The Earth and Universe Harmonize

The Earth Sings

03The Octopus

02The Shark

01The Porpoise

Espressivo

Performed by Zodiac Trio
Visions from the Aboriginal Dreamtime composed in January of 2018 for Zodiac Trio is scored for violin, clarinet and piano. The work is divided into four sections and is inspired by the creation legends of the Australian Aboriginals.

The Aboriginals believe that, in the beginning, the earth was featureless, flat and grey. There were no mountain ranges, rivers, billabongs, birds or animals - in fact not one living thing. Then long, long ago came the Dreamtime. The Dreamtime was a time when the ancestors rose up out of the grey plains where they had been slumbering for countless ages and sang every living thing into being. These mythical beings looked like animals or plants or insects, but they behaved just like humans. They wandered across the vast grey waste digging for water and searching for food and as they searched, because of their giant size, they made huge ravines and rivers in the land. Thus the world took on the shape it has today.

When the ancestors finished with their act of creation their spirit returned into the mountains, rivers, plants and animals. The bonds with the mythical beings of the Dreamtime are such that they believe in a united world of body and spirit for every form of life in the land, both living and non-living. This then means that the rocks, rivers plants and animals are more than just a reminder or a symbol of the Dreamtime they represent reality and eternal truth.

Aboriginal people believe that in the Dreamtime the traditional way of life was established and the people were left with a social and cultural heritage, which came from their ancestors. All the rites and ceremonies are, and always were, aimed at preserving this heritage. Their ancestors from the Dreamtime also gave them possession of tribal lands, and hence tribal land and all forms of life contained within it, are regarded as a sacred trust. These ceremonies are celebrated at Corroborees, which is a generic word to explain different genres of performance. Throughout Australia the word corroboree embraces songs, dances, rallies and meetings where people act out legends and stories from the Dreamtime.

The first two sections are inspired by the creation story from of the Dreamtime and the third is a lyrical love song celebrating the oneness of all living beings. In the final section titled Corroboree, I incorporated traditional rhythmic and metrical patterns used by Aboriginal people and attempt to imitate the sound of the didgeridoo in the clarinet and violin parts.

Visions Of The Aboriginal Dreamtime Mvt. 4

Visions Of The Aboriginal Dreamtime Mvt. 3

Visions Of The Aboriginal Dreamtime Mvt. 1 - 2

Klezmer Fantazye For String Quintet Midi

Performed by Stephen Gosling
Mysterious and romantic nocturne for solo piano.

Piano Sonata No.1

Nocturne for Piano

Song of Myself, A Walt Whitman Triptych is a work, which draws inspiration from three poems of Walt Whitman from his 1855 first edition of leaves of Grass. The piece is in celebration of the 200th anniversary of Whitman’s birth. The structure of this work is in three movements each of which correspond to three poems. The title of the movements is: Song of Myself, I Celebrate Myself, It flings my likeness after the rest. Each poem should be read before playing the corresponding movement.

1) Have you reckoned a thousand acres much?

Three character pieces for two bass clarinets.

1) Arioso

Performed by The Governor's School Orchestra Orlando Cella, conductor
Blast is an upbeat single movement orchestral work that is divided into three main sections.  Beginning with explosive fortissimo chords in the opening measures emerges a driving triplet rhythm figure that dominants the entire opening section. Virtuosic and playful, this first section features solos from every instrumental group.  

The middle section is more lyrical and romantic in nature but because of untraditional harmonies that alternate between the brass and strings the music takes on an otherworldly quality almost as if it was distant memory from the past. With a return to rhythmically driven music, the last section is joyful and buoyant and fanfare like in character.

Blast for Orchestra

The American Soloist - Conducted By Julius P. Williams - Dvorak Symphony Orchestra

Presto, With Rhythmic Precision

Dark And Mysterious

Harlequin’s Escapades is commissioned by and dedicated to Voyager Reed Quintet. It is a playful, comic piece inspired by the antics of Harlequin, one of the principal stock characters of the Italian commedia dell’arte. He and is often portrayed as a facile and witty gentleman’s valet and a capricious suitor of the serving maid.

In the early years of the commedia (mid-16th century), the Harlequin was a zanni (a wily and covetous comic servant), and he was cowardly, superstitious, and plagued by a continual lack of money and food. By the early 17th century, Harlequin had become a faithful valet, patient, credulous, and amorous. This last quality often led him into difficulties from which he managed to extricate himself by cleverness and irrepressible high spirits. He was amoral without being vicious, and, unlike his fellow commedia servants, he did not hold a grudge or seek revenge against those who tricked or cheated him.
The work is playful, rhythmic and at times virtuosic portrait of Harlequin that show many facets of his zany personality.

Harlequin's Escapades For Reed Quintet

Performed by Amici Tonic Vocal Quartet. Journey of Seasons is a thirty-minute song cycle for vocal quartet, clarinet and piano on the poetry of queer writer May Sarton. A very creative fertile writer, May Sarton wrote numerous novels and book of poetry. She began writing in her teenage years and worked well into her 80’s. Journey of Seasons explores many facets of the human experience. These songs address relationships with her mother, her lovers, ageing and most importantly with herself through the metaphor of nature and the garden.

2 All Day I Was With Trees

1) Now I Become Myself

Life Dances For Solo Cello "Freedoms Reel"

Life Dances For Solo Cello "Reflection"

Life Dances For Solo Cello "Struggle"

The Emerald Necklace Mov3 Surprise

The Emerald Necklace Mov2 Release

The Emerald Necklace Mov1 Compression

Performed by pianist Stephen Porter,
Le Pont Universel is a work for solo piano commissioned by and dedicated to pianist Stephen Porter in celebration the 60th Anniversary of Cité des Arts, an artist residencey located in Paris, France. 
This piece celebrates the core mission of the Cité des Arts: the spirit of international collaboration bringing artists together from all over the world to work on their craft in the creative atmosphere of Paris. The music reflects the vision of the founders, M. and Mme. Brunau, to create a haven for artists where they can explore, experiment and learn while assimilating French culture and all that Paris has to offer. The piece is celebratory in nature, and is divided into three sections with a duration of 15 minutes. The music oscillates between a dramatic, virtuosic style and parts that are calm, serene and highly lyrical.

Le Pont Universel for Solo Piano

Performed by Beyond Bells 
Celestial Celebration is a four-minute work for handbell choir and was commissioned by Beyond Bells  handbell Choir as part of their call for scores project. This piece is inspired by the total solar eclipse I recently experienced.  This work explores the handbell choir in a more textural and sonic way combining the various playing and dampening techniques to create layers of flowing and rhythmically vital sound waves. I envision these sonic textures as living and breathing energy to create beautiful and imaginative movement in a celebratory sonic dance.

Celestial Celebration for Handbell Choir

Sholem Aleichem’s Clock is a single-movement orchestral work commissioned by the Longwood Symphony Orchestra and dedicated to their musical director Ronald Feldman.

It is conceived as a tone poem following in the spirit of those written by Franz Liszt and Richard Strauss. The plot is inspired by the short story Der Zyeger (The Clock) by the great Yiddish author and playwright Sholem Aleichem. 

Using Klezmer music as my inspiration this piece is about a clock that strikes 13 and goes crazy.

Sholem Aleichem's Clock

Night Fantasy for Alto-Saxophone and Piano was commissioned by MMTA and is written for saxophonist Philipp Staudlin and pianist Yoko Hagino. The work is in one movement with a duration of 10 minutes.

Inspired by the Cosmos and space travel, Night Fantasy is a work that explores the relationship and interplay of color, texture and nuance between the saxophone and the piano. Like the Fantasias of the Elizabethan Virginalist composers of the 17th century, my work is also improvisational in nature. The piece freely develops and unfolds melodically and rhythmically and coloristically with a variety of different sections and tempos. As the piece progresses it builds in intensity leading to and ending with a virtuosic cadenza.

Night Fantasy For Alto - Saxophone And Piano

I. Fantasia (Mechanico)

Performed by Clarinetist Wes Warnhoff and The University of Missouri Percussion Ensemble, Megan Arns conductor
Night Wanderings scored for clarinet solo and percussion ensemble is a musical fantasy about traveling through space.  The piece tells the story of a solo space traveler who maneuvers through the wonders and perils of deep space. The traveler has many amazing experiences ranging from floating past beautiful planets and their moons to maneuvering through a dangerous field of meteors. There is a gradual tempo accelerando though out the work that ends with the space ship entering Warp 5 and beyond. Night Wanderings is written for the virtuoso clarinetist, Kliment Krylovskiy and the UCF Percussion Ensemble. The structure of the piece is in three sections with a duration of ten minutes.  My aesthetic goal for this work is to compose a piece, which explores all aspects of clarinet playing from highly expressive and lyrical to extremely virtuosic. The first section is slow and dream like using the percussion ensemble to create a mysterious and atmospheric background for the clarinet. The instruments work together in a homogeneous manner to produce colorful and intricate colleges of sound. The second section is in a more playful mood where dialogue between the clarinet and percussion instruments occurs. From the beginning, the piece gradually gets faster and faster finally leading to a more aggressive and virtuosic third section that includes a cadenza for the clarinet and also one for the percussion ensemble. This builds to an exciting and virtuosic conclusion.

Andrew List

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