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Imagine an America different from the one we know. What if Nixon had never been found out? What if he had been able to strip term limits from the Constitution and gone on to a fourth term in office? What if America had prevailed in Vietnam, making it the 51st state in the Union, and now stands on the brink of nuclear war with the Soviet Union ?
Composed for W. Bruce Curlette, this piece is a celebration of the music of Charles Mingus. It grew out of a love for his work and an interest in certain ideas concerning the so-called "third stream"—the combining of classical and jazz traditions. In Other Words… is loosley based on two Mingus compositions: Goodbye Porkpie Hat and Better Git It In Your Soul.
Snapshots was a commission from a friend, Jonathan Whitman, who wanted a gift for his wife on their fifth wedding anniversary. She plays piano and he plays french horn.
Every long term relationship is remembered as a series of isolated moments: snapshots. These moments—public joys, private jokes, intimate conversations, passionate disagreements—combine to describe the experience and essence of a relationship.
Even though he was one of music's great conservatives, it is often (and rightly) remarked that J.S. Bach was a great cosmopolitan—in his music the north countries meet southern Germany, France, and Italy in striking ways previously almost unknown. In the Passacaglia and Fugue in C minor, BWV 582, Bach joins together elements from distinct nations and traditions in ways that may be heard very close to the musical surface indeed.
Composed for Bruce Curlette’s Fifteen Minutes of Fame
Tangled is an attempt to present two separate melodic lines simultaneously, in a tango style.
Composed for the Bateira Trio’s Fifteen Minutes of Fame
Composed for Zentripedal’s Fifteen Minutes of Fame
Infused with spicy rhythms and the finest harmonic sophistication, this caffeinated composition packs quite a kick.
Composed for Shiau-uen Ding’s Liszt Bicentennial Bash
One of my favorite movies is still “Who Framed Roger Rabbit?” There’s that great scene in the burlesque house where Hungarian Rhapsody no.2 is rendered by the dueling pianos of Daffy Duck and Donald Duck, one of many cartoons to pilfer Liszt’s classic. “You’re Despicable” pays tribute to that heritage.
A silly title for this, my second ever composition completed while studying music formally. It's a typical student work, but everyone begins somewhere.
There are three movements:
1) Flourish
2) Soliloquy
3) "Vaults"*
* it's in 3/4 time, because one really stupid pun wasn't enough...
This is the first piece I ever composed while formally studying music. (I had composed a bunch of other things before this, but the official history begins here.) The theme is extrapolated from something I had composed for piano in high school. The variations are simple exercises in stylistic explorations.
