This work was premiered in Merkin Concert Hall on May 31, 2023, by an extraordinary group of players: Curtis Macomber, violin; Lois Martin, viola; Chris Gross, cello; and Christopher Oldfather, piano. Edited and Mixed by Paul Kozel at the Sonic Arts Center, New York, New York, from audio from the dress rehearsal and performance at Merkin Concert Hall.

From Berlioz's program for Symphonie fanastique: “A young musician of unhealthily sensitive nature and endowed with vivid imagination has poisoned himself with opium in a paroxysm of love-sick despair. The narcotic dose he had taken was too weak to cause death but it has thrown him into a long sleep accompanied by the most extraordinary visions. In this condition his sensations, his feelings and memories find utterance in his sick brain in the form of musical imagery. Even the beloved one takes the form of melody in his mind, like a fixed idea which is ever returning and which he hears everywhere.” (N.B.: Do not try this at home.)

When I began writing Reveries. Passions., I spent time looking at and listening to many quartets and quintets for piano and strings, from the standard ones by Mozart, Brahms, and Fauré to more modern examples by Aaron Copland and
my first composition teacher Don Freund, but the one that had the most profound effect on me was Schumann's Piano Quartet in E-flat major, Op. 47, particularly its slow movement, with its beautiful cantilena and the scordatura low B-flat
pedal point in the cello at the end. I quote from the opening of Schumann’s first movement near the conclusion of my quartet.

I. Passion awakened. The first movement, bearing the indication “Wistful,” starts softly and tentatively and becomes increasingly agitated, building to an outburst in the cello, marked appassionato, accompanied by tremolo figures in the other instruments. Once this has subsided, a lyrical tune is introduced in the viola and developed, ultimately leading to a recapitulation of the opening material and a subdued, austere, and desolate sounding coda.

Reveries. Passions. (Fantasy-Quartet for Piano and Strings)(2020) - I. Passion awakened.

This piece unites the English-language Psalm 23 with Latin words of the Requiem Mass (“Requiem aeternam”). Through its combination of disparate texts, including a psalm with liturgical prevalence across different faiths, the piece aims to highlight the universality of the experience of loss and celebration of the journey of life.

Recorded by the Choir of the Church of St. Mary the Virgin in Times Square and conducted by David Hurd (November 5, 2023).

For more information:
https://www.emmakdaniels.com/23rd-psalm

23rd Psalm

Mockup

Test of Time (2009)
for Chamber Orchestra 

In order to appro­pri­ately describe the piece, the two nouns in the title of Test of Time (2009) should both be plural. Not only are there all kinds of tests, but there are also a vari­ety of ways of per­ceiv­ing time that are chal­lenged in the course of the piece. How long can rhyth­mic groove retain its momen­tum against inter­rup­tions and jux­ta­po­si­tions? How do beats and syn­co­pa­tions change their syn­tax when shifted or super­im­posed? How can micro-second sub­di­vi­sions of a beat be re-configured into unpre­dictable pat­terns that can still be felt as rhyth­mi­cally tight? When musi­cal events are frozen and cut-and-pasted out of con­text, are they per­ceived as exist­ing inde­pen­dently in their own non-directional time-world? Can the four-phrase tune of the solo tuba pro­logue pass the test of time and be rec­og­nized when it reap­pears ten min­utes later? Can the met­ri­cal impli­ca­tions of this tune still be appre­ci­ated when it is played by the brass in a free-sounding rhythm super­im­posed over a dri­ving 9/16 tor­rent in the rest of the ensem­ble? When — at the end of the piece (spoiler alert!) — the tune is played by solo flute over a tapes­try of bells, will the lis­tener rec­og­nize on some intu­itive level that the notes of each phrase are played back­wards although the order­ing of the phrases is forward?

I have for a long time con­sid­ered the one-on-a-part (two vio­lins) cham­ber sin­foni­etta to be nature’s per­fect musi­cal ensem­ble. No other ensem­ble could pro­vide at the same time the tim­bral vari­ety and turn-on-a-dime agility needed to exe­cute a piece like Test of Time. I’ve included tuba and alto sax­o­phone, instru­ments too often neglected in this medium. I have also avoided using stan­dard per­cus­sion instru­ments, replac­ing bass drum and tom-toms with log drums, the surdo (Brazil­ian car­ni­val drum), and the cajon (Afro-Peruvian wood box drum), and writ­ing for alm­glocken (tuned cow­bells) and singing bowls in place of marimba and vibraphone.

From the begin­ning of the tuba pro­logue to the final wa-wa decay of the spring drum around fif­teen min­utes will have expired in the out­side world. I hope that those of us inside Test of Time will have expe­ri­enced a uni­verse of time dimen­sions totally apart from that.

Score PDF: http://www.donfreund.com/media/scores/chamber_orchestra/Test_of_Time.pdf
Other scores: http://donfreund.com/

Test of Time (2009)

Curtis Macomber, violin
Christopher Oldfather, piano

Inquieto (attraverso il rumore) was composed at the request of the violinist Rolf Schulte, and is dedicated to him with gratitude.  The work’s premiere took place on March 4, 2015 at the Kaufman Music Center’s Merkin Concert Hall in New York City, performed by Mr. Schulte and pianist Stephen Gosling.

