Undectet, a meditation on unusual times. Commissioned by Millikin Symphonic Wind Ensemble, directed by Corey Seapy. A grade 4 chamber winds piece exploring unusual meters and sound masses. Recorded in December 2020 by the Millikin Symphonic Wind Esnemble.

Undectet

Written for the Superior String Alliance’s youth string orchestra, Superior String Tango is a quick, wild dance replete with jumps, skips, and the occasional flourish.

Superior String Tango

Performance by LGBA 2018 Conference on May 26, 2018, conducted by Haley Varhol.

Dusk is the time for reveling in the labors of the day. It’s a time for food and celebration before the night approaches with its ghostly quiet. For ages, people have danced away the evening to dispel its dread. Though not reminiscent of any particular dances, this work is meant to evoke their general mirthful spirit.

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Dusk Dances

Dusk Dances (LGBA 2018)

Premiere performance on March 3, 2019, by the Fort Hays Symphonic Winds, directed by Peter Lillpopp.

The Flint Hills is a region of Eastern Kansas and Central Oklahoma dominated by tall-grass prairies and rolling hillsides. These hills are part of an ancient geologic formation that has since eroded, leaving a layer of flint that speckles the ground. This formation, laid down in the Permian Era, is visible in cutaways that expose layer upon layer of limestone and shale. In Flint Shards, woodwind textures create stratified patterns that match these layered patterns. These textures grow in intensity or fade away, but always maintain vertical distance. The brass maintain an ever-present flow, like the rolling hills, over which these layers emerge and dissipate. With each section, layers emerge with greater intensity, underscored by rhythmic energy.

19-3-3 Symphonic Winds and Wind Ensemble

Flint Shards

The following quartet is a series of games, suitable for an evening's entertainment. It opens with a simple drinking song, leading into a series of canons, and finishing off with a rousing and climactic fugato.

A lyrical bassoon solo starts off the quartet, singing an off-kilter song. This song is developed in variants by all players as they outdo each other in a haphazard and tipsy fashion, with an occasional refrain of the original to remind the drunken quartet where
they are.

The drinking song is followed up with three puzzle canons introduced by another bassoon solo. The act of solving these musical riddles should be enough entertainment alone, as there are numerous solutions - some more interesting than others.

The quartet closes with an unrestrained and wild fugato using a  eveloped variation of the original drinking song motif. Though it does not hold the trappings of a full fugue, the quartet does rigorously develop and move its thematic material in a highly contrapuntal texture, making for an invigorating finish to the evening games.

Daniel Morel Artist Diploma Recital

Evening Games Quartet: II. 3 Musical Puzzles

Evening Games Quartet: I. Drinking Song

This suite is a jovial homage to the music of Old Vienna. It is a modern reaction to the world of Schubert, Strauss, and Schrammel - quintessential voices of Viennese culture. The lilting melodies ebb and flow, echoing the dances and folk music of years past, as they poke through an expanded harmonic texture.

The suite is constructed as an extended conversation between two duos taking place over all three movements. each pairs of instruments maintains a stylistic identity that complements, and sometimes contradicts, its counterpart. This musical dialog evolves as melodies and stylistic ideas are passed back and forth in an effort to develop agreement between all parts.

And not to be overlooked, the name of this suite is a pun on a more modern, equally seminal work of Vienna. This suite is filled with lyric melodies and lilting dances, hence the title, but it is also a not to Alban Berg's Lyric Suite, a pivotal work of the Second Viennese School.

Daniel Morel Graduate Recital

A Lyric Suite

Pulsars are rotating neutron stars that emit beams of electromagnetic radiation. This radiation can be observed only when the beam of emission is pointing toward Earth and is responsible for the pulsed appearance of emission. Rotational periods produce precise intervals between pulses, creating rapid points of light across the sky. Written for the Jibrish Horn Quartet, Pulsar Fields is part of a series of works exploring this image through a slowly evolving soundscape.

