Contemporary string quartets

Hammer & Nail is a fast and furious duo inspired by heavy metal and progressive rock.  It features hard hitting, razor sharp contrapuntal lines between the two instruments, creating a brazen and percussive sound with the sophistication of Bach and the rebelliousness of Sid Vicious.

Performance by the Soli Chamber Ensemble - https://www.solichamberensemble.com/

D.J. Sparr - Electric Guitar
Carolyn True - Piano

See the entire concert! - https://youtu.be/0yFTLHPEF2o

More Info

Hammer And Nail, for Electric Guitar and Piano

D.J. SPARR: The Glam Seduction

Oxygen by Randall West

Midterm projects from MUSI464/591 at Yale School of Music

Meretzky // Vyolinen Round

"Only a beginning" was inspired by words and music I interacted with during the Summer of 2015.  The title comes from Indira Ghandi's quote: "Martyrdom does not end something, it is only a beginning."  I happen to stumble upon this quote after a week of performing Poulenc's "Dialogues of the Carmelites" at Caramoor and a chance encounter of hearing a friend sing the "In Paradisum" of the standard Catholic Funeral mass.  With all of these events coinciding, I could not help but reflect on what sacrifice means - what we think it means, and how it actually plays out in everyday life. We may sacrifice things for God, our spouse, our children, our family, our friends, sometimes even for people we don't even know. This piece explores what can happen to us emotionally in this act of giving, and what we ultimately learn about ourselves in the process.

Recorded live in Scarsdale, NY in February 2016
Ani Gregorian, violin
Jessica Meyer, viola

"Only a Beginning" for Violin and Viola

World premiere played by the Signum Quartet, CBSO Centre, Birmingham

Volans String Quartet No. 12 played by the Signum Quartet

Recorded by Lydian Quartet

I – NODE: Tuning Knot  00:00-03:22
II – Recently Found Fragments: Chant Loop  03:28-11:38
III – Striding Rituals: Nocturnal Gatherings for Mass Wooing  11:44-17:30
III.5 or 5.IV – Optional habits  17:43-18:40
IV – CODEX: I know I know this (…almost remembering…)  18:44-25:04
V – Turn the Corner: Post-Rapture Celebration  25:08-28:04
VI - NODE: Ex nihilo…In nihil [-for Mary Ruth-]  28:05-35:30

Treatises for an Unrecovered Past is dedicated to the Lydian String Quartet and was composed as part of their Composition Commission Award, which was made possible by the generosity and vision of Marjorie B. and Martin Cohn. It was composed in San Francisco and Cambridge and is 35 minutes long.

Treatises for an Unrecovered Past (2013-14/rev. 2017) for string quartet

V1 06 String Quartet No. 3  Tapas - VI. Six

for violin, alto sax, electric guitar, double bass, piano, and percussion
Written for decibel, recorded at Real World Studios in Bath, England on January 20th, 2017. 

in the desperate din of 
this uncharted conversation
a quiet realization

there is no manual for this moment

there is only your 
unceasing, senseless chatter
and I find I have less to say

Cresswell: I find I have less to say

I find I have less to say (2017)

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 orchestra

2 fl, picc,  3 ob, 2 clar, bass clar, 2 bsn, cbsn

4 hn, 3 tpt, 2 tbn, bass tbn

harp, piano, timpani, 3 perc

strings

Program notes:

We use the same word for a windowed room and the chambers of our hearts. Light—like blood—must pass through the atrium to fill us with breath and life.

Recorded in a reading session by Michael Lewanski and the Toledo Symphony Orchestra on November 7, 2017 in Kobacker Hall (Bowling Green State University).

Atrium

https://www.innova.mu/albums/d-j-sparr/electric-bands
innova 013

ELECTRIC BANDS

D. J. Sparr: I Can Hear  Her Through The Thin Wall Singing - 5. Heaven

Caitlin Vincent, Libretto

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

Sparr / Vincent

ELLA QUE LLORA

Curly Compositions from a German Composer.

String Quartet: Avaloch

D. J. Sparr

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Robert John Brooks, Composer

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