A walk through an orchard doesn't end well for Johnny Jones and his sister Sue.

This piece is one of several I wrote during the COVID-19 lockdown in spring, 2020. Eugene Field’s silly poem was a joy to set: at first light-hearted and funny, but with a narrative thread and an unexpected range of emotions to portray. 

Performed here by the Muhlenberg College Women's Ensemble, Chris Jackson, conductor, Vinny Trovato, piano

Score available here: https://composers.com/composers/andrew-ardizzoia/little-peach

Photo credit: Jimmy Smith, Creative Commons

The Little Peach

Last Train to Brussels is a mash-up in which the Ode to Joy (the EU anthem) and God Save the Queen create a sultry yet mournful farewell to European unity. In my mind I pictured two huge marble statues of Europa and Britannia scraping their way around an abandoned dance floor.

This piece is part of my "2020: Suite for Piano" which I began in March 2020, when COVID was making its first inroads in the US. I had no solo piano music in my catalog, and at the very least this seemed like a good way to check that box. While in lockdown I suddenly found myself free of the many distractions that take up my time on campus, and so with more time to compose, I set to work. The title is a nod to Hindemith’s 1922 Suite.

Performed at Muhlenberg College, April 1, 2022. Vinny Trovato, piano.

Score available here: https://composers.com/index.php/composers/andrew-ardizzoia/2020-suite-piano-op-61

Last Train To Brussels (Europa and Britannia Share a Final Embrace)

A solo vibraphone piece I composed in memory of my friend and colleague David Macbride. Performed here by Ben Toth. Score available for purchase: https://composers.com/index.php/composers/andrew-ardizzoia/certain-stunned-muteness

"A certain stunned muteness"

A brass transcription of my choral work "Ubi Caritas" performed by members of the Texas State University Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Tyler Bainter. 

Score and parts available from the American Composers Alliance: https://composers.com/composers/andrew-ardizzoia/ubi-caritas-brass-ensemble

Ubi Caritas (brass transcription)

My orchestral transcription of Debussy's "Suite Bergamasque" performed by the Texas State University Symphony Orchestra, under Dr. Jacob Harrison.

Debussy:Ardizzoia - Suite Bergamasque - Passepied

Debussy:Ardizzoia - Suite Bergamasque - Clair De Lune

Debussy:Ardizzoia - Suite Bergamasque - Prelude

Debussy:Ardizzoia - Suite Bergamasque - Menuet

My SATB setting of William Carlos Williams's "The Approach of Winter" with the Manhattan Choral Ensemble, Thomas Cunningham, cond.

Approach Of Winter

Assembly. Coming together. Putting together. All present and accounted for. People, tools, techniques. Disparate parts made one, constructed. E pluribus unum? Emended, redacted, polished, refined. The act of construction and/or deconstruction. What is the purpose of the finished product? Is there a finished product?

*Some Assembly Required. is a compendium of techniques and concepts that have figured prominently in much of my recent music; including ideas of craft, process, organization, economy of materials, and how those materials change over time. The work is in five large sections (Introduction, Bits & Pieces, Towering Structures, Break Down, and Loose Ends) during which tiny, seemingly innocuous motives take on important structural roles. A three note motive that first appears in Bits & Pieces may be initially nervous and active, only to be transformed into an heroic clarion call and a soaring, broad-beamed string melody in subsequent sections. An eruptive, ascending brass statement from the Introduction later becomes a descending figure without losing any of its impact as a brash interruption to the flow of the music.

Despite this fussy, symphonic working-out of materials, the piece retains its strong identity as an “opener.” Brass and percussion dominate the outer sections, while the more lyrical inner passages are given over to strings and woodwinds. The piece builds to a misleading conclusion in G major; although the final measures may best be described as a disassembly of previous materials.

*Some Assembly Required. was commissioned by Dr. Jacob Harrison for the Iowa State University Symphony Orchestra. I began sketching in the fall of 2009 and finished in September the following year. A great deal of the music was composed in full score from the very outset, breaking from my usual routine of sketching first in piano score and orchestrating only after a reduced version is complete.

Support for the commission of *Some Assembly Required. came from the Department of Music at Iowa State University, as well as the Alvin Edgar Fund for the Performing Arts, part of the Iowa State University Foundation. I am extraordinarily grateful to Jacob for his faith in me and in the work, and to the orchestra for their efforts in bringing it to life.

This recording was made at the ISU Symphony Orchestra's concert on November 7, 2010 in the Martha-Ellen Tye Recital Hall on the campus of Iowa State University in Ames.

*Some Assembly Required.

The Ballade Variations is an arrangement of the third movement of my Glass House Concerto, which I composed for Matthew Coley in 2011 and 2012.  Matthew immediately recognized this movement’s popular appeal and asked me to make a version for vibraphone.

The title refers to the fact that the work is made up of repeated statements of a simple song-like melody over which the soloist presents a number of different figurations (chorale, pseudo-cadenza, arpeggiated/ostinato, etc.).  The work’s midpoint is marked by a dramatic modulation from A-flat to C, and an entirely new lyrical melody.  Fragments of this new tune are heard combined with the first as the work draws to a close.  The arrangement of solo figuration around this midpoint is roughly symmetrical.

It should be mentioned that all of this musical material began life as the slow movement of my sonatina for violin and piano, which I composed concurrently with other movements of the concerto. I eventually discarded the idea of including a slow movement in that piece altogether, and the music ended up in the concerto.

The piece is virtually unchanged, apart from adjusting the solo part to account for the vibraphone’s range.  This new version was premiered by Matthew Coley, accompanied by conductor Mike Golemo and the Iowa State University Wind Ensemble, in October, 2014.  They are heard in the recording below.

Ballade Variations for Vibraphone and Wind Ensemble

A memorial to a dear friend and teacher, George Buckbee.  This piece was commissioned by a consortium of bands from across the US and Canada.  The University of the Pacific Symphonic Wind Ensemble is directed by Dr. Eric Hammer.

Midsummer Pavanes

The first movement of my Symphony for Wind Ensemble (after Richard Serra).  Glen Adsit conducts the Hartt Wind Ensemble.

Symphony For Wind Ensemble, First Movement

A work I composed for conductor Jason Caslor (conducting here!).  The familiar tune "Nearer, my God, to thee" is dissected and "mashed up" with "Amazing Grace".

"This primordial, threatening noise..."

"Quod erat demonstrandum..." is a brassy, energetic fanfare for wind ensemble.  It was commissioned by Mike Golemo and the Iowa State University Wind Ensemble and premiered by that group at the 2016 CBDNA North Central Division conference in Ames, IA.

Quod Erat Demonstrandum...

I'm a composer, conductor, and professor.  I teach at Muhlenberg College in Allentown, PA.

Andrew Ardizzoia

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