CONFUZZLE BOX by GARY LLOYD NOLAND

I began composing this work around the time I learned that my 94-year old mother (who was fully vaccinated and boosted and had kept herself in isolation for two years)had contracted Covid 19 from one of her care-givers. I learned this horrific news on February 14th, 2022. Kaiser Hospital in Oakland was sluggish in its response when I called for a doctor and asked the powers that be to expedite treating her for Covid. Had Kaiser been sufficiently quick in its response to the immediate crisis, my mother may very well have survived another few years and avoided an absolutely horrible death. In the day or two before she died I heard her calling out for her grandmother in German over the telephone. Suffice it to say, I will be haunted by the sound of her anguished voice for the rest of my life. She passed away from Covid on February 24th, 2022 (the day Russia invaded Ukraine) at Kaiser Hospital in Oakland, California. She was born Marianne Ruth Neustädter in Berlin, Germany on August 20th, 1927. Her family (mother, father, and brother) was forced into exile by the Nazis. Other branches of the family were not as fortunate. Her uncle's family (including his wife and two very young children)were all murdered in Auschwitz in March, 1943. I just turned 65 yesterday (April 14th, 2022) and remember my mother as an omnipresent presence in my life. She was a force of nature, to be sure. Her absence is deeply felt and she will be sorely missed. Pictured here is her empty house after my brother and I finished cleaning it out a couple of weeks ago. We had no choice but to virtually obliterate her identity in the process. I knew it would be bad but it was actually much worse than I ever expected it to be. This is the house on Russell Street (near College Avenue) in Berkeley where my mother resided for 55 years (since 1967) after selling the home where I spent much of my early childhood (from 1960-67) that was located on Haste Street (near Telegraph Avenue) on a block  now famously known as "People's Park." At the time of this writing I have not yet received the photo albums from her estate, for I would otherwise have provided a photograph of my mother instead of one of her empty house. Nevertheless, I have titled the piece after the vacant feeling of being inside her home in my final days in Berkeley (for 62 years)—a town to which I am unlikely ever to return. I composed this piece while distracted by all the work that had to be done after my mother's passing. I have finally been able to focus on completing it. It seems a fitting tribute to her. I hope she has found a happier place. May she rest in peace! For more information on me and my music, please feel free to visit my website at: www.composergarynoland.com

EMPTY DWELLING for piano—in memoriam Marianne Ruth Noland (1927-2022)

The PIMPLETON PROCRASTURBATION ENSEMBLE performs MUSICAL PORTRAIT OF THEODORE DALRYMPLE (English Cultural Critic, Prison Physician, and Psychiatrist), Op. 117, No. 10 by GARY LLOYD NOLAND. For more information on the composer, please visit his website at: garynolandcomposer.com.

MUSICAL PORTRAIT OF THEODORE DALRYMPLE, Op. 117, No. 10

The PIMPLETON PROCRASTURBATION ENSEMBLE performs HERR DOKTOR SQUIRCLE'S QUAINT LITTLE KVETCHING KUBICLE by GARY LLOYD NOLAND. For Herr Doktor Squircle, everything needs to be "just so." Notwithstanding all the  overfastidious Herr Doktor Squircles of this world, everybody needs their own private little kvetching kubicle to vent their inner spleen. For more information on the composer, please visit his website at: garynolandcomposer.com

HERR DOKTOR SQUIRCLE'S  QUAINT LITTLE KVETCHING KUBICLE

The PIMPLETON PROCRASTURBATION ENSEMBLE performs SEXSUX by GARY LLOYD NOLAND. This piece explores certain rarified sentiments possessed by a comparatively modest percentage of human impersonators. For more information on the composer, please visit his website at: garynolandcomposer.com

SEXSUX

The PIMPLETON PROCRASTURBATION ENSEMBLE performs RUMINESCENT MEGETATIONS by GARY LLOYD NOLAND. For once, after enduring more than two years of this catastrophic global pandemic, whensoever ruminescing over the "good old days," the realization lately dawned on this composer that such times of yore (meaning ca. three years ago) were, indeed, substantially better. For more information on GARY LLOYD NOLAND, please visit his website at: garynolandcomposer.com

RUMINESCENT MEGETATIONS

The PIMPLETON PROCRASTURBATION ENSEMBLE performs I FEEL YOUR PAIN NO YOU DON'T by GARY LLOYD NOLAND (April 21st, 2022). A possible  subhead to this piece is: "We don't want your sympathy, sweetheart, just your moolah." For more information on the composer, please visit his website at: garynolandcomposer.com

I FEEL YOUR PAIN NO YOU DON'T

The PIMPLETON PROCRASTURBATION ENSEMBLE performs IGNOID ON THE GROUND WITH SWAMP GAS by GARY LLOYD NOLAND—antipode to "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds." For more information on the composer, please visit his website at: garynolandcomposer.com

IGNOID ON THE GROUND WITH SWAMP GAS

The PIMPLETON PROCRASTURBATION ENSEMBLE performs NIGHTCLUB CHIMERA by GARY LLOYD NOLAND. Reminiscences of some drunken nights in seedy bars from my school days. For more information on the composer, please visit his website at: garynolandcomposer.com

