Spaceship is a playlist consisting of the three background tracks I composed for the upcoming game "MoonDrop." As the title implies, this is the background music for the player character's spaceship in the game, and each track is unlocked for the spaceship as the game progresses. In the late game, the player will be able to choose any of the three background tracks, or have the playlist cycle through all three as they take care of their sci-fi armory and greenhouse on the spaceship.

Spaceship

On Evanescence

The first of two movements of the piece "Campus Street," which I composed as a gift for my wonderful grandparents. The piece reflects on the many relaxing, pleasant, and nostalgic yet also melancholic evenings I spent at their house in 2020.

Ephemeral Souls

Campus Street - I. Evenings

"Hyperspace" is the third and final track in the MoonDrop spaceship trilogy and is unlocked in the late game when FTL travel is unlocked. It's for when you're flying that groovy groovy spaceship at top speed.

Spaceship III. Hyperspace

ALL SYSTEMS DOWN. ENGINE FAILURE.

...well at least we somehow have music in the deep void of space.

"Adrift" was composed for the upcoming video game "MoonDrop." It is the first piece in the spaceship trilogy of tracks, unlocked at the start of the game.

Spaceship I. Adrift

"Voyager" is the second track of my trilogy of spaceship pieces for the upcoming game "MoonDrop." It is unlocked as background music for the spaceship once the engine has been repaired in the early game. Flight has been achieved! Journey forth!

Spaceship II. Voyager

SadaKiyo is a piece for piano composed in 2013. The piece is inspired by the character SadaKiyo from the manga 20th Century Boys. SadaKiyo is a boy who seems ominous and malicious, but in reality is only lonely and misunderstood.

Flora 

SadaKiyo

Obsidian is a dark, black, and shiny mineral. This composition has the mood of an epic adventure to another realm.

Mineral

Obsidian

"Celestial Waterways" is a sequel of sorts to my previous piano piece, "Waterways." This piano piece utilizes an interlocking texture between the two hands as well as the harmonic technique known as parsimonious voice leading. 

Celestial Waterways

The final piece I composed during my time as an undergraduate at Grinnell, "Hello, Moonrise" is a greeting to the majesty of the rising moon. I believe that this piece is both one of my most sophisticated and complex for solo piano. 

Hello, Moonrise

"Hordes by the Void" is the background music for the exciting horde battle mode in the upcoming indie game MoonDrop. Face off against intimidating alien monsters in the Void-Touched Forest! This track is a mix of spooky, fun, and intense with a driving EDM style. Here's me hoping this track makes into the next Super Smash Bros along with MoonDrop aliens! 

Awesome artwork here by Maddy Moss.

Hordes by the Void

I have long considered "Nara" to be one of my very best electronic tracks. It is inspired by my day trip to the city in Japan. The piece unfolds in three parts: outdoors, then inside the temple of Todaiji (before the great Buddha), and finally outdoors again surrounded by deer. I composed "Nara" using Ableton in the autumn of 2017.

The Good Times

奈良 (Nara)

"Bubbles&Stars" is an upbeat and fun song about a cool experience I had at a friend's 2017 new years party. In the cold I Iowa night, I watched someone make massive bubbles and send them into the starry sky. It was quite a party.

Bubbles&Stars

"The Good Times" is a look back at all the beautiful and fun times I had with my friends and ex during my undergraduate days at Grinnell. The song has a feeling of being both uplifting and content. I composed "The Good Times" during my first year at Oregon, I time also consider to be a part of my halcyon days.

I composed "Dinosaur Days Overture" as the overture to my Father's picture book, "Daddy's Dinosaur Days." Like the book itself, the mood of the overture is happy yet nostalgic. Dinosaur Days Overture is a piece for orchestra and was recorded by the University of Oregon Graduate Orchestra. 

Dinosaur Days Overture

"Autumn by the Sea" is a piece for solo alto flute inspired by the autumnal landscape juxtaposed against the ocean in Kessennuma, Japan. This piece is actually a 12-tone composition, although it is structured by alternating between two pentatonic sets. I composed "Autumn by the Sea" for the talented flutist Linda Jenkins, who premiered the piece in concert. 

Autumn by the Sea

"Gastly" is a character piece for solo piano inspired by the ghost Pokemon Gastly. Like the Pokemon, this composition has a mood that is spooky, light, playful, and surprising.  

Gastly

"Summer Fireflies" is a duet I composed for viola and piano which celebrates the ephemeral nighttime summer displays of fireflies in Iowa. "Summer Fireflies" was recorded by Chris Merchant on viola and myself on piano in the early fall of 2020.

Summer Fireflies

Above a koi pond
an ancient castle stands tall
night illumination 

In summer's glory
cicadas and verdant green
enshrine the castle

Maruoka Castle is a piece for voice and piano inspired by the architecture and natural beauty surrounding this castle in Fukui, Japan. I composed Maruoka Castle during my time living in Japan in 2022-2023, and recorded it in 2024. Maruoka Castle is sung by the vocalist and language teacher Mona Ferra, who shares my appreciation for this beautiful location.

Maruoka Castle

An electronic piece I wrote April-May 2015 for my electronic class final. Listen with high quality headphones for best quality. Enjoy! Thanks to kvgarlic on Freesound.org for the nature sounds!


Fluorite

"Cerulean Lullaby" is an electronic track featuring vocal samples from my piece "Maruoka Castle." This piece explores the idea of revisiting the illuminated castle at night in your dreams. As you explore the glowing castle, you realize that you are walking not in a physical location, but within your own memories and mind.

Cerulean Lullaby

A piece for SATB choir and piano completed during Summer 2016 for a Mentored Advanced Project at Grinnell College. Recording made by the First Readings Project in Minnesota. The lyrics are set to Louise Bogan's poem, "Night."

Reflections

Cold Islands

The first movement of my piece for Cello and Piano written over the Fall 2016 Semester. Recording is Craig Hultgren on Cello and Jessica Paul on Piano.

On Evanescence I. Lilac Wings

The second movement of my piece for Cello and Piano written over the Fall 2016 Semester. Recording is Craig Hultgren on Cello and Jessica Paul on Piano.

On Evanescence II. Shinigami

A 2017 fixed media electronic composition. All sound material in this piece was derived from a single recording of a wine glass being percussively hit (the very first sound heard in the composition).

Wine Glass Etude

I composed "life and fire" for the Composers of Oregon Chamber Orchestra over the Winter of 2017-2018; the composition is a lament of the massive loss of wilderness along the American West Coast due to the numerous forest fires of 2017. The recording is from a March reading by the Composers of Oregon Chamber Orchestra.

life and fire

"Beneath the Waves" takes the listener on an underwater journey in the ocean; exploring both brilliant coral reefs and vast, dark trenches. Inspired by images from BBC Earth's Blue Planet 2 and from my two trips to Osaka's Kaiyukan. Composed over the course of the 2018 seminar "Composing for Orchestra." Read and recorded by University of Oregon Student Symphony.

Beneath The Waves

A 2018 piece composed for and premiered by the OBFCS Gamelan ensemble. The form and style of the piece is a traditional cyclic style with three parts.

Floating Moon

A bright trio for Clarinet, Cello and Piano premiered by James Shields, Nancy Ives, and Grant Mack with Daniel Romberger Conducting. Recording is from the 2018 OBFCS premiere.

Spring Colors

A piece for solo viola and Balinese gamelan ensemble, "Luminous Waves" was composed during the winter of 2018. Recording is the May 2018 premiere featuring Forrest Walker on solo viola and the Pacific Rim Gamelan Ensemble.

Tides of Life

Luminous Waves

Golden air enshrines the
forest. Reflected by a 
thousand floating leaves.
Crisp, clean, and cool.

Beneath the trees, a great river flows.
Surrounding more wooden towers,
each adorned with crowns of
luminous yellow and orange.

As we walk upon a vast auburn carpet,
a hawk
glides through manifold branches.
We are submerged

in the heart of autumn.
The great river flowing beneath our feet,
the glowing ceiling of flaxen leaves
above our heads.
They sing the elegant song of an
ephemeral soul.

Even when night has fallen 
--and so too the once-brilliant leaves--
Beauty can still be remembered.

