Nuclear Placidity--horn choir version

Short Circuit refers to when neurons aren’t connecting properly in the brain, when one experiences brain fog or small seizures when tiny moments of time disappear.  In this piece, there are silences or ghosts of musical material that require the listener to mentally provide the connecting thread between the ideas to form the complete narrative.  The electronic sounds are triggered by the percussionist through Ableton Live, thus being a bridge between a piece for instruments and fixed media and a piece for interactive electronics.

Short Circuit

For full program with synopsis and libretto: https://www.dropbox.com/s/5o4wehojg8q9qx0/Onthewingsprogram.pdf?dl=0

On the Wings of Poesy
an opera in one act

Performed at the Chapel of the Venerable Bede, University of Miami
April 29th, 2016

Music by Samuel Lord Kalcheim
Libretto by Samuel and Gabriel Lord Kalcheim

John, a young poet
Mario Almonte, tenor

Fay B. Warren, Professor of English Literature
Rebekah Smeltzer, soprano

Orchestra
Emilio Rutllant,  flute
Andy Eshbach, oboe
Alex Morales, Leslie Miller, clarinet
Julia Paine, bassoon 
Szilard Molnar, Rhonda Kremer, horn
Abby Young (concertmaster), Alexander Magalong, violin 
Eric Eakes, viola
Joy Adams, violoncello
Miles DeMint, bass

Conducted by the composer

Paul Schwartz, rehearsal pianist 

Recording engineer, Julián Brijaldo


On The Wings Of Poesy (2016)

Interprété par l'Ensemble Arkea  (11 cordes)
dir. Dina Gilbert
26 janvier 2017 à la Chapelle historique du Bon-Pasteur

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J’ai dernièrement passé beaucoup de temps à réfléchir au sujet de la musique que j’écoute par rapport à la musique que je crée. Cette toute nouvelle pièce est une tentative de ma part d’explorer la division entre ces deux mondes en prenant des fragments de mélodies d’une chanson populaire puis en les réinterprétant dans un univers où les textures, les sons et les gestes correspondent au monde dans lequel je vis et m’exprime en ce moment. Je tente donc de déceler où et comment ces deux mondes s’entrecroisent. Je m’intéresse alors à ce sur quoi nos oreilles se concentrent lorsque nous écoutons, si nous pouvons activement cibler ou soustraire des éléments sonores pour entendre toutes les différentes structures qui se manifestent de façon simultanée.
 
(*Si vous reconnaissez l’oeuvre qui a inspiré cette pièce, s’il vous plaît il serait très apprécié de ne pas l’écrire dans les commentaires. J’aimerais idéalement que cette source se dévoile au fil du temps et que les gens ne cherchent pas activement à la connaître)
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Lately i’ve been spending a lot of time thinking about the music i listen to versus the music i create. "f o r e s t  f o r  t h e  t r e e s"  is my attempt at exploring the division between these two worlds. By taking fragments of melodies from a popular song and re-imagining them in the world of textures, sounds, and gestures that I have been living and speaking in lately, I am trying to find where these two worlds meet.  I am curious about what our ears focus on when we listen, and if we can actively zoom in and out to hear different simultaneous structures at the same time.  

(*if you recognize the piece that inspired this work, please do not mention it in the comments.  I am interested in unveiling it through time and post initial listen, and do not want people actively listening for it)

f  o  r  e  s  t       f  o  r      t  h  e      t  r  e  e  s      ( 2 0 1 7 )

'Angels from the Sand' for violin, vibraphone and horn. Guardian angel sounds a warning, but the dance has begun, with an air of innocence soon to darken, foreshadowing torturous subjugation. Confused and angry ones flail and curl. Ephemeral serenity emerges predictably in mysterious sweetness. Guardian angel reappears, initiating rational discourse. Anxiety, seeping in, trumps reason; inevitable enmeshment ensues, a near-lethal tangle of anxiety, terror, rage, destruction ... final titanic explosion dissects, propels into separate orbits. Missio complevit, angelus custos requiescit.

Clare Shore, the second woman to earn the DMA degree in Composition from The Juilliard School, has received critical acclaim,with reviewers from the NY Times, Boston Globe, Washington Post and others hailing her works as “provocative,” ”immensely dramatic” “unpretentious,” ”ingenious and evocative,” “intriguing,” ”romantic to the core.” Shore studied with Charles Eakin, David Diamond, Vincent Persichetti, Roger Sessions and Gunther Schuller. She has received numerous commissions, awards and grants and has served on the faculties of Fordham University, Manhattan School of Music, the University of Virginia, George Mason University and Palm Beach Atlantic University. She holds an exclusive publishing contract with E.C. Schirmer. Her works are recorded on CRS, Owl Recordings and Opus One, produced by Grammy Award-winning Elite Recordings. Clare is a co-founder of Zimmermann’s Café Chamber Music.

'Angels from the Sand' for violin, horn, and vibraphone by Clare Shore

"glass, evaporate[d]"

Within the first month after its premiere on "A Night of Robert Black" (with pianist, Lindsay Garritson), my piece "lips evaporate" for double bass and piano received several performances and recordings all around the United States. While mixing and mastering the recordings, my curiosity spiked after accidentally displacing certain tracks within the mix session. "glass, evaporate[d]" is the self-plundered amalgamation of this experiment. 

Performed and recorded by Jacob Mason
http://www.jacobmasonpianist.org/

"refract" by Jacob Mason
https://ja-cob-mus.bandcamp.com/album/refract?fbclid=IwAR3MEq0buAtzIdwqlfoJKaLNHgXT6mpXeM5WGxBsOxuNMDaw1Le3nKUS9TA

Picture: "Universal Tears (CGI)" by Rob Bryant, Jr
https://www.behance.net/robbryantjr

rynejsmusic@gmail.com
www.rynejsmusic.com

Selected for programming at the 2021 Society of Composers, Inc National Conference

Selected for presentation at the 4th annual Research on Contemporary Composition Conference (October 25th, 2020)

glass, evaporate[d] (Three Quarter-Tuned Pianos)

Charles Norman Mason has been recognized repeatedly for his originality and attention to color.  Steve Smith of The New York Times writes “’Additions’ by Charles Mason , offered a nearly seamless integration of electronic and acoustic sounds…” Peter Burwasser of Fanfare writes that Mason’s music speaks in a “boldly, original voice”. High Performance Review states that the music is “full of invention… funky and colorful… consistently ingenious.”  Katherine Porlington writes in Upstate Music (NY) “...Mason's Senderos Que se Bifurcan... is, without doubt, one of the finest new clarinet chamber works of the past twenty years.”  Nancy Raabe writes in The Birmingham News “Mason's brilliant From Shook Foil occupies a class of its own... it is charged with creativity.”
Mason has received many awards for his compositions including the 2005 Rome Prize, a Dale Warland Commission Prize, and the 2008 American Composers Orchestra “Playing it Unsafe” commission prize. His music has been performed throughout the world including the FORO INTERNACIONAL DE MUSICA NUEVA in Mexico City, the Quirinale in Rome, the Aspen Summer Music Festival, and the Nuova Musica Consonante in Romani.  His music has been featured on “Performance Today” on NPR.
Dr. Mason is associate professor of composition at the Frost School of Music at the University of Miami.  His website is www.charlesnormanmason.com


Short Circuit

charlesmason

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