Explore the full catalogue of music by Brett Abigaña!
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Recordings are being added and updated frequently. If you need full recordings immediately, please use the link in the description of each piece to visit www.world-projects.com
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Recordings are being added and updated frequently. If you need full recordings immediately, please use the link in the description of each piece to visit www.world-projects.com 〰️
Music For Wind Band
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Grade 3.5, 7.5 min.
Available For Purchase at www.world-projects.net
At First Sight is written for and dedicated to the Winter Park High School Wind Symphony and their conductor, Mr. Michael Clemente. When we first started talking about the piece, the students asked for something lyrical and beautiful, so their musicality would be on full display. We also talked a lot about trust. As I sat down to write, I thought a lot about how trust is created for the first time, and I fixated on the very first trusting experience in our lives: that of a newborn’s trust and love of a parent. The piece opens with a baby’s eyes opening for the first time. Everything is vague and blurry, and while things may make sense, there is no concept of why they make sense. As the piece continues and the baby sees their parent for the first time, an immediate bond is formed, which informs how the child experiences their surroundings and how we, in turn, experience the chords and melodic fragments in the music, and the sounds get clearer and more distinct. On a personal note, a short piccolo solo is a dictation of my daughter’s voice crying for the first time, a sound firmly etched into my brain (she’s 11 now, and would be horribly embarrassed that I wrote this in a program note). The primary melody of the piece is only heard at the end, having informed all of the music so far, so that by the time you hear it for the first time, it’s already somewhat familiar and comforting.
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Grade 5, 6 min.
Available For Purchase at www.world-projects.net
Skippin’ The Groove was written for and is dedicated to the Lexington High School Wind Ensemble and their conductor, Mr. Jared Cassedy. The piece is based on a heavily-syncopated groove which appears in various iterations throughout the piece. That said, I was curious to know if one could write a piece that had no beginning. (As I told the students in the ensemble, sometimes the best way to start a new piece is to ask a ridiculous question!) The title refers to this conceit, in that the piece is developed in a way as to suggest an old vinyl record being played on a badly weighted turntable, such that the needle keeps skipping around the piece. As such, the piece actually begins with the middle, the tune already in the middle of its development, and resets several times, always with a tell-tale click as the needle skips out of the groove. In this haphazardly developed work, you encounter several different variations on the main motive, including a vaguely Glen Miller-esque presentation in the saxophones, Grainger-like variations in the clarinets, and even bluegrass-inspired dobro slides in the brass. In the end, I’m not sure if I was successful in writing a piece with no beginning, but I hope you agree that it’s fun to hear where the errant needle lands next.
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Grade 4, 9.5 min.
Available For Purchase at www.world-projects.net
One Voice was commissioned for and is dedicated to the Mountain View High School Chorus, Band, and Orchestra. The piece is written as a reflection of the MVHS Music Department's motto: Every Voice Counts. Students were asked to write a single line of text (prose, poetry, or even just a collection of words) that said what the motto meant to them. Having received almost 100 submissions, I settled on the following lines: One voice speaks a word,
A thought, proof of humanity
And breaks the silence,
And shakes the world,
And nothing is unheard.
Alone we cannot fy.
As one we rise.
(All are wanted, all are loved.)
The piece begins with a single a cappella voice, answered offstage. As the piece grows and reaches a zenith with the entire ensemble, the audience is invited to sing the music printed in your program, on the conductor's cue, fading into the distance at the end. The final words of the text can be sung in two ways: "All are wanted, all are loved." or " I am wanted, I am loved, " to be decided by the individual vocalist. Given the pandemic and the overall world situation at the moment, I thought it appropriate to offer the opportunity for individuals to sing from their own private perspective as well. I hope for anyone needing to sing or hear those words that this piece may bring some comfort and solace, even if only temporarily.
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Grade 4, 7 min.
