Music
Archive
Prism
2014
Commissioned by organist Lynnette Combs, Prism for Pipe Organ, was premiered at the First Baptist Church, Burlington, Vermont in June 2014. The program was in celebration of the sesquicentennial of the inaugural concert of its pipe organ built by E.&G.G. Hook of Boston Opus 342.
For this occasion, Prism was composed with the colors and tonalities of the historic tracker pipe organ and church hymns in mind. As with the colors emitted by a prism, the piece is divided into sections ordered as: violet-indigo (majestic); blue-green (pastoral); yellow (jocose); orange-red (festive).
Lynnette Combs, organist
Whether or Not: Homage to the New England Seasons
A Passacaglia for Wind Ensemble
2007
Whether or Not is inspired by the power, beauty, and variety of the seasons in rural New England. It begins with the splendor of Autumn (Sordaménte, Brillánte), and ends six minutes later, in the lively spirit (Frescaménte) of Summer.
According to the Harvard Dictionary of Music, a passacaglia is a "continuous variation form, principally of the Baroque, whose basso ostinato formulas originally derived from ritornellos to early 17th- century songs" (p. 611, 1986 edition).
In this composition, the passacaglia is introduced as a bass line, played by the euphonium and tuba. As the seasons pass, from Autumn, to Winter, (Teneraménte) and into Spring (Giocosaménte), it moves, in varied form, to other sections of the ensemble.
Some of the impressions I wished to capture are: the brilliance of the fall foliage, the poignancy of the stark winter landscape, the humor of the brief New England spring, and the fun and celebration of village life in the summer. A variety of techniques are used to convey these images.
In Autumn, sixteenth note figures in the woodwinds, utilizing pitches from the passacaglia, contrast with the complete passacaglia played by the brasses as a dotted half-note basso ostinato, as colorful leaves dazzling in the sunshine, contrast with the darkness of the interior forest floor.
To create a sense of the poignancy of the winter season, the instrumentation in Winter is spare and there are quotations from the lovely carol "Lo How a Rose ere Blooming" (Fl. 2, Hn. I).
Spring is the shortest section of the composition, and the 5/8 time signature gives it a playful feeling. This fits, as spring is the season when most New Englanders indeed feel the joke is on them! Here too, there are quotations. The varied rhythms played by the three wood blocks, are transcriptions from field recordings of woodpeckers' activity in the New Hampshire fields and forest.
Summer begins with a flourish, heralding the sounds of a town band as it marches through the village, celebrating the summer holidays, Memorial Day, Independence Day, and the traditional Old Home Day.
In this section, I "tip my hat" to two musical icons of our region, Charles Ives and E.E. Bagley. The quotations are from Bagley's National Emblem march. They emerge from the texture of the passacaglia, evoking imagery of Ives' composition, A Symphony: New England Holiday, his homage to the New England village life.
The composition ends with a coda-like finale (Energicaménte), which repeats the passacaglia, first transposed and then in its original form.
In Memorium
A String Quartet inspired by three Poems by David Patek
2005
Julia Noone, Violin I
Pippa Jarvis, Violin II
Michaela Yule, Viola
Annie Tsao, Violincello
E.E.M.S.
The path narrows as you go,
A last steep ascent through fir
That whisk brushes arms and face.
A stonewall with one removed,
Is doorstep to an upland space,
Where blueberry, fern, and hardhack grow.
And there in tall grasses,
An unscreened, weathered porch,
A still, reclining woman reads.
Her summer cotton dress is white,
The color of her hair,
Swept up and out of way.
A glance over glasses,
And she sets her book of Mann aside,
To call out "Hello, dear boy!"
I climb the last three steps,
From lichen covered granite slab,
And come to rest against the railing.
We drink chilled spring water,
And listen for a distant thrush,
Above the insistent susurrus of insects.
J.F.P.
I remember more of what you did than said, John.
How you cupped your hand
to light a cigarette,
how you spread the ash
on the knee of your overalls.
Was that a lesson of the War?
You were always on the ground,
measuring, cutting, passing up to
us aloft on ladders, roofs and haymows.
Were there heights enough in the Signal Corps?
Your hands that never erred
in a measure or a cut
had a tremor that
smoking would not calm.
Was mustard gas in the War the cause?
Your pride was in steadiness,
to finish well done, not first or last,
not slapped together or fussy slow.
Did that steadiness save you in the War?
And last, your kindness I remember
to the two John's of another war,
who working for you, could not forget
the anguish of those days.
That was you John, and not a lesson of the War.
R.C.S.
Six winters since you left, my friend
Killed by a freckle you never saw nor felt.
A freckle, among your many, that changed its face
And under cover would deceive your faith.
A faith that nature is at bottom good
And may make sense if understood.
You wryly called these tumors "buddies"
That needed chiding like an errant child.
All you asked for was some time
To give to others what you knew
Of them, their history and their town,
To walk in woods so dear to you.
I will think of you now Bob
As the heartwood of a cherry tree.
(It was your favorite wood to work with)
The surface rubbed it glows and warms our wintry days.
Soundtrap
Solo for Percussion
2002
Don Holm, percussion
The goal of this composition is twofold. First, is to explore the different timbres of some of the percussion instruments which have an "indefinite" pitch, and the second is to create a composition where these instruments are perceived as playing "melodic" motives. For this reason, the rhythms evolve slowly and are kept simple. In the final section, the drums return with snares, and gradually accelerate to an improvisational conclusion.
Perceptions
A Trio for Clarinet, Violin, Piano
2002
Jonathan Cohler, Clarinet
Andréa Armijo Fortin, Violin
Heather Gilligan, Piano
Movement I, Lines (Espressivo)
I was intrigued by an article by Jennifer Ouellette in Discover magazine (November 2001) which discussed the paintings of Jackson Pollock in terms of their fractal content. Each fractal is "composed of a single geometric pattern repeated thousands of times at different magnifications, like Russian dolls nested within one another...Artists, architects, writers, and musicians may instinctively appeal to their audiences by mimicking the fractal patterns found in nature." How could I mimic the visual impact of lines, found in the natural world as well as man made, musically? Twentieth Century music has often turned to the older traditions of music, utilizing counterpoint in imitative forms such as the canon and the fugue as well as free imitation. In Lines, I utilize counterpoint and free imitation as well as transposition (change in pitch), diminution (shortened duration of notes), augmentation (increased duration of notes), and retrograde (theme played backwards) to develop and expand the primary and opening theme stated by the violin. There is also the use and development of countermelodies, especially prominent in the last section of the movement. When first conceptualizing this movement, I thought I would compose long lyrical lines. However, the final result was more segmented, with the lines stopping in agitation and then restarting. This probably reflected a summer of compositional frustration in reaction to the "interruptions" inherent in the demands of daily life.
Movement II, Space (Misterioso)
How can a sense of space, more easily understood in visual terms, (e.g. the vistas of a mountain view or the positioning of colors over a wall sized canvas), be conveyed aurally? I conceptualized two ways. First was to consider the space between the pitches of the motivic material. Wanting this movement to contrast with the first, I used triadic material for my motivs. Triads were used sparingly in Lines. The triad exists in four forms: the augmented, major, minor, and diminished. In terms of the "internal" space within the triad, the augmented is the most "open", containing two major third intervals , and the diminished is the most "closed", containing two minor third intervals. Use of these four triads would be one means of conveying a sense of a change in space. The space outside the triad exists on three parameters: horizontal, (narrow/wide); vertical, (high/low) and horizontal on another plane (third dimension) (near/far). Techniques used to "play" with this space are: varied note duration, and the grand pause to create horizontal space, range and register change to create vertical space, and dynamic change, loud and soft, to create space in the third dimension.
