Années de Chômage (2012)
for two pianos
(composed by the computer program Mezzo)
Hansel and Handsel (2012)
for chamber ensemble
accompaniment to a marionette show by Niki Ulehla
premiere: PAI, San Francisco, CA
Poème pour un enfant lointain (2011)
for soprano and string quartet
Recorded at the April in Santa Cruz Festival 2011, UCSC Recital Hall, Santa Cruz, CA
Soprano: Carolyne Anne Jordan
Conductor: Nathaniel Berman
Violin I: Roy Malan
Violin II: Rebecca Wishnia
Viola: Morgan O'Shaughnessey
Cello: Vanessa Ruotolo
Notes:
A setting of the poem by Alain Bosquet (1919-1998):
Poème pour un enfant lointain
Tu peux jouer au caillou :
il suffit de ne pas bouger,
très longtemps, très longtemps.
Tu peux jouer à l’hirondelle :
il suffit d’ouvrir les bras
et de sauter très haut, très haut.
Tu peux jouer à l’étoile :
il suffit de fermer l’œil,
puis de le rouvrir,
beaucoup de fois, beaucoup de fois.
Tu peux jouer à la rivière :
il suffit de pleurer,
pas très fort, pas très fort.
Tu peux jouer à l’arbre :
il suffit de porter quelques fleurs
qui sentent bon, qui sentent bon.
Soprano: Carolyne Anne Jordan
Conductor: Nathaniel Berman
Violin I: Roy Malan
Violin II: Rebecca Wishnia
Viola: Morgan O'Shaughnessey
Cello: Vanessa Ruotolo
Notes:
A setting of the poem by Alain Bosquet (1919-1998):
Poème pour un enfant lointain
Tu peux jouer au caillou :
il suffit de ne pas bouger,
très longtemps, très longtemps.
Tu peux jouer à l’hirondelle :
il suffit d’ouvrir les bras
et de sauter très haut, très haut.
Tu peux jouer à l’étoile :
il suffit de fermer l’œil,
puis de le rouvrir,
beaucoup de fois, beaucoup de fois.
Tu peux jouer à la rivière :
il suffit de pleurer,
pas très fort, pas très fort.
Tu peux jouer à l’arbre :
il suffit de porter quelques fleurs
qui sentent bon, qui sentent bon.
The Mullet (2011)
electroacoustic
Made in Max/MSP, this piece applies stochastic distributions to the speed and band-pass filtering of recorded cello noises––similar to techniques used in granular synthesis, but with longer sound objects.
Suzanne au création du monde (2010)
for gayageum, ajaeng, and violin
Thomas Hardy Songs (2010)
settings of poems by Thomas Hardy for soprano, cello, and piano
premiere: El Citio, Antigua, Guatemala
Sisyphe Heureux (2009)
for Symphony Orchestra
If They Fought Like Men (2009)
for soprano, violin, cello, trumpet, gayageum, saengwang
premiere: Namsan Gugakdang, Seoul, August 2009
Statum Perpetuum (2008)
for three percussionists
premiere: UCSC, May 2008
Chamber Concerto (2008)
I. Raagam
II. Taanam
III. Pallavi
Recorded at the University of California at Santa Cruz Recital Hall , January 2008
Conductor: Nicole Paiement
Flute: Tracy Goodwin
Oboe: Ben Opie
Clarinet: Jonathan Russell
Bassoon: Jonathan Stehney
Horn: Lauren Varley
Piano: Keisuke Nakagoshi
Harp: Jieyin Wu
Percussion: Jonathan Goldstein
Violin: Cynthia Mei
Violin: Jubal Fulks
Viola: Charith Premawardhana
Cello: Charles Akert
Contrabass: Stan Poplin
Producer: Paul Nauert
Recording Engineer: William Coutler
Notes:
The Chamber Concerto is a twelve-tone piece. Although a single tone row generates the material for all three movements, it is never explicitly stated until the very end of the piece, and then only briefly. Fragments of the row are used for their harmonic content, which are juxtaposed against each other in changing textures. Most of these textures were generated stochastically, using a version of Iannis Xenakis' ST algorithm.
A Raagam-Taanam-Pallavi is the centerpiece of a South Indian vocal or instrumental concert. The pallavi is the actual song being sung, and it is very short. A performance of a raagam-taanam-pallavi, however, can take hours to perform, due to the slow, improvised development of the pallavi that both precedes and follows it. The raagam is an arhythmic melodic improvisation of the mode in which the piece is written. The taanam is an improvisation on the rhythmic phrases of the piece. Only after these movements have taken place is the actual pallavi sung, and then it is immediately improvised upon. Besides these formal divisions, and the emphasis they place on very slow development of a single musical subject, I did not use any South Indian musical material in this piece.