Available For Purchase at www.world-projects.net
Through the Kármán Line: Black Above, Blue Below was written about COL. Guion Bluford, the first African American in space. The Kármán Line is the line dividing Earth’s atmosphere from space. It begins with the sound heard inside an astronaut’s helmet (I actually went and found a recording!), and as the counterpoint gets gradually more complicated, including quotes of Copland’s Fanfare for the Common Man, you cross the line and look up, seeing the International Space Station for the first time at letter C. After that, the melodies come back, but are changed, as you look down and see the Earth in all of its deeply flawed glory. The piece is also written so that it can be played exactly backwards, so you leave the ISS and re-enter the atmosphere, returning the grind down below.
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Grade 4.5, 5.5 min.
Available For Purchase at www.world-projects.net
Locrian Riffs was commissioned by the United State Air Force Band of the Golden West, and is an homage to the women collectively known as “Rosie the Riveter.” The piece is, as the title suggests, primarily in the Locrian mode, but draws on bebop lines and riffs in all parts to create a driving aggregate sound which is meant to be a factory coming to life. The factory breaks down twice (hence the trombone sirens), but manages to push through to the end. The piece also draws heavily on palindromic forms.
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Grade 4.5, 11.5 min.
Available For Purchase at www.world-projects.net
The longer you write for wind band, the more likely you are to write a suite of folk songs. It was time.
Folk Song Suite was commissioned by the United States Naval Forces Europe Band, and was premiered in Naples, Italy. Each of the three movements draws upon a different folk song style, specifically from Tuva, Andalucia, and Appalachia.
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Grade 3.5, 8 min.
Available For Purchase at www.world-projects.net
Still, There was commissioned by the United States Navy Pacific Fleet Band to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the Attack on Pearl Harbor. It was premiered in Honolulu on the morning of December 7th, 2016 (the exact anniversary of the attack). The piece has exactly 3581 notes in it, one for each person killed or injured in the attack, and each of the members of the Unit 22 band (the Navy band stationed on the USS Arizona on the morning of the attack, all of whom perished) have their names spelled out musically.
The title refers to the overwhelming feeling of stillness permeating the USS Arizona Memorial in Pearl Harbor. In addition, the title (without its comma) is a reminder that over 900 souls are forever entombed in the Arizona.
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Grade 3.5, 8 min.
Available For Purchase at www.world-projects.net
And Yet, the Sun Rises was commissioned by the Cathedral City High School Symphony Band. When I spoke to Matt Howe (CCHS Conductor) about the piece he wanted, he immediately suggested a kind of hymn of thanks. Among other things, the piece offers thanks for health, love, happiness, and peace, in a world so often lacking in all four. There is also an unseen pun in the title, as the word “sun” could easily be replaced by “son”. As such, the title also refers to the fact that whatever older generations do, undo, or, increasingly, DON’T do, the younger generation will rise to take its place, thereby righting some of the wrongs they see in the world. In a society paralyzed by fear, hatred, and inaction, I’m given hope by what my own students and indeed their entire generation have and will continue to accomplish for the betterment of the world, despite the obstacles placed in their way. May they continue to rise and use their voice to find the glory which has proven so elusive to those that came before.
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Grade 4.5, 6 min.
Available For Purchase at www.world-projects.net
Southern Cross at Bondi is a short concert piece for trumpet solo and wind band. A couple summers ago, I was fortunate enough to be in Sydney for the Australian International Music Festival, as a clinician and composer. While there, I was treated to a fantastic dinner by my two good friends Lindsay Frost and Simone Katz who, after the meal, offered to take me on a late-night tour of the surrounding area. We drove for hours, talking about the city, pointing out the sights, and otherwise just enjoying each other’s company. Along the way, at about 11pm, we ended up at a deserted Bondi Beach. I got out of the car and walked out on the pier a little, admiring the view and enjoying the peace and quiet — being in July, and at night, nobody was out on the beach! I asked Lindsay, and he kindly pointed out the Southern Cross constellation in the night sky, and I remember staring at it for a good long while. Since I’m from the northern hemisphere, and the total opposite end of the globe from Sydney, it’s not something I had ever seen, and I found it absolutely beautiful. We eventually got back in the car and continued our tour, but that moment has stuck in my mind since then, and that has provided the inspiration for your piece. The vibraphone melody uses the notes I heard that night out of a seabird, and the trumpet begins with the notes of a boat whistle. You can also hear magpies, waves, butcherbirds, and other watercraft. As it was quite dark, I couldn’t see much, although I was very conscious of the opera house being “just over there,” and the Southern Cross smiling down on us from above. So to sum it up, the piece is kind of a postcard from me here in Boston to what quickly became one of my favorite cities in the world.
