Lighter Than Sound is part of a collaboration with DoubleTake Dance. Catch the premiere of the dance on August 29, 2021 at 7:30 pm at the Higher Grounds Festival in NYC.

YouTube Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XJBeBjnKaas

FB Link: https://fb.me/e/1AOt7amAx

Orchestration: 2 fl, ob, cl, bsn, 2 hn, timp, strings, electronics

Lighter Than Sound

The after.after (2222, 4231, timp. +2, piano, strings)

This work explores the enigmatic unknown of what lies after death. I approach this musically with the incorporation of isorhythms (as opposed to a more anachronistic, romantic technique employed by Strauss in his Death and Transfiguration). The textures formulated by these isorhythms register a feeling of warmth and enrapturement, a loud fire of cyclical harmonic resonance within the cosmos. This to me is a rendition of what the mysterious beyond might sound like. 

-Brian Morales

the after.after

For woodwind quintet

Music by Brian Morales, performed by Kimberly Zaleski (flute),
Van Parker (horn), Ian Morin (bassoon), Robert Davis (clarinet), Devin Hinzo (english horn)

Strangers, a chamber ballet excerpt (No. 13 - The Wolf and the Lamb)
Recorded at the Julio de Burgos Cultural Art Center
Audio Engineer, Graham Rosen
Description: The gentle repetitive flow of the music is juxtaposed against a more brittle and coarse movement, symbolic of each character's side of the story. The Wolf and the Lamb is an Aesop Fable about evil always finding a way to justify its actions.

No. 13 The Wolf and the Lamb

3333 (pic., eh., bs.cl.), 4331, timp. +1perc., celesta, harp, strings

The Flickering MockUp 3.31.21

Orchestral Fanfare Opener
(2222, 4331, timp + perc., harp, piano, strings)

Pontification

I composed this piece to express my distaste for Proposition 8 in California (a motion to eliminate the right for same-sex couples to marry). I thought it was a crude, outrageous debate to be having in the 21st century and wrote this piece in response. It depicts an argument going in circles with a "call to vote" at the end. The last punctuated notes represent the syllables of a chorus counting to 8.

Senior Recital

Propatia Distatia: Argument - for Saxophone Quartet

Head Musik for Piano Sextet (Vln, Vc, Cbs, Pno, Hp, Perc)

Near The Precipice is a work dedicated to immigrants.  Its conception began as a film scoring cue, but later developed into a full-bodied piece of music. It took on a life of its own in my ballet, "The Ears Have The Wall" as it underscored a group of immigrants gazing upon the horizon at the opportunity of a fresh start in a distant, prosperous city. The opportunities awaiting them combined with the vastness and grandeur of the city surely must have felt overwhelming. As I developed this piece, the thought of a new beginning was always prevalent in the back of my mind.

Near The Precipice [Mock Up] for string orchestra

|pe|num|bra| is defined as the partially shaded outer region of the shadow cast by an opaque object. I was experimenting with various vertical structures that created a sort of "harmonic shading" in the music and thus is lead me to the title.

Alberto Giacometti was also known to incorporate shadows into his sculptures and painting which was part of the inspiration for this piece. There is a well-known set of three sculptures (a walking man, a man's head, and the figure of a towering woman). Each section in this music is represented by one of these statues. The dynamic stillness of these bronze monoliths will forever enchant me.

Judy Kang is on Cello and her associate is on Violin

|PE|NUM|BRA| [mock Up] for chamber orchestra

My submission for Austin Wintory's dope contest.

Winter Harvest 11.21.20 Ney Flute 3rd Take

California-native Brian Morales has established an exciting presence on the New York music scene, with a reputation for excellence as a composer, conductor, orchestrator and music director. Nominated for an Olivier Award (Best Orchestration for the West End production of The Color Purple directed by John Doyle), Morales was 2018-2019 Composer-in-Residence with the Baltimore Philharmonia and won the 2018 Pittsburgh Philharmonic EQT Young Composer Contest, resulting in the premiere his orchestral piece Arrivals.  An experienced theater, dance, film and video game collaborator, his extensive catalogue also includes concert music for an array of instrumental and vocal ensembles. 

Morales’s orchestrations for Gregory Nabours’s Ovation Award-winning song cycle, The Trouble With Words (Couerage Theatre Company, LA) inspired BROADWAY WORLD to exclaim, “Rock has never sounded so good! ...This has to be one of the best musical reviews I have ever seen.”  He composed the original score, conducted and produced the full orchestral session for the film Transcendence (CSM Films). Other film work includes scores for numerous independent shorts and first prize at the 2018 Yorkshire Film Scoring Competition.  

Morales’ work as a conductor and orchestral advisor for Adam Taylor and Scott Joiner’s opera films, “Connection Lost: The Tinder Opera” and “Something Blue: The Bachelor Opera” culminated in a Best Score award at Ireland’s Kerry Film Festival, and was featured on NPR’s ALL THINGS CONSIDERED in 2017.  

Collaborations with Swedish choreographer/dancer Julia Bengtsson, include Morales’ ambitious 35-minute ballet, The Ears Have The Wall, for piano quintet and four dancers which premiered at The Tank NYC in 2019, and Blank Space (for violin, clarinet, bassoon, violoncello, and piano) which was performed at the 2018 Fast-Forward Festival.  Was it a Dream?  (violin/cello) with choreography by Temple Kemezis, was featured at the 2016 New York 10 Dance Festival. 

Recent performances of his concert works include Visions of Sacrifice (oboe quartet) at the Talis Music Festival in Sarajevo, To This Great Land (piano trio) at the English Music Festival in Yorkshire; Autumn Chrysalis (violin, violoncello, clarinet, pipa, and yangqun) performed by the Sforzando Collective; and Kyrie (SATB) from his Missa Brevis, which premiered at the 2017 European American Musical Alliance Nadia Boulanger Institute in Paris.    

On the podium, he was founding music director of the Orange County Collegiate Orchestra, and he has appeared as guest conductor for the Novus et Antiquus Orchestra, the Orchestra Society of Philadelphia and the Amadeo Philharmonic. A Participant in the 2018 New York Conductor's Workshop, he worked with the Chamber Orchestra of New York and received additional training in orchestral conducting at the Juilliard Evening Division. He served as the assistant conductor for Kimo Furomoto and the Cal State Fullerton’s Symphony Orchestra and the conductor for the CSUF New Music Ensemble, working alongside Paola Prestini, Missy Mazolli, Conrad Pope and Nicole Mitchell.

Morales’ major teachers have included Philip Lasser (theory/composition) Richard Danielpour, Pamela Madsen (composition), Lloyd Rodgers (counterpoint/orchestration), and Bill Cunliffe (commercial arranging). He has a BM from Cal State University Fullerton and an MM in composition from the Manhattan School of Music.

Brian currently is an active chorus member for the acclaimed, award-winning Cantori NY choir where he sings bass under the baton of Maestro Mark Shapiro.

Brian Morales 16