I.


II.


III.


IV.


V.


VI.

Nikki Chooi, violin
Natalie Helm, violoncello

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Commissioned by Music from Angel Fire
Premiered Sept. 4, 2011 by Nikki Chooi, violin, and Natalie Helm, violoncello, Angel Fire Community Center, Angel Fire, NM

My favorite time of day is the late afternoon, when the sun's light turns golden and I often find my mind wandering in daydreams.  I decided to write a serires of miniatures inspired by these thoughts -- a set of small pieces of distinct and contrasting characters.  After finishing one of them, however, I realized that the turbulent nature of what I'd written seemed a little at odds with my original idea, and when the second piece also turned out darker than I'd anticipated, I decided to amend the title to reflect the dual nature of the work.

I. A bold, declamatory movement with extensive canonic writing.
II. A sprightly dance in which the violin and cello trade melodic and accompanimental roles.
III. An introspective movement, full of quiet sadness.
IV. Agitated, the most nightmarish of the set.
V. Begins as a proper, elegant dance.  This mood gradually unravels, leading to an impassioned climax in the cello, and then recedes to a shadow of the initial material.
VI. A wild, folk-inflected finale, full of highly virtuosic writing.

Music Box


The Garden Hedge


Snow on Snow


Russian Dance


Scene after Boccaccio

Madeline Blood, harp

No recording of S'io credesse is currently available.

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Commissioned by the Lyra Society for harpist Madeline Blood
Premiered May 26, 2011 by Madeline Blood, harp, Curtis Institute of Music, Philadelphia, PA

As a child, I was fascinated by the old jukebox in our neighborhood pizza parlor.  Even though I hardly knew any of the songs on its list, I would always beg my parents for a quarter so I could choose one and punch in the corresponding number on the little neon keypad.  It was exciting to think I was choosing the music that everyone in the restaurant would listen to.

The six movements of Salzedo's Jukebox cover a wide variety of musical and dramatic territory.  Some are deliberately simple, others comparatively complex, but each of them occupies only a few short pages, and like the songs in the pizza parlor, each lasts for but a short space of time.  Any or all of them can be played in any order the harpist desires.

In naming this piece, I wanted to pay respect to harpist Carlos Salzedo, whose work in codifying, clarifying, and creating a number of techniques specific to the instrument has profoundly influenced composers for almost a century now.  Each time I work with harpists, I'm impressed by their fearless attitude toward exploring their instrument's unique capabilities, and I'm certain this is due in part to Salzedo's explorations, which made otherwise "extended techniques" into part of a harpist's standard practice.

Elizabeth Fayette, violin

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Commissioned by the Curtis Institute of Music for violinist Elizabeth Fayette
Premiered April 26, 2011 by Elizabeth Fayette, violin, Curtis Institute of Music, Philadelphia, PA

My Caprice was written at the request of Elizabeth Fayette for a solo recital marking her graduation from the Curtis Institute of Music.  During the time we were students there together, Libby had performed a number of my pieces, and it was a joy to write this virtuosic, bravura work for a brilliant musician friend.  Just before the end of the piece, there's a quick nod to a famous violinist-composer, somebody whose writing for the instrument never ceases to amaze this non-string-player.

Edward Schultz, flute
Marc Rovetti, violin
John Koen, violoncello

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Commissioned by Network for New Music (Philadelphia)
Premiered Nov. 21, 2010 by Edward Schultz, flute, Marc Rovetti, violin, John Koen, violoncello, Philadelphia Ethical Society, Philadelphia, PA

Written for a Network for New Music concert entitled “Trade Winds from Tibet,” this work was inspired by listening to recordings of Nepalese court singer Tashi Tsering as made by composer Andrea Clearfield and anthropologist Katey Blumenthal while on a trek to the remote Himalayan region of Lo Monthang in late May, 2010.

Of the many recordings that Andrea sent me, one piece in particular stuck out as my favorite: "Shuktar Ki Gar Lu."  I had been asked to compose a work based in some way upon the Nepalese music, but after repeated listenings, I came to realize that without doing some serious study, I couldn't hope to understand what was truly important or intrinsic to the music, especially as someone coming from outside the culture that had produced it.  When I read the translation of the lyrics, though, I felt an immediate resonance with their message: a kind of vigorous "call to action," balanced by a recognition of the ephemeral nature of all life.

