Of Breath and Touch by Alex Shapiro (ASCAP). 
Performed by Carolyn Beck, bassoon. 
Published by Activist Music LLC (ASCAP). All Rights Reserved.

"I did reference the driving rhythms of some Middle Eastern music in a hypnotic and ostinatic piano part that's fun to play, and the double reed writing showcases the extraordinary range and tone of the instrument in the hands of a fine player. The result is a uniquely American piece that is informed by other cultures. The title refers to the nature of each instrument, as well as to a more sensual pair of pleasures."

Of Breath and Touch was commissioned by Carolyn Beck, who recorded the work with pianist Delores Stevens in the beautiful and historic Bridges Hall of Music at Pomona College. 

Learn more at: https://www.alexshapiro.org/OfBreathandTouchpg1.html

Beck and Call

Of Breath and Touch

Of Breath And Touch - Shapiro - Beck

Featuring his first cello concerto two beautiful, elegiac works for solo oboe and strings and solo violin and strings and the powerful Cascade-Concerto for Orchestra, Knehans—Concertos is a disc for anyone who enjoys beautiful, energetic orchestral music. 

Amazon

Drift

I named this piece Bioplasm because "Oozing Up From the Primordial Sludge" seemed a bit long for a title. Bioplasm is the stuff of life, the germinal matter that's essential for living beings to generate. This is a squishy piece: rather than exploit the individual voice of each flute, I wanted to create an organism that oozes across the sonic floor as one tethered entity, sometimes slowly, sometimes at a quick pace, but always as one, like a Slinky toy. The blend of homogenous sound with four flutes is a throbbing pulse of life; add to this four human voices, and it's a choir of plasma, looking for life to begin.

Note by Alex Shapiro

--
Stranded Silver
Mary Gheen, Willie Santiago, Benjamin Sledge, and Jackie Traish, flutes

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Alex Shapiro - Bioplasm

Sounds recorded during the Perseid meteor shower from 0300 to 0500 on August 12, 2016.

Night Sounds 160812 August Blog

Premiere performance by Jonathan Thompson (http://www.jonathanthompsonoboe.com/) in Sala Xochipilli, Mexico on September 2, 2017.

Perusal Score:
https://www.manfredoniamusic.com/unconventional-tuning

Performance Notes:     
      Featured on RMN Music's "Architectures, Music for Solo Instruments," Unconventional Tuning is a twelve-tone work. Since the oboe is the conduit for tuning an orchestra, I began the Prime Row on A440. Even the first note of the piece is sustained and held as though the player is beginning the tuning process. However, it is immediately broken up by playing fragments of the row, eventually progressing to pitch-class C.
​
     Although the orchestra tunes to A, C has often been a crucial key or tonal center in developing musicianship. Beginner pianists, for example, start their lessons with "middle C." So although A440 is important to tuning an ensemble, C is equally as vital to "tuning into" being a musician. Therefore, the Prime Row is also played in Retrograde, with pitch-class C as the starting point.

Unconventional Tuning - Solo Oboe

Alex Shapiro - Desert Notes (2001) for oboe, bassoon and piano

Performed LIVE at Palacio de Congresos, Granada, Spain at the 2019 International Double Reed Society conference.

Dr. Casey Knowlton, oboe
Dr. Jacob Goforth, bassoon
Dr. Galen Dean Peiskee, Jr., piano

Alex Shapiro - Desert Notes (2001)

Of the many, many people named Alex Shapiro out there, I am most likely the only one who composes chamber and electroacoustic wind band music AND who used to breed pythons. Others may claim to have done one, but not both.

Music. Nature. Laughing. Eating well. Friendships. And lots of other fun stuff, too. In no particular order. Unlike the music I compose, the notes of which are definitely in a particular order. If you want to know more about my life as a composer, please visit http://www.alexshapiro.org . And if you want to know where all these notes really come from, please click: http://www.notesfromthekelp.com . Thanks!


Of Breath And Touch - Shapiro - Beck

Alex Shapiro composer

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