PROGRAM NOTE Composing for a solo, essentially melody-line instrument such as the violin, is a challenge I have found myself drawn back to time and again over the years. Inscriptions for violin follows solo works written (in reverse chronology) for flute, cello, and clarinet since 1978. The challenge for me, all the more intriguing in…
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PROGRAM NOTE The American Guild of Organists commission of a short solo organ work for its 2006 Biennial National Convention in Chicago provided me with the opportunity to explore what was exciting new territory for me. Whenever writing for a musical instrument for the first time, I become acutely aware that an instrument is not…
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PROGRAM NOTE Gaze is a short work created for “Postcards from America”—a wide-ranging project initiated by saxophonist John Sampen together with composer-pianist Marilyn Shrude—and is derived from my larger Under the Sun’s Gaze – Concerto da Camera III, an ensemble work for 9 players composed in 2004. In this earlier work a soprano saxophone enters…
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PROGRAM NOTE Birds of Paradise for flute and piano (2013) intersperses music that is brilliant and energetic with the wondrous and songful. Its title notwithstanding, I did not set out to compose a “bird” piece — Messiaen’s music, which I admire immensely, would seem to render such an effort quite unnecessary. The title does allude,…
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PROGRAM NOTE Ballade, a work of approximately 11 minutes, is a one-movement work, internally divided into three main parts that are played without significant break. A pianist learning the work will be greeted, at the front of the printed score, by a Note to the Performer summing up much of what I would also hope…
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PROGRAM NOTE EAST WIND for solo flute was commissioned by the National Flute Association for its annual Young Artists Competition, and was first performed by the six semi-finalists at the l988 San Diego NFA Convention. The work’s opening motif is a slightly varied treatment of the simplest of ideas—a single note which is then encircled…
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