DANIEL BROWN : COMPOSER
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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.



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.


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.


Your Ritual Summer (2007) 
for gayageum and cello 
premiere: EWHA University, Seoul, 2008
 


Stevie Smith Songs (2007) 
for soprano and chamber ensemble 
premiere: UCSC, 2007 


Morphogenesis in the Skins of Fish (2007)
for solo piano 
premiere: UCSC, 2007
 

Varnam in Maya Malawa Gauri (2005) 
for veena 
premiere: Brhaddhvani Institute, Chennai, India, June 2005