Large Ensemble

In the span of nine minutes, Nor Height, Nor Depth unleashes the taut drama of a symphony, with the kinetic energy of an overture.  Opening with a brash and resonant G-major chord, harmony in the upper strings begins to unfold over accelerating and decelerating murmurs between violas and cellos.  Upon a culminating tutti, symmetrically opposed intervallic ascents and descents in flutes and clarinets accompany an emergent melody in the oboe that ultimately blossoms in ripe fruition with the entire orchestra accelerating toward an explosive allegro.  Over a multi-layering of passagework in the strings, woodwinds and brass take turns at a foreground that swells toward a climax of tragic proportion.  After a brief detour in a seeming nether-world of muted strings and woodwinds that explore an obtuse and abstract harmony, principal thematic material emerges and wends its way toward its combustible and cataclysmic destination.

	While the writing of St. Paul is the source of the title, I was drawn to the extremes inherent in these words.  They seem to capture in my imagination the sorrows and failures of the first decade of the 21st Century.  At the same time, they imply the possibility of love and cooperation even in the face of tragedy.  This work represents to me a sonic rumination on that possibility: that in the face of war, violence, and the effects of climate change, we—like the central motives in Nor Height, Nor Depth—can endure despite context.

This performance is by Nobuyoshi Yasuda and the UWEC Symphony Orchestra.

Nor Height, Nor Depth

Three Visions of El Greco for tuba and wind ensemble draws upon three paintings for its inspiration: “View of Toledo,” The Adoration of the Shepherds,” and “The Burial of the Count of Orgaz.” The first movement, “View of Toledo,” is loosely based on a variation of a ‘bulería’ flamenco rhythm—a 12/8 rhythm that emphasizes eighth notes 3, 7, 8 and 11. While the bulería instigates the initial momentum of the movement, a robust and lively dance ensues. Pairing this music with the painting, one envisions a ghastly aura casting a pall over this medieval city, concealing a raucous celebration.

Premiered at the University of Texas-San Antonio and the International Tuba Euphonium Conference at Indiana University. Spring 2014.

Three Visions of El Greco: View of Toledo

"Sleep now, O sleep now, O you unquiet heart!
A voice crying “Sleep now” Is heard in my heart."

--James Joyce

"All by myself I have to go,
With none to tell me what to do-- All alone beside the streams
And up the mountain-sides of dreams."

--Robert Louis Stevenson

"Save me from curious Conscience, that still lords Its strength for darkness, burrowing like a mole; Turn the key deftly in the oiled wards,
And seal the hushed Casket of my Soul."

--John Keats

No experience adequately prepares one for the late night rituals of parenthood: the cry in the dark that seizes one from the depths of exhaustion; the lumbering footsteps that make their way cradle-side beneath the dull glow of the moon; tranquility split asunder by the anxiety-inducing cough, fevered skin, and undisclosed aches and tremors. Perhaps we are summoned by no more than the desperate, terrified pining of a tiny soul at once confronting their utter isolation in the profundity of night. In these moments, there are quiet words: stories rendered stream-of-consciously, simple songs, memories from the day, promises for the morning. Miracles transpire that are known only to those awake in these sacred, silent hours. To lull a child to sleep is to witness the crossing of a threshold--the abandonment of determined, grasping, fear as it acquiesces to surrender and to dreams.

Drifting From Midnight is a sonic exploration of that moment when thresholds are crossed; when anxious wakefulness surrenders to peaceful slumber and the transcendent glories of worlds and horizons known only to dreamers.

Concert Premiere: March 5, 2015 by Dr. John Zarco and the UT-San Antonio Symphonic Band

Drifting From Midnight (University of Iowa Symphony Band)

Dr. Mark Heidel and the University of Iowa symphony band performing "Corrida!"  A "corrida" is a bullfight, and the work strives to capture the primal energy of the bull bounding into the ring.

Drifting From Midnight (University of Iowa Symphony Band)

Ethan Wickman