The movement begins with the most "open" triad, an augmented triad built on C, played in the left hand of the piano. After the establishment of several motivs, all based on intervals of thirds, a sixteenth note triadic ostinato is introduced by the violin. When joined by the clarinet and then the piano, this "internal space" expands into parallel fourths, fifths, and finally to diminished seventh chords (stacked minor thirds). Increasing in intensity, this 16th note motiv breaks out into "points" of sound, with each instrument playing one pitch of the melody in succession; fragmented, it is "thrown" into space. In the concluding section, triads are now "blocks" of sound, which slowly spread both horizontally in time and vertically in range. The movement ends, as it begins, with a C+ (augmented) triad.
Movement III, Time (Scherzando)
Again, I thought of time in two ways: as musical meters (e.g. 3/4, 4/4) and also as a phrase as in " A good time was had by all." Combining these two threads, the compositional result is whimsical, thus the use of the tempo marking Scherzando, which means playful. Material from the previous movements is included in this movement, bringing the listener full circle to an energetic and climactic close.
Sara, Themes and Variations
Solo for Cello
2001
Catherine Stephen, Cello
This composition was written for Sara Edith Marean on the occasion of her ordination into the ministry. Two spirituals especially meaningful to her are woven together as themes that are varied throughout the piece.
Wind & Ice
A String Trio
2000
Andrew Eng, violin
Russell Wilson, viola
Catherine Stephen, cello
After the study of Béla Bartók's “String Quartets,” I wished to compose a piece of similar intensity, and recalled the experience of a winter ice storm which wreaked havoc on the forest surrounding our home. That night was spent listening in the dark, fearful that the destruction might also include our home. A night of strong winds, buffeting ice laden trees, created a scene which became visible in the brilliant sunlight of the dawn. Giant pines, shorn of their tops and toppled, were covered by a contrasting crystalline coating of ice. After the tumult of the nighttime darkness, it was surreally light and silent. This experience provided the inspiration for this composition. To create a composition of contrasting sections, an AB form, I chose to began with a contrasting "wind", the languid, gentle breeze of a calm summer day. The quotation of MacDowell's “To a Wild Rose” from his Woodland Sketches, evolved as I recognized in the natural harmonics, used to convey the calm of the post storm dawn, this familiar melody from childhood.
The Fabric of Everyday Life
Six Miniatures for Piano
2000-2001
Heather Gilligan, piano
This composition was inspired after hours spent analyzing the serial compositions of the composers Webern, Schoenberg, and Berg. Drawing matrix after matrix, reconstructing the tone rows of their compositions, I was struck with their similarity to the fabric pattern, plaid. If plaid sounded like a 12 tone matrix, what would be the sound of polka dots? Each succeeding miniature was an attempt to recreate, in aural terms, the visual or emotional concept conveyed by the title. This composition is dedicated, with appreciation, to my piano teacher, Deborah Beers, Associate Chair, Piano, Longy School of Music.
Two Songs on Poems by Robert Frost
2000
In the Fall of 1999, Anastasia and I developed an Independent Study around the idea of researching the American Art Song. Joined by Lisa DeSiro, and Tenor, Brent Reno, we performed a recital of songs based on the poetry of Emily Dickinson and Robert Frost, under the guidance of Jane Struss, faculty advisor. These are two of the five songs I composed for the recital, 21/21, Voices of Two Centuries, held at Longy on January 21, 2000.
Now Close the Windows
Now close the windows and hush all the fields;
If the trees must, let them silently toss;
No bird is singing now, and if there is,
Be it my loss.
It will be long ere the marshes resume,
It will be long ere the earliest bird:
So close the windows and not hear the wind,
But see all wind-stirred.
Anastasia Nikolova, Soprano
Andrew Eng, Violin
Russell Wilson, Viola
Catherine Stephan, Cello
Stopping by the Woods
on a Snowy Evening
Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.
My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.
He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound’s the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.
The woods are lovely, dark, and deep.
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.
Brent Reno, Tenor
Lisa DeSiro, Piano
“One cannot erase one’s roots, your acoustic and natural history, which effects you. You need to be true to yourself and hear your natural traits.”