University of Maryland Wind Orchestra
Michael Votta, Director and Conductor

The Sound of Light (2010) for wind orchestra

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

inner analog

Inversion Da Capo; Adrienne Pedrotti Bingamon, director
Saturday January 21, 2023
Westminster Presbyterian Church, Austin, Texas
Maureen Broy Papovich & Katrina Saporsantos, soprano soloists
Brendan Fairleigh, clarinet; Joseph Choi, piano

Text:
Arthur Rimbaud, musical trans. Steven Sérpa

I.
On the calm black water where the stars sleep
White Ophelia floats like a great lily;
Floats very slowly, lying in her long veils…
–You hear in the distant woods the sound of the hunt.

 For more than a thousand years the sad Ophelia,
She passed, a white phantom, down the long black river;
For more than a thousand years her sweet madness,
It murmured its romance to the evening breeze.

The wind kisses her breasts and unfolds in a wreath
Her great veils softly cradled by the waters;
The trembling willows weep on her shoulder,
Over her wide dreaming brow the reeds bend down.

The ruffled water lilies sigh all around her;
At times she awakens, among the sleeping branches,
Some nest, from which escapes a slight rustle of wings;
–A mysterious song falling from golden stars. 

II.
O pale Ophelia! beautiful as snow!
Yes, you died child, carried off by a river!
–The falling winds in low voices
Spoke to you of bitter freedom;

 It was a breath, twisting your great hair,
That bore strange rumors to your dreaming mind;
It was your heart listening to Nature’s song
In the complaints of trees and in the sighs of the night;

 It was the voice of mad seas, a great noise,
That broke your child’s heart, too human and too soft;
It was a knight, so handsome and pale, a poor fool,
Who, one April morning, sat mute at your knees!

 Heaven! Love! Freedom! What a dream, you poor, mad girl!
You melted to him as snow does to fire;
Your great visions strangled your words
–And fearful Infinity terrified your blue eyes!

III.
–And the Poet says that under the stars’ rays
You come at night looking for the flowers you picked;
And that he saw on the water, lying in her long veils,
White Ophelia floating, like a great lily.

Ophelia Floats - IE 2023 premiere

Ophelia Floats, for solo soprano and SSA chorus with clarinet and piano (2020/2022)

Giorgio Colombo Taccani
PRELUDIO ALL'EQUINOZIO for baritone saxophone and cello (2022)
EDIZIONI SUVINI ZERBONI - MILANO
Duo Tubi & Corde (Marco Bonetti, baritone saxophone - Guido Boselli, cello
Live recording, 22.03.2023 - Festival 5 Giornate, Milano
More at www.colombotaccani.it/preludioallequinozio.html

"Preludio all'equinozio" for baritone saxophone and cello (2022)

“Mitleid” aka “חמלה” aka “Compassion” is dedicated to Linda Bell, Provost of Barnard College. Linda is a Russian/Jewish-American, and her husband Lior Yahalomi is Israeli -- the piece is dedicated to him as well.  They both showed tremendous personal compassion and initiative in bringing about the exoneration of a former employee, who, as the result of racial bias and misapplication of law enforcement practices directed toward him, found himself in front of a county court judge facing a 30 year jail sentence. Through Linda’s and Lior’s intervention, a coalition of supporters was gathered, the investigation was re-opened, the police were reprimanded, the district attorney was replaced, and our friend was ultimately released (already a retiree for several years, he would have died in jail had he been sentenced to that severe term).  Compassion was exercised, and justice prevailed.

Mitleid

Pianist May Phang offers the world premiere performance of "Quiete notturna" by Curt Cacioppo. LIVE April 21, 2024, New York City.

Quiete notturna

Music written for video dance; in collaboration with dancer/choreographer/video director Ana Baer and dancer/choreographer Michelle Nance.  The piece uses only power tools, brooms, wood and various old metal pipes from the junkyard.  It was composed in November, 2017.

Homemaker - 2017

Michael Schelle
THE EISENSTEIN MUMMERS (2018)
- for chamber ensemble

Written for the "Bang on a Roomful of Teeth All Stars"
Jay Young, tenor sax
Miho Sasaki & Dianna Davis, accordions
Gregory Martin, piano
Richard Auldon Clark, viola
William Grubb, cello
David Murray, doublebass
Michael Schelle & Jeff Queen, percussion
Vu Nguyen, conductor

A fusion of multiple influences, the piece primarily draws on two :

1. the annual New Year's Day Mummers Parade in Philadelphia (my birth city) 
The Mummers Parade = outrageous costumes, wild crazy music (with lots 
of accordions and saxophones!!), and

2. the iconic 1923 experimental film "Glumov's Diary", a 5:00 Dada 
masterpiece conceived, written, produced and directed by the notorious 
Sergei Eisenstein. An early pioneer of cross cut editing and collage 
("Battleship Potemkin", "Strike", "Alexander Nevsky", "Thunder Over 
Mexico", etc.), Eisenstein's first film (Glumov) forever changed the 
industry and the art.

World premiere: Tuesday, April 10, 2018 - Indianapolis

VIDEO:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bFuG-9eIYYw

Glumov : www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2TeqpxVzhU

Schelle website: www.schellemusic.com

.

THE EISENSTEIN MUMMERS (2018), for chamber ensemble

Dramatic

Rain On It

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

The Little Peach

Andrew Ardizzoia

Related tracks