Element 10, for Synchronix

I'm delighted to have been commissioned by Synchronix , the recently founded new music ensemble of the Community College of Southern Nevada, for a new work to be be premiered at the 2005 International New Music Festival, Las Vegas, Nevada. Synchronix was founded by CCSN faculty members D. Gause-Snelson and Walter Blanton. All of its members are highly talented and eclectic musicians, performing consistently in classical, contemporary classical, jazz, and commercial genres. Their passion for this particular art form, and their deep friendships, are evident in this dynamic ensemble, which has already presented a number of world premieres. Synchronix members include Walter Blanton, Robert Bonora, Christopher Davis, D. Gause-Snelson, and Dr. Richard McGee. The new piece, Element 10, explores the constant, gradual, and astonishingly rapid expansion/development/density experienced by residents of Las Vegas. The title refers to element 10 in the periodic table: Neon.

 

 

Selamiut: The Sky Dwellers

Over the last several months, I've been working on a commission by the UNLV Wind Orchestra, Thomas G. Leslie, director, which will premiere the composition on March 3, 2005, at UNLV's Ham Performing Art's Center and, later this spring, record the piece for their upcoming CD, "Spritual Planet," on the Klavier label. This piece is now available from Cambium Music Publications/Subito Music, publisher. The program notes are included below:

When I was commissioned to compose a piece for the UNLV Wind Orchestra, my first thoughts were of the wonderful richness and variety of color (in every register) that this ensemble possesses and nurtures through its frequent involvement with new works. Perhaps because I composed most of this piece near Lake Superior, where I've had several memorable experiences viewing the Aurora Borealis (or Northern Lights), I began to think of the evolving colors, patterns and textures of the Aurora as a source of ideas for the composition. Soon I began to research the even more breathtaking displays visible to those living further north, especially in the Arctic. As I viewed photos and film, and read accounts by viewers, I began to appreciate the longstanding metaphysical importance of the Aurora to Arctic peoples.

Selamiut [SEE-lah-me-oot] is an Inuktitut word (used by the Inuit) meaning "The Sky Dwellers," and refers to the manifestation of departed souls, experienced amid the stunning beauty of the Aurora Borealis. Many indigenous cultures in the arctic regions of the earth have evolved similar traditions around the Aurora which, like the Inuit concept of Selamiut, join two universal human traits: the need to mourn human loss and the capacity to embrace beauty and find meaning in aesthetic experience. With this in mind, I have tried to create music that evokes the environment of an Aurora display in the contrast and mixture of instrumental colors and textures and the gradual, but irregular, rate of transformation over time. To execute some of these transformations, I've borrowed techniques from the English tradition of Campanology (or "change ringing"). I've also indulged my passion for deriving compositional techniques from visual arts techniques, especially painting (in particular, the pointillism of Georges Seurat) and textile weaving. But these are complexities that are intended to disappear, like the dots in a Seurat painting. My hope is that this music may be approachable by any thoughtful listener, requiring no more technical training than one would need to experience the Northern Lights – only humanity and stillness.

About six weeks into my work on this piece, I happened upon NASA's www.spaceweather.com web site, which routinely chronicles solar events and magnetic field activity as these realate to unusual Aurora activity. One entry struck me as a stunning intersection of traditional and scientific understandings of the Northern Lights and had a great impact on my work as I completed the composition:

"On September 12th (2001) the interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) near Earth turned south for nearly 24 hours. South-pointing IMF's render Earth's magnetosphere vulnerable to solar wind gusts and set the stage for auroras, which high-latitude observers accordingly spotted on September 13th."

For an MP3 audio sample from this piece, click on this link:

Excerpt: Selamiut: The Sky Dwellers.

 

 

 

The Glacier stopped here... for the Middleton High School Orchestra

I really enjoy residencies involving high school age musicians. This year the Middleton, Wisconsin, High School Orchestra, arranged for me to visit at several points in the year so that they and I can go through the process of creating a new composition for premiere in May. I visited them twice, so far: first, in October, to share some of my music with them and work with them on writing their own music. Then, in January, I took some sketches I'd made of music created out of themes and rhythms that some students had contributed to the process. Since then I've completed the commissioned composition, The glacier stopped here... (the title refers to the remarkable geological history of this region of Wisconsin; the last glacier extended right up to the edge of the present-day Middleton School District, creating a unique topology). I've just sent them materials so they can begin to rehearse. Finally, I'll return in May for more rehearsing and conduct the premiere (May 26, in Middleton's beautiful new Performing Arts Center). You can find MIDI demos of this piece (MP3 and WMA formats) on the "For Students and Teachers" page of this web site.

 

 

Georgia All State Orchestra

I am also very grateful to be the guest of the Georgia Music Educators Association at the GMEA All State Festical in March 3-5, 2005. I'll be traveling to Savannah, Georgia, and assisting Dr. Louis Bergoni, conductor of the All State Orchestra, in his preparation of my composition, In the Moment's Light.

 

NEW CHAMBER MUSIC at the

I'm delighted to be returning as coordinator and host for the New Chamber Music program at the Pine Mountain Music Festival in Michigan's beautiful upper peninsula near Lake Superior. This program is collaborative in several ways: professional performers (participating in the festival's symphony, opera or chamber music events) suggest new or recent works that they specifically want to present. Often these works have been commissioned for these performers and, quite often, some of the composers are also able to attend. This has been a very popular event with festival audiences for years, and a joy for all of us presenting it.

For a one minute MP3 audio sample from the 2004 season, click on this link:

Excerpt: Five Witnesses, for woodwind quintet, by Paul Seitz