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Grade 5.5, 3.5 min.
Available For Purchase at www.world-projects.net
Devil’s Drive was written in 2017 for the Alabama Winds and their conductor Randall Coleman. The piece opens with a shattering note in the horns, setting the stage for the breakneck reel that follows, while the sounds of steel guitars, banjos, and mandolins infuse the texture and lend a bluegrass feel to the piece. Solos are passed around the ensemble, and as the title suggests, the groove never looses momentum or energy. A final ecstatic statement of the reel is imbued with polyrhythmic counterpoint in the brass and winds as the piece races towards a breathless finish. Meant originally as a concert opener, Devil’s Drive can also work as a closer or encore.
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Grade 4, 5 min.
Available For Purchase at www.world-projects.net
Vox Populi was commissioned by Stadtmusik Stockach, and is one of a series of pieces of mine dealing with recent world events. Needless to say, there’s a lot of anger and frustration in the world right now and, like many other composers, I wanted to give that a musical voice. The piece begins with a frantic, aggressive fanfare before progressing into a dissonant set of variations. The music comes together on a single pitch, almost like a scream, before abruptly dissolving into an odd, ethereal sound-scape wherein fragments of different anthems can be heard, each representative of a group of people which has felt targeted. Slowly, the dissonance creeps back in before erupting into the original texture, but with more dissonance and aggression. The anthems come together in a triumphant response, and the piece ends with those anthems evolving into a single defiant pitch.
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Grade 4, 30 min.
Available For Purchase at www.world-projects.net
Miserere was written for the California State University Stanislaus Wind Ensemble and Choirs under the direction of Stuart Sims and Daniel Afonso. It is for band, chorus, and narrator. The chorus’ music is based on Gregorio Allegri's sublime setting of the miserere psalm, and the narration is Walt Whitman's disturbing poem The Wound Dresser, which is a graphic depiction of his time as a nurse in a civil war hospital. The instrumental music takes these two very different elements and forces them to coexist in an emotionally gripping 30-minute indictment of war, hatred, and violence. Despite the violent body of the work, it ends with a peaceful, elegiac Dona Nobis Pacem.
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Grade 5, 20 min.
Available For Purchase at www.world-projects.net
Symphony no. 3 – The Rose was written for the Australian International Music Festival in 2016. It was also a birthday present for my wife, Nadine. The piece is for wind band, chorus, and organ, and its four movements present different aspects of love as described by four poems of W. B. Yeats. The first movement, To an Isle in the Water, explores a folk-like melody that always returns to a single note while an alto saxophone solo floats around the chorus. The second movement, The Lake Isle of Innisfree, is a scherzo, busily evoking the frantic energy of everyday life. The third movement shows a more maternal love with A Cradle Song. The fourth movement is When You Are Old and offers a vision of everlasting and maturing love, culminating in a slow, Mahlerian finale.
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Grade 4, 5 min.
Available For Purchase at www.world-projects.net
Somethin' More to Say was written for the Seri Puteri Symphonic Band in 2016. The piece utilizes funk rhythms and riffs, things the musicians in the band wanted to explore more deeply. Given the rhythmic drive and light aesthetic, this piece works well as either a concert opener or a closer. The title is based on a line from Stevie Wonder's Superstition.
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Grade 3.5, 5 min.
Available For Purchase at www.world-projects.net
In a Spacious Place was commissioned by the De La Salle Santiago Zobel School Wind Ensemble. At the time of its composition, a number of world events prompted in me an ardent desire for escape, and this piece gave me that opportunity. A simple, vaguely pastoral melody flows throughout the piece, slowly growing in intensity to a triumphant climax before settling back into a calm, soothing ending. I hope the piece inspires in the listener a sense of calm tranquility and ample room to breathe.
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Grade 4, 5 min.
Available For Purchase at www.world-projects.net
Water, Blooming was written for and premiered by the Epping Boys and Cheltenham Girls High Schools Wind Ensemble under Mr. Lindsay Frost at the Pacific Basin International Music Festival in Honolulu. It is a grade 4 and is approximately 5 minutes long. The piece is vaguely programmatic, tracing the journey of a single drop of oil as it is released from its origins deep within the wreck of the USS Arizona and makes its way upwards to the blinding sunlight of Pearl Harbor. There’s a sense of yearning in the melodic content of the piece, as if searching for something it can’t quite find, nor name. As the oil triumphantly spreads on the surface of the water, there is a final glance back to the darkness below, as ghostly fragments of the US Navy Hymn are heard from an off-stage vibraphone while new oil droplets form and are released.
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Grade 4, 5 min.
Available For Purchase at www.world-projects.net
Lux Contrapunctum was commissioned by the Cathedral City Symphony Band. The piece attempts to depict the sound of starlight, as if the listener was riding that light through time and space towards a distant cathedral. Inside the cathedral, a Baroque organ can faintly be heard playing Contrapunctus V from Bach's Art of the Fugue. The starlight gradually carries the listener closer, until finally, with a bowed cymbal, it streams through the rose window, combining with the Bach into its fully developed form. The solos heard in the latter half of the piece literally spell the names of the individual musicians who played them at the premiere, and the first large arrival of the piece is with a dotted rhythm that spells “Cathedral City” over B-A-C-H in the baseline, finally uniting the two entities. Overall, the piece moves from the general to the specific, culminating on a single, intense pitch.
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Grade 4, 8 min.
Available For Purchase at www.world-projects.net
The Masque of the Red Death was written for the Woodland High School Wind Ensemble, and was premiered in Carnegie Hall in 2010. The work is approximately 8 minutes long and is for band and recorded electronics. The piece is based on the famous story of the same name by Edgar Allen Poe, in which a masquerade ball is repeatedly interrupted by ominous bells which lead to the appearance of an apparition dressed as the Red Death, a fatal epidemic which has ravaged the countryside. The piece presents as a slightly misguided waltz which can never really reach its zenith and is constantly interrupted by strange and disturbing sounds. The electronics in this piece are sampled from various sounds and words recorded by the ensemble for whom the work was written, and subsequently manipulated, affected, and distorted by the composer.
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Grade 6, 20 min.
Available For Purchase at www.world-projects.net
This piece is based on Dante’s epic poem La Commedia, with each of the three movements corresponding to one canticle; as such, a basic knowledge of Dante’s work will no doubt prove most useful in approaching this piece. Rather than invent my own vision of hell, purgatory, and paradise, this piece attempts to musically represent Dante’s vision in three separate ways. The first movement directly represents, or in some cases commits, the sins associated with each of the nine levels of hell. The second movement is meant to be the hymn sung by the faithful as they travel up the mountain towards redemption. The third movement is a musical depiction of the journey through paradise, culminating in meeting the divine. The composers’ names in the score and parts towards the end of the movement correspond to the latter part of Dante’s journey, when he sees the saints on either side of him: I thought it appropriate to imagine which compositional saints I might see, if I were in Dante’s shoes.
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Grade 6, 20 min.
Available For Purchase at www.world-projects.net
In today's society, there seems to be a lot of discussion about what makes us all different. Whether it be our beliefs, actions, appearance, or any number of other things, I think it too easy to separate us all into groups, thus fostering the possibility of conflict between those groups. It seems nobody wants to concentrate on what makes us similar, and while the work isn't programmatic, that is the focus of this piece. Each movement represents something common to all humanity, no matter where you're from, what you believe, or how you act, and I believe it's those similarities that define humanity: not our differences.
So to that end, the first movement is about birth and love. Everyone experiences those two things at some point in their lives, and while their definitions are open to a myriad of interpretations, we all have them in common.