Pulsar Fields

Written for the 2012 Seasons Festival.

Premiered October 19, 2012, by Hal Ott (flute) and Brent Hages (oboe).

Lament

Commissioned by Open Spaces KC Festival.

Blues and Cliches is an energetic deconstruction of rhythms, harmonies, and melodies found in traditional Blues music. 

This performance conducted by Lee Hartman with Alla Krolevich, violin; Michalis Koutsoupides, viola; Sascha Groschang, cello; Adrienne Garstang, flute; Laura Zitelli, clarinet; and Laura Lee Crandall, vibraphone.

Blues And Cliches

Recorded by Kelly Morel (mezzo-soprano) and John Livingston (piano) in 2019.

Program Notes:
Emily Dickinson’s love of nature is almost as renowned as her poetry. her horticultural leanings are prevalent throughout her collected works. Flora represents just a few of her many poems on flowers and botany. Each song progresses in a journey as the singer pontificates on flowers and the relationship they hold with people.

The first song dives right into cheerful praise, examining how flowers brighten our lives (no matter how small). Dickinson builds our excitement, citing vibrant and joyous images. The levity in this poem dances across in a whirling delight of staccato notes.

The joy of the first song is still present in the second, but offset with remorse. Dickinson contemplates that, although the singer treasures the flower, so do others. And while it may be borrowed, the flower is too fragile to give. Motives from the first song reappear.

Having started the cycle in an excited spirit, the singer is coming to a final realization of a world without flowers – without nature. In this poem, Dickinson ponders a world bereft of nature’s joy. She alludes to lying idle “in Auburn,” a dated reference to solitary confinement in prison. Accompaniment shifts into minor and more dreamlike tonalities as the singer ponders these final somber thoughts.

Flora III When Roses Cease To Bloom

Flora II Perhaps Youd Like To Buy A Flower

Flora I We Should Not Mind So Small A Flower

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s intellectual prowess and worldliness can be seen in much of his poetry. Many of his works are devoted to the historical tales seldom taught, as is the case with the three poems used for Longfellow’s Kings. Haroun Al Raschid, Trisanku, and Jugurtha were all kings of ages long past (with quite colorful histories). Longfellow used these ancient figures as a catalyst to create wonderful, though somewhat somber, poetry. These poems address the misgivings of humanity, achievement, and immortality. Setting these poems, this collection works to convey the awesome nature of Longfellow’s ideas.

The first song sets a somber (if not caustic) tone, weighing the merit of worldly achievements against the ravages of time. Tension continues to build to the argument’s climax – “death is at the end!” The choir and piano build this tension through increased polyphony until “death” brings all voices to their homophonic peak, while the piano continues its alternating feel of 4/4 and 6/8.

The weight of the first song is replaced with a lush and quiet dissonance. Questioning the aspirations and misgivings of humanity, the second song sings of Trisanku, who remains, “in the air [...] suspended,” due to his actions. Thus, in contrast to the polyphony of the first song, the choir remains suspended in homophonic dissonance, “midway between earth and heaven,” until its final, somewhat tenuous, resolution.

The final song sings the anguished cries of Jugurtha, whose fall is paralleled to that of the Poet, and “the vision, that lured him to follow.” The subjects’ angry cries are reflected in the severe vocal lines that quicken in a 6/8 tempo to almost frenetic heights. The song ends in a final burst, punctuating all thoughts on time, immortality, and the anquish of humanity.

Longfellow's Kings. III Jugurtha

Daniel Morel is a Kansas City-based composer who energizes his music with spectral lyricism. His works are permeated with the Western sensibilities of his Colorado upbringing, drawing on influences ranging from prairie thunderstorms to classic American poetry. As an advocate of new music, Mr. Morel has previously served as director of the much acclaimed Women Composers Festival of Hartford and Hartford Independent Chamber Orchestra.

DanielEricMorel

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