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HomeA working index of compositions; some are revised as performances accumulate.
Current major work in progress. This is being written for 2 human players - breath (EWI, Alto and Tenor Saxophone), plucked strings (Electric Guitar, 12-string Guitar, and Classical Guitar, and for fixed media written to a Yoto Player and interpreted by MAX-MSP. Check back regularly for updates.
A finger exercise extrapolated into an entire piece with a tender middle section balancing technicality and emotional interpretation.
The main melody is primarily based around the interval of a second. There is a palpable sense of longing as the melody is traced out in a dissonance at roughly the tempo of a second getting the beat.
Words by Sharon K. McClaine:
“Sand thrashed cyan sea where I was born.
Coast quaked while earth rocked my bones.
Plates slipped, tectonic and tribal.
I yearned for a home.
Fate lured me to this fertile valley.
Foothills like blue-backed whales flanked the ancient, inland sea.
I stream like snowmelt to this alluvial ground.
I am home.”
A combination of the old English word grafan, meaning graven as it relates to engraving but also a derivative of grave, and the Latin imago meaning image or likeness. Thus, this graven image in sound takes its idea in form as emergence of sound, first from silence, and then from itself.
An exploration of both strict and free compositional systems creating a balance in form and structure through the tension of opposites.
Excerpted from To Autumn, by John Keats (1795–1821):
“Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness,
Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;
To bend with apples the moss'd cottage-trees,
And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core;
Who hath not seen thee oft amid thy store?
Sometimes whoever seeks abroad may find
Thee sitting careless on a granary floor,
Thy hair soft-lifted by the winnowing wind;
Where are the songs of spring? Ay, Where are they?
Think not of them, thou hast thy music too,—
Hedge-crickets sing; and now with treble soft
The red-breast whistles from a garden-croft;
And gathering swallows twitter in the sky.”
10 Tarot cards drawn and placed along the sword path of the tree of life. Combining the idea of the tree of life diagram and tarot cards, this piece challenges players with a visual score and four interlocking parts. There are 10 individual movements each representing a tarot card and a particular sefirot or place on the tree of life.
Through-composed two movement piece that brings movement and excitement together along with heart-wrenching melodies.
