Ann Moss, Soprano
Brian Mark, Piano


E. E. Cummings, 1894 - 1962

there are so many tictoc
clocks everywhere telling people
what toctic time it is for
tictic instance five toc minutes toc
past six tic

Spring is not regulated and does
not get out of order nor do
its hands a little jerking move
over numbers slowly

			we do not
wind it up it has no weights
springs wheels inside of
its slender self no indeed dear
nothing of the kind.

(So, when kiss Spring comes
we’ll kiss each kiss other on kiss the kiss
lips because tic clocks toc don’t make
a toctic difference
to kisskiss you and to 
kiss me)

there are so many tictoc

Fire and Ice

The Snow Globe

Sublime Oasis

Chaos Control: lrotnoC soahC

Based on the painting by Edward Robert Hughes, Night with her Train of Stars was commissioned by Michelle Gott, and is written for harp, clarinet, violin, and percussion.  As I have written a few pieces based on art paintings in the past, I have always wanted to write a piece based on this work, and Michelle’s choice of instrumentation was the perfect fit for Hughes’ vision in this canvas. Edward Robert Hughes (1851-1914) was a well-known English painter who worked in a style influenced by Pre-Raphaelitism and Aestheticism.  Although it was not my intention to structure the piece coinciding with this movement in art history, I attempted to capture the overall tone, color, and spiritual image that Mr. Hughes was trying to depict.

Night with her Train of Stars is more or less an augmented sonata-allegro form. The main melody, or the “voice” of the mother angel in the painting, is the ‘unanswered’ theme prominent in the exposition and the recapitulation of the piece, as the structure of the canvas creates many mystical visions and ‘unanswered questions’ for the audience to interpret on their own. The introduction and the ostinato like coda depicts the swirling birds and flying angels in the painting, combined with the simple development section that sheds light of the Mother calming the baby in her arms, which is juxtaposed by the surrounding activity in the middle-ground and background of the painting. While I chose this painting from the periods of Pre-Raphaelitism and Aestheticism to write this composition, I am using elements of late-romanticism, impressionism, minimalism, a touch of film music, and contemporary techniques to make the soundscape more universal. Night with her Train of Stars was premiered at the Juilliard School of Music Morse Recital Hall on May 19, 2009.

Night with Her Train of Stars

Redemption

6 And A Half Magic Hours

Rather than a traditional song cycle, Three Authors/Three Songs is a collection of my best work in the genre of art song. These songs depict a transitional arch of three stages of life: the first experience of timeless eternal love, the pains and tribulations of life as war that still surrounds us in this current generation, and thus, finally, the memories that stay with us as we enter our final chapter in our lives before leaving this world.

Three Authors/Three Songs were not composed in this consecutive order, but came together after 6 years of different circumstances and opportunities. there are so many tictoc, based on the poem of e.e. cummings, is written for soprano with piano accompaniment, and was premiered at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music 2005 5th Annual Art Song Competition on April 1, 2005. Fire and Ice, based on the poem of Robert Frost, is written for both mezzo-soprano and soprano (transposed score available), which includes a flute with a piano accompaniment. It was premiered at the “Musik für Gesang und Instrumente” Concert at the Akademie der Künste in Berlin, Germany on July 11, 2007.  The Snow Globe, based on the poem by Howard Nemerov, is written for soprano with piano accompaniment, and was premiered at the Longy School of Music on December 11, 2001.

Three Authors Three Songs

Brian's Compositions

String Quartet No. 2: Untitled

String Quartet No. 2: San Francisco Fog

String Quartet No. 2: Dance

Award winning composer, pianist, video artist and concert curator in Brooklyn, NYC.

brianjmark

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