This work is meant to symbolize the end of days. Unfortunately, this is a MIDI recording, but it's not as bad as it could be so I decided to post it anyway. Each of the three movements has a passage from the Bible that it is paired to:

I. Allegro Con Forza
And when he had opened the seventh seal, 
there was silence in heaven about the space of half an hour.
And I saw the seven angels which stood before God; 
and to them were given seven trumpets.
And another angel came and stood at the altar, 
having a golden censer; and there was given unto him much incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of all saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne. And the smoke of the incense, which came with the prayers of the saints, ascended up before God out of the angel's hand.
And the angel took the censer, and filled it with fire of the altar, and cast it into the earth: and there were voices, 
and thunderings, and lightnings, and an earthquake.
And the seven angels which had the seven trumpets 
prepared themselves to sound.
Revelation 6:1-6

II. Fugue
The earth mourns and fades away, 
The world languishes and fades away; 
The haughty people of the earth languish. 
The earth is also defiled under its inhabitants, 
Because they have transgressed the laws, 
Changed the ordinance, Broken the everlasting covenant. 
Therefore the curse has devoured the earth, 
And those who dwell in it are desolate. 
Therefore the inhabitants of the earth are burned, 
And few men are left.
Isaiah 24:4-6

III. Finale
Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth, 
for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away.
Revelation 21:1
“And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; 
there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. 
There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.”
Revelation 21:4

Cataclysm Trio II. Fugue and Finale (2013)

The 1st, 3rd and 4th movements of my piece for solo clarinet "Memories From My Childhood"

The amazing soloist is Laura Hundert! 

Movements:
I. By the Water
III. Frog Hunting
IV. Autumn Leaves

Reflections on a simpler time. Each movement is restricted to the use of different intervallic relationships. The first only uses 2nds and 5ths. Each adds one new intervallic possibility beginning with 3rds until eventually all seven intervals are introduced.

Movements II and V have actually been lost. 

Memories From My Childhood (I, III And IV) (2014)

A very dark and personal piece, Fractures is about brokenness and discord. The work is literally "fractured" into small segments that make up an entire idea reflecting my state at the time as well as my feelings towards the 12 tone method by which it was composed.

Soloist: Alex McLaughlin
Eastman Composers Forum

Fractures for Solo Viola (2015)

Ensemble: ESSO
Event: ESSO Readings
Conductor: Garrett Wellenstein
Pianist: Nathan Cheung

Sometimes, you really just need to get all of your frustrations with serious music out of your system and write the most cliché music you can think of. I took an opportunity to do this with my final orchestration project and I hope it gives you a laugh or two!

This piece uses recycled material from my ensemble work "The Night Face Up." The seriousness of this piece led me to wonder if there were other applications to the melodies I used. Turns out, it makes a pretty nice chorale melody! 

So Not A Sonata: Prelude, Chorale and Toccata (2016)

***WARNING: Extremely loud opening and closing***

Kilbourn Hall April 14, 2016 
Eastman Composers Forum

Performers:
Conductor: Oliver Hagen
Piano: Kevin Wang
Harp: Anna Dunlap
Percussion: Darren Lin
Alto Flute: Xuan Li-Wintringham
Cello: Paul Bergeron

Program Note:
The Night Face Up is a tone poem written in response to a short story by Julio Cortázar of the same name. The story references two characters, both of which are involved in parallel life threatening situations. My piece loosely follows the narrative presented. Motivic and harmonic material is shared and developed by each of the instruments, constantly evolving and changing in an attempt to capture the question of identity with which Cortázar presents the reader.

The Night Face Up (2016)(ATTN: LOUD)

Anyango Yarbo-Davenport ESM degree recital

Performers:
Violin: Anyango Yarbo-Davenport
Piano: Chiao-Wen Chen

An older work which I am still quite fond of. I drew a lot of inspiration from the piano music of Debussy and Poulenc's own Violin Sonata when composing this work. Originally intended to contain four movements, I eventually settled on two, a somber Prologue and an energetic Arabesque. The are many contrasts between the two movements but also a lot of shared motivic and harmonic material.

Sonata for Violin & Piano: I Prologue (2014)

Anyango Yarbo-Davenport ESM degree recital

Performers:
Violin: Anyango Yarbo-Davenport
Piano: Chiao-Wen Chen

An older work which I am still quite fond of. I drew a lot of inspiration from the piano music of Debussy and Poulenc's own Violin Sonata when composing this work. Originally intended to contain four movements, I eventually settled on two, a somber Prologue and an energetic Arabesque. The are many contrasts between the two movements but also a lot of shared motivic and harmonic material.


Sonata For Violin & Piano II:  Arabesque (2014)

Just something I've been messing around with

Work in Progress - Preview

Performed April 22, 2017 in Hatch Recital Hall, Eastman School of Music

Ike Polinky's Senior Recital

The FANTASTIC duo: 
Contrabass: Ike Polinsky
Mezzo-soprano: Hailey McAvoy 

"Lamentations" is a dramatic setting of the Biblical text of the same name. This movement uses a selection of verses from the first chapter of Lamentations in an attempt to compose a song in which I had the freedom of choosing my own lyrics without having to write them myself. The text describes the speaker's despair in reflecting on the destruction of Jerusalem. 

My composition diverges from a single pitch (A4) in line with the text which likens the city to a lone widow. With the development of the text, new pitches are added and gestures are developed until the text shifts focus from third person to first person where the pitch material then recenters on A4, bringing the piece to a close. The speaker's despair is never resolved in this chapter and I found it fitting that the music end where it began. Additionally, the overall form of the work mirrors a literary trick in the original Hebrew translation where each of the 22 verses begin with, in order, one of the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet. This gradual progression and development was fascinating to me and informed many of my decisions while writing this piece.

Lyrics:

How lonely sits the city
    that was full of people!
How like a widow has she become…

She weeps bitterly in the night,
    with tears on her cheeks;
among all her lovers
    she has none to comfort her;
all her friends have dealt treacherously with her;
    they have become her enemies.

…she dwells among the nations,
    but finds no resting place;
her pursuers have all overtaken her
    in the midst of her distress.

…all her gates are desolate…

…her children have gone away,
    captives before the foe…

…they fled without strength
    before the pursuer…

…they mocked at her downfall…

…she has no comforter…

…The enemy has stretched out his hands
    over all her precious things…

“For these things I weep;
    my eyes flow with tears;
for a comforter is far from me…

“I called to my lovers,
    but they deceived me…

 …my heart is wrung within me…

 …You have brought the day you announced;
    now let them be as I am…

…my heart is faint."

Lamentations for contrabass and female voice

Harp: Anna Dunlap

Distilled Lines was commissioned by and is dedicated to Anna Dunlap. Each of its movements seeks to equate the idea of a musical line with a physical one, e.g. a string.

The first movement, Unravelings, depicts the line as it is pulled apart from its wound state and then gradually transformed into something else. While the idea of "spinning out" an idea is a reasonably common approach to composition, the gestures and thematic elements of the work stress this relationship on a more perceptible level due to both the nature of the instrument and the more literal image I am attempting to portray.

Daniel Sawler

Popular tracks