NIGHTCLUB CHIMERA

The PIMPLETON PROCRASTURBATION ENSEMBLE performs SACHER FANTASY by GARY LLOYD NOLAND. Having once partaken of a bona fide Sacher-Torte at Café Sacher in Vienna late one afternoon in December, 2006 (which was presumably concocted from Franz Sacher's original 1832 recipe), this piece is a modest attempt on the part of the composer to cast a sort of subsonic survey of the biological processes at play when the digestive enzymes and gastric juices encounter the rich chocolaty globules  of this famous Viennese treat upon its ingestion into one's food sack. For more information on the composer, please visit his website at: garynolandcomposer.com

SACHER FANTASY

The PIMPLETON PROCRASTURBATION ENSEMBLE performs HEBDOMADAL MINUTES OF THE HUMAN IMPERSONATION SOCIETY by GARY LLOYD NOLAND. It's a little known fact that, once a week, for the past several hundred-thousand years (give or take), the minutes from committee meetings held by the Human Impersonation Society have been meticulously recorded with due diligence by nominated members of its secretarial staff. For more information on the composer, please visit his website at: garynolandcomposer.com

HEBDOMADAL MINUTES OF THE HUMAN IMPERSONATION SOCIETY

The PIMPLETON PROCRASTURBATION ENSEMBLE performs CONFUZZLE BOX by GARY LLOYD NOLAND. A problem so difficult and complicated, it's not even worth attempting to solve it, for, verily there is no solution, for it is far preferable, after being stabbed—and, miraculously, surviving the trauma—to keep the knife lodged in one's gut rather than to attempt its removal and risk an excruciating death thereby. For more information on the composer, please visit his website at: garynolandcomposer.com

CONFUZZLE BOX

The PIMPLETON PROCRASTURBATION ENSEMBLE performs PIMPLE-PLUCKING MUSIC by GARY LLOYD NOLAND. The term "Pimple-Plucking Music" was coined by Matthew Van Atta over forty years ago. For more information on the composer, please visit his website at: garynolandcomposer.com

PIMPLE—PLUCKING MUSIC

I was awakened by a telephone call from Kaiser Hospital in Oakland early on the morning of February 24th, 2022 in my motel room in Ashland, Oregon to be informed by a doctor that my mother had just passed away from Covid. My wife Kaori and I were en route from Portland to Berkeley in the hopes that we would be able to visit her one last time. She had been fully vaccinated and boosted and had remained in isolation for almost two years, so the news of her death was absolutely devastating to us. It was only minutes thereafter that I learned of Russia's unprovoked invasion of Ukraine. Of course, "Invasion" is not a strong enough word to describe what happened. Let's call it what it is: a "murderous onslaught," a "massacre of innocents,"  "The Rape of Ukraine"—thus the title. Words cannot even begin to describe the turmoil of feelings and emotions I experienced on that awful and infamous day. I have already paid a musical tribute to my mother's memory with a piano piece I composed titled "Empty Dwelling," which can be heard here on Soundcloud. Regarding Russia's invasion of Ukraine, I am no longer able to remain silent. As a composer, I am best equipped to articulate my sentiments thru music—sentiments I am confident are universally felt by anyone who isn't a psychopath. For more information about me and my works, please visit my website at: garynolandcomposer.com

THE RAPE OF UKRAINE

The PIMPLETON PROCRASTURBATION ENSEMBLE performs MECHANABALISTIC STINKBOT GRUMBLES (Op. 132, No. 1) by GARY LLOYD NOLAND. For more information on the composer, please visit his website at: garynolandcomposer.com

MECHANABALISTIC STINKBOT GRUMBLES (Op. 132, No. 1)

The PIMPLETON PROCRASTURBATION ENSEMBLE performs POWER SNUGGLE by GARY LLOYD NOLAND. For more information on the composer, please visit his website at: garynolandcomposer.com

POWER SNUGGLE

The PIMPLETON PROCRASTURBATION ENSEMBLE performs WE CAN SEE YOU BUT YOU CAN'T SEE US, NOR CAN YOU HEAR OUR LAUGHTER by GARY LLOYD NOLAND. For more information on the composer, please visit his website at: garynolandcomposer.com

WE CAN SEE YOU BUT YOU CAN'T SEE US, NOR CAN YOU HEAR OUR LAUGHTER

Redoubtable members of the PIMPLETON PROCRASTURBATION ENSEMBLE perform ROMANTIC MUSINGS OF A GREEDY PROFITEER, Op. 132, No. 2 by GARY LLOYD NOLAND. For more information on the composer, please visit his website at: garynolandcomposer.com

ROMANTIC MUSINGS OF A GREEDY PROFITEER, Op. 132, No. 2

The PIMPLETON PROCRASTURBATION ENSEMBLE  performs TAINTED FORGETERIES by GARY LLOYD NOLAND (May 5th, 2022)—enjoy! For more information on the composer, please visit his website at: garynolandcomposer.com

