I have created this site in order to provide performers, listeners and composers with a description of a composer's experiences with the creative process. The posts will provide discussions of the inspirations, challenges, and successes of a composer from the inception of the piece to the culmination in performance. I will provide a link to where you can see and hear the works in progress. Comments and questions are always welcomed. They will not posted unless you grant me permission.
This
is the third movement of a composition for soprano saxophone and piano,called High Desert Apparitions, being written as a result of a commissioning consortium. It is in three movements at a graduate or professional level. The first movement is called Shapeshifters (Skinwalkers or yee naaldlooshii). These are evil creatures that appear as humans or as animals. This movement would have the piano representing the human form and the saxophone representing various animals. The second movement is Mirages. This movement is ethereal with an interplay of soft sustained notes between instruments. The last movement is Ancestral Spirits. This movement uses Native American sounding melodic lines and would be uplifting in character. The composition would be 8-10 minutes in length. For more information about the consortium, please visit http://cooppress.net
Ancient Spirits is in two sections. The slower opening is atmospheric, evoking images of Native
American flutes calling to the ancient spirits. The second section is chant-like and is influenced by
recordings of Navajo Yeibichai songs. A Yeibichai is a supernatural represented by a masked dancer in an initiation or curative ceremony. The piano chords are dissonant and steady imitating the sound of drums. While the music is repetitive, there are subtle changes to the melodic material as well as the accompanying chords.
This
is the second movement of a composition for soprano saxophone and piano, called High Desert
Apparitions, being written as a result of a commissioning consortium. It is in three movements at a graduate or
professional level. The first movement is called Shapeshifters (Skinwalkers
or yee naaldlooshii). These are evil creatures that appear as humans or
as animals. This movement has the piano representing the human
form and the saxophone representing various animals. The second movement is Mirages. This movement is ethereal with an interplay of
soft sustained notes between instruments. The last movement will be
Ancestral Spirits. This movement would use Native American sounding
melodic lines and would be uplifting in character. The composition would
be 8-10 minutes in length. For more information about the consortium,
please visit http://cooppress.net
This movement is very free in form. Mirages in the desert appear as a steady mirage or as a wavy mirage. The saxophone sustained notes begin and end with no vibrato and have subtle vibrato or timbre trill added in the middle of the note. The piano clusters represent the vagueness of the mirage. The fast note patterns represent the fleetingness of a mirage. The dynamics are soft throughout.
After working on the Thor Johnson Memorial Commission and several contest entries that I couldn't reveal here, I am now working on Commissioning Consortium composition. This composition, for soprano saxophone and piano, is called High Desert Apparitions and would be in three movements at a graduate or professional level. The first would be called Shapeshifters (Skinwalkers or yee naaldlooshii). These are evil creatures that appear as humans or as animals. This movement would have the piano representing the human form and the saxophone representing various animals. The second movement would be Mirages. This movement would be ethereal with an interplay of soft sustained notes between instruments. The last movement would be Ancestral Spirits. This movement would use Native American sounding melodic lines and would be uplifting in character. The composition would be 8-10 minutes in length. For more information about the consortium, please visit http://cooppress.net
The four animal shapes I chose to represent in the first movement are coyote, owl, fox, and crow. I listened to recordings of these animals and did my best to imitate them using the saxophone. Many of the sounds contain multiple pitches and multiphonics were used for these. Grace notes, pitch bends, and rapid passages are other techniques utilized.
The movement is in a rondo form without the final A. The piano represents a normal Navajo person. An undulating sixteenth note figure that goes from loud to soft serves as the transition to animal forms and back. By the end of the movement, the normal Navajo persona is consumed by the crow as the piano becomes part of crow sounds.
This is the third and last movement of an unaccompanied sonata is being composed
for a commissioning consortium where participants contribute a small
amount to make the piece happen. While this version is for euphonium, I
will be creating a version for each participant's instrument. For more
information, visit http://cooppress.net
The
form of this movement is an ABACABA rondo. There are subtle differences between the A sections. Sometimes its dynamics and other times articulation, pitch or rhythm.
This is the second movement of an unaccompanied sonata is being composed
for a commissioning consortium where participants contribute a small
amount to make the piece happen. While this version is for euphonium, I
will be creating a version for each participant's instrument. For more
information, visit http://cooppress.net
The form of this movement is a simple A (M. 1-21) B (M. 22-33) A (M. 34-end). It is very lyrical with sliding tonality, in other words, a phrase in one key slips into another key through the use of chromaticism.
I was influenced by a technique used by Fred L. Clinard in his Sonata fro Unaccompanied Euphonium. In one of the fast movements, he clearly incorporates two distinct lines, a melodic line and an accompaniment line. My 2nd movement begins with an introduction of 3 measures that I call the accompaniment line. The melodic line then begins on beat two of measure 4. Whenever the melodic line feels like it should come to a sustained note, I insert part of the accompaniment line instead of sustaining the note. An example of this is in measure 5. I offset these two lines using dynamics to further distinguish between the two lines. This technique is used throughout the movement and adds variety to the texture.
This is the first movement of an unaccompanied sonata is being composed for a commissioning consortium where participants contribute a small amount to make the piece happen. While this version is for euphonium, I will be creating a version for each participant's instrument. For more information, visit http://cooppress.net
This movement follows the traditional sonata form. The first theme starts at measure 1 and goes through measure 10. 11 to 19 serves as a transition to the second theme. The second theme goes from 20 - 35. Measure 36 begins the short development section. A motive from the 2nd theme is first developed by adding a repeated sixteenth note figure to the 3 note rising motive. Part of the transition is also developed during this section. The recapitulation occurs at measure 58 with some slight variations from exposition. The language is tonal with wandering tonalities. Your comments are always welcomed.
This is the third movement of my latest three-movement composition for
tuba/euphonium quartet called Emoticons. It is being composed as a
result of a commissioning consortium consisting of the Tarnished Brass -
Rowlett, TX, the University of North Carolina - Greensboro, NC, the
Triangle Tuba Quartet - Durham, NC, the University of Tennessee -
Knoxville, TN, the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga - Chattanooga,
TN, and Kansas State University - Manhattan, KS. More groups are
welcome to the join the consortium as the deadline for expressing
interest has been extended until June 30, 2015. For more information,
please visit http://www.cooppress.net
The
idea behind Emoticons is to symbolically represent emotions and this last movement is Euphoria. As you can see and hear, it is in a fast tempo and is in a rondo form ABACABA. The tonality is major with some borrowed chords to spice things up. There are frequent modulations to add variety to the tonality.
The A section is very rhythmic as it alternates meters of 6/8 with meters where the quarter note gets the beat. The eighth note remains constant throughout these meter changes. I used 2/8 instead of 1/4 because I thought it would be less confusing, but the 2/8 has one quarter note beat in it. Sudden shifts in dynamics are used in the A sections to add interest since the A section occurs four times.
The B sections also have meter changes but the quarter note beat dominates with an occasional 3/8 thrown in.
The C section is the central section and is in 4/4 time and more legato for contrast. It begins with the two tubas, then adds canons with the top three instruments while the 2nd tuba does a staccato accompaniment, and finally the melody appears in the 2nd euphonium while the other parts accompany. The A and B sections are primarily C major while the C section explores the mediant keys E major and Ab major, before moving to A major for the last statement.
