Essay
- Stillness - Tempest
- Command
VCME Program Notes
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"400 owls attempting to outwit a giant badger
in the rain" The phrase "400 owls attempting to outwit a giant badger in the rain" first appeared in an October 1999 story in which I described what it sounded like to shuffle a deck of cards for a game called whiskers six-draw in a saloon in Klegmore, New Mexico at ten past three in the afternoon. But as I began to write this piece, I realized that the card-shuffling sound was only one aspect of a much larger acoustic picture. By the time the tune arrived at the finish line, it had careened through: (a) 14 owl themes [alas, not every owl was represented]; motifs for the (b) rain and (c) badger; plus a handful (d) of thematic (e) variations and (f) ancillary melodic materials. These were some busy critters! Speaking as one who all too soon lost control of the composition, I can say that it is not clear if the owls did outwit the badger. Not that it matters – neither owl nor badger was harmed in the making of this piece, though persistent precipitation did become an issue after a while. If its speed limit and dynamic markings are observed, this and subsequent performances of 400oatoagbitr should likewise leave both animal protagonists and instrumental players undamaged. And, I hope, gratified. Duration: ten minutes on the nose. Landscapes Landscapes was composed during July and August 2004. The inspiration for the piece came from a long summer drive through Nevada, Utah, and Wyoming. Intense, beautiful, barren, remote, dry, peaceful, bizarre - these are all descriptors that came to mind as we crossed the natural landscapes of these western states. In the first section of the piece, I tried to capture the intensity and unpredictable variety of the northern Nevada landscape passing by at 70 miles per hour. Strings use special effects like col legno, glissando, artificial harmonics, alternating arco and pizzicato, while the bass clarinet plays rapid arpeggios up and down based on an exotic scale. The second section captures the beautiful, peaceful, and remote feelings of the Arches region in Utah. The rhythms in the music become slower, and dissonances resolve into open quintal harmonies. The final section tries to capture the barren, dry, and sometimes bizarre landscape in southern Wyoming. Asymetrical rhythmic ostinato figures develop. Special effects return in the strings. The violin and viola play a high, intertwined melodic figure. Things that are seen here are reminiscent of the first and second sections. Poems from Antiquity My clarinet quintet, "Poems from Antiquity" was written six years ago while I was a student at Curtis. It was premiered by an excellent group at the home of a benefactor in Philadelphia who had private concerts in his living room. Everyone was expected to dress in concert attire, and I, fortunately, was invited. Since then, it's been performed at Marlboro, by the Chamber Society of Lincoln Center, and at several festivals in Canada and Europe. Every performance is exciting for me, but I am particularly honored to have one with the VCME--a group dedicated to the playing of contemporary music. The motivating principle of the piece was to base each of the five movements on poetic forms of the 13th century Troubadours, though nothing on the surface sounds particularly medieval until the end. I looked primarily at the rhyme scheme and structure of each form and simply adapted it to the music. The "Sonnet," for instance, uses the Petrach Sonnet model, which divides the fourteen-line poem into eight lines (the "octet") plus six (the "sestina"). The music follows with an eight-part A section and a six part B. The final movement is titled "Rondeau," and like the rondo form that would follow in the classical era, it features a section to which the music continues to return. I also tried to capture a bit of the tone that these poems would take. A "monody" is a type of funeral poem, in this case written for the passing of my grandmother. A "doggerel" is a poem that tends to be on the base and vulgar side. Since the piece was dedicated to my grandmother, I wanted the end of the work to represent both her total solidarity, and the aloneness one feels in loss. The end plays an important role structurally, too. Throughout the work, each instrument has an extended solo passage. The final movement is a summation of that formal device, as every player solos in turn after each reiteration of the Rondeau theme. "Poems from Antiquity" was written for the ensemble
of Michael Rusinek, Soovin Kim, Essay "I have always been extremely reluctant to 'explain'
my own music. I've always had the feeling that too much is written about
music; it seems to me that composers who write extensive notes about
their own pieces don't have sufficient confidence in the music itself."
so writes John McLennan. |
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Why
Patterns? Why Patterns? for flute, glockenspiel and piano consists of a large variety of rhythmic, motivic and pitch patterns. Each instrument is notated separately and does not coordinate until the last minutes of the composition. Feldman had been inspired by the work of visual artists since the 1940's when he was a central figure in the New York avant-garde. Composed in 1978, Why Patterns?, was inspired by the work of Jasper Johns and the patterns in Anatolian rugs. "Lerchenmusik" Every year since 1965 there has been a new music festival
in Lerchenborg Castle near the Danish town of Kalundborg. In 1983 Louise
Lerche-Lerchenborg invited Henryk Górecki to write a piece for
the following summer's festival and be the principal guest composer. Górecki
had not left Poland since the mid seventies. He endured much hardship
during the communist martial law and had serious health problems. He had
not appeared in public since his dismissal as rector of the Katowice conservatory,
having offended the communists for his public avowal of religion by writing
and performing his Beatus Vir in honor of Pope John Paul II's visit to
his home country in 1979. So Luise Lerche was surprised and delighted
when he said he would write a piece and attend the 1984 festival. For
reasons of health he was unable to complete the score in time but a performance
of the incomplete Lerchenmusik was performed by the Fynske Trio on July
28, 1984. The trio was soon completed and first performed in its entirety
at the 1985 Warsaw Autumn Festival. notes by Steven Klimowski |
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Ricercar from Piano Partita Interpreted in its oldest, even literal, sense the term Ricercar aptly describes the final movement of my Piano Partita (2003). It unites two opposing varieties of instrumental composition: one rhapsodic and predominately homophonic and the other polyphonic, exploiting various contrapuntal devices involving imitation and utilizing multiple tempos and thematic transformations. Unlike the 16th and 18th Century prototypes, my Ricercar forms a closing, not a preludial function. (It is preceded by a Toccata, two fugues, a Fantasy and an introspective Interlude.) Still in the spirit of the early "seeking-out" tradition, it is a research piece, exploring manifold possibilities for the variation and regeneration of the initial melodic and harmonic material and, also, incorporating some motifs from other movements of the Partita. Also consistent with early models, it is divided into contrasting sections: three large ones are easily identifiable, and there are numerous, smaller, interpenetrating ones. notes by the composer Seven Poems of Alexander Blok,
Op. 127 1. Ophelia's Song In the 1960's Dimitri Shostakovich (1906-1975) was the
Soviet Union's pre-eminent composer and one of the twentieth century's
leading musical figures. It was not an easy journey. His career was
dogged by the repressive criticism and very real threats of the Stalinist
regime. But Shostakovich remained devoted to his homeland yet uncompromising
in his artistic standards. Perhaps the constant political pressure is
the cause of a brooding introspection that had increasingly come into
his music exemplified by the increasing length and intensity of his
slow movements. Written in his later years, the Seven Poems of Alexander
Blok, reflects this meditative mood in the choice of a group of early
poems by the great symbolist poet Alexander Blok (1880-1921) and in
the solemnity of the settings broken only by the folk-like quality of
the third song and the drama of the fifth. TEMPEST FANTASY 1. Ariel |
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Green Mountain Blue The first thing you hear in Green Mountain Blue is the 3+3+2 rhythm.
This underlying rhythm sets the stage for some atmospheric noodling by
the cello, violin and eventually the guitar. The introduction is brought
to a close by a cello cadenza. notes by the composer Conjuration I wrote this piece on commission for the Vermont Contemporary Music Ensemble,
which in turn inspired the combination of instruments: piano, violin,
cello and clarinet. This mix of instruments brings to mind something just
post-Mozartean, perhaps lush and Brahmsian, although with a flute it could
also play Schoenberg's "Pierrot Lunaire" (with a singer, of
course!). notes by the composer more notes coming soon |