TAINTED FORGETERIES

In these dark days of anguish, misery, pain, grief, despair, chaos, corruption, war, poverty, famine, death, disease, destruction, and an overpowering sense of impending doom from catastrophic climate change and the imminent threat of a nuclear holocaust, it is incumbent upon members of the human race to find something–howsoever inconsequential it might appear in the overall scheme of things—to CELEBRATE. I, for one, am invariably delighted when I find a matching pair of socks in the morning—thus the title of my piece: MATCHING SOCK CELEBRATION, here performed by the PIMPLETON PROCRASTURBATION ENSEMBLE. Cheer up, folks—things could be worse! For more information on the composer, please visit his website at: garynolandcomposer.com

MATCHING SOCK CELEBRATION

Violist Katherine Murdock and pianist Randall Hodgkinson perform ROMANCE Op. 10 by Gary Lloyd Noland. For more information on the composer, go to his website at: https://composergarynoland.godaddysites.com/

ROMANCE for viola & piano Op. 10

Resides in Portland, Oregon. Grew up in Berkeley, CA. Born in Seattle.  PhD, Harvard. “Gary Noland is one of the great composers of the 21st century.”—JACK RUMMEL, KGNU 88.5 FM, Boulder CO, “...iconoclastic, stylistic potpourri standards of giddy humor, no holds barred soup to nuts and high spirits.”—ROBERT LEVIN, pianist, musicologist, composer, "...a fleet-fingered, ebullient performer ... bright, witty and engaging.”—CHRISTIAN CAREY, SPLENDID MAGAZINE, “...distinctive, inventive ... subversive ... You can hardly be indifferent to Noland’s music and so I would urge you to try it.” —ROGER BLACKBURN, MUSICWEB INTERNATIONAL, “...set in a dizzying harmonic language that loops uncontrollably through a wide-ranging gamut of possible and impossible tonalities ... The general effect is like watching wet paintings of 19th Century musical memorabilia drip into frazzled 21st Century oblivion...” —ALLEN GIMBEL, AMERICAN RECORD GUIDE, “Mr. Noland writes as a ‘time traveler’ in styles long abandoned by most composers as well as styles so new as to not have been imagined but by him. This he accomplishes naturally, convincingly, with originality and true passion. His command of all musical languages and his ability to traverse musical time is nothing less than remarkable. Listen!”—DONALD MARTINO, Pulitzer Prize winning composer, “...mind-bending spiraling of focus which is truly breathtaking ... spectacular...”—CHARLES AMIRKHANIAN, composer, sound poet & radio producer, “I'm amazed at your harmonic skill. Haven't seen or heard anything like it from any one else—except yours truly—certainly not from your generation. It falls somewhere between Strauss and Mahler. Especially like how you are able to slip in and out from the tonal to the atonal—or near atonal...”—GEORGE ROCHBERG, American composer, Pulitzer Prize finalist, “...court jester to the classical establishment...”—PAYTON MACDONALD, AMERICAN RECORD GUIDE, “...florid and juicy...” —RICHARD BUELL, THE BOSTON GLOBE, “...an incredible aural web ... a great ostinato of American kitsch. Sul pont never sounded so good.”—RUSSELL STEINBERG, composer, conductor of the LOS ANGELES YOUTH ORCHESTRA, “...I am bowled over by the expertise of your music: you use certain elements from the 19th century and from jazz, etc., and just at the moment when I am about to say, OK, what else is new?, you do a number of things, such as speeding up, becoming wildly dissonant, modulating to a distant continent, stopping completely and throwing some kind of total surprise ... you seem to know exactly when to do what and how much. I don’t know anybody else who can do it!” —ANDREW IMBRIE, American composer, Pulitzer Prize finalist, “... remarkable stuff...”
—MAX MORATH, American ragtime pianist, composer, actor & author, “...a loony composer from Oregon...” —MAX SHEA, WMUA 91.1FM, Amherst, MA, “Gary Noland is one of those 21st Century composers seeking to forge a new aesthetic based on older models that do not traffic in serialism or minimalism ... Zany waltzes, ragtime riffs, chorales, toccatas, and much else romp and tear through these depictions of superheroes and villains from his ‘chamber novels’; other pieces spoof serial music ... to grand operas ... and Jewish guilt.” —JACK SULLIVAN, AMERICAN RECORD GUIDE, “...Paranoid Ravel...”—ALEX DUNN, KZSU FM90.3, Stanford, CA, “...It’s a romantic romp, rhythmically robust yet melodically flirting with the nostalgia of cabaret, minus the sleazy diminution of spilled drinks and smelly ashtrays. Its elegance recalls Elgar, and the serious sides, a synthesis of those strange bedfellows Schubert and Ives. Composers hate it when their music reminds you of someone else’s, but writing within a tradition, Noland has incorporated divergent styles that, woven together, work. Cosmopolitan without snobbery, it’s intelligent, pleasurable and convincing.” —ROCKY LEPLIN, THE BERKELEY VOICE

CONFUZZLE BOX by GARY LLOYD NOLAND

Gary Lloyd Noland, composer