…to me from the earth… was commissioned by CAM Raleigh in collaboration with New Music Raleigh and North Carolina Symphony for performance in artist Thomas Sayre’s exhibition “White Gold.” “White Gold” refers to the cotton industry in the American South and the artist’s respect and reverence for the land and the labor from which the cotton grows. …to me from the earth…was premiered by the North Carolina Symphony and New Music Raleigh with Soprano Aundi Marie Moore in four performances in November, 2016.

Political activist and writer Grayson Haver Currin describes the premiere performance as “an absorbing piece of slow-moving music that doubles as site-specific work and triples as political performance art.” Currin continues, “Sparr composed the thirty-one-minute …to me from the earth… after several visits with Sayre, where he would see early models of the installation and ask the artist about his upbringing and inspiration, his motivation and his memories.

The study shows. Like Sayre’s own pieces, which show the toil behind their production in every smear of tar or every heavy chunk of concrete, …to me from earth… is physical and slightly confrontational. Especially near the start, the tones are snarling, with abrasive slashes of violin digging into a sinister drone. At various points throughout, the musicians whisper the Soprano’s words beneath her, suggesting a platform of ghosts with pain and persecution that’s needed an outlet for centuries.”

The work is dedicated to the progress and improvement of the human condition.

I. Introduction (Blue Smoke Rising)
My red pickup choked on burnt oil
as I drove down Highway 99.
In wind-tattered garbage bags
I had packed my whole life:
two pairs of jeans, a few T-shirts,
an a pair of work boots.
My red pickup choked on burnt oil,
and through the blue smoke rising from under the hood,
I saw almond orchards, plums,
and raisins spread out on paper trays,
and acres of Mendota cotton my mother picked as a child.

II. Furrow (Dust That Filled the Air)
My mother crawled through the furrows
and plucked cotton balls that filled
the burlap sack she dragged,
shoulder-slung, through dried-up bolls, 
husks, weevils, dirt clods,
and dust that filled the air with thirst.

III. Field (Told by the Setting Sun)
But when she grew tired,
she slept on her mom’s burlap,
stuffed thick as a mattress,
and Grandma dragged her over the land
where time was told by the setting sun. . . .

IV. Soliloquy: Earth Casting (To Me From the Earth) & Barn (Whispered its Soft Curses)
History cried out to me from the earth, 
in the scream of starling flight, 
and pounded at the hulls of seeds to be set free. 
History licked the asphalt with rubber
sighed in the windows of abandoned barns, 
slumped in the wind-blasted palms, groaned in the heat, and whispered its soft curses.

V. Conclusion (Mi Historia)
I wanted my own history—not the Earth’s (…mi historia)
nor the history of blood, nor of memory (…mi historia)
and not the job founded for me (…mi historia)

...to me from the earth... (live recording at CAM Raleigh)

New Music Raleigh + D. J. Sparr. For release on Centaur Records in 2014.

Sound Harmonies with Air

Performed by New Music Raleigh. For release on Centaur Records in 2014

Visit www.djsparr.com for score and perusal materials.

D. J. Sparr: THE GLAM SEDUCTION...a 15 minute long piece for flute/pic, bass clarinet, piano, percussion, violin, and cello. This Pierrot Lunaire ensemble work bridges a gap between classical and rock, and has been paired on recitals with music by Frank Zappa, Radiohead, Paganini, and others.

Program Notes:
The Glam Seduction was written with the intent of making an analogy amongst virtuosic classical playing in the (mostly romantic) style of performer-composers such as Liszt and Paganini, modern classical music, and "glam rock" from the 1980s era of heavy metal music such as Van Halen. The Glam Seduction begins with a modern music re-write, infused with more funky notes, of one of the most notorious and outrageous guitar solos of all time, the culmination of all that was the riotous excess of the 1980s; Eruption, by Eddie Van Halen. The piece continues with an ascending scale pattern that rears its bleached and frizzed-out head two more times, thereby delineating different musical sections, and signifying a return to the beginning of the form. In The Glam Seduction, each member of the ensemble gets their own solo in which to "rock out" heavy metal style. The Glam Seduction was commissioned by the BMI Foundation, Inc./ Boudleaux Bryant fund for eighth blackbird. - Nicholas Photinos

The Glam Seduction

Performed by New Music Raleigh. For release on Centaur Records in 2013

Woodlawn Drive

New Music Raleigh. Karen Strittmatter Galvin, Violin. 

