Dan Shaud (horn) & Aaron Trant (drums) perform the 1999 composition "no apologies necessary" (part 2 of 2) by Curtis K. Hughes
Recorded July 1999, Groton MA.

no apologies necessary [1999] - part 2 (of 2)

Geoffrey Landman, alto saxophone
Osnat Netzer, piano

℗ 2014 Turdus Merula Music
Artwork by James St. John provided under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.


Pillars (2014)

A piece for piano and strings called 'The Iris of the World', composed by Victor Yaneng Wang in 2024. This version is for piano quintet with double bass; there are also versions for piano quartet, or piano with string orchestra.

Massive thanks to the string players who helped me with this recording: Yuki Kanazawa (violin), Amanda Jackson (viola), Eren Shin (cello), Berk Soykan (double bass). I performed the piano part. We also performed this piece together in December 2024, at one of MIT's Chamber Music Society concerts.

The Iris of the World (piano quintet version)

A movement for orchestra, composed in 2025. This recording is from a reading (not a concert performance) by MITSO, the MIT Symphony Orchestra.

A huge thank you to MITSO, and especially to the wonderful conductor Adam Boyles, for making this happen!

Programme note: 
Lately I have been thinking about creatures who struggle, in some way, with the realisation they are not human. For instance - Kafka's 'Metamorphosis', where the main character wakes up one morning to find he has been transformed into a gigantic insect. But this is not the only example which comes to mind.

I didn't want to view such beings as terrifying, or merely pathetic. Instead I pictured them in all their melancholy nobility, caught in their longing to understand what it meant for them to live.

Instrumentation: 2.2.2.2 - 2.1.0.0 - timp - strings

All Too Inhuman

An allele is one of a number of alternative forms of the same gene or genetic locus.  Some genetic variations result in vast differences from eye color to blood type; many others result in almost no variation beyond the gene itself.

The gene in Alleles is a simple pattern of three sustained notes: [1] The initial note, [2] a large leap in either direction, [3] then a smaller leap in the opposite direction such that the note we end up on is either just above or below the initial pitch.  Almost all possible versions of this motive [motive A] are stated fugally at the beginning with interruptions by freer melodic statements introducing a rhythmic repeated note motive [motive B] and a harmonic cluster motive [motive C], both of which derive from motive A and gain a life of their own in subsequent sections.  The fugue ends with a bigger statement of motive B, which the percussion takes over. This transitions into a much weightier, almost muscular statement of motive A in sustained brass canons moving in and out of a heavy motive B accompaniment.  Just as the brass begin to dominate the texture, motive B takes over completely and rushes headlong into a climactic statement of all versions of the motive stated simultaneously in the entire ensemble, split into two cross-faded groups.  The percussion again transitions into a restatement of the opening, though now in widely spaced chords expanding and contracting down until we are left with only motive C stated three times, aching each time more fully into consonance.


Alleles for Symphonic Band

2016

[Under the Cherry Trees]
[Sub Rosa]
[Lemon]

Tony Arnold, soprano
James Baker, conductor
Wellesley Composers Conference faculty ensemble

performed live on 7.30.16 in Wellesley


//TEXT (trans.) by Kajii Motojiro
transliterated by Mahoko Taniguchi

[Under the Cherry Trees]
Dead bodies are buried under the cherry trees!
You have to believe it. Otherwise, you couldn’t possibly explain the beauty of the cherry blossoms. I was restless, lately, because I couldn’t believe in this beauty. But I have now finally understood: dead bodies are buried under the cherry trees. You have to believe it.

[Lemon]
Before my life started being eaten into, the place I used to like best of all was Maruzen. There were red and yellow eau de cologne and eau de quinine. There were ornately etched and polished perfume bottles; Kiriko glass, with raised figures of amber and jade in an elegant rococo style. There were Japanese smoke pipes, knives, soaps, and cigarettes.

Mischa Salkind-Pearl's Album

Language of Flowers [2016]

For clarinet, violin, cello, and piano.  Composed in 2013.  Performed by Music from Copland House.

Cultivate concert 2014

P.A.W.

11 - Jute Gyte - "Detritivore"

Recorded by Alarm Will Sound at the 2011 Mizzou New Music Summer Festival.  Alan Pierson, conductor.

Mizzou New Music Summer Festival July 16, 2011

Step!

"A Mind Sang" is the winner of the Vimeo Staff Pick Award at the 2020 Annecy International Animation Film Festival. Read more about it on the Vimeo blog: vimeo.com/blog/post/staff-pick-award-a-mind-sang-vier-nev/

A Mind Sang | A Mãe de Sangue
Directed and animated by Vier Nev

viernev.com
instagram.com/viernev/

yaniselmasri.com
instagram.com/yanis.el.masri


ORIGINAL MUSIC | Yanis El-Masri
RECORDING / SOUND PRODUCTION | Guilherme Correia
MUSIC ASSISTANT/RECORDING ASSISTANT | Miguel Serrão

MUSICIANS
PICCOLO | Simão Pinto
FLUTES | Melanie Gil, Ana Teixeira
OBOE | Gabriela Pereira
CLARINET | Joana Lima
BASS CLARINET | António Lopes
BASSOON | Adriana Gonçalves
CONTRABASSOON | José Miguel Oliveira
FRENCH HORNS | Cristiana Azoia, Luis Oliveira
TRUMPET | Pedro Jerónimo
TUBA | José Santos
VIOLINS | Alice Abreu, Daví Rabog, Tiago Rodrigues, Yuri Gomes
VIOLAS | Catarina Gonçalves, Luís Silva
CELLOS | João Geraldo, Dinis Lecomte
DOUBLE BASS | Amã Oliveira

no apologies necessary [1999] - part 2 (of 2)

Curtis K Hughes