COMPOSER

OPERA    ORCHESTRA    CHAMBER MUSIC     CHORUS    VOICE

ARTISTIC STATEMENT
 

LIST OF WORKS
Click on each title for  sound files, score excerpts, program notes, and complete performance history.
*Sacred and/or liturgical pieces are marked with an asterisk.

The Prioress's Tale (2007-2008) Lbretto by Christopher Hood            75  min.

   Premiere (2008) Directed by Andrew Ryker
   Musica Eclectica Concert Series
   Eastern Nazarene College, Quincy, Mass.

Title TBA (2008)                                                                                       5 min.                                                 

   Premiere:December 2, 2008
   Quincy (Mass.) Symphony Orchestra, Yoichi Udagawa, conductor

Sacred Symphony*  (2000-2001)                                                       25 min.                                                                         
   Premiere (first movement): 2001
   Chamber Orchestra of the Composers Conference at Wellesley
   Efrain Guigui, conductor

Dayspring* (2003) for B-flat clarinet or sax and string orchestra      10 min.                                                             

Protean Slip (1997)                                                                                  6 min.

   Premiere: 1997
   Yale Symphony Orchestra
   Shinik Hahm, conductor

Perichoresis* (2005) for brass quintet                                                      8 min.                                    

    Premiere: 2005
    Triton Brass Quintet
    Boston University Tanglewood Institute 

Strange Energy*  (2004) for flute/picc, bass clarinet, violin, cello         12 min.
                                             percussion, piano, with tape and optional
                                             visuals.

   Premiere: 2005
    Radius Ensemble, Delvyn Case, conductor
    Musica Eclectica Concert Series, Quincy, Mass.

    Premiere: 2005 
    Phillip Stauedlin, Kent O’Doherty, saxophones
    Tufts University Concert Series, Medford, Mass.

Dayspring*(2002) for B-flat clarinet or saxophone and piano                 10 min.                 

    Premiere: 2002
    Joshua Kovach, clarinet, Brian Kovach, piano
    Chamber Music NOW, Inc. Concert, 
    Christ & St. Stephen’s Church, NYC 

    Premiere: 2002
    Marshall Taylor, soprano saxophone, Delvyn Case, piano
    Csehy Summer School of Music Faculty Concert
    Philadelphia Biblical University, Langhorne, Penn.

Cityscape  (2002) for solo bass trombone                                                5 min.                                                                                                                             
    Premiere: 2003
    Douglas Yeo, Guest Artist Recital
    Lexington Christian Academy, Lexington, Mass.

Unresting Sea* (1998) for clarinet, violin, and cello                                 20 min.

    Premiere: 1998
    Bowdoin Summer Music Festival Composers Concert

Getting Ready, O Zion* (2002) cantata for soprano, tenor, and           35  min.
                                                        baritone soloists, SATB choir,
                                                        flute, brass quintet, strings, and organ                 
                                                       Texts from the Holy Bible (KJV) and African-American Spirituals 

    Premiere: 2002
    Lexington Christian Academy Chorale, Triton Brass Quintet, Delvyn Case, conductor, 
    Grace Chapel, Lexington, Mass.

Tenebrae factae sunt *(2000) for unaccompanied SATB choir             5 min.

    Premiere: 2000
    Bryn Mawr Chamber Singers, Jeffrey Brillhart, conductor
    Bryn Mawr Presbyterian Church, Bryn Mawr, Penn.

Psalm 19* (2005) for baritone and piano                                                    8 min.

    Premiere: 2006
    Lawrence Indik, baritone, Elise Auerbach, piano
    College Music Society Northeast Chapter  Meeting,
    Wilkes University, Wilkes, Pennsylvania

brutal arithmetic (2003) for soprano or mezzo-soprano and piano        10 min.
                                            Texts by Christopher Hood

    Premiere: 2003
    Rachael Garcia, soprano, Luis Rodriguez, piano
    Chamber Music NOW, Inc. Concert
    Philadelphia Ethical Society

No Secret Hidden* (1999) for baritone and piano                                      30 min.
                                                Texts from the Holy Bible (RSV) 

    Premiere: 2000
    Lawrence Indik, baritone, Charles Abramovic, piano
    Temple University Faculty Recital Series, Philadelphia

The LORD’s Prayer* (2004) for soprano and organ                                   5 min.