Violin Solo from "The Glam Seduction"

Instrumentation: fl, ob, cl, 2gtr, 2 perc, vln*, vla*, cello*
*Amplified single strings or a section

DACCA:DECCA:GaFfA is a nine-minute long perpetual motion work that was premiered at the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit on September 5th 2008 in conjunction with my composer-in-residence position at New Music Detroit’s “Strange Beautiful Music II” marathon concert. My long-awaited idea of using steel-string acoustic guitars in a chamber music setting proved fortuitous for this group as there was already a guitarist in their ensemble. I decided to include myself in the piece in order to exploit the effect of guitar doublings in opposite stereo fields—a technique used in many recordings. In direct relation to this orchestrational concept, the title/structure is based on common chords, and the music that surrounds it in the other instrumental groups is inherently related to the order of chords as described in the title. But most importantly, my goal was to use these musical materials and instruments to engage bright and energetic sonorities. The work has been performed by the Orchestra of the League of Composers with Louis Karchin conducting as well as the California Symphony with Nicholas McGegan conducting. 

DACCA:DECCA:GaFfA

Commissioned and Performed by Ellipsis Trio....based on a melody from “The Music of the Pilgrims.” Inspired by William Bradford’s journal “Of Plymouth Plantation”, which was lost in Boston’s Old South Meeting House and turned up in England years after the revolutionary war. www.ellipsistrio.com 

Lost in the Old South Tower

Arkansas Symphony*
Philip Mann, Conductor | Ted Ludwig, Guitarist
Concerto for Jazz Guitar and Orchestra: Katrina  
Duration c. 25 minutes.
Live Recording, April 2016
*with permission

Score: https://issuu.com/d.j.sparr/docs/00_sparr_jazzguitarconcerto_conduct 

D.J. Sparr’s Concerto for Jazz Guitar and Orchestra: Katrina is a work that draws as inspiration metaphors from epic poems as a connection to victory in the face of overwhelming odds. Written for Ted Ludwig, a refugee of Hurricane Katrina who now lives in Little Rock, it ties our understanding of a horrific tragedy to the story of the Great Flood. In this tale, the protagonist character—known in different cultures as Ziusudra, Gilgamesh, or Noah—manages to escape the rising floodwaters and find redemption and strength in a new home. Sparr ties the ancient to the modern by mixing element s of ancient Sumerian string music with quotations of John Coltrane’s Giant Steps and Kansas Joe McCoy and Memphis Minnie’s When the Levee Breaks (which was inspired by the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927).
 
Recalling a conversation between Mr. Ludwig and himself, the composer says:
 
He described to me the moment he left New Orleans. It was beautiful day. In fact, he said, “one of the most beautiful days you could imagine, but we all knew to get out of there.” That day inspired the opening of the piece. Ringing bells and triangles lead to strings entering playing overlapping chords from Giant Steps. I thought it was an appropriate metaphor for the personal struggle to leave home behind.
 
The soloist improvises over long sustained chords representing the rising sun and sky, but with elements of rain-drops hovering above and strings of Tibetan bells in the background. Following this is the first articulation of a written out melody, loosely based on When the Levee Breaks. As the work progresses, there is a close association with Noah’s tale: an evocation of floating for long spans and the release of birds to search for land. The conclusion, described in the score as “The Temple of Enki at Erdu,” refers to one of the most important cult centers throughout the history of Mesopotamia, purportedly visited not only by worshipers, but by the deities themselves. In Sumerian mythology, Eridu was the home of the Abzu temple of the water god Enki. Like all the Sumerian and Babylonian gods, Enki began as a local god, who eventually came to share the rule of the cosmos. His kingdom was the sweet waters that lay below Earth. As this is the place where flood myth’s protagonist finally finds his home and strength, so too is it a metaphor for Ted Ludwig finding his home in Little Rock.

*Note by Jacob Wallace

Concerto for Jazz Guitar and Orchestra: Katrina

2. ...to me from the earth... (live recording)

The earth is my witness

I. Introduction (Blue Smoke Rising)
My red pickup choked on burnt oil
as I drove down Highway 99.
In wind-tattered garbage bags
I had packed my whole life:
two pairs of jeans, a few T-shirts,
an a pair of work boots.
My red pickup choked on burnt oil,
and through the blue smoke rising from under the hood,
I saw almond orchards, plums,
and raisins spread out on paper trays,
and acres of Mendota cotton my mother picked as a child.