From that point, I simply wrote a brief piece that reflected that feeling, a kind of personal musical response to one of Tashi Tsering’s recordings.  I did choose to cast the piece in ABA form (which is also how the original song was structured), but beyond that, there is very little resemblance between the two pieces.  My work's title comes from the lyrics at the end of the original song's first verse:

    The rays of the sun shine brightly
    The party goers are wearing golden dresses
    Take a round to the right
    Take a round to the left
    Mother's daughters take a round to the right
    And sing and dance with energy
    Boys, dance actively for the brave ladies
    We only have one life,
    As fleeting as the flowers' three months.

Christopher Creviston, alto saxophone
Oren Fader, electric guitar

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Commissioned by the Cavatina Duo (Chicago)
Premiered by Christopher Creviston, alto saxophone, Oren Fader, guitar, Greenwich House Music School, New York, NY

Recorded by Mimi Stillman, flute, Charles Abramovic, piano – Odyssey: 11 American Premieres for Flute and Piano, Innova Recordings, 2011

This work is a free setting of a traditional sevdalinka folk song from the Balkan region.  In creating this instrumental version of a vocal work, I tried to preserve the spirit of the original lyrics, which deal with universal themes of love and loss.  These are the traditional themes of sevdalinka songs, a genre which originated through contact with the Turks, and fuses elements of European, Middle Eastern, and Sephardic music.  The original song's structure was preserved in making this transcription, but I treated the harmony and the melodic line more freely, taking advantage of the extended range and agility of both instruments.

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Commissioned by David and Carol Lui for the handbell choir of St. Odilia Catholic Church, Shoreview, Minnesota
Premiered April 2006 by the St. Odilia Handbell Choir, St. Odilia Catholic Church, Shoreview, MN

Saxophone version

Brian Sacawa, alto saxophone
Michael Djupstrom, piano

Viola version

Milena Pajaro-van de Stadt, viola
Michael Djupstrom, piano

Lee Ettleson Composer’s Award, Composers, Inc., 2007
MTNA-Shepherd Distinguished Composer of the Year, Music Teachers National Association, 2005

Commissioned by the Michigan Music Teachers Association and saxophonists Donald Sinta and Brian Sacawa
Premiered October 16, 2005 by Sacawa and Wenli Zhou, MMTA Annual Conference, Ann Arbor, MI
Viola version premiered May 8, 2011 by Milena Pajaro-van de Stadt, viola, and Michael Djupstrom, piano, Curtis Institute of Music, Philadelphia

Recorded by Jonathan Wintringham, saxophone, Michael Djupstrom, piano – Walimai, Equilibrium, 2010
Recorded by Jeremy Justeson, saxophone, Michael Djupstrom, piano – Pimpin', American Modern Records, 2011

Much of Walimai inhabits the dark, mysterious world that lies concealed beneath the rainforest canopy.  This vast, timeless landscape is also the setting for the powerful short story of the same name found in Isabel Allende’s fascinating collection “Cuentos de Eva Luna.”  Allende’s work first provided the inspiration for this piece, and to some extent, suggested its dramatic and emotional trajectory, which traces a path from clarity and freedom through a terrible loss toward an eventual release from suffering and return to peace.

Allende’s Walimai is one of the Children of the Moon, a tribe of indigenous people who live deep in the forest, just beyond the reach of the outside world – a world with which contact is fleeting and often violent.  In the course of the story, Walimai is responsible for the death of a woman, thus violating the first fundamental law of his people.  As she dies, the woman’s soul enters his body, forcing Walimai to carry with him the tremendous weight of her earthbound spirit and the knowledge of his actions.

For more than a month, the two are bound to one another, and with each day, the woman’s spirit weighs more heavily upon Walimai.  As they move deeper into the forest, talking, singing to each other, sharing their histories and legends, a powerful love develops between them, only increasing Walimai’s suffering; he knows that very soon, he must help her to leave the earth.  Finally, they arrive at the appropriate site, and in the dense, black stillness of the jungle, Walimai begins the ritual fast.

As his strength slowly deteriorates, their spiritual connection weakens, and the woman’s soul begins to break away from his embrace.  Days later, she takes her first steps alone, returning quickly but venturing farther out with each successive attempt.  On the twelfth day of the fast, when the pain of their separation has reached a terrible intensity, Walimai dreams she is flying, soaring high above the forest canopy, and he wakes, his body shaken and nearly weightless.  She is gone.  All around him, the eternal forest waits in silence.