In Italian, “inquieto” means unquiet or restless, even anxious or uneasy, and “attraverso il rumore” can be translated as “through the noise.” The disquiet I refer to is that of a restless mind, which must work through clatter and clutter to achieve calm. Thanks to my colleague and friend, the composer Paolo Marchettini, for helping me to come up with the right Italian phrase for the title.

A restless mind is a terrible thing to waste, hence this piece, which is in two movements, played without pause. The first begins with an oddball kind of jazz idea, moving gradually into a slow, somewhat siciliana-like tempo. The second is much more driven and somewhat frenetic, until it finally settles into a reminiscence of the slow music from the first movement. 

This track appeared in 2018 on the first CD comprised entirely of my music, a disc that was released on Navona Recordings(PARMA Recordings LLC).

Hayes Biggs, 2023

Inquieto (attraverso il rumore) (2015) (new)

For Milton - Christian Carey

Tammy Evans Yonce, flute 
Mary Walker, piano

Recorded live at South Dakota State University, 23 October 2017

For Milton for flute and piano - Christian Carey

What Child Is This (MIDI)

First mvt. of Symphony 7. New England Philharmonic, Richard Pittman, conductor.

Water

Unknown Album

Stabat Mater (1967)

Composed for the Locrian Chamber Players.

Performed by members of the Locrian Chamber Players: Erin Lesser, flute, Gregory Hesselink, cello, Blair McMillen, piano, and Anna Reinersman, harp.

Live premiere performance from August of 2008, Riverside Church, NYC

Published by APNM (Association for the Promotion of New Music).

Sultry Air, Balmy Breezes was composed in 2008 for The Locrian Chamber Players at the request of its director, my Manhattan School of Music colleague David Macdonald. The excellent players were Erin Lesser, flute, Gregory Hesselink, cello, Blair McMillen, piano, and Anna Reinersman, harp. It bears a dedication to Nils Vigeland, former Chair of the Composition Department at MSM.

In its atmospheric quality and emphasis on color, both harmonic and timbral, Sultry Air, Balmy Breezes strikes me as having been influenced by many characteristics I admire in twentieth century French music by composers such as Debussy, Ravel, and Messiaen. While I could not find an appropriate French title that wouldn’t come across as pretentious, I nonetheless allowed a bit of affectation to creep in by way of using French tempo indications and expressive markings as my homage to the tradition that inspired me. The work begins with an ascending, sweeping, and rather metallic sounding gesture that combines the piano with a harp glissando that features clashing strings. Over an accompaniment of isolated harp harmonics and other discrete sounds, the flute begins a solo that eventually will climb from its sultry lowest register to the first climax of the piece, where it is supported by lush chords in the harp, piano and pizzicato cello. (The unison doubling of chords in piano and harp is one of my favorite sonorities, one that I first came to appreciate in Britten’s Cantata misericordium.) After another upward flourish in the piano and harp and a brief reminiscence of the opening material, a faster, breezier section begins, gradually acquiring its own groove, mostly in 5/8 meter. After a couple more passionate climactic passages, this section gradually begins to dissipate, and slower music (marked Modéré) takes over, initiated by a flute trill before that instrument disappears, ceding the spotlight to the solo cello, accompanied once more by the chordal cushioning of the unison piano and harp. Just before the end, the flute — marked nonchalant — returns for its final say.

—Hayes Biggs, 2019

Sultry Air, Balmy Breezes (2008)

Motet for Easter

SATB Soli or Chorus Unaccompanied
Text: Antiphon for Eastertide, Liturgical (Latin)
Duration: ca. 4 minutes
Publisher: C. F. Peters Corporation, Edition Peters 67490

Composer's Program Notes

Most of the basic motivic material for this motet is derived from the Gregorian antiphon Vidi aquam, and I prefer to have the opening phrase of the chant sung prior to beginning the motet proper, in the manner of an incipit.

The original antiphon is traditionally sung as a replacement for Asperges me, Domine, during Paschaltide (from Eastertide to Pentecost inclusive) during the sprinkling of holy water prior to the principal Sunday Mass. Its text is adapted from the book of the prophet Ezekiel (47:1-12).

Vidi aquam was composed in 1991 at the request of John Goldsmith for his group the Bellefield Singers, and was first performed by that ensemble in May of that year in Heinz Chapel at the University of Pittsburgh.

This work was recorded in the Church of the Ascension, NYC, and is performed by Kiitos: Eileen Clark, soprano; Karen Goldfeder, mezzo-soprano; Gregory Davidson, tenor; and Jared Stamm, baritone. This piece was recorded by Dongsok Shin.

Reveries. Passions. (Fantasy-Quartet for Piano and Strings)(2020) - I. Passion awakened.

Hayes Biggs

Recent comments

Robert Gross

Related tracks