The second movement is about human folly, or perhaps some type of loss of innocence. In short, we all do things we regret, and at some point in our lives, some aspect of our innocence (which again can be defined in many ways) is destroyed, which is why that particular movement involves the most frustratingly naïve melody I could invent, and ways in which it can be taken apart and destroyed (hence the title).
The third movement is about belief and happiness. We all believe in something, whether that be spiritual, temporal, humanistic, material, idealistic, or any other categorization. The pursuit of that belief is how we spend the time we have here, and much like the movement which never really finds its tonic, it's not necessarily the fulfillment of that belief that makes us who we are: sometimes it's just the continued pursuit of it.
Lastly, the final movement is about the betterment of ourselves, and perhaps of humanity. The fact is, humanity has no definition outside of what we make it. The good and the bad must necessarily be included in the definition. But hopefully at the end of our lives, we can look back on our time here and, having hopefully contributed something to the betterment of humanity, whisper a grateful “Alleluia.”
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Grade 6, 20 min.
Available For Purchase at www.world-projects.net
Sketches on Paintings no. 2 is the second of a series of works based on works of visual art. The first movement, Claude Monet – Water Lilies is an exploration of sonorities throughout the ensemble reminiscent of the famous triptych first viewed by the composer at the Museeì Marmottan Monet in Paris, France. Edgar Degas – L’Eìtoile is a whimsical, dream-like waltz to which the ghostly ballerinas in the painting may be dancing. Jackson Pollock – Lavender Mist is a quasi-minimalist piece written specifically to follow the erratic yet graceful movement of the painter as he created his works, as seen in numerous videos of his process. Joseph Turner – Norham Castle: Sunrise is a seemingly un-moving contrapuntal fantasy on a simple tapestry of chords meant to evoke the suspension of time and misty lack of clear definition in the painting.
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Grade 5, 3 min.
Available For Purchase at www.world-projects.net
Petite Overture was completed in 2009 at the request of the Logan High School Wind Symphony under Mr. Ramiro Barrera. It was originally composed as the fourth movement of my 1st string quartet, Une Grande Messe in which each of the five movements conforms to the words of the Mass Ordinary: Kyrie Eleison, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus, and Agnus Dei, respectively. The opening words to this movement, “Sanctus, Sanctus, Sanctus, Dominus Deus Sabaoth” are implied by the first few measures of the piccolo, flute, and 1st clarinet. The words of the rest of the hymn inform the rest of the movement.
In addition the verbal implications, there is a strong harmonic scheme at work in this piece. The piece opens with a Major triad with another fifth added below the root. This is reminiscent of organum, but is also a reference to Aaron Copland who used this sonority often in his ballets and symphonies. As the work progresses, less emphasis is put on the fifth and more is put on the interval of a third, which often guides modulation, melodic invention, and in some cases, rhythmic deletion. In this way, the fifth determines tonality, while the third influences and determines harmonic motion, turning the traditional tonal system around.
In 2009, after its premiere at the WASBE Conference in Cincinnati, British conductor and wind band authority Timothy Reynish named it one of the best pieces for wind band of the year, and subsequently named Brett Abigaña as one of the world’s top 11 composers for wind band.
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Grade 4.5, 6 min.
Available For Purchase at www.world-projects.net
Daylight Passing, in short, is about fathers and their children. This is a topic very near to me, as we were expecting our first child when this piece was written. Upon receiving the happy news, I was immediately struck by the many thoughts and worries of impending fatherhood, and I remembered certain distinct childhood memories which, while insignificant at the time, seem now to hold new importance. The first memory that came to me was of standing next to the railroad tracks in Dixon, CA with a penny, waiting for the steam locomotive Southern Pacific 4449, The Daylight, to come thundering by on its way back to its home in Portland, OR. I remember the excitement as I was standing there with my dad, waiting to put a penny on the track to be flattened as a souvenir.
