*GAUTHIER"S SHADOW*
This piece was inspired by my love of the French Lutenists of the seventeenth century, and by an experience I had late one night while practicing the organ in an empty church many years ago. As I finished playing a work by a particular 17th century composer I feel an affinity for, I became aware that I was not alone - there was the strongest presence of some one nearby listening. Later, as I left the building, I distinctly heard the same music coming from nave.
*HAMBURG BOOGIE - WOOGIE*
This piece was inspired by Telemann's Canonical Sonatas for two flutes and by Fats Waller's "Alligator Crawl."
*KLINGSOR'S LAST SUMMER*
After a short story by Hermann Hesse - "Art is the comtemplation of the world in a state of grace."
*COURTLY DANCES OF BYZANTIUM*
"The organic body sang together;
dialects of the world sprang in Byzantium;
back they rang to sing in Byzantium;
the streets repeat the sound of the Throne."
- Charles Williams, in "The Vision of the Empire."
My Compositions: - a personal note
Over the past twenty - five years or so, my compositional style has evolved and changed directions any number of times, but certain features have remained constant. I cannot underestimate the influence of western plainchant and early polyphony in my work, nor can I fail to mention important role played by the harmonic structures of such early 20th century composers as Debussy, Holst, and Warlock. Over time, these influences have broadened to include the sonic worlds of Ives and Varese, and most recently the legacy of innovative jazz musicians such as John Coltrane, Charles Mingus, Jan Garbarek, and Iver Kleive has become a major source of inspiration for me. After extensive work in twelve-tone and serial music, I have come to a new appreciation and understanding of tonality - not as an imposed set of rules based on older compositional practices, but as a natural hierarchy based on acoustic and psychological principles. The compositional techniques of the Second Viennese School and its descendents provide me with a means of creating larger structures without resorting to mannerist use of historical forms. My most recent work has been concerned with the tensions inherent in the convergence of harmonic, melodic, and rythmical complexities and the organic development of order when seemingly disparate elements are combined. The textures of high woodwinds, low strings, tuned percussion, and the human voice provide me with the raw sonic material for this process to occur, and the possibilities of electronically produced and/or manipulated sounds have provided fresh inspiration.
MY INFLUENCES:
Alban Berg, Carla Bley, John Cage, John Cale, Pierre Cochereau, John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Claude Debussy, Bill Evans, Jan Garbarek, Jean Guillou, Lou Harrison, Gustav Holst, Alan Hovhaness, Herbert Howells, Charles Ives, Keith Jarrett, Iver Kleive, Gyorgy Ligeti, Gustav Mahler, Peter Maxwell Davies, Olivier Messiaen, Charles Mingus, Carl Neilsen, Jocelyn Pook, Henry Purcell, Maurice Ravel, Arnold Schoenberg, Jean Sibelius, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Igor Stravinsky, Toru Takemitsu, Charles Tournemire, Edgard Varese, Anton Webern, Roger Waters, Peter Warlock, Frank Zappa
*FOUR FANFARES*
Fanfare: Hommage a Schoenberg (1999)
Canonic Fanfare (1999-2000)
Fanfare for the New Century (2000)
Fanfare: Ignis Angelorum (2002)
*TWO CANONS *
for two part treble chorus, flute and cello (MIDI version 2001)
No. 1
No. 2
*TWO SHAKESPEARE SONGS*
from incidental music for "As You Like It" 1999
Blow, Blow, Thou Wint'ry Wind
It Was A Lover And His Lass
*CHAMBER SYMPHONY (incomplete)*
Chacony (first movement)
MIDI version used as part of incidental music for Macbeth (2001)
*SPRING JOURNAL (2000)*
a quartet for flute, viola, guitar, and cello
The Prelude is a re - working of the "Canonic Fanfare" listed above.
Part One: Prelude & Siciliano
*WHITHER'S ROCKING HYMN (1978/2000)*
MIDI version of an arrangement for mixed chorus and string orchestra
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