- Luminescence (2004)
-
Annea Lockwood
for baritone voice, flute, trumpet, viola, cello, piano, percussion, and speaking voice
Luminescence was commissioned by Thomas Buckner, and is based on poems from Etel Adnan's SEA, which evoke the Lebanese coast of the Mediterranean, her birthplace. The Pacific Ocean is also a strong presence in her life as in Thomas Buckner's and mine, and so the piece celebrates our three-way friendship and our shared love of that ocean, which influenced the first song: here, the phrase lengths match the timing of long Pacific waves which I recorded in New Zealand, some years ago.
Click here to listen on Annea Lockwood's website.
- Immersion (1998)
-
Annea Lockwood
for amplified marimba, two tam-tams, and crystal bowl gong (in F)
ca. 11'15"
Immersion, for marimba and two tam-tams was written for Dominic Donato and Frank Cassara and arranged for the Talujon Percussion Quartet in 2001. It grew out of a fascination with the rich beating frequencies generated by long cluster rolls in the low register of the marimba and the interaction between the marimba and a quartz bowl gong tuned to F.
Click here to listen on Annea Lockwood's website.
- Symbiosis (1983)
-
Ruth Lomon
for mezzo soprano, piano, and percussion
ca.15'15"
"Combustion ..." is fiery with a story accompaniment. "Dream Polyps…" is gentle, spectral, and dissolves into the first Choros. This divertissement has some humorous effects between the vocalise of the singer and the antics of a slide whistle. The heightened excitement generated by the second quotation intersects the more introspective mood of the next two verses.
"Golden eyebrow auras…" is accompanied by a fragment of Bach's Easter Cantata and closes into the second Choros which is reminiscent of the opening preamble, and features a play between a strummed C major chord inside the piano and a D major chord played on a mouth organ. The last declamatory interjection builds from a simple two-note ostinato into a majestic close.
The last two verses are closest in mood, having a quiet modal quality in the voice, accompanied by plucked strings and inside-the-piano strummed chords. SYMBIOSIS is dedicated to Eileen Davis and Rosemary Platt.
The performers in the recording are Eileen Davis, mezzo soprano, and Rosemary Platt, piano, and both performers also play percussion instruments.
- Iatiku (1983)
-
Ruth Lomon
for bass clarinet, harp, vibraphone/marimba, harpsichord, and piano
ca. 14'45"
IATIKU was composed in New Mexico during the summer of 1983. The word IATIKU means "bringing to life" in the dialect of the Acoma Indians. It is also the name given to CHANGING WOMAN, the god personifying the earth and the changing seasons. IATIKU is composed for bass clarinet, marimba, vibraphone, harp, harpsichord, and piano, a blend of instruments which fascinates me. The composition opens with the indication ''Mysterious.'' The timbres produced by the unusual combination of instruments heightens the quality of mystery. You will hear the bass clarinet, harp and vibraphone in passages of bent tones. These tones have quarter tone fluctuations which color the notes dramatically. There are "inside the piano" passages, thrumming sounds produced with a mallet on the lower strings, some banshee, eerie sounds, plucked and strummed strings which interplay with the harp. The listener may note a section called "the elements" which starts with the mounting tension of a catastrophic storm, and leads to a tightly-organized rhythmic accelerando. In the closing section of the piece there is a duet between bass clarinet and vibraphone called "rituals'' inspired by an Indian ritual dance, which has an intricate rhythmic pattern coupled with a melodic recurrence of the tritone.
IATIKU was the MMTA Commissioned work for 1983-84. (Massachusetts Music Teachers Association, affiliated with the Music Teachers National Association, Inc.) Commissioning funds were made possible in part by a grant from the New England Foundation for the Arts. (Meet the Composer Grant)
The performers in the recording are currently unknown.
- Desiderata (1984)
-
Ruth Lomon
for oboe, marimba, and optional bowed chimeca. 13'00"
DESIDERATA was commissioned for the 1984 Canadian Contemporary Music Festival, a part of the Ontario bicentennial celebrations. DESIDERATA was composed for Patricia Morehead (oboe) and Beverly Johnston (marimba). The piece may be performed as a duo for oboe and marimba, or as a trio with an optional third part for bowed chime or double bass. The Canadian premiere in May, 1984 was performed as a trio with the composer playing the bowed chime.