    Premiere: 2004
    Jean Danton, soprano, Lambert Brandesm organ
    Wollaston Church of the Nazarene, Quincy, Mass.
 
 

Before I became a professional educator, when people on the airplane asked me "What's my line?", I'd answer with the sure-fire conversation-stopper "I'm a composer". (Now I cam just say, I'm a professor, then they ask of what, and I say of music, then they say, O, what do you play, then I say, well, I play piano, but that's not my focus, I'm actually a composer".) 

So,  by either route, I find myself occasionally having to answer the question, "What kind of music do you write?" My standard answer to non-musicians has for a long time been "contemporary classical music", which is both oxymoronic and confusing.  So, to the layperson I say "I write music that's played by classical musicians - you know, for orchestra, opera singers, and choirs - but it sounds different from most classical music you've heard: it sounds 'modern'".  This isn't a great answer, I know, perhaps because it passes the buck from me (the guy who works within a musical styles/genre) to the performer (who has been trained within a certain tradition.)  The answer I give to folks who have a general understanding of trends in twentieth-century art, fiction, and poetry, is that my music is "avant-garde classical": again an oxymoron on the surface, but meaningful if one has a general understanding of the tension between classicism and experimentalism in Western cultural forms of the past hundred years. 

(By the way, you know what really gets my dander up?  The use of the term "serious music". As it is generally used and understood, this term excludes people like Charlie Parker, Bob Dylan, Tupac Shakur, Billie Holliday, and Radiohead.  Do you think those folks weren't/aren't serious? And don't even get me started on the term "art music"... )

Of course, if you're a composer or professional musician who has listened to the mp3s on this site, it will be obvious that, by musical definitions, my music is not at all "avant-garde" or even "experimental".  In fact, my music is definitely on the "traditional" side of modern classical music (again an oxymoron).  Though my music is often non-tonal, it is often modal, diatonic, and even tonal.  I rarely experiment with timbre, and I rarely work with electronics.  Most of my music does not feature improvisation; I explore that side of the musical universe with my ensemble The Meltdown Incentive.  I also tend to avoide quintuplets.

If you're a composer or professional musician, the way I would like to answer the question "What kind of music do you write?" is by describing what I like to do in a composition:

             Write melodies
              For me, the most difficult and rewarding task for me compositionally is to write
              a single line that is beautiful, interesting, and compelling all by itself.

              Write counterpoint
              One of the most gratifying experiences of being a composer is listening to
               (and watching) performers communicate with each other using my music. 
              Melodic counterpoint invites this type of "conversation" between and among
              players unlike anything else.  Plus, I love the challenge of writing mutliple 
              melodies that can stand on their own, yet are more beautiful when combined 
              with others.  This is a nice metaphor for the way the world should be, don't you
              think? A group made up of individuals who work together for the good of the
              community (see Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Jesus of Nazareth, and Thomas 
              More for articulate descriptions of this utopian vision.)

              Try to create satisfying, large-scale dramatic forms
              I try to create senses of momentum and tension, and - hopefully - inevitability:
              the feeling that, in retrospect, the tension (generated by the momentum) was 
              released in the exact "right" way at that point in the the piece - that there was
              only one "right" way, and I provided it.

              Trust my ear
              I used to do extensive pre-compositional planning - and I still do, sometimes -
              but, as my ear has gotten "better", I have learned to trust it.  The only mantra
              I'm sure of as a composer is "If it sounds good, it is good."

              Work with text
              I love collaborative work (see The Meltdown Incentive site), and working
              with texts is a way to collaborate with some brilliant artists, many of whom,
              thanks to US copyright law, are probably dead if I'm setting their words.

              Keep my audience in mind
              My audience for each piece varies, of course: am I writing something to be
              used in a church service or a concert?  Will the audience most  likely be other
              composers, or general music lovers?  In general, I try to strike a middle
              ground. I have often said that I try to compose for the "educated non-musician".  If my 
              music can communicate something to my wife, who falls into this category, I
              think  I have struck a nice balance between the "ivory tower" mentality so
              prevalent in contemporary music and the charge of "pandering" - which is, by 
              the way, just a particularly mean way of denigrating those for whom 
              composing is not a way of getting tenure.