Heart of Autumn is a meditation on three hikes in high autumn in Pikes Peak, Iowa during October of 2013, 2014, and 2016. The music and text are a contemplation on the transient beauty of autumn; in turn a reflection of the delicate and ephemeral nature of our own inner lights as human beings. I dedicate the music of this work to Soprano Esteli Gomez; it has been the privilege of a lifetime to work with her and to witness my music be truly brought to life. I dedicate the text of this work to two of my closest friends, Ben Tuggle and Chris Merchant, with whom I shared these unforgettable autumnal experiences. A huge thank you to the musicians who made this November 2018 premiere possible:

Esteli Gomez - Soprano
Darlene Mueller - Clarinet
Ian Jones - Vibraphone
Simeon Brown - Violin
Rubi Yan - Viola
Jeffrey Yang - Cello
Isaac Smith - Conductor

Heart of Autumn

The Three Friends of Winter is my second collaboration with the wonderful TaiHei Ensemble of Oregon. This trio for flute, viola, and bass clarinet is part of a project hosted by TaiHei in which 10 composers visted Portland's Lan Su Garden and composed pieces based upon their experiences. My piece is inspired by the poetic Chinese notion of "The Three Friends of Winter." The piece was premiered at Eugene, Oregon on February 12th.    

Nearly a millennium ago, Chinese artists and poets took notice that bamboo, plum, and pine trees remain in full strength through the winter months, and thus titled the three impressive plants the “Three Friends of Winter.” I was introduced to this concept for the first time on a tour of Portland’s Lan Su Chinese Gardens. As I composed my trio in the Winter months of December and January, I became increasingly struck and compelled by the mental image of plum, bamboo and pine trees thriving in an otherwise frozen garden covered by snow. In The Three Friends of Winter I respectively represent the bamboo, plum, and pine with the flute, viola, and bass clarinet.
 
	Regarding both pitch material and texture, The Three Friends of Winter is deeply influenced by my field recordings of a lovely concert of outdoor Guzheng music on the day of my visit to the Lan Su Gardens. Like the Guzheng, each instrument in my piece is limited to a pentatonic collection which is closely related to the other two collections (only the viola can leave its pentatonic collection through sliding on the string, similar to how the Guzheng achieves non-pentatonic notes). The piece is arranged into five sections, which alternate between increasingly fast sections of growth and slow sections of cold winter nights, musically painting a picture of these three fine flora thriving during the most difficult season of the year.

Members of the TaiHei Ensemble on this recording:

Tao Li - Conductor
Sarah Jordan - Flute
Rubi Yan - Viola
Calvin Yue - Bass Clarinet

The Three Friends of Winter

"Vocal Music" is a revival of the contrapuntal renaissance style, influenced by my own melodic and aesthetic preferences. A study of primarily Josquin, Vocal music unfolds in two short movements. The quintet "Ave Maria... Virgo Serena" moves to the Ionian mode and adds a cantus firmus in the first tenor while the other four voices maintain an imitative texture.  Thank you to my chamber choir for a lovely premiere recording:

Alycia Thatcher - Soprano
Naomi Castro - Alto
Carson Lott - Tenor 1
Easton Marks - Tenor 2
Dylan Bunten - Bass

Vocal Music: II. Ave Maria... Virgo Serena

A piece reflecting on the spiritual and intellectual aspects of music, and the symbol of the Dao in relation to the counterpart movement, "Physical Connection." Both movements were premiered in February by the talented UO Percussion studio. Unfortunately this movement has required a considerable amount of digital sound editing, in order to attempt to minimize the sounds of a very creaky and squeaky bass drum stand.

Ephemeral Soul

Two Pieces for Percussion Quartet I. Astral Projection

The three haiku I wrote for the lyrics of We are Petals on a River metaphorically reflect on our journey as we are swept along by the river of time and life. The future holds many things to dread, and we have no control or power over so many of these problems. We are always getting older, and every moment is always slipping into the past. Despite our suffering, we can often find light and beauty within ourselves to share with our small part of the world. We can take a breath and find a moment of perfect eternity in the present, with nature, with family and friends, with ourselves. I composed this piece with soprano Estelí Gomez and pianist Grant Mack in mind, and I am so grateful to have such talented artistic collaborators. Estelí, I dedicate this piece to you for my gratitude to you for all you have done to breathe light and life into the music we create together. 

Floating face down through
an evening lilac river
petals from flowers

Dancing in the night
moonlight illuminates us
our hopes and our fears

Decaying always
yet we can watch the morning
sun paint the river

Daniel DeLay

Pinned to spotlight

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