Chamber

Traces (in preparation)    fl, cl, bass cl, vln, vla, vlc, pno       SCORE   |   AUDIO
in memoriam Milton Babbitt

Nocturne in E minor ("After Midnight") (2011)    for string quartet       SCORE & PARTS   |   AUDIO (MIDI)
ca. 11:00
dedicated to the memory of Steve Larson (1955-2011)

In late December 2010 I found myself convalescing from a fall and surgery on a rather badly broken wrist. To cheer myself up, I listened to the entire set of the Handel Op. 6 Concerti Grossi as recently recorded (wonderfully!) by the Avison Ensemble. I was particularly moved by Handel's many lovely slow movements which feature contrapuntal voice exchanges and invertible counterpoint. Shortly prior to my accident, I had been studying the recently published Analyzing Jazz: A Schenkerian Approach by the music theorist and jazz pianist Steve Larson (Pendragon Press, 2009). A reworking of Steve's doctoral dissertation, the book is largely devoted to a deep analysis and comparison of five different recorded versions of Thelonius Monk's 'Round Midnight, one of the standard tunes of the jazz repertory. Comparing and contrasting approaches taken to the tune by Monk himself and by Oscar Peterson and Bill Evans, Steve shows us a pathway into experiencing improvised jazz performances as just the sorts of rich, multi-layered musical works that Heinrich Schenker explored in his work.

With an unusually sudden fervor, I was compelled by hidden forces to compose this short (and, equally unusual for me, tonal) single movement for string quartet, drawing for my inspiration from aspects of the Handel concerti and aspects of Monk's tune that Steve exposed in his analyses.

I only knew Steve personally for one brief week at a music theory pedagogy workshop in Amherst, Massachusetts, during the summer of 2007, but before and after that meeting, I have made a fairly thorough study of his writings, and his fine work has radically changed (for the better!) the way in which I approach the teaching of music theory. During that week we also had a few 4-hand jazz piano sessions after hours, and they were a blast! He also generously shared several fine bottles of his favorite wine, pinot noirs of Oregon, which he shipped ahead to himself so that he and a few of us could enjoy, and compare and contrast them before and during a fine sushi meal.

The musical community will miss his fine contributions, and I dedicate this brief work to his memory.

Latticework (2002)    fl, clar/bass clar, vln, vlc, pno, perc       SCORE   |   AUDIO
ca. 15:00


The Piano's Stuck (1995)    for solo piano       SCORE   |   AUDIO
ca. 12:00

Performances:

11.20.1998, Society of Composers, Inc., Region I Conference, Connecticut College, New London, CT
Marilyn Nonken

01.25.2001, Wabash College Visiting Artists Series, Crawfordsville, IN
Marilyn Nonken

03.21.2010, Tippecanoe Chamber Music Society, Lafayette, IN
Miho Sasaki

String Quartet (1992)       SCORE (excerpt)   |   AUDIO
ca. 25:00

Performance:

11.02.1993, WILL-FM 90.9 Second Sunday Concerts, Krannert Art Museum, Champaign, IL
Dorothy Martirano and Christina Buciu, violins; Philip Schalow, viola; Barbara Hedlund, violoncello

Mirrors (1991)    for percussion quartet       PUBLISHER   |   AUDIO
ca. 15:00

Performances:

04.26.1991, Smith Music Hall, University of Illinois, Urbana, IL
Scot Corey, JoAnn McConnell, Jason Johnson, Richard Walker, percussion; Thomas Siwe, conductor

11.05.1993, Midwest Composers Symposium, Clapp Recital Hall, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA
Lee Ferguson, Jerry Carpenter, Tony Oliver, Jake Romig, percussion; David Gomper, conductor

11.1999, Auer Hall, Indiana Univeristy, Bloomington, IN

BACK TO TOP

BACK TO TOP

Orchestral

for the Boston Symphony Orchestra
ca. 25:00

Regions (1997)    3.2.3.2  4.2.3.1   5 perc   hp  pno   strings       SCORE   |   AUDIO
32:00

BACK TO TOP

Vocal

Songs of Parting (in preparation)  baritone, fl, ob/E Hn, cl/bass cl, bsn, 2 vlns, vla, vlc, pno     SCORE   |   AUDIO
in memoriam Paul Martin Zonn

Fragments (1990)    mezzo soprano and piano       SCORE   |   AUDIO
ca. 15:00

Performance:

11.02.1993, WILL-FM 90.9 Second Sunday Concerts, Krannert Art Museum, Champaign, IL
Julianne Cross, soprano; Paul Marquardt, piano

BACK TO TOP

Electroacoustic

Twelve Can Play That Game (1993)    2 channels       AUDIO
for Milton Babbitt on his 77th birthday
ca. 9:30

Presentations:

11.09.1994: 10th Anniversary Concert, The Society for Electro-Acoustic Music in the US, University of Illinois, Urbana, IL

01.31.1995: EMTHREE, Ball State University, Muncie, IN

02.14.1996: University of Texas, Austin, TX

04.16.1998: Society of Composers, Inc., National Conference, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN

Till We Intersect Again (1992)    2 channels       AUDIO
ca. 10:00

Presentations:

11.19.1992: +493 Hear & Now, University of Illinois, Urbana, IL

03.23.1994: The Washington Square Contemporary Music Society, Merkin Concert Hall, New York, NY

BACK TO TOP