The piece opens with a melody in the baritone saxophone highly reminiscent of an Irish reel, which is then developed in a fugue comprising fragments of those many memories. Momentum builds until the train whistle is heard in the trombones, changing pitch as the locomotive passes, the energetic momentum reaching its zenith as a child's excitement becomes uncontrollable. With one final scream of the whistle, the moment is over, and all too soon.
Incidentally, the flattened penny lives on my keychain to this day.
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Grade 5.5, 10 min.
Available For Purchase at www.world-projects.net
Chorale and Blaspheme was written during the summer of 2008 as a commission for the United States Naval Academy Band, LCDR Brian O. Walden, conductor. The first movement consists of a chorale in which three-note melodic fragments are passed between a solo horn and saxophone before being developed by the entire ensemble. The second movement is an exploration of a violent and explosive motive that attempts to expand the conventionally accepted ranges and capabilities associated with the wind ensemble.
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Grade 6, 5 min.
Available For Purchase at www.world-projects.net
As the Wood Smoke Rises represents the culmination of an aesthetic I have been exploring for the past few years. I have lately become very dissatisfied that in our standard contemporary large ensembles, the instrumentation is lacking any strummed string instrument. Of course, de Falla, Ravel, Tchaikovsky, and others have experimented with pizzicato strings, even suggesting the musicians hold them like mandolins, but that doesn't really replicate the sound of a strummed guitar. I have been attempting to create the same type of sound energy as those strummed instruments, but within a standard ensemble. To accomplish that, I have been exploring the uniquely American bluegrass aesthetic. In order to incorporate this aesthetic, I've been working with decidedly modal constructs, and adopting some basic formal structures of bluegrass. I can then stylize and elevate those forms and constructs into a more sophisticated entity. I hope the result is a uniquely American sound, while not sounding like a musicological treatise or, worse yet, a musical gimmick meant for cheap round of applause. In this specific piece, I have chosen a combination of rondo, call-and-response, and head/solos/head dorms to create a kind of variations on a theme which is finally exhibited in its true form only at the end of the piece.
Music for Orchestra
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Grade 5, 6.5 min.
Available For Purchase at www.world-projects.net
Leap was commissioned by and written for the 2020 Kansas All-State Orchestra, and draws heavily on traditional Irish and bluegrass styles. While it was written as an homage of sorts to Leap Year (2020 was a leap year, but of course it felt long for a whole other reason!), the title ended up having more to do with the melody leaping around the orchestra, so that every section and every player gets a taste — even the under-represented folks like tuba, double bass, etc.
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Grade 4.5, 5 min.
Available For Purchase at www.world-projects.net
Vox Crescens was commissioned by the Phillips Academy Andover String Orchestra. Inspired somewhat by the string writing of Ralph Vaughn Williams, the piece attempts to grow from a single solo until every player in the ensemble (or at least in the Andover ensemble!) has their own contrapuntal part, saturating every possible octave and register with sound.
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Grade 4, 5 min.
Available For Purchase at www.world-projects.net
Apollo, Bringer of Life was commissioned by Jung-Ho Pak and the Cape Cod Symphony as a completion of sorts to Holst's The Planets. While written using Holst's gargantuan orchestra, this can be played (utilizing the included cue notes) by a smaller, standard orchestra. The movement sums up Holst's suite, and includes quotes from every movement, which revolve contrapuntally around the Apollo theme, culminating in a triumphant final presentation of the hymn from Jupiter. While written in my compositional voice, it uses Holst's orchestrational palette and techniques so as to still fit within the larger suite.
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Grade 3.5, 7 min.
Available For Purchase at www.world-projects.net
Prayer for Strings was written in 1999 in Paris, France. Originally for mixed chorus, it explores the results of single pitch movements within a harmonic texture, and without a discernible melody. Despite its simple aesthetic, it remains one of my favorite pieces.
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Grade 3.5, 7 min.
