Live recording—4.21.24
Tesla Quartet
National Gallery of Art
Washington, DC

For program notes and additional information, visit: https://alexandragardner.net/music/watershed/

Watershed — string quartet [Live recording 2024 | Tesla Quartet]

Time Unfolding — Concerto for Alto Saxophone and Wind Ensemble

Assorted performances of my composition Perseids.

For program notes and perusal score, please visit: https://alexandragardner.net/music/perseids/

Perseids — wind ensemble

While recording the Brood X cicadas one particularly loud day in Baltimore, one intrepid cicada landed directly on my microphone and took a solo!

Brood X Cicada: Solo Edition (field recording)

Shakuhachi flute

Performed by Elizabeth Brown

For program notes and additional information, visit: https://www.alexandragardner.net/music/juniper/

Juniper - solo shakuhachi

Live recording—8.7.21
Catherine Case, harp; Jennifer Rhyne, flute; Miho Takekawa, percussion
Lagerquist Concert Hall, Pacific Lutheran University

Parterre Designs consists of seven movements with the following titles:

I.	Slightly formal, with anticipation
II.	Clattering (imagine dancing skeletons)
III.	Frolicking
IV.	Spiraling, pressing forward
V.	Languid, bittersweet
VI.	Clattering (a little tipsy)
VII.	Melting

For program notes and additional information, please visit: https://alexandragardner.net/music/parterre-designs/

Parterre Designs — flute, percussion, harp

Oboe and fixed electronics
Performed by Mary Lynch Vanderkolk
Recorded at Jack Straw Productions, Seattle, WA

For additional information, please visit: https://alexandragardner.net/music/lantana/

Lantana — oboe & fixed electronics

Commissioned by Galord Dewald
Live Recording — March 2, 2023
Performed by Scott Worthington
Cal State University
Los Angeles, CA

For more information, including program notes & purchase info, please visit:
https://alexandragardner.net/music/blue-john/

Blue John — solo double bass

Watershed: III. Ghost Pines [Live Recording 2024 | Tesla Quartet]

Watershed: II. Ceremony [Live Recording 2024 | Tesla Quartet]

Watershed: I. Causeway [Live Recording 2024 | Tesla Quartet]

Live recording—10.24.24
Ruckus Ensemble: Lisa Cella, bass flute; Airi Yoshioka, violin; Dustin Donahue, percussion
UMBC Livewire Festival, Baltimore, MD

For more information, visit: https://alexandragardner.net/music/sleeping-weather-reimagined/

Sleeping Weather (Reimagined) — bass flute, violin, percussion, fixed media

Live Recording—2.21.25
Nathan Mertens, alto saxophone
CU Boulder Wind Symphony
Matthew Dockendorf, conductor

For more information, visit: https://alexandragardner.net/music/time-unfolding/

Time Unfolding - 3: Metallicity (CU Boulder Wind Symphony & Nathan Mertens, saxophone)

Live Recording—2.21.25
Nathan Mertens, alto saxophone
CU Boulder Wind Symphony
Matthew Dockendorf, conductor

For more information, visit: alexandragardner.net/music/time-unfolding/

Time Unfolding - 2: Infrared (CU Boulder Wind Symphony & Nathan Mertens, saxophone)

Time Unfolding - 1: Abundance Ratio (CU Boulder Wind Symphony & Nathan Mertens, saxophone)

Live recording - 12.03.15
Lousiana State University Wind Ensemble
Damon Talley, Director
Baton Rouge, LA

For program notes and perusal score, please visit: https://alexandragardner.net/music/perseids/

Perseids — wind ensemble (LSU World Premiere)

Commissioned by The String Orchestra of Brooklyn
Live recording - March 23, 2016
The String Orchestra of Brooklyn at Roulette, Brooklyn, NY
Eli Spindel, conductor

Program Note

The title "Ciphers and Constellations" is a fragment from a notebook of the artist Joan Miró. He had written down a number of potential titles for his paintings, and this one is from a list regarding his Constellations series; the complete written phrase is “Ciphers and Constellations in Love with a Woman.” The series, which consists of 23 small paintings, is a reaction to the artist’s escape from France in 1939 just before the outbreak of World War II. He states that at that time, his intense urge to flee the difficult realities of life led to him embracing new sources of inspiration for his art such as night, music, and stars.

