ABout the Music
My compositional means is one of distillation and intensification – focusing on what is inside the sound without sacrificing the music’s overall sense of harmonic motion. I try to get to the essence of the musical expression with each piece through both intuition and recognition of what is irreducible in the music – an orientation to the material itself. In each piece my desire is to create one uninterrupted musical continuity, with each successive sound evoking sensations of the same order and of the same purity as the first sound.
I have personally stopped having ideas about what is or is not modern music, because whether the piece is tonal, atonal, modal, electronic, etc.—the same compositional considerations are still present. Musical style deals not only with the expressivity of the composer but of the musical language itself. For myself, composition involves the combination of musical materials through analysis, inspiration or chance - a subtle mixture of freedom and constraint. Compositional technique is the means by which one realizes or shapes the musical material during the various stages of composition. The technique(s) employed for a particular composition is not separate from the material but is an integral part of the material and vice versa.
My goal is to strike a balance between: the horizontal (linear) and vertical (harmonic) dimensions of music; between pitch (that which is measured) and sonority (orchestration); and between structure (the network of relationships) and atmosphere (that place in which the work exists – its sense of place).
LIST OF COMPOSITIONS
* Published by Frog Peak Music, Box 1052, Lebanon, New Hampshire 0376
** Published by American Composers Edition, P.O. Box 1108, New York, NY 10040
Contact the composer with questions regarding both published and unpublished music.
OPERA
The World Is Round (2014), Based on the book by Gertrude Stein, Solo Voices, Narrator, Chorus, and Orchestra (56:00) * Instrumentation, Synopsis & Libretto - National Public Radio Interview Listen
LARGE ENSEMBLE (Choral and Instrumental)
Wave Forms (2024), Solo Violin and Orchestra (5:00)
Sea and Sky (2018), SATB Choir and Orchestra (12:00) * Program Note and Instrumentation - Listen
Flight Calls (2018), Symphonic Wind Ensemble (9:00) * Program Note and Instrumentation - Listen
Inscape: Three Choral Settings from Gerard Manly Hopkins (2007), SATB A Cappella Choir, Three Movements (10:30) * Program Note - Listen
Envoi: Cello Concerto, Cello and Orchestra, Four Movements (2006) * Program Note and Instrumentation - Listen
Come Away (2001), SAB Choir (4:00) * Program Note
Small, Still Voices (1997), Chamber Orchestra, Four Movements (11:00) * Program Note and Instrumentation - Listen
Saint John Turned To See The Sound (1996), SATB Choir and String Orchestra, 1997 (8:00) * - Program Note - Listen,
Chanson Speculaire (1995), SATB A Cappella choir (5:00) * Program Note - Listen
Mirabilia (1993), Symphonic Wind Ensemble (11:00) * Instrumentation and Program Note - Listen
Three Medieval English Songs (1992), SATB Choir and Orchestra, Three Movements (23:00) * - Listen
Saint John Turned To See The Sound (1981) SATB A Cappella choir (6:10) * - Listen, Program Note
Solo and chamber Music
And the Days Are Not Full Enough (2022) , Piano and String Quartet (5:20) Listen (midi)
Blue Guitar, for Harley Gaber (2020), Two Guitars (3:00) Listen
Book of Hours (2019), Solo Piano, Eight Movements (25:00) * Listen
An Unsent Letter (2015) , Solo Piano (4:30) * Listen
Trio Tikkun (2014), Viola, Cello and Piano, Three Movements (13:30) * Program Note
Five Pieces for Viola and Piano (2013), Viola and Piano, Five Movements * (14:00) Program Note - Listen
Constellation Mobile (2012), Solo Piano, Three Movements (10:30) * Program Note - Listen
"Postlude" from Planxty Cage (2012), Solo Piano (2:00) * Program Note - Listen
Envoi: Cello and Piano Arrangement (2012), Four Movements (16:00) *
Tapestry Studies (2011), Solo Piano, Nine Movements (27:30) ** Listen
Three Caribbean Song Games (2009), Double Seconds Steel Pans, Three Movements (7:40) * Listen