Available For Purchase at www.world-projects.net
Céilí (pronounced KAY-lee) in Gaelic means a type of social gathering at which music features prominently. I wanted to try and incorporate the essence of bluegrass music into this piece, specifically the rhythms and inflections of the banjo, which provides a rhythmic and harmonic backdrop for a typical bluegrass band. To that end, running, triadically-oriented 16th notes anchor the harmonic movement throughout the piece. As the piece was being written, it started to edge towards the incorporation of Irish harmonies and melodic inflections. I tend to let the music go where it needs to go, rather than forcing it into a category, so I was only too happy to explore those Irish tendencies, which is clear from the main motive introduced by the woodwinds and tenor pan. Lastly, the idea that each instrument could be featured in an almost improvisatory solo section seemed appropriate, given the heavy reliance on improvisation in both Irish and bluegrass music, but as the solos progressed, they once again shifted focus towards a kind of funk hybrid, wherein the rhythms of funk combined with the Irish melody and the bluegrass harmonies to create the amalgamation you hear.
The title was arrived at with no less a winding path. Originally, the piece was to be called Barndance, after its bluegrass originals. Upon hearing the piece in progress however, my wife Nadine suggested that it sounded more Celtic than bluegrass, so the title was changed to Reel. By the time the various influences and references became clear though, the name had been changed finally to Céilí to represent the combination of styles, influences, and ideas at work in this piece.
Chamber Music
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Grade 4, 13 min.
Available For Purchase at www.world-projects.net
A duet for violin and viola that I wrote for my dear friends David Samuel and Yuri Cho. The 3rd movement in particular is still one of my favorite pieces. The pieces sets the text of the Catholic Mass as if it were for voices.
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Grade 4.5, 14 min.
Available For Purchase at www.world-projects.net
I wrote this a good long time ago, but it’s still one of my favorites. It’s for tenor and marimba, and the text is mine, based on an old Irish folktale. In this one, I was trying something different in that it focuses more on the story than on the music, a bit like a Renaissance ballade. I still think it’s quite pretty, though.
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Grade 5, 12 min.
Available For Purchase at www.world-projects.net
Like most of my flute music, this was written for my sister Hilary. This is for unaccompanied flute, and each movement is written with a nod to a particular country. The first mvt. is French and is vaguely reminiscent of Debussy; the second is actually based on a Tuvanese folksong, so uses extended techniques to imitate throat-singing; the third is American and is a compositional improvisation, so I wrote it in one draft in one sitting in 15 minutes, just to see what would come out; the fourth is Italian in the style of the Pagannin caprices, but based on my sister’s favorite French Christmas carol; the fifth is Russian, and is actually the 1st movement played backwards.
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Grade 4, 12 min.
Available For Purchase at www.world-projects.net
This was the first sketches I did, and my first piece for woodwind quintet. Like Sketches on Paintings no. 2 (for wind band, above), each movement is based on one of my favorite paintings.
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Grade 4, 4 min.
Available For Purchase at www.world-projects.net
This was written the night after the Sandy Hook Massacre. I came home from school after seeing the news, and needed to just hold Caeli for a while (she was 7 months old). So, I was feeding her, and I ended up singing this to her, making it up as I went and crying all over her in the process. I got a commission a few days later from Ensemble E451, for whom this was written, and I couldn’t shake this lullaby or the circumstances that created it, so there it was. It’s a deceivingly difficult piece to play, but it’s also very personal to me.
NOTE: 100% of the composer’s proceeds will be donated to Sandy Hook Promise, a charity dedicated to protecting children from gun violence.
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Grade 5, 12.5 min.
Available For Purchase at www.world-projects.net
This is a piece for flute and narrator. The narration is by my good friend and long time collaborator Bill Gardiner. It’s basically a circus performance, with the ringmaster announcing each act and the flutist providing the soundtrack. It uses some fairly advanced extended techniques — my favorite is the steam calliope sound — but is all played on a normal flute. Each circus act is based on a friend of mine, and the lady with the trained dogs is my wife.
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Grade 4, 7.5 min.
Available For Purchase at www.world-projects.net
This is a ballet for flute and percussion, but it was written for my sister’s trio, The Fourth Wall Ensemble as a ballet. It’s an original fairy-tale loosely based on Hans Christian Andersen’s “The Toy Soldier,” and follows the story of René (the toy soldier, played by a dancer) who comes to life in a toy shop. He falls in love with Collette, the mechanical ballerina who is NOT alive (played by the flutist), and fights with Jacques (the Jack in the Box who tries to seduce Collette with a tango).