- Weaving(s) (2009)
-
Ruth Lomon
for clarinet/bass clarinet, cello, vibraphone/tomtoms, and piano
Weaving(s):
MizmazeWarp and WeftNavajo: Weaving the YeiPenelope's Web"Mizmaze" is an intricate network of pathways enclosed by hedges or plantations. "Hehath walked the whole labyrinth and mizmaze of his life." (Beza)''Warp and Weft'' has two textures running through this movement to create amusical "warp and weft." The pizzicato of the 'cello throughout the movement isintertwined with the melodic lines of the other instruments."Navajo: Weaving the Yei" refers to the Navajo rugs that have the figures of the Yei,Navajo deities, woven into the rugs. You will hear references to some songs of theNavajo.''Penelope's Web'' is a proverbial expression for anything which is perpetually doingand never done. While Ulysses was off fighting the wars Penelope wove her tapestryevery day and undid the work every evening to keep her suitors at bay. She held off theirproposals by saying that she would not make a commitment to any of them until she hadfinished weaving the funereal robe for Laertes, her father-in-law.The myth gave me a frame for the changing textures of this movement, building a thicktexture with the 4 instruments, and thinning to long solo passages with tremolo chordaltreatments in the vibraphone and piano solos.
- Imprints (1987)
-
Ruth Lomon
for piano and four percussion
IMPRINTS returns to Ms. Lomon's interest in native American Ceremonials. As a participant in a peyote ceremony she was inspired by the vocal extemporizing of each participant, the intensity of declamation and rhythms of gourd and water drums accompanying each singer. The ceremony acted as a catalyst for the areas of feeling she wished to express. The declamatory role of the piano in "House of Storms" is an aspect of this, as are the propelling percussion rhythms. "Song to Pull Down the Clouds" opens with a prayer addressed to the thunderbird of pollen and carried into the wind-swollen sky. Ruth Lomon, composer and resident scholar at the Women's Studies Research Center, Brandeis University, has created a body of work which reflects her long-standing love of the Southwest.
- Dialogue for Harpsichord and Vibraphone (1964)
-
Ruth Lomon
for harpsichord and vibraphone
ca.3'45"
Dialogue for Harpsichord and Vibraphone features the contrasting timbres of harpsichord and vibraphone: the light, clear brilliance of the harpsichord juxtaposed with the sustained undulating sonorities of the vibraphone. The rapid interplay of motifs is built on a modulating tempo which heightens the energy of the piece.
- Marguerite's Dance (1981)
-
Anna Rubin
for flute, cello, and percussion
Marguerite’s Dance (1981)- Infusion Ensemble, is a trio for flute, cello and percussion and written while I was in residence at the American Dance Festival with the Composers Choreographer’s Workshop at Duke University led by Earle Browne in 1981. The Ear Unit premiered the work and has performed it several times since then as well as performances at Brooklyn’s . The Barge and at California Institute of the Arts. Spiky melodies emphasizing major 7ths are passed between the instruments in a 3-part slow-fast-slow succession. I am indebted to Erike Duke Fitzgerald, Dorothy Stone and Dan Kennedy for their collaboration on this piece.
- Taming the Beast (1985)
-
Anna Rubin
for solo percussion and fixed media
Taming the Beast (1985) is a work for solo percussionist and fixed media. The percussionist is surrounded by a battery of metallic instruments ranging from the triangle to large gongs and tam-tams. In the course of the piece, the percussionist emerges from this ‘cage’ and ends playing the magical ‘stroke rods,’ long aluminum rods which are stroked to produce high ringing tones. The work in is in 3 large sections the first of which features Buddhist chant in the fixed media portion which has been modified and altered electronically. Metallic sounds dominate the middle section while a wide-spectrum synthesized rainbow of sound dominates the ending. The soloist has semi-improvisational sections throughout the work along with strickly somposed sections. The piece has been featured in concerts in the U.S., the Netherlands and Belgium with performers including Jim Pugliese, Jeff Kershner, Paul Koek and Max Van Der Beek.
- Ice Song: Fantasy on an Inuit Poem (1993)
-
Anna Rubin
for soprano and percussion
ca. 15'00"
Ice Song (1993) is scored for soprano or mezzo and percussion (vibraphone and several small drums, rattles and metal instruments). I created the text after reading a haunting Inuit story describing one Inuit community’s struggle for food in the dead of winter. The song is sung as the story of one woman’s terrible dilemma as she gives birth while the hunters of the village are away trying to get food for their starving families. The vocal line is melismatic; the musical language atonal and the percussion used for timbral variety and intensification. Isabelle Ganz premiered the work at MusicAlaskaMusic Conference in Fairbanks in 1993; it was most recently performed in Germany in 2005 by contralto Wiebke Hoogklimmer.
