"abandoned time" for rock guitar and ensemble 
performed by I.C.E., Dan Lippel (guitar),
conducted by Matthew Ward

Abandoned Time for rock guitar and ensemble

Bethanne Walker - flute
San Francisco Conservatory, October 2014

Lightning Rod was written, with admiration, for Bethanne Walker in October 2013. The work is the result of attempting to exploit some particular aspects of her virtuosity, which provide unusual freedom for the composer. The piece relies on the interplay between changing speeds of notes and textures that create the impression of being multi-layered within one instrument. The narrative of the music also hinges on a trajectory to extremes of register, with an acrobatic intensity that the performer must navigate. Additionally, the rhythmic language is highly precise and exploits the tension between mechanical accuracy in notation and natural human fluctuations that are part of the process of transforming the score into music.

Lightning Rod - for solo flute

Promises (2014), for orchestra

Ioannis Theodoridis - Guitar
David Zucchi - Saxophones
Stephanie Thom - vocals

photo by Paul Fake



Untitled

Dedicate and performed by Alicia Kim , Susan Kang and Kyle Henning.

Celeste hija de la tierra

The premiere of Unknown Epitaph, written for Cameron Perry's Junior Recital.

1. Where Death Went 0:00
2. Memory and Procession 4:17
3. Invocation 9:34
4. Quinquereme: A Ritual Dance 15:37 

Trombone: Cameron Perry
Conductor: Indervir Singh

Percussion: Austin Birdy, Dan Raderman
Harp:  Anna Ellsworth
Piano: Zach Beever
Violins: Jerry Lee, Huyen Anh Nguyen
Viola:  Raymond Dineen
Cello: Mitzi Okou
Double Bass: John Krause

Photo: Empty (Graveyard in Faroe Islands)
             by Jim Congleton

Unknown Epitaph for Trombone and Ensemble

Alto Sax: Bogi Nagi
Max patch: Esteban Chapela

Released in the album Fonometrías, produced by Sequenza Producciones.

Dial-Up | alto sax. & electronics (2016) | Bogi Nagy

Premiered by Ensemble Suono Giallo in Città di Castello, Italy.

Raindrops On Cracked Mud (2019) [live recording]

Performed by Sinfonia Salt Lake:
Alison Olsen - flute
Henry Caceres - clarinet
Autumn England - cello
Stephen Hughes - percussion
Andrew Staupe - piano
Robert Baldwin conducting

Gramarye for chamber ensemble explores the interstices between music and language. Grammar is regarded today as an ubiquitous study instilled in us from a young age in school. In the Middle Ages, however, knowledge of grammar was scarce enough to be considered a form of sorcery by the layman. Along with logic and rhetoric, grammar formed the core of the seven liberal arts known as the trivium. The term “gramarye” now has connotations of occult learning, magic, and necromancy. This new work springs from this mystical view of grammar and learning in general. Gramarye presents many variations of its opening harmonic material in textures that are each controlled by unique, sound grammars. Excerpts from preexistent texts are woven into the formal, rhythmic, and harmonic structures of the piece. These include references to gramarye in the Towneley plays and Sir Walter Scott’s The Lay of the Last Minstrel. I do not intend these processes to be recognized and carefully followed by the listener, but rather I aim for them to lend the music an underpinning structure and personal meaning, which allows a metaphorical resonance with the source materials to blossom. Gramarye was commissioned by the Utah Arts Festival for Sinfonia Salt Lake and was premiered on July 22, 2019, in Salt Lake City. This work was made possible in part with the support of Crosstown Arts in Memphis.

Gramarye

"Pitless Tapers" - New Recording, December 21, 2013

For Chamber Ensemble, Sub-ContraBass Flute (Kotato & Fukushima), Bass Flugelhorn; Sopranino Saxophone; Antio-Phase Elevation Device; Logistrum; Valianest Marimba; Bass Banjo and Amplified Adjusted Bass Flute.

Where there is so much talk of liberation there are sure to be very disturbing reverberations within the world of established, acceptable criteria. The liberation of words, objects, sounds, etc., should be seen as different from the confusions surrounding the idea of making them free. They are already free, before anyone ever thinks of using them. The idea of them being liberated is relative to the use that they have been put to (and enslaved by) in the past. 

They cannot be more free than they are, but they can be liberated from their conceptual inheritance, and we from ours. That is the point at which we can realize that we are already as free as words, objects, and sounds are. Everything is then free to move in all directions to all meanings. 

Earle Brown, 1965

"Pitless Tapers" for Chamber Ensemble, et al  Bil Smith Composer

Composer, improviser, and musicologist born and raised in Mexico City, Mexico 🇲🇽 Doctorate in composition. I play guitar in the experimental group Fat Pigeon and lead the large ensemble project Pinson Chamber Band.

Lightning Rod - for solo flute

Craig Davis Pinson

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