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Grade 5, 8 min.
Available For Purchase at www.world-projects.net
Little Match Girl was commissioned by my sister Hilary and her colleague in The Fourth Wall Ensemble, Greg Jukes. It’s a retelling of the Hans Christian Andersen story, for flute, vibraphone and suspended cymbal, and narrator, although it’s written so that the vibraphonist can also narrate if they’re coordinated enough. When they premiered it, the third member of their trio choreographed a ballet for Hilary to perform while playing it, and it’s gorgeous.
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Grade 4.5, 15 min.
Available For Purchase at www.world-projects.net
Four Dances was commissioned and premiered by The Webster Trio, comprising Leone Buyse, flute, Michael Webster, clarinet, and Robert Moeling, piano. Each of the four movements is a dance that doesn’t generally get danced anymore.
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Grade 5, 19 min.
Available For Purchase at www.world-projects.net
String Quartet No. 2 was written in 2010 for the Afiara String Quartet. The violist at that time was Dave Samuel, who was my college roommate, and he asked for this piece when his mom passed away. Each movement tries to capture a different facet of her personality, with the first movement being a song without words for Dave to play for her. It was premiered in 2012 in Alice Tully Hall in Lincoln Center.
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Grade 5, 5 min.
Available For Purchase at www.world-projects.net
Modulation 6.1 was written for the Boston University Tanglewood Institute Percussion Ensemble. It is meant to be performed around the audience (hence the title), and explores a variety of different international styles of drumming. It also has ample opportunity for talented musicians to improvise in various styles, and will definitely keep your audience looking around the room!
Concertos
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Commissioned by Karl Schimke, principal tubist of the St. Gallen Symphony Orchestra in memory of his parents, Three Songs for Two People is a new tuba concerto with 4 possible accompaniments: piano, organ, wind band, and orchestra.
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Grade 5, 9 min.
Available For Purchase at www.world-projects.net
Passing Acquaintance was written for Jung-Ho Pak and The Cape Cod Symphony and is a double concerto for violin, viola, and orchestra. It is based on the famous Handel-Halvorsen Passacaglia for violin and viola, a perennial favorite of virtuosic string players. In fact, that famous duet remains mostly intact, and the orchestral textures are written around it, creating a third context for the original Handel Passacaglia. The piece is an interesting way to program a double concerto using solo music known to many performers already, and presents an intriguing double update, as it were, to Handel's original work.
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Grade 5, 12 min.
Available For Purchase at www.world-projects.net
Litany and Satire is a concerto for piano and orchestra in two movements. The Litany was written in the days following September 11th, 2001, and presents a chant-like movement and simple melodic phrases in the piano and orchestra. The Satire was written as a response to a challenge to write a 12-tone fugue. In short, we are often taught that fugues are only effective because they can be composed within a tonally- or triadically-based language, and that therefore the 12-tone technique renders a fugue irrelevant, or at least unimpressive. I didn't agree with that when I first heard it, and I don't agree now. Instead, a fugue can be absolutely effective in any language, if only the boundaries and idiosyncrasies of that language are clearly established (even if the rules are subsequently broken!) the fugue is interrupted in the middle by a sarcastic march, using trumpet, tuba, and flute solos in addition to the piano. The movement ends with a violent restatement of the fugue and a dissonant forearm crash in the piano.
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Grade 4, 12 min.
My violin concerto is written in 2 movements. The first movement is a somewhat dissonant, haunting lyrical piece, exploring the melodic and coloristic qualities of the violin and its relationship to the orchestra. The second movement is an angular jazz-inspired dance full of frenetic energy and bebop-style solo riffs.
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Grade 4, 12 min.
My Flute Concerto was written for my sister Hilary. This two movement work is accompanied by a small chamber ensemble, and explores a somewhat dissonant, energetic sound-world.