Conductor: Nicole Paiement
Flute: Tracy Goodwin
Oboe: Ben Opie
Clarinet: Jonathan Russell
Bassoon: Jonathan Stehney
Horn: Lauren Varley
Piano: Keisuke Nakagoshi
Harp: Jieyin Wu
Percussion: Jonathan Goldstein
Violin: Cynthia Mei
Violin: Jubal Fulks
Viola: Charith Premawardhana
Cello: Charles Akert
Contrabass: Stan Poplin
Producer: Paul Nauert
Recording Engineer: William Coutler
Notes:
The Chamber Concerto is a twelve-tone piece. Although a single tone row generates the material for all three movements, it is never explicitly stated until the very end of the piece, and then only briefly. Fragments of the row are used for their harmonic content, which are juxtaposed against each other in changing textures. Most of these textures were generated stochastically, using a version of Iannis Xenakis' ST algorithm.
A Raagam-Taanam-Pallavi is the centerpiece of a South Indian vocal or instrumental concert. The pallavi is the actual song being sung, and it is very short. A performance of a raagam-taanam-pallavi, however, can take hours to perform, due to the slow, improvised development of the pallavi that both precedes and follows it. The raagam is an arhythmic melodic improvisation of the mode in which the piece is written. The taanam is an improvisation on the rhythmic phrases of the piece. Only after these movements have taken place is the actual pallavi sung, and then it is immediately improvised upon. Besides these formal divisions, and the emphasis they place on very slow development of a single musical subject, I did not use any South Indian musical material in this piece.
Sailing to Byzantium
for soprano and chamber ensemble
A setting of the poem by William Butler Yeats (1865 - 1939)
Recorded at the University of California at Santa Cruz Recital Hall, April 2006
Soprano: Patricia McGinnis
Conductor: Nicole Paiement
Flute: Daniela Amodei
Clarinet: Max Shreive-Don
Harp: Elizabeth Meier
Marimba: Camille Chitwood
Violin: Roy Malan
Violin: Emma Heffernan
Viola: Linnea Powell
Cello: Samuel Araya
Contrabass: Roy Malan
Sailing to Byzantium
by William Butler Yeats
That is no country for old men. The young
In one another's arms, birds in the trees
- Those dying generations - at their song,
The salmon-falls, the mackerel-crowded seas,
Fish, flesh, or fowl, commend all summer long
Whatever is begotten, born, and dies.
Caught in that sensual music all neglect
Monuments of unageing intellect.
An aged man is but a paltry thing,
A tattered coat upon a stick, unless
Soul clap its hands and sing, and louder sing
For every tatter in its mortal dress,
Nor is there singing school but studying
Monuments of its own magnificence;
And therefore I have sailed the seas and come
To the holy city of Byzantium.
O sages standing in God's holy fire
As in the gold mosaic of a wall,
Come from the holy fire, perne in a gyre,
And be the singing-masters of my soul.
Consume my heart away; sick with desire
And fastened to a dying animal
It knows not what it is; and gather me
Into the artifice of eternity.
Once out of nature I shall never take
My bodily form from any natural thing,
But such a form as Grecian goldsmiths make
Of hammered gold and gold enamelling
To keep a drowsy Emperor awake;
Or set upon a golden bough to sing
To lords and ladies of Byzantium
Of what is past, or passing, or to come.
Recorded at the University of California at Santa Cruz Recital Hall, April 2006
Soprano: Patricia McGinnis
Conductor: Nicole Paiement
Flute: Daniela Amodei
Clarinet: Max Shreive-Don
Harp: Elizabeth Meier
Marimba: Camille Chitwood
Violin: Roy Malan
Violin: Emma Heffernan
Viola: Linnea Powell
Cello: Samuel Araya
Contrabass: Roy Malan
Sailing to Byzantium
by William Butler Yeats
That is no country for old men. The young
In one another's arms, birds in the trees
- Those dying generations - at their song,
The salmon-falls, the mackerel-crowded seas,
Fish, flesh, or fowl, commend all summer long
Whatever is begotten, born, and dies.
Caught in that sensual music all neglect
Monuments of unageing intellect.
An aged man is but a paltry thing,
A tattered coat upon a stick, unless
Soul clap its hands and sing, and louder sing
For every tatter in its mortal dress,
Nor is there singing school but studying
Monuments of its own magnificence;
And therefore I have sailed the seas and come
To the holy city of Byzantium.
O sages standing in God's holy fire
As in the gold mosaic of a wall,
Come from the holy fire, perne in a gyre,
And be the singing-masters of my soul.
Consume my heart away; sick with desire
And fastened to a dying animal
It knows not what it is; and gather me
Into the artifice of eternity.
Once out of nature I shall never take
My bodily form from any natural thing,
But such a form as Grecian goldsmiths make
Of hammered gold and gold enamelling
To keep a drowsy Emperor awake;
Or set upon a golden bough to sing
To lords and ladies of Byzantium
Of what is past, or passing, or to come.
