Name: Don't Fall Into Despair by Asemo
Duration: 1 min 30 s
Description: Cinematic piece with a strong atmosphere. Piano and cello as main instruments

I can feel immense emotion in this | keep up the great work!

Epic, I like the rising tension and orchestration

I love a good piano composition! This very cool Fine work

Really nice track. All too brief! Nice work.

The piano composition is excellent but so too is the epic arrangement in accompaniment. Wonderful!

Tosi kivaa progressiota <3 well done mate!

The Scent of Summer’s End

As they sip the syrupy sauce of sorcery they quietly fall into apathy... Video on youTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6lKli1peOE&feature=youtu.be

Smelly Newscast

apathy

Written: 2018-19
Duration: ca. 25'
Commissioned by J.K. Billman
Premiere: Euclid Quartet, Mostly Modern Festival, Arthur Zankel Music Center, June 25, 2019
Publisher: Bill Holab Music: http://www.billholabmusic.com
For more info.: https://robertpaterson.com/string-quartet-no-2

PROGRAM NOTES
In some ways, String Quartet No. 2 is similar to my String Quartet No. 1: the five movements are stylistically diverse, I use a few snippets of pre-existing music, and the music, while idiomatic, is technically demanding. As with my first quartet, this work explores technical and aesthetic ideas I didn’t have a chance to explore in other works.

The first movement, Colored Fields, is inspired by abstract expressionist painters such as Mark Rothko, Kenneth Noland, and Barnett Newman, but also pointillist painters such as Georges Seurat and Paul Signac. There are textures that emerge and submerge using articulations that gradually shift from soft to loud, or short to long, and there are a few transitions that utilize a technique I call pitch phasing or phase modulation, as opposed to tempo phasing. In these transitions, two or more instruments gradually modulate (raise or lower) notes, motives, or phrases by gradual, very refined, microtonal, non-chromatic increments, settling on new pitch areas that directly reflect the previous areas, just modulated up or town. The movement ends softly with a virtual desaturation of the rhythmic material. I remove notes, one by one, until there’s nothing left.

The second movement, Rigor Mortis, is inspired by a comic strip by David Lynch that newspapers ran for many years. In this strip, Lynch sketched a stressed-out, pitch-black dog, looking very mean and almost buzzing with anger; it looked like it was about to explode. Every strip began with an accompanying paragraph that read, “The dog who is so angry he cannot move. He cannot eat. He cannot sleep. He can just barely growl. Bound so tightly with tension and anger, he approaches the state of rigor mortis.” This made me envision musicians playing with such ferocity and tension that the music seems to eventually cancel itself out, anger imploding in on itself.

The third movement, Dolente, is sad, lush, and mournful. The only request I had when writing this quartet was to incorporate a Norwegian fiddle tune or theme by Edvard Grieg, so I chose themes from Grieg’s String Quartet No. 1. The form of this movement mimics the form of a song by Edvard Grieg’s entitled Spillemaend (Minstrels, or Fiddlers). The poem that Grieg set in 1876 as the first of Six Ibsen Songs (Op. 25) is based on the Norwegian folktale of the fossegrim, a male water spirit who could teach the art of violin-playing, but often at the price of personal happiness. In some versions of the story, the poor violinist drowns in the end. Like the song, and echoing the second movement, this movement beginning with the protagonist’s longing, his desire for the beloved. Next, he encounters the fossegrim, who promises that becoming a master of music will allow the protagonist to become master of his beloved. In the final stanza, the protagonist becomes a master fiddler, but he is now a cursed, wandering musician deprived of earthly love, so he drowns himself.

The humorous fourth movement, Scherzando, capitalizes on effects that at times, often make the string players sound inebriated. I make use of copious glissandi and tempos that fluctuate between 3/4 and 6/8, giving a sense of unease.

The final movement, Collage, is similar to the first movement in that it is inspired by the visual arts, and specifically, collage painting and works by surrealists. Many themes from the first four movements are brought together in this odd-metered movement.

String Quartet No. 2 commissioned by J. K. Billman and is written for and dedicated to the Euclid Quartet.

The Indianapolis Quartet: Robert Paterson - String Quartets 1-3

String Quartet No. 2 - IV. Scherzando

"’Acoustic Sunrise Acoustic Sunset’ is better still, loosely tuned chords endow an almost middle eastern sitar like mantra to the cause begetting a vibe not so far removed from the Sunray the candy coated riffs delicately and deftly worked to provide something that will not only appeal to lovers of early feedback less Flying Saucer Attack but the mercurial sounds found on those rare acoustic fan club freebies issued by Porcupine Tree."

