Solo Works

SOLO WORKS

BALLADE for Piano (2019)

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…

EAST WIND for Flute (1987)

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…

FANTASY VARIATIONS for solo cello (1979, rev. 1984)

Fantasy Variations for solo cello is comprised of a theme and four variations. Aspects of the two main ideas appearing in the work’s opening are taken through a series of transformations. They are: (1) a brooding, introductory line which returns at several key points, straddling the blurred boundaries between elemental, raw sound and…

FOR AN ACTOR: MONOLOGUE FOR CLARINET (1978)

FOR AN ACTOR: MONOLOGUE FOR CLARINET owes its inspiration in large part to the intensely personal ethos with which the clarinet is associated in my mind. To me, the instrument in its contemporary usage suggests an incredible gamut of gestures, dynamics and emotions. Accordingly, in MONOLOGUE, the player assumes the role of a…

HALLEL for Organ (2005)

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…

HYPERBOLAE for Piano (1976)

The word “Hyperbolae” has a double meaning: it refers to a geometric design, and is also the derivation of a Greek word meaning extravagant, or fanciful exaggeration. My work of the same name takes after both definitions. Its first few bars supply the materials for the entire composition, with each event thus being…

INSCRIPTIONS for Solo Violin (1991)

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…

PERFECT STORM for solo Viola (2010)

When the American violist Melia Watras approached me about composing a solo viola piece for her, she presented an idea that added an intriguing extra dimension to this commissioning project. Her hope was to have me create a work that, in some way, alluded to, or made use of, an existing work of…

SONATA No. 2 for Piano (1962)

My Sonata No. 2 for Piano written in Tel Aviv, Israel, belongs to an early body of compositions I created in my teens. I performed it numerous times in Israel and the U.S. in the decade that followed…

SPIRIT for Clarinet (2017)

Spirit was composed in memory of Laura Flax (1952–2017), the renowned New York-based clarinetist and my cherished friend. Our musical and personal association began in 1977…

THREE SCENES for Clarinet (2000)

The process of contemplating a yet-to-be-written composition has always conjured up in my mind the image of a person embarking on a journey to a mysterious, unknown destination…

VERTICALS for Piano (1982)

VERTICALS is a seventeen-minute solo piano work in one movement, which can be divided into several interlocking sections roughly suggesting an exposition / contrast / recapitulation / coda formal plan. All materials of the work, however, originate from the opening sonority…