1. ...to me from the earth... (live recording)

II. Furrow (Dust That Filled the Air)
My mother crawled through the furrows
and plucked cotton balls that filled
the burlap sack she dragged,
shoulder-slung, through dried-up bolls, 
husks, weevils, dirt clods,
and dust that filled the air with thirst.

3. ...to me from the earth... (live recording)

4. ...to me from the earth... (live recording)

III. Field (Told by the Setting Sun)
But when she grew tired,
she slept on her mom’s burlap,
stuffed thick as a mattress,
and Grandma dragged her over the land
where time was told by the setting sun. . . .

5. ...to me from the earth... (live recording)

I made this for my friend's baby a few years ago. Now, we use it for our Five-month old foster-boy. Thought I would share it! 
Note: it's about 2 minutes long and repeats for 20 minutes.

Hush Little Baby (Silas Rounds)

Inspired by impressionistic paintings of the Seine in Paris, France. 

Recorded at Lake George Music Festival

River Seine's Open Air

Recorded by Momenta Quartet

Apple wood is carried as a talisman to attract love and long life and apples are and important ingredient in spells of love, immortality, and healing.-from Jane Gifford’s “The Wisdom of Trees”

In the summer of 2014, the Momenta Quartet and I spent a week at Avaloch Farm Music Institute working on the beginning of a new String Quartet. Surrounded by apple orchards at this professional musician’s retreat, musicians rehearsed all day, took walks through the woods, and spent evenings listening to each other perform. There, time slowed and was reflected in the stillness of clouds hovering over a nearby lake.String Quartet: In Irish Mythology, Emhain Abhlach (pronounced similar to Avaloch) is an island paradise of everlasting beauty whose residents danced the days away. 

String Quartet: Avaloch is a single, fifteen-minute long movement. The work is dedicated to Alfred Tauber and Deborah Sherr, who had the combined vision to create an amazing place for performers and composers to unite in the creation of new and important musical works.

String Quartet: Avaloch

For Eric Allen, Corbin DeSpain, Wonkyung Kim-Sills and Lakeridge Chamber Orchestra

“With this act of generosity, may Lloyd the boxer-dog enjoy positive conditions wherever he may be...”


I. 
With every gust of wind,
the butterfly changes its place
on the willow.


II.FOUR HAIKU:
Spring:
A hill without a name
Veiled in morning mist.

The beginning of autumn:
Sea and emerald paddy
Both the same green.

The winds of autumn
Blow: yet still green
The chestnut husks.

A flash of lightning:
Into the gloom
Goes the heron's cry. 

III.	
Рiping autumn wind
blows with wild piercing voice
through the sliding door...

IV: 
Clouds will separate us —
the time to part has come now.
Wild goose flies away...

WITH EVERY GUST OF WIND -  premiere

Experience the TSO for the first time in this unique concert pairing the magnificent Firebird Suite with living composer and guitarist D. J. Sparr’s pioneering Concerto for Orchestra and Electric Guitar.

Felix Mendelssohn: The Hebrides, op. 26 (“Fingal’s Cave”)

D. J. Sparr: Violet Bond: Concerto for Orchestra and Electric Guitar 

Anatoly Liadov: The Enchanted Lake, op. 62

Igor Stravinsky: The Firebird Suite (1919)

Texarkana Symphony Orchestra  - Enchanted Tales (Feb 11, 2020)

Caitlin Vincent, Libretto

Lindsay Kesselman, Soprano
Kevin Geraldi, Conductor
UNCG Chamber Wind Ensemble

Sparr / Vincent

ELLA QUE LLORA

Score: https://issuu.com/d.j.sparr/docs/sparr_in_our_care_full_score

Reading from Walden School Creative Musician's Retreat
words by Janine Joseph

We’ll ease the ache, the chill, the shake, the fever
We’ll hear your heart, your breath, your chart in meter
We’ll treat you through a life
We’ll treat you through a life robust
We’ll treat you through a life robust, as healers.

Round by round.

I’ll ease the ache, the chill, the shake, the fever
I’ll hear your heart, your breath, your chart in meter

The break, the strain, the song’s sudden quiver
An art, you’ll see, this craft of a healer
The pulse, we’ve learned, is our finest teacher

D. J. Sparr

Pinned to spotlight

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