Music for chamber orchestra after a classic tanka:

The white chrysanthemum
is disguised by the first frost.
If I wanted to pick one
I could find it only by chance.

‐Ōshikochi nō Mitsune, 10th century

Keyboard transcription available by instant download from Firehead Organ Works:

https://fireheadorganworks.com/product/white-chrysanthemum/

White Chrysanthemum

Buy the sheet music

White Chrysanthemum for Chamber Orchestra (2021)

Robin performs Henry Purcell's great Double Voluntary on the organ of St Giles-in-the-Fields, London.  The organ was built in 1734, and restored by William Drake.  Robin recorded his disc "Byrd to Blow" in 2011.

St Giles disc

Purcell Double Voluntary

Fourteen fragments for the Stations of the Cross, for organ solo. Recorded at All Saints, Clifton (Bristol)

1 - Jesus is condemned to death
2 - Jesus takes up the cross (1:33)
3 - Jesus falls for the first time (2:32)
4 - Jesus meets his mother (3:50)
5 - Simon of Cyrene helps Jesus carry the cross (5:41)
6 - Veronica wipes the face of Jesus (7:02)
7 - Jesus falls for the second time (8:37)
8 - Jesus meets the women of Jerusalem (9:55)
9 - Jesus falls for the third time (11:13)
10 - Jesus is stripped of his garments (12:42)
11 - Jesus is nailed to the cross (13:27)
12 - Jesus dies on the cross (14:13)
13 - Jesus is taken down from the cross (15:43)
14 - Jesus is laid in the tomb (17:33)

Score available from Firehead Organ Works:
https://fireheadorganworks.com/huw-morgan/

Path Of Sorrow (2022)

Performed by Huw Morgan at All Saints Church, Clifton, Bristol, UK on 11 March, 2023.

Of the two Tesseraes for organ, Frederick Frahm writes,

“This music struggles for breath when there is plenty of room to breathe. The sections are striking (if not adverse) in their variety, yet they find themselves gathered together.  A final passage attempts resolution but leaves many questions unanswered. Metaphoric and contradictory, yes, anxiety, heartache, grief, all present…

Yet there is hope knowing that disparate things can be gathered in a frame of negative space and by their assembly have meaning.”

Get the score by instant download at Firehead Organ Works:
https://fireheadorganworks.com/product/tesserae-ii/

Frederick Frahm : Tesserae 2

Score/parts download: https://michaelmauldin.musicaneo.com/sheetmusic/sm-353208_three_dances_from_chaco_canyon_concertpiece_for_chamber_orchestra.html

1st dance 0:00, 2nd dance 3:38, (no break)3rd dance: 7:04

"Three Dances from Chaco Canyon: Concertpiece for Chamber Orchestra". Premiered by the Chamber Orchestra of Albuquerque, Directed by David Oberg, June 21, 1981 in a concert of Mauldin’s works in Keller Hall at the University of New Mexico, Albuquerque NM, a concert sponsored by Ghost Ranch Foundation.

Recording: Edited recording in Keller Hall by the Chamber Orchestra of Albuquerque, David Oberg, conductor, on the cassette "Our Magic Places", produced by M Mauldin, sold out, archival copies only. Also recorded by the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra, conducted by David Oberg, on CD 189 produced by Opus One (the best recording but out of print--the complete track may be downloaded here).  Also recorded by the Kiev Philharmonic, conducted by Robert Ian Winstin, on Volume 10 of the Masterworks of the New Era, produced by ERM Media.

More info: mikemauldin.com/index.php/compositions  "Seeing things through the eyes of the Anasazi allowed me to say positive things in my work, but instead of eliminating negative things, my 'time-travel' at Chaco heightened the awareness of both good and evil. I felt as a child feels, breathing in both the joys and terrors of existence on this planet. This piece shocked audiences with its wild reliving of ancient ceremonies. But some people missed the great tenderness of the second dance."

Review: "Tonal, approachable, yet far from simple." --Records International, December 2005

newspaper article: http://www.santafenewmexican.com/pasatiempo/columns/listen_up/being-there/article_48eac79a-a3a8-5b8b-9a7d-82a1fd1050ba.html

Three Dances from Chaco Canyon (complete)

A cantata in three movements on a libretto compiled from American Civil War era poets to include Whitman, Bierce, Crane, Melville, and Bryant. This is the world premiere performance (concert version without spoken dialogs) which was presented on 9 August 2002 at the Bellingham Festival of Music. 

Read the libretto and synopses on the composer's website:  http://frederickfrahm.com/isaiah-robb/ 

The work is now available from Musik Fabrik (Paris) under the title "The Death of Isaiah Robb". http://www.sheetmusicplus.com/title/the-death-of-isaiah-robb-sheet-music/17612267

War Cantata

Organ solo work after a text by W. H. Auden: 

He is the Truth.
Seek him in the Kingdom of Anxiety:
you will come to a great city
that has expected your return for years.

This performance by Paul Graeme Thomas on the Casavant Organ at St. Luke Lutheran Church in Albuquerque, NM. Recorded in May of 2017. Printed music now available by instant download from Firehead Editions. http://fireheadeditions.com/downloads/the-kingdom-of-anxiety/

The Kingdom Of Anxiety

Music for chamber orchestra with piano. After a short story by H. P. Lovecraft from 1923 which begins:  "I hate the moon—I am afraid of it—for when it shines on certain scenes familiar and loved it sometimes makes them unfamiliar and hideous..."

Score and parts available from Firehead Editions.
https://fireheadeditions.com/downloads/what-the-moon-brings/

What The Moon Brings (Chamber Orchestra)

Warren and Barney take a ceramic Christmas Tree to prison... a story about two Canterbury folk bringing Christmas cheer to inmates in Los Lunas, NM.

Christmas Tree Story - Warren

From the album "The Waiting" by Joshua Bonham
http://www.adventurenumber12.com

The Waiting

Music for organ by Frederick Frahm. From the Canterbury Sketchbook (2020). This work played by the composer on the 1868 Odell pipe organ (opus 76) at St. Thomas of Canterbury Episcopal Church in Albuquerque, NM. Score is available by instant download from Firehead Editions:

https://fireheadeditions.com/downloads/canterbury-sketchbook/

'Frankincense', from the Canterbury Sketchbook

American composer living in the southwest
Extensive catalog of organ works, chamber music, and opera
Published in the US and Europe
Recent commissions from the Santa Fe Opera Company, Albuquerque Chapter AGO,
and numerous private patrons

Artist's statement:
For me,
beautiful music
finds a forward motion in
stark contrast between
austerity and density,
motion and stasis,
consonance and dissonance,
melancholy and exuberance.

In composing,
I strive for symmetry and dialogue
between component and detail
in the formation of a musical architecture.

In this music,
I seek to express a duality of being,
contradiction of meaning,
tension between that which is eternal
and that which is tangible,
opacity and clarity,
mystery and reason.

"Videmus nunc per speculum in ænigmate:
tunc autem facie ad faciem."

Frederick Frahm : Tesserae 2

Frederick Frahm, Composer

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