This composition for string orchestra with electronics translates some of the visual concepts from the Constellations paintings into a musical format. A melody played non-vibrato by the strings serves as a thread running through the piece, periodically enveloped by thick clouds of bustling tremolos and pulsing rhythmic material. The electronic part, created exclusively from processed string instrument recordings, winds a pathway around the acoustic material—dancing back and forth from background to foreground, slipping into empty spaces, occasionally clashing with the activity at hand, and transforming the large scale view of the musical landscape.

For additional information, please visit: https://www.alexandragardner.net/works/ciphers-and-constellations/

Ciphers and Constellations — string orchestra & electronics

Performed by The GVSU New Music Ensemble

Instrumentation
flute, clarinet, alto saxophone, vibraphone, piano, violin, cello

Program Note

"Vixen" was commissioned by the Grand Valley State University New Music Ensemble for its National Parks Project, with support from The National Endowment for the Arts. During the early planning stages for this music, which is based on Yellowstone National Park, I came across the Yellowstone Sound Library, a wonderful online resource that offers a wide range of field recordings taken throughout the park. I was especially drawn to the sounds of the various geysers, and the Vixen geyser in particular caught my ears because of its interesting eruption pattern. It has a very rhythmic, punchy explosion, with a surprisingly mellow, gurgling finish as the water it just spewed out drains back into its crater. I decided to make the shape of the eruption into the form of the musical composition—the first three-quarters of the piece have a driving, relentless pulse punctuated with fits and starts, and then the rhythmic material slams to halt, replaced by gently overlapping layers of extended tones and bubbling trills that slowly disappear into thin air. Of course, it was impossible to resist using the name Vixen, which is perfect given the geyser’s unpredictable, spitfire disposition!

Vixen — flute, clarinet, alto saxophone, vibraphone, piano, violin, cello

Live recording - 02.28.18
Indiana University Symphonic Band, Eric Smedley director
2018 North Central CBDNA Convention
Jason H. Nam, conductor

For program notes and perusal score, please visit: https://alexandragardner.net/music/perseids/

Perseids — wind ensemble (LIVE - Indiana University Symphonic Band)

Performed by Robert Brown, baritone sax.

Recorded by Anastasia Kupstas and Téa Mottolese.

Mixed by Téa Mottolese.

[NOTE: This movement is for solo baritone sax.]

For additional information, please visit: https://alexandragardner.net/music/tides/

Tides for saxophone quartet and fixed electronics — III. Cypress

Performed by Daniel Kamon, soprano/alto sax; Jonathan Mo, alto sax; Téa Mottolese, tenor sax; Robert Brown, baritone, sax.

Recorded and mixed by Téa Mottolese.

For additional information, please visit: https://alexandragardner.net/music/tides/

Tides for saxophone quartet and fixed electronics — I. Murmurations

Viola and fixed electronics
Performed by Mara Gearman
Recorded at Jack Straw Productions, Seattle, WA

For additional information, please visit: alexandragardner.net/music/seduction-involves-patience/

Seduction Involves Patience — viola & fixed electronics

Flute, clarinet, violin cello, percussion, piano

Live recording - 7.11.97
Aspen Contemporary Ensemble 

For program notes and additional information, visit: https://www.alexandragardner.net/works/migrations/

Migrations

Clarinet in Bb, violin, cello, piano
Live Recording - 5.08.98
SOLI Chamber Ensemble

Crows is dedicated to the SOLI Chamber Ensemble. Inspired by the writings of poet Joy Harjo, each movement is based upon a short excerpt that describes some aspect of life in the desert southwest. These excerpts serve as a starting point for the creation of five musical landscapes:

red earth
My house is the red earth; it could be the center of the world. I’ve heard New York, Paris or Tokyo called the center of the world, but I say it is magnificently humble. You could drive by and miss it. Radio waves can obscure it. Words cannot construct it, for there are some sounds left to sacred wordless form…

clusters
We fly into the body and we fly out, changed by the sun, by crows who manipulate the borders of reason…

silver breaths
I see the flash of silver breaths on the wing of the sky, and hear the explosion of a thousand horses running…

invocation
I think of the lush stillness of the end of a world, sung into place by singers and the rattle of turtles in the dark morning…

drying stone
Invisible fish swim this ghost ocean now described by waves of sound, by water-worn rock. Soon the fish will learn to walk. Then humans will come ashore and paint dreams on the drying stone. Then later, much later, the ocean floor will be punctuated by Chevy trucks, carrying the dreamers' descendants, who are going to the store.

Poetry by Joy Harjo, from Secrets from the Center of the World (Tucson: The University of Arizona Press, 1989) and The Woman Who Fell from the Sky (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1994).

In Native American tradition, the crow represents the gateway to the supernatural, possessing the ability to see simultaneously past, present and future. While writing this piece I often wondered how these birds (which appear often in Harjo's poetry) might experience the journey through these musical expanses from their special perspective.

For program notes and additional information, visit: https://www.alexandragardner.net/works/crows/

Crows - 1. red earth

Live recording (excerpt) - 9.02.00
Teodoro Anzelotti, accordion
Stefan Hakenberg, conductor
CrossSound Players 

For program notes and additional information, visit: https://www.alexandragardner.net/works/tamarack/

Tamarack — accordion and ensemble (excerpt)

Trombone and sampled sound
Carlos Gil Ferrer, trombone

For program notes and additional information, visit: https://www.alexandragardner.net/music/snapdragon/

Snapdragon — trombone and sampled sound

Marimba and sampled sound
Robert Armengol, marimba

For program notes and additional information, visit: https://www.alexandragardner.net/music/ayehli/

Ayehli — marimba and sampled sound

Bass clarinet and processed sound
Harry Sparnaay, bass clarinet

For program notes and additional information, visit: https://www.alexandragardner.net/music/onice/

Onice — bass clarinet and processed sound

Soprano saxophone and computer sound
Xelo Giner, soprano saxophone

For program notes and additional information, visit: https://www.alexandragardner.net/music/tourmaline/

Tourmaline — soprano saxophone and fixed electronics

Live Recording - 6.15.18
Musicians of the Seattle Symphony
Mikail Shmidt and Brittany Breeden, violins; Sayaka Kokubo, viola; Eric Han, cello
[untitled] 3 concert, Benaroya Hall, Seattle, Washington 

For program notes and additional information, visit: https://www.alexandragardner.net/works/coyote-turns/

Coyote Turns - 1. openings

Amplified violin and computer sound
Jennifer Choi, violin; Alexandra Gardner, computer

For program notes and additional information, visit: https://www.alexandragardner.net/works/electric-blue-pantsuit/

electric blue pantsuit - amplified violin & electronics

Flute, clarinet, violin, cello

Live Recording - 2.03.10
Kelli Kathman, flute; Alicia Lee, clarinet; Yuki Numata, violin; Joshua Roman, cello
Contemporary Museum Mobtown Modern concert series, Baltimore, MD.

For program notes and additional information, visit: https://www.alexandragardner.net/works/the-way-of-ideas/

The Way of Ideas - flute, clarinet, violin, cello

Live recording - 6.01.12
Chicago Composers Orchestra
Ruth Page Theater, Chicago, IL 

For program notes and additional information, visit: https://www.alexandragardner.net/works/banyan/

Banyan — orchestra

Cello and Fixed Electronics
Joshua Roman, cello

For program notes and additional information, visit: https://www.alexandragardner.net/works/bloom/

Bloom - cello and fixed electronics

Saxophone, bassoon, electric guitar, violin, cello, contrabass, piano, drum set

Performed by Compaigne CH.AU

For program notes and additional information, visit: https://www.alexandragardner.net/works/two-by-eight/

Two by Eight — saxophone, bassoon, electric guitar, violin, cello, contrabass, piano, drum set

Composer & Sound Artist
Find out more at https://alexandragardner.net/

Alexandra Gardner

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