iPod Shuffler (2009) for solo violin, clarinet, bassoon, trumpet, percussion, violin, cello, and bass duration: 6'
"iPod Shuffler" was composed during the spring of 2009 for the SONAR new music ensemble. It is essentially a short concertino for violin and seven other instruments, as listened through a malfunctioning iPod on shuffle. Any likeness to preexisting music in this composition is purely coincidental and most certainly does not reflect the contents of my iPod.
The video below is of the premiere on May 20, 2009 at the George Peabody Library in Baltimore, MD. Colin Sorgi is the solo violinist and Jacomo Bairos is conducting.
This work was commissioned by the Annual Reviews for their annual convention in the California bay area. It is in three movements, fast-slow-fast, and focuses on creating both brilliant and murky textures between the piano and the two string instruments. I have never seen the Aurora Borealis, but was inspired by seeing countless pictures and videos.
The first movement was written in 2006, and was awarded the Sarasota Music Archive Donald Morrison Memorial Composition Competition award. It opens with the piano depressing a few keys silently, the effect of which is a ghostly resonance that follows each of the figures stated in the first minute of the movement. Through significant portions of the piece, the pianist is instructed to hold down the pedal without letting up, so that all the sound sustains. As the pianist plays more notes, the sound grows and fades organically.
The second movement is very slow and melodic. There are flashes of color and sudden shifts in harmony. At the end, the music fades away into the night.
The third movement is quick and energized. The piano sets the stage with a rapidly repeating ostinato figure, while the violin and cello play a lyrical line that becomes the basis of the rest of the movement. There is a slow, but broad middle section, marked by sweeping figures in the piano and harmonic effects in the strings. The fast music from the beginning returns, but is texturally inverted, with the violin playing an ostinato and the piano singing the melody. The ending is full of grandeur.
Disintegration (2008) for flute, clarinet, guitar (acoustic and electric), violin, and cello duration: 9'
Composed in the spring of 2008, this was written for Michael Kannen's New Chamber Music Seminar. I was assigned to write for the surprisingly balanced ensemble of flute, clarinet, guitar, violin and cello, with the option that I happily took of writing for electric guitar. The piece revolves around the guitar plucking notes and the other four instruments sustaining and shaping them. I use two harmonic ideas – a symmetrical and all-combinatorial hexachord [0,1,4,5,8,9], contrasted with the pentatonic scale taken from the guitar’s open strings. The hexachord can be divided into two distantly related triads, but rarely is there any sense of traditional harmony, as the juxtaposition of the two triads is extremely dissonant. The introductory slow section may be described as expressionist in style, with fragments of melodic lines coming in and out of focus. The central fast section is highly charged and rhythmically unstable. In the final section, I gradually turn the electric guitar’s distortion higher and higher, while the strings grind away and the winds scream at the tops of their ranges.
There have been two performances of Disintegration, both at the Peabody Conservatory. It was premiered in May, 2008, by Ryu Cipris, flute; Greg Marsh, Clarinet; Greg Koenig, Guitars; Leah Greenfield, violin; and Dorotea Racz, cello. In 2009, it placed third in the Peabody composition department Prix d'Ete competition, and was performed on April 16, 2009 by Catherine Ott, flute; Greg Marsh, clarinet; Casey Smith, electric guitar; Kathryn Kilian, violin; and Dorotea Racz, cello. The recording below is of the second performance.
I. Prelude
II. Fugue
III. Homage a Debussy
IV. Scherzo
V. Lontano
VI. Moto Perpetuo
This was the first composition I completed while a student at Peabody. I wrote it for three of my friends who happened to form a nonstandard wind trio (named Fourth Corner) and lacked literature. Each of the movements is compact, and I focus on counterpoint and instrumental color. It was premiered on April 17, 2008.
Divertimento (2007) for five violins (also for brass sextet and brass choir) duration: 4'
My girlfriend, Alex Dee, was assigned to a chamber ensemble consisting of five violins at her university. The only music they could find was violin quartet music and the repertoire was extremely limited, so I decided to pitch in and write this fun work.
The brass choir version of this work was one of seven fanfares that won the Dallas Wind Symphony Brass Fanfares competition in 2008. Publication details are pending.
I wrote this for a couple of friends at USC who were putting on a joint recital in the spring of 2006. Most of the music is based on the harmonic series and I allow much freedom with tempo and rhythm, including some improvisatory sections for the cello.
This composition was written during my sophomore year for the spring jury. It actually started as part of a project for my orchestration class, where I wrote a brief composition for wind quartet. Later, that became the prelude to a double fugue and an elegy. Listen to the fugue, as performed by students at the Sarasota Music Festival:
I. Fanfare
II. Interlude I
III. Flight
IV. Interlude II
V. Barcarolle
VI. Spiderman
I wrote this six-movement suite at the same time I wrote Perpetual Motion for the same friends I wrote the Lullaby (see above). This is one of the last compositions I have written using minimalistic techniques, though I may return to that style in the future. A few of the movements are based on ostinatos, while others are more organic.
This is one of my final works in the minimalistic style. The two violins trade a three-note ostinato and then take turns expanding on it and creating melodies from it. I composed this in the spring of 2005. Perpetual Motion received its premiere by my friends Alex Dee and Hannah Kirsch in August 2005.
During the Sarasota Music Festival in June of 2004, I was inspired by the virtuosity and musicality displayed by the students, especially the wind players. I had never written a piece for any sort of wind ensemble before, so I decided to try my hand at a woodwind quintet. I was still writing somewhat minimalistic music at the time, and the first movement I wrote, “Asphyxiation,” was very pulsing and breathless. Resuscitation focuses on sustained tones and undulating, though static, harmonies.
I was fortunate enough to have Asphyxiation premiered the following summer by students at the Sarasota Music Festival. The publicized premiere took place on a student participant concert on June 11, 2005, with Sandy Hughes, flute; Natasha Merchant, oboe; Benjamin Fox, clarinet; Kyle Wilbert, horn; and Dustin Seay, bassoon. Listen to this performance:
Resuscitation was premiered separately by students at USC in the composition department recital in November of 2005. It received two more performances by the Santa Monica Symphony Wind Quintet in March 2006.
This was my first experimentation in writing somewhat minimalistic music. I utilized ostinatos mainly, and the music is very repetitive. I wrote these three movements between the fall of 2003 and the spring of 2004.
The following summer, during the Sarasota Music Festival, I talked to some of the fabulous students and the first movement of this trio received its premiere on one of the free student participant concerts on June 18, 2004. The recording that I uploaded is of a run-through with the music festival students: Shannon Thomas and Emily Ondracek, violins; and Ted Botsford, bass. Later on, the trio was performed at USC in its entirety. Listen to the third movement:
Lullaby (2003) for flute, violin, cello, and piano duration: 4'
I wrote this in 2003 for some of my friends who had started a community service club for playing music at retirement homes. The unusual combination of instruments reflected what my friends played. We haven’t actually performed this yet, but
we have recorded it:
