A set of several songs for tenor, clarinet, and cello. Lyrics by George Copway, Jude Thomas, and Ainsley Kelly.

Voice - Ian Lewis
Clarinet - Philip Espe
Cello - Aaron Bullard

Songs for Autumn: No. 6, Image

Day 3 of 31 days of new works in just intonation.

This work is in 3-limit, Pythagorean tuning.

F=16/9
G=1/1
A=9/8
Bb=32/27
B=81/64
C=4/3
D=3/2
Eb=128/81
E=27/16 

Day 3

Day 9 of 31 days of new works in just intonation:

"Burly-Q No. 2"

A=10/9, Bb=85/72, B=5/4, C=4/3, C#=25/18, D=40/27, D#=25/16, E=5/3, F=16/9, F#=50/27, G=1/1, G#=25/24

Day 9 "Burly-Q No. 2"

Day 13 of 31 day of new works in just intonation:

"Day 13" is a 13-limit work.

Day 13

Day 14 of 31 days of new works in just intonation:

Day 14 is a mostly 7-limit work (there is one 17-limit note) that features several long sustained tones. I determined that the long tones should not change, but rather the other notes would alter their frequencies. This resulted in the entire work raising in pitch by about 52 cents (a quarter step) by the one minute mark. For the last couple bars, I switched unprepared back to the stating frequencies. To my ear there's no abrupt shift or noticeable sound of the key resetting. I assume those out there with perfect pitch will notice the pitch drift throughout the whole work. 

Day 14

Day 19 of 31 days of new works in just intonation:

Day 19 is a prime number day, thus this is a 19-limit work. This work is the highest limit work to date. Despite the higher limit, the pitch material is quite small. There are about only 6 pitches in this source material for this work.

Day 19

Day 20 of 31 days of new works in just intonation:

Day 20 is a 19-limit work that features a series of 19-limit minor 7th chords—32:38:48:57—as a repeating piano ostinato. To add some variety to the chords, I added the occasional ninth, 11, 13, or 17. This kind of minor 7th chord has a peculiar sound. The 19-limit minor 3rd (19/16) is very close to equal temperament, so the sound is not as clean as the just minor 7th chord. But all the fifths are still pure, so it sounds somewhere in between the equal minor 7th chord and the just. 

Day 20

Day 21 of 31 days of new works in just intonation:

"Shadows" is a 7-limit work.

Day 21 "Shadows"

Day 22 of 31 days of new works in just intonation:

"They didn't believe me"

Day 22 "They didn't believe me"

Day 23 of 31 days of new works in just intonation:

Day 23 is another prime number day, so this work is a 23-limit work. This work is comprised of square and saw waves with the following tones (G=1/1):

4/3, 17/12, 3/2, 19/12, 5/3, 7/4, 11/6, 23/12, 1/1, 13/12, 7/6, 5/4 

Day 23

Day 24 of 31 days of new works in just intonation:

Short 17-limit work in two parts for woodwind quintet. I had quite a frustrating experience getting this track mastered, and I eventually picked the best of the worst because I could not get a good quality version. Despite that, this work is one of my favorites so far, and one of the most successful at using the unconventional 11- and 13-limit pitches in a traditional homophonic texture.

Day 24

Day 25 of 31 days of new works in just intonation:

Channeling my inner Nancarrow, Day 25 is a player piano style work. The first section is in a 7-limit whole tone scale—each note has 2-3 different ratios—and the second section is made out of the same 23-limit tone cluster that I used back in Day 23.

Day 25

Day 26 of 31 days of new works in just intonation:

"Three Fragments" consists of three short musical ideas. It's mostly 17-limit, but the 23-limit cluster makes an appearance again.

Day 26 "Three Fragments"

The first of two furniture music tracks composed as intermission music for my senior composition recital.

Casual Friday

Jason Wirth, piano

Premiered and recorded at the National Opera Center in New York City on May 29, 2015.

A tombeau is a musical work or poem created to commemorate the death of a notable individual. As I was composing this piece, I received news that an old teacher of mine, David Ward-Steinman, had passed away. Dr. Ward-Steinman was one of the first people to ever encourage my work as a composer, and this work draws heavily from the musical styles I studied under his tutelage. This tombeau is dedicated to David Ward-Steinman and his lasting influence on countless musicians.

Tombeau (for David Ward-Steinman)

Composite recording of five days—September 15–21, 2014—at the corner of 39th Avenue and Northern Boulevard from 09:00–09:05 in the morning. There is about a one-second fade out/fade in every five minutes when the recording transitions to the next day.

39th Avenue & Northern Boulevard, Long Island City

This set of four brief works features modified sounds of sampled electric piano and synthesizer. The work was sketched during a recent Thanksgiving I spent in Brewster, New York. It snowed the day before Thanksgiving and into the holiday morning. I subsequently submitted the work to the Untwelve 2014 Composition Competition. 

1. Commuter train 
2. Farmhouse blues 
3. Staring at a horse 
4. Ice on the path

Photo by Steven N. Severinghaus (http://photos.severinghaus.org/)

White Thanksgiving: Four Tableaux in Just Intonation

There's a drain at the far western end of the Manhattan-bound platform of the Queensbridge - 21 Street subway station that's perpetually running. This field recording is the sound of the water running beneath the drain while a Jamaica-bound F train enters, stops, and then leaves the station on the opposite track. Recorded at about 17:15 EDT on September 16, 2015.

Queensbridge - 21 Street

"Shadows," an overture of sorts, is an exploration of different sounds and harmonies produced by varying combinations of instruments. Special thanks to Daniel Ott, Brent Dutton, Alicia Lieu (and the rest of Composers Collective), my family, and Siobahn Sung for their work, advice, and support.

Performed & recorded November 14, 2015
Conducted by DAVID ŠTECH

Shadows

Song for voice and piano to the words of St. John of the Cross.

Recorded at Smith Recital Hall, San Diego State University, November 20, 2006

Tamaron Conseur, voice
Christopher Allen, piano

Photograph, "My Beloved Ghost, running away" by Kristaps Bergfelds
https://www.flickr.com/photos/narciss/3086277609

Beloved

Recording of a walk taken at 15:20 EDT and 22:25 EDT on July 17, 2016 from Greeley Square to 7th Avenue and 29th Street, via 32nd Street.

Greeley Square & Back Again

Tom Falvey (1949-2017) was a environmentalist, human rights activist, and writer. He was a man out of time, more akin to someone from the ancient Mediterranean societies than to today's world. He saw profound truths all around us in ways that most modern human's fail to notice. In addition to his stalwart commitment to the betterment of Earth, he is also remembered for his puckish nature.

This tombeau is composed for him because he was the only person uneducated in the Western music tradition I've encountered that immediately loved atonality. After knowing him for years, it became clear to me that he loved the music because he could sense what was real about it.

Many thanks to Jason Wirth for graciously and wonderfully performing this work.

Tombeau (for Tom Falvey)

Intabulation in just intonation.

31-limit extended Helmholtz-Ellis accidentals. Engraved in Dorico, general MIDI electric piano samples.

Bells

[at ease]

Part two of my set of sacred motets for men's quartet

Recorded by Tony DeRosa

http://www.advocals.com/

The Songs of Solomon: With great delight

Part three of my set of sacred motets for men's quartet

Recorded by Tony DeRosa

http://www.advocals.com/

The Songs of Solomon: Upon my bed

Part five of my set of sacred motets for men's quartet

Recorded by Tony DeRosa

http://www.advocals.com/

The Songs of Solomon: I come to my garden

Part four of my set of sacred motets for men's quartet

Recorded by Tony DeRosa

http://www.advocals.com/

The Songs of Solomon: Awake

The final part of my set of sacred motets for men's quartet

Recorded by Tony DeRosa

http://www.advocals.com/

The Songs of Solomon: Many waters

A single movement for for piano trio. This performance is by Neave Trio and they premiered the work on May 4, 2013.

http://neavetrio.com

Photo by Steven Severinghaus - http://severinghaus.org/ 

Moonrise

Jude Thomas is a composer and performer in the New York City area. He composes acoustic and electronic music that uses alternate systems of tuning—especially just intonation. He is also an active barbershop harmony singer and sings with the quartet, Age of Flight and with the New York City chorus, Voices of Gotham.

Jude Thomas

Pinned to spotlight

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