- The Unseen Gumboot (1998)
-
Patricia Ann Repar
for five performers, body percussion, junk metal, tape
Darkness--thin air--tight spaces--twelve-hour shifts--Day in day out.
Working in the gold mines of South Africa black labourers developed a body percussion sequence, the Gumboot, as a way of surviving the intense physical and emotional stresses imposed upon them. Musically demanding and highly entertaing this piece is now internationally known and appreciated.
The Unseen Gumboot, however, reminds us of that which we would probably rather not remember--the context in which the piece was born--the harsh realities of Apartheid and our own potential (yours and mine) for creating horrific moments in human history.
- Ripples: Artists in Collaboration (1992)
-
Patricia Ann Repar
video documentary
Ripples: Artists In Collaboration is a 50 minute film highlighting the collaborative approaches developed by the following artists: visual artists Barbara Kendrick and Sara Krepp; composer Carla Scaletti and computer scientist Alan Craig; composer/percussionist Michael Udow and choreographer/dancer Nancy Udow; and bass-baritone Philip Larson and trumpeter Edwin Harkins.
Click here to view the film Ripples: Artists in Collaboration
- Vision of Blue (1999)
-
Patricia Ann Repar
for flute, oboe, B-flat clarinet, percussion, piano, violin, violoncello, ocean drum, and voice
ca. 14'00"
There is the blue we feel
in the presence of human suffering and separateness
[stylish, solo voices, self-important melodies interrupting, competing]
And there is the blue we see from above
peaceful, swirling speck of beauty on the soul of our universe
[gentle voices reminding, connecting us to life before and beyond]
There are those who carry us from the one blue to the other.
I have written this piece in honor of them--
it is time to share in and realize their Vision of Blue
- Snareway to Heaven (1989)
-
Patricia Ann Repar
for two snare drums
Click here to view a performance (YouTube).
- Re-Imagining (1995)
-
Patricia Ann Repar
for flute, violin, cello, percussion, and piano
ca.9'15"
"In the pampas, down a tree lined lane, live three people who once saw the names of loved ones and strangers burned out life, yet they keep those names alive in memory. They give the names of those who vanished to birds so that the sky above their estancia is always alive with flying names."
--Lawrence Thornton
Imagination, memory, and breathing, all tend to be illusive in our lives--that is--until a moment of crisis when they become more real than all the Wheels of Fortune spinning us round about in our oh-so-busy lives. In Imagining Argentina Lawrence Thornton describes one of those critical moments and how the power of memory, imagination, and human breath, recreated and transformed it--ultimately dismembering the military dictatorship of Argentina. The performers and myself offer this piece in honor of Thornton --in honor of those many Argentinians who adamantly and courageously refuse to forget their own dreams and desires for beauty--in honor of you, may you hear the birdsong, remember the names, and re-imagine the moments of your lives.
- I Duo/I Duo Not (1991)
-
Patricia Ann Repar
for bass marimba and piano
The percussionist is performing a character who is wholly engaged by and delighted in the sound of his or her instrument. The character seems unreachable at times, almost unreasonable - uninterested in extremes with regard to speed, volume and various other forms of complexity. Entirely committed to every sound s/he makes, no matter how simple, his/her physical gestures may change tempo but are never dramatic or flamboyant or employ more energy than required. The pianist-percussionist is performing a character who fluctuates rapidly in feelings and behavior.
Click here to view a performance (YouTube).
- (out) (in) . . . the OPEN (1992)
-
Patricia Ann Repar
for flute, oboe, alto saxophone, vibraphone, violoncello
ca. 10'15"
(out)(in)...the OPEN is written in honor of the legendary jazz singer/songwriter Billie Holiday. On the liner notes of Billie's 1956 recording The Essential Billie Holliday--Carnegie Hall Concert, Gilbert Millstein wrote that "Billie was the victim of a world which really could not have cared much less--either for her or for any artist whose talent might be grudgingly acknowledged or eagerly exploited, but who made society uncomfortable or uneasy." Billie's way of singing defiantly exposed herself and her listeners-- an experience they yearned for and resented all at the same time. As a way of highlighting Billie's courage to be open, to say it and sing it how it is (not how we might want to hear it), (out)(in)...the OPEN is structured entirely around breath sounds. It is hoped that concentration on breath, by both performers and audience, will evoke some of this vulnerability that Billie and her listeners longed to experience.
- Leaning Into and Away
-
Eleanor Hovda
for soprano, contrabass, and percussion
- Journey Music (1981)
-
Eleanor Hovda
for flute, clarinet in Bb, violin, contrabass, piano, and percussion
ca. 8'03"
Click here to see the Performance Notes.