Daria Binkowski, flute
Micah Heilbrunn, clarinet
Stephen Miahky, violin
Elinor Frey, violoncello
Sydney Hodkinson, conductor

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Premiered July 14, 2005 by the Aspen Contemporary Ensemble, conducted by Sydney Hodkinson, Harris Hall, Aspen, CO

This work was inspired by thoughts and images of the Amazonian rainforest.  The incredible profusion of life that exists in even the smallest segment of a rainforest suggested to me a music that was highly energetic and rhythmic from nearly start to finish.  Something inhabits almost every square inch of the rainforest environment, and I’d like to imagine that my piece is a kind of dance music for all of those creatures, for everything that’s alive in the rainforest.

John Holland, violin
Chi-Yuan Chen, viola
Tomoko Fujita, violoncello
Jacob Greenberg, piano

First Prize & Audience Prize, Great Wall International Composition Competition, Chinese Fine Arts Society, 2006
Victor Herbert/ASCAP Young Composer Award, 2005
Morton Gould Young Composer Award, ASCAP, 2004

Commissioned by the Sylvan Quartet
Premiered in May 2003 by the Sylvan Quartet, Ann Arbor, MI

Of the many popular Chinese tales and legends associated with the Great Wall, one of the most beautiful and affecting must be the story of Meng Jiang Nu.  During the reign of Emperor Qin Shi huangdi, many thousands of laborers were conscripted to aid in the construction of the Wall.  When her husband was taken to join the workforce, Meng Jiang was crushed.  She waited anxiously for some word from him, but nothing ever came.  Slowly, the seasons passed; the flowers blossomed, withered and died.  Winter came, and Meng Jiang had still received no news.  And so she set off in search of her husband.

Meng Jiang left her home in Shaanxi province and headed north toward the cold border region where the Great Wall was being built.  All alone, she traveled thousands of miles through the wilderness, crossing river after river and climbing mountain after mountain.  Despite the enormous difficulty, she continued unwaveringly on her journey, led always onward by her sincere love and devotion to her husband.  At last, she arrived at her destination: an enormous, snakelike construction that disappeared into the mountains.  But her initial relief quickly gave way to anxiety, for when Meng Jiang asked every worker she met about her husband’s whereabouts, nobody seemed to know him.  Day after day she persisted, and finally, she heard that he was working not far to the east.  With great excitement, she hurried to meet him.

A tremendous shock awaited Meng Jiang upon her arrival at the worksite, where she learned that only days ago, her husband had died from the backbreaking toil.  Grief-stricken, she let out a terrible cry, one filled with such bitter anguish that the sky turned black and the Great Wall itself shook and then shattered.  Meng Jiang was left with an immense sadness.

News of the event reached the Qin court, and the Emperor himself demanded to see the woman responsible for the destruction.  When he confronted her, he was so struck by her beauty that he ordered her to make a choice: she could remain with him as a lady of his court or be killed upon the spot.  Meng Jiang, ever faithful to her husband, had an idea, and consented to stay upon three conditions: first, that her husband be given a state funeral, second, that all the military officers and officials of the court go into mourning, and finally, that the funeral ceremony itself take place on the shores of the Eastern Sea.  The Emperor, pleased by Meng Jiang’s submission, agreed readily to her wishes.

The funeral was exactly as Meng Jiang had requested it.  Behind a golden coffin followed the Emperor and all his ministers and generals, walking in formal procession to the cliff overlooking the Eastern Sea which Meng Jiang had chosen as the funeral site.  When the ceremony was over, Meng Jiang thanked the Emperor and his court for their presence at the funeral, and, kneeling before the tomb, she prayed, “My husband, wait for me in the other world, so that we may go before the king of that place together.”  Then she rose to her feet and jumped into the foaming sea.

Aglaope was one of the Sirens, creatures from Greek mythology who dwelt on the flowery island of Anthemoessa, where they lured men to their deaths with irresistible music – music so beautiful that passing sailors leapt from their ships or crashed heedlessly into the rocks surrounding the island in a desperate attempt to draw nearer.  It was prophesied that when any ship was able to sail past the island without succumbing to the sweet song, the Sirens would leap into the sea and drown.

Erik Rönmark, soprano saxophone
Jonathan Kammer, alto saxophone
Jacob Chmara, tenor saxophone
A.J. Lockwood, baritone saxophone

Morton Gould Young Composer Award, ASCAP, 2003