Stations II: To Morton Feldman (2007), Two Pianos (11:45) * Program Note - Listen / Two Pianos and Violin, Arrangement (11:45)
Five Songs from Christina Rossetti (2007), Tenor Voice, Clarinet, Cello and Piano, Five Movements (14:25) * Program Note - Listen
Rhapsody (2005), Clarinet and Piano (4:20) * Listen; Violin and Piano (2005) * Listen; Viola and Piano (2007) * Program Note
Gestus II (2004), String Quartet, Three Movements (14:00) * Program Note - Listen
Seeing Those Hours (2003), Alto Saxophone and Piano (11:20) * Program Note - Listen
A Page for Will (2003), Solo Piano (1:49) * Program Note - Listen
Gestus (2001), Solo Cello, Three Movements (10:30) * Program Note - Listen
Speaking Likenesses (2001), Cello and Piano (9:40) * Program Note - Listen
Clockwork Music (2000), Two Pianos (7:00) *
Place (2000), Violin, Clarinet and Piano (7:10) * Listen
Three Motets: Arabesques (1999), Four Clarinets in Bb, Three Movements (16:00)* - Listen
Inflorescence (1997), (16:10) Clarinet and Piano * Program Note - Listen
Planxty Cage (1994), Solo Piano (22:00) * Program Note - Listen
Small, Still Voices (1993), Oboe and String Quartet, Four Movements * (9:20) Program Note - Listen
L'Aura Amara (1991), Soprano Voice, Clarinet and Violin (12:00) * Program Note - Listen
Distant Music (1990), Two Clarinets, Violin, Viola, and Cello (10:00) * Program Note - Listen
Planh: To William Hibbard (1990), Solo Viola (11:00) * Program Note - Listen *
Radical Ears (rev. 1989/2021) ** Two Trumpets, Horn in F, Trombone, Tuba, Piano and Percussion (8:24) ** Listen
Stations: To Morton Feldman (1988), Solo Piano (7:00) * Program Note - Listen
Voices, Harbors.... (1987), Clarinet and Piano (7:00) * Listen
Continuum (1985), Two Pianos (20:00 * Program Note - Listen
Still Life (1984), Two Flutes (14:00) * Program Note - Listen
Exit Music (1983), Violin, Viola and Cello (12:00) * Program Note - Listen
Forms In Change (1982), Soprano and Chamber Ensemble (10:40) * Program Note - Listen
Grid-Work (1980), Clarinet, Bass Clarinet, Violin, Cello and Piano (7:28) * Listen
Violin (1980, revised 1987, 2022), Four Violins (18:00) * Program Note - Listen
Stabile Redux (1978, revised 2021), Clarinet, Guitar, and Vibraphone (6:00) **
Song From Catullus (1977), Solo High Voice (5:00) * Program Note
Piece for Unaccompanied Clarinet (1974, revised 2021), Solo Clarinet (6:00) ** Listen
ELECTROACOUSTIC AND VIDEO
Veil - To James Turrell (2018), Stereo Fixed Media (5:30) Program Note - Listen
Night Sky (2017), Stereo Fixed Media (6:00) Program Note - Listen
Icarus Falling (2015), Stereo Fixed Media (7:00) Program Note - Listen
Radioplay - To Jean Tingueley (2015), Stereo Fixed Media (3:00) Program Note - Listen
4 x 4: Four Videos on Four Painters (Klee, Picasso, Matisse, Chagal), Stereo Fixed Media and Video (11:00)
Program Note - See Video Gallery
Saint John Turned To See the Sound , Music Video (7:00) See Video Gallery
Three Motets: Arabesques (1999), Four prerecorded and overdubbed clarinets (16:00)
Program Note - Listen
A Masque for Dancing (1996), Stereo Fixed Media (45:30), Synopsis & Program Note - Listen - See Video Gallery
....Like Spring (1988), Prerecorded and overdubbed flutes and electronics (12:17), Program Note - Listen
ADDITIONAL PUBLICATIONS
Saint John Turned To See The Sound, SATB a cappella Chorus. Reprinted in Society of Composers, Journal of Music Scores (Volume 60, 2021)
Motet I: Arabesque, four clarinets. Reprinted in “Notations 21: An Anthology of Innovative Notation,” edited by Theresa Sauer, Mark Batty Publisher (2009)
A Page for Will, solo piano. Reprinted in “A Festschrift for Will Ogdon,” Collected and Compiled by János Négyesy and Garrett Bowles, University of California, San Diego Press, 2003
Still Life, two flutes. Reprinted in the Society of Composers, Journal of Music Scores (Volume 21, 1996)
Stations: To Morton Feldman, solo piano. Reprinted in Perspectives of New Music, Volume 27/1 (Winter, 1989)
Song From Catullus, solo high voice. Lingua Press, 1977 (available through Frog Peak Music)