My first work for Orchestra, I composed this in my last year of undergraduate studies, while living in Krakow, Poland (2004-5... I revised the work in 2011). At the time, I was reflecting on the then current state of economics in Poland, which had fairly recently incorporated neoliberalism. The first movement is guided by a motive that appears once for each of the intervening years since perestroika.

Faces Of Love

Wschodni Wiatr

Adapted from a previous work. In 2005-6, I wrote a piece reflecting on three photos I had taken while traveling around Europe in the summer and fall of 2004. The first photo was of the statue of Lucifer (Angel Caido) in Parque del Buen Retiro, Madrid. The second was of the fence bordering Oscwiencim (Auschwitz). The third was of a sea of bicycles at Centraal Station, in Amsterdam. Each photo inspired a movement of this work.

Three Pictures Of Europe (orch)

Doria, for ssaattbb choir (2019)
Premiere: Del Mar Concert Choir, Gregory Graf, cond. (25 March 2019, Del Mar New Music Symposium)

Δώρια
Ezra Pound (1885 – 1972)
Be in me as the eternal moods
            of the bleak wind, and not
As transient things are –
            gaiety of flowers.
Have me in the strong loneliness
            of sunless cliffs
And of grey waters.
            Let the gods speak softly of us
In days hereafter,
            The shadowy flowers of Orcus
Remember Thee.

program note:
“All art begins in the physical discontent (or torture) of loneliness and partiality.” 
–Ezra Pound

In Δώρια (Doria), Pound succinctly presents his preference for everlasting truth over fickle, transitory beauty and pleasure. The protagonist implores his beloved to eschew the “transient,” in favor of the “eternal.” As a result, the reader is meant to embrace stark, constant objects (“bleak wind,” “sunless cliffs,” and “grey water”) rather than ephemeral beauty (“gaiety of flowers”). The final lines turn to Orcus, Roman god of the underworld, who is the punisher of broken oaths. Here, the reader senses Pound’s unease, perhaps, with his impending union to Dorothy Shakespear (Doria?). He sees in the object of his affection an inner conflict between earthly pleasure and permanent truth. Thus, the poem closes by imploring her to remain true to her oaths – those lasting choices, laden with consequence – rather than succumb to earthly pleasures.

Doria

Arrow
for Dave Eggar and Paul Vaillancourt

In composing Arrow (2022), I was inspired by singularly-directed human life: stretching from the misguided, self-importance of mansplaining youth to the struggle to remain relevant in later years. The piece opens with a stark, simple, and free texture followed by a section with a clear melodic layer. This melody seems to establish theme through repetition and prominence, implying that it will remain important to the piece, but… it doesn’t. As the piece progresses, the pulse becomes more apparent, building intensity. Against this frame, the singing cello breaks off – first with a syncopation against the pulse and, later, with dramatically drawn out and slowing lines that don’t quite fit the harmony of the marimba. Like life, Arrow ends without much warning

8. Arrow

for Wendy Warner, Diana Sharpe, and Alina Bennett
to David Lang

my end is my beginning, my middle is… (2016) – “…a way a lone a last a loved a long the / riverrun, past Eve and Adam's, from swerve of shore to bend of bay, brings us by a commodius vicus of recirculation back ..." (Finnegan’s Wake, James Joyce). 

This is the end of Joyce’s book but, also its beginning. His revolutionary idea: to mimic the ouroboros (snake eating its tail) through a formal/ narrative effect. 

The title of meimb,mmi devours its tale. I tried to achieve a similar impression through music. The piece begins mid-sentence (first phrase of a two phrase group), cycles through several variations of the same two phrases, returns to the material we hear at the beginning (exactly), then ends mid-sentence. 

In the contours of the form, I was inspired by David Lang’s Cheating, Lying, Stealing, which to me exhibits exquisite patience and pacing. This is my first real attempt at minimalism, in that the material of meimb,mmi (with the exception of a brief interlude for solo kick drum) is derived entirely from one progression. –JJO, January 2017

...my end is my beginning, my middle is...

Boston Modern Orchestra Project

Three Pictures of Europe (ensemble): I. Angel Caido II. Oswiecim III. Centraal Station

Premiere

Centric

OgburnJ-Transgression- Regression

I wrote Transgression/ Regression in response to a few recent and distasteful incidents involving “clashes of culture.” I refer to the establishment of “Hitler Chicken,” a restaurant in Bangkok, a recent fashion trend of swastikas on t-shirts here (with accompanying text such as “old school Nazi”), and a controversial mural at Chulalongkorn University featuring Hitler in full salute alongside various personalities of pop culture of the twentieth-century. Unfortunately I cannot forgive these incidents as merely cultural misunderstandings, simply because I do not believe willful ignorance serves as an excuse for anything. Of course, I recognize that misunderstandings will always occur when people of different backgrounds come into contact; however, I am here speaking of the appropriation of a historical figure from one cultural tradition by the pop and mercantile culture of another. That which was borrowed in this case is abhorrent and the use to which it has been employed is entirely reprehensible. I fear the cyclical nature of such social/ political constructs and I have, quite simply, been greatly offended by this errant appropriation. 
I begin the work by trying to capture the collective emotions of a people in response to atrocity, in the immediate aftermath of war, in the wake of unspeakable acts. As the piece progresses an event, first presented in chorale texture, is transported through time and space, until it becomes distorted into a nearly unrecognizable form. Eventually, the chorale returns in abbreviated form to signify a cyclical pattern involving the brutality of people against people throughout history. 
Enno Poppe and Ensemble Mosaik commissioned the chamber ensemble version of Transgression/ Regression as part of the Goethe Institute – Young Composers of SE Asia Competition & Workshop. It premiered on 14 December 2013, at the Princess Galyani Vadhana Institute in Bangkok, TH. The orchestral version was commissioned by Claