"Re-Callings" by david e. farrell. performed february 2008 at the midwest composers symposium. 

véronique mathieu, solo violin 
university of iowa center for new music ensemble

*******

i love string music. i love music featuring string soloists. i love violin concertos.

this piece has a restless energy inside it - musical ideas appear, get tossed around, go away, and come back without a lot of predictability. it feels to me as though fragments of all my favorite concertos have been tossed in the blender and spread across the pages of the score.

re-callings was most recently performed by the north/south chamber orchestra in 2012, with claudia schaer as the soloist.

Re-Callings - for solo violin and chamber orchestra

"i have spread my dreams under your feet," by david e. farrell. performed april 27, 2013 by the Playground Ensemble in Denver, CO.

megan buness, soprano
richard von foerster, violoncello
alix corboy, piano


text, “appearances”
by William Henry Hudson

in the city of my dreams, 
where at times I dwell apart, 
nothing is, but only seems –
in the city of my dreams.

and I find them luckier far, 
deep within my secret heart, 
things that seem than things that are – 
yes, I find them lovelier far!

i am glad that in my dreams 
nothing is, but only seems!

note:
this song sets william henry hudson’s poem “appearances.” the poem speaks of  the secret places in our dreams; the music seeks to steal a glance into those secret places. when i finished writing the song, i couldn't help but think of the words from yeats that ended up becoming the title to this song; i like thinking of those words alongside the words of this poem as i hear the music.

more at davidefarrell.com.

i have spread my dreams under your feet - for soprano, piano, and cello

chiptune arrangment of the traditional carol, "god rest ye merry gentlemen." this is the carol for 2021.

BLEEP_BLOOP_YE_MERRY_GENTLEMEN

"21" by david e. farrell. performed october 27, 2013 by the perrysburg symphony orchestra in toledo, oh.

robert mirakian, conductor

postmodern approaches towards art often emphasize the ambiguity between states previously thought irreconcilable - high and low, orderly and disorderly, new and old. 21 works in the space where the distinction between new and old becomes unclear.

the work's title refers to mozart's concerto for piano no. 21 in C major, k. 467. the andante movement from mozart provides the canvas on which the sounds of 21 are painted. some elements from mozart present themselves clearly, but often the thematic contents are distorted - stretched out, compressed, interspersed with new materials, or overlaid with new counterpoint. the resulting music retains some of the rhythmic and melodic elegance of mozart's music, but these sounds contrast with twenty first-century sounds to create a more complex, dream-like sonic environment.

21 - for orchestra

an 8-bit / chiptune arrangement of the traditional christmas song, "once in royal david's city." this is the arrangement from 2010.

ONCE_IN_ROYAL_8-BIT_CITY

an 8-bit / chiptune arrangement of the traditional christmas song, "blessed be that maid mary." this is the arrangement from 2011.

BLESSED_BE_THAT_8-BIT_MARY

an 8-bit / chiptune arrangement of the traditional christmas song, "bring a torch, jeanette, isabella." this is the arrangement from 2012.

BRING_A_TORCH_8-BIT_ISABELLA

an 8-bit / chiptune arrangement of the traditional christmas song, "o come, o come emmanuel." this is the arrangement for 2013.

O_COME_8-BIT_EMMANUEL

"the whole world was mist once" by david e. farrell. performed october 28, 2013 by the sam houston state university percussion group.

john lane, director

The whole world was mist once long ago and some day
     it will all go back to mist,
Our skulls and lungs are more water than bone and
     tissue
And all poets love dust and mist because all the last
     answers
Go running back to dust and mist.

from "Last Answers," by Carl Sandburg

"the whole world was mist once" uses the bowed vibraphone as a central instrument. it is featured in a range of shifting harmonic, timbral, and textural environments. while the tones of the vibraphone cannot help but fade away, the other instruments in the ensemble often enter in their wake, giving them new life and pushing the music in different sonic directions.  i cannot avoid connecting Sandburg's words with the resonant, yet ever-fading, music.

the whole world was mist once - for 7 percussion

chiptune arrangment of the traditional song, "the cherry-tree carol." this is the carol for 2022.

THE_CH8RRY_TREE_CAROL

chiptune arrangment of the song "do you hear what i hear." this is the carol for 2023.

DO_YOU_BLEEP_WHAT_I_BLOOP

chiptune arrangment of the song "in the bleak midwinter." this is the carol for 2024.

IN_THE_BLEEP_MIDWINTER

ambient prelude on a bach chorale.

for live electronics; performed with ableton live & max for live.

chorale_prelude

another ambient prelude on a bach chorale.

for live electronics; performed with ableton live & max for live.


chorale_prelude no. 2

chorale_prelude no. 3

recorded live at the King Center in Denver, CO, on 10/16/2015

david e. farrell, live electronics
sarah whitnah, violin

composer's note:

Sudden Light is the most lyrical of the works. The electronic accompaniment is subdued behind the expressive lines of the violin. The chordal sounds are complimented by recorded sounds of humanity – both individual breath and the rustling voices of a crowd. Subdued sounds transform into brilliant ones throughout the course of the work.

Epic - Sudden Light

an 8-bit / chiptune arrangement of the traditional christmas song, "i saw three ships." this is the arrangement for 2015.

I_SAW_8_BITS

"second season" by david e. farrell. 
performed february 2, 2015 by the playground ensemble
brian ebert, clarinet; richard vonfoerster, cello; joshua sawicki, piano

Second Season was commissioned by the Playground Ensemble to share a program with music by Steve Reich. Reich looms large for many young American composers - myself included - and some of the characteristic sounds of Reich haunt this work. Imitative counterpoint, modal harmony, and a focus on flowing time and inexorable forward progress all appear throughout Second Season, though there is a freedom and interplay between parts and sections that stands apart from Reich's carefully controlled musical structures.

Second Season is in two movements, performed without pause. The first, "Repeat the Summer Day" has a restless lyricism and flowing sense of time. The second, "Return the Sun," uses more rigid, driving rhythms in its initial phrases, but inevitably the flowing elements from the first movement begin to reappear. The interaction between these two sides of the work build up to the piece's climactic finish.

Second Season

an 8-bit / chiptune arrangement of the traditional christmas song, "coventry carol." this is the arrangement for 2016.

David Farrell's Album

COVENTRY_CAROL (BLOOP-BLEEP, BLOOP-BLAY)

an 8-bit chiptune rendition of the traditional christmas song "pat-a-pan."

this is the carol for 2017.

PAT-8-PAN

an 8-bit chiptune rendition of the traditional christmas song "we three kings."

this is the carol for 2019.

WE_EIGHT_BITS

an 8-bit chiptune rendition of the traditional christmas song "il est né."

this is the carol for 2020.

David E Farrell

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