- 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.
- Stolen Gold (1991/rev.2007)
-
Anna Rubin
versions for violin, modern oboe, baroque oboe and fixed media
ca. 5'30"
Stolen Gold (1991/rev. 2007) is a work in three versions featuring fixed media along with amplified baroque oboe, modern oboe and violin. In each case, the live instrumental was refashioned to suit the performer and the instrument. The original version for baroque oboe was done in collaboration with Deborah Nagy. Her virtuosity with the keyless instrument allowed me to compose long glissandi which are extremely difficult on the modern keyed instrument. Modern oboist Patricia Moorhead asked for a version for modern oboe and violinist Airi Yoshioka later asked for a version for violin. In all cases, the live instrument is amplified. The fixed media was composed while I was in residence at the Brooklyn College Center for Computer Music using the CSound synthesis program. Clouds of pointillistic sound contrast with drone and glissandi, acting as a counterpart to a highly decorated melodic part in the solo instrument. The piece has been performed throughout the US by a variety of performers.
The version for violin has been recorded by Airi Yoshioka on the Albany label (Troy 1305). Click here to view the recording. (YouTube)
- 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.
- Iridium Gone Gold (2015)
-
Patricia Ann Repar
for soprano, alto, tenor, baritone saxophones and digital accompaniment
1 iridium flare: a surge of light
marking the revolution in satellite telecommunication
(wire shattered and adrenals gone mad)
launching us forward to do it faster, spread it further, say it louder, push it harder,
leaving us dark in the night and cold on the ground
like the hard, dense, silvery-white metallic sheen of iridium.
2 iridium flare: a surge of light
marking the call to remember
(even if in the midst of desolation)
the overwhelming vulnerability of clouds reconfiguring, kisses colliding,
and human hearts floundering in the space between life and death
like the deep lustrous yellow of iridium gone gold.
Thanks to Willie Johnson for ‘Dark Was the Night, Cold Was the Ground’, one of the 27 samples of music included on the Voyager Golden Record launched into space in 1977.
Click here to view the performance notes.
Click here to view a performance (YouTube).
- 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.
- Alex (2014)
-
Patricia Ann Repar
for oboe, viola, and tape
ca. 9'45"
it's endless weeping
one slowly descending tear at a time
with a hint of tenderness
hovering in the sweet echoes of lullaby
but mostly it's thunder and rigor and passionate commitment
for nothing more than a
single moment of connection
and an unremarkable knowing
that somewhere the weeping has stopped
Special thanks to the artists and producers of the CD The Thula Project: An Album of South African Lullabies. The digital accompaniment for Alex includes short excerpts from 3 of the cuts on the CD- Homolela Ngwanaka, Umlolozelo and Rhaliwent.
- 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).
- Red Mountain Note (2004)
-
Patricia Ann Repar
flute/piccolo, B-flat clarinet, voice, violin, violoncello, contrabass, and tape
ca. 11'00"
Note to performers and listeners: written in celebration of my cousin Jerry Leon who made the last of his many adventures on earth while skiing in February of 2004.
Note to self: Find the Hawaiian chant secretly embedded on the ‘Ulalena’ CD; And on ‘The Master Chanters of Hawaii’ use “e ulu, e ulu, kini o ke akua” (Inspire us, inspire us, O gods).
Note to Jerry: whispers of other times and places
both mythic and real
souls and gypsies
long passed and yet to come
but I see you
bright, strong, and clear
like water
atop, within, above, and beyond
Red Mountain.
- 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).
- Color Prayer (1998)
-
Patricia Ann Repar
for B-flat clarinet, piano, and voice
ca. 7'15"
The text of Color Prayer is comprised of excerpts from the following sources: Way of the Peaceful Warrior by Dan Millman, the Islamic Call to Prayer, Mexican folk sungs as sung by Linda Ronstadt, the Ordinary of the Roman Catholic Mass, and Memoirs from the Women's Prison by Nawal El Saadawi.
The body was now a broken, twisted piece of meat. Carrion, birds, rodents, insects and worms came to feed on the decomposing flesh [Allahu akbar] that I had once imagined to be me. Time passed faster [Mata me cielo] and faster and the days flashed by and the sky became a rapid blinking, an alternation of light and darkness [A donde estas?] flickering faster and faster into a blur. The seasons changed and the remains of the [Hablan me montes y valles] body began to dissolve into the soil enriching it. The frozen snows of winter preserved my [Christe eleison] bones for a [Speak to me valleys and mountains] moment in time but as the seasons flashed by in evermore rapid cycles even the bones became dust. From the nourishment [Donde?] of my body [Lord have mercy. Gritenme piedras del campo] flowers and trees grew and died in that [A donde?] meadow. Finally even the meadow disappeared. I had become part of the carrion birds that had feasted on my flesh, part of the insects [Kyrie eleison] and rodents, and part of their predators in a great cycle of life and death. I became their ancestor—
- (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.
- Turbolenze del Blu (2014)
-
Caterina Calderoni
for violin, cello, and piano
I happen to visualize sounds as a colour spread by means of borad brush-strokes over the timeline. Its shade, although apparenlty even, discloses ripllings, thickenings and nuances that make it restless and sometimes violent. Like the blue of deep waters or moonless nights.
- Murex (2010)
-
Caterina Calderoni
for flute, cello, B-flat clarinet, and piano
ca. 8'00"
The formal structure of this work follows a spiral scheme based on a sequence of four sonic states (A: resonance – B: thickening – C: shattering – D: echo) that recurres 4 times, each time in a wider span of time. Moments of suspension (Tempo sospeso) frame and break in this cyclic process in order to reveal the sonic substance from which the spiral originates. Just like the shape of a shell (murex), the spiral suggests an endless process “towards infinity”.
- Boundaries (1989)
-
Eleanor Hovda
for four flutes and four double basses
ca. 7'11"
Click here to listen to the recording on the Eleanor Hovda Collection CD on Spotify.
- A Quartet (1971)
-
Eleanor Hovda
for voice, flute, and Flexitone
- Leaning Into and Away
-
Eleanor Hovda
for soprano, contrabass, and percussion
- Traces (1990)
-
Eleanor Hovda
for english horn/oboe and contrabass