An acoustic piece with ambiance. Imagine a day in time lapse from sunrise to sunset. From the archives ...circa 2006

Demo v1.1

Acoustic Sunrise to Sunset

The Hope of Love

(c) 2000
Guitar, Programming, mixing, producing and mastering by Robert Grigg

Gadget

Exit Stage Left

Cinematic piece with a strong atmosphere. Piano and cello as main instruments

Don't Fall Into Despair

Written: 2016
Duration: 5'
Instrumentation: soprano, baritone and piano
Lyrics by Mark Campbell
Commissioned by the Five Boroughs Music Festival for the Five Borough Songbook, Volume II
World Premiere: Five Boroughs Music Festival, DiMenna Center for Classical Music/Baryshnikov Arts Center, Jerome Robbins Theater, New York, NY, Marnie Breckenridge, Soprano, Sidney Outlaw, baritone, Jocelyn Dueck, piano, February 11, 2017.
Publisher: Bill Holab Music

View Score: https://issuu.com/robertpaterson/docs/paterson_crossing_the_hudson__score

Buy Sheet Music: http://www.billholabmusic.com/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=103_137&products_id=2698

For More Information: https://robertpaterson.com/crossing-the-hudson

PROGRAM NOTES
When setting text to music, it is very fulfilling to have an opportunity to work with living writers, and especially a great writer such as Mark Campbell, one of America’s most celebrated librettists. The mission of the Five Borough Songbook project is to have composers and text writers create short pieces that are about New York City, so we decided to create a song entitled Crossing The Hudson about two people who cross each other on different Staten Island Ferries.

Crossing The Hudson was commissioned by the Five Boroughs Music Festival for the Five Borough Songbook, Volume II.

Crossing The Hudson

Original composition.... Alejandro Gonzalez M.

Casus Belli

Sun Trio for Violin, Cello and Piano
Duration: ca. 35'
Publisher: Bill Holab Music: http://www.billholabmusic.com/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=103_137&products_id=908
For More Info: http://robertpaterson.com/sun-trio

PROGRAM NOTE
Sun Trio originated when I first started the film score for a documentary entitled Journey Into Courage. After writing opening music to the film, director Bess O’Brien and I concluded that it was best to change some parts in order to properly compliment the film. The theme was kept, but some of the other sections were changed and/or edited. I never discarded the original sketches, even though much of it remained on the cutting room floor. Thankfully, it came to good use later in this work.

The first movement, Sun Day, begins with the theme from the Journey Into Courage introduction. This movement is meant to evoke the feelings you get when summer, mid-day sunbeams appear from between the clouds and warm your skin.

Sunset, the second movement, was inspired by Lake Champlain in Burlington, Vermont and my wife Victoria. I envisioned us embraced, doing a Tango–like dance under a multi–colored sunset—at times, to themes from Stravinsky’s L’Histoire du soldat. Victoria is a much better dancer than I, and in this movement, she teaches me the steps. I fumble around and finally get it right, and then the sun sets.

The third movement, Absence of Sun, is connected from beginning to end by one long melodic line. The cello melody is modeled after a classical Indian Sitar raga, specifically the traditional, slow introductory section of a classical Indian composition. The bass piano part supplies the drone while a high-pitched tone row supplies a "starry night" texture. This texture gradually melds into a wind chime accompaniment. The movement peaks in the middle with an intense cello line. At this point, the violin intervallically supports the cello line. Each instrument—and in the case of the piano, each stave—represents a specific, individual texture. This movement intended to sound somewhat improvised.

Sunrise, is meant to evoke the feeling you get when watching the sun rise. There is a "Sun" peak of an octave, a bright yellow ‘E’, symbolizing the first, intense, bright sunbeam peaking over the horizon. In the middle of the movement, a string of rising chords mimics a "fast-forward" of the sun rising in the sky. Later in the movement, the violin and cello play decelerated bird motives. I wrote the bird songs down on the morning of April 17, 1995, while watching the sun rise behind the University of Vermont music building. I use the "mystic chord" by Alexander Skryabin as melodic and chordal material for the anticipation of the rising of the sun. While I was waiting for the sun to rise, I watched the mountains intensely. I finally was about to give up, thinking that the sun tricked me and rose behind some clouds when I wasn’t looking. As soon as I turned around to walk away, I felt an intense heat hit the back of my neck. I turned around and there it was! The sun was there, in all of its glory and splendor, lighting up the mountains. As well as evoking a sunrise, this movement also uses themes from the previous three movements.

The sprightly Sun Dance is a closure movement written to provide a vibrant contrast to the other four. The initial piano motive is taken from Five Movements for string quartet by Anton Webern. The first section introduces the themes, motives and patterns which are then used in subsequent sections. The second and fourth sections are percussive, while the third section is more placid and melodic. The finale is hard and driving, utilizing both snap pizzicati (plucking the string so it bounces against the fingerboard) and loud four-note chords in the strings.

Sun Trio was commissioned by Dennis O’Brien to commemorate the 98th birthday.

Spheres

Sun Trio - I. Sun Day

Sun Trio - Mvt. I. Sun Day

Composer, pianist and producer from Finland. Variety of vibes from deep house to orchestral arrangements. 

esa.nuurtamo@gmail.com

Don't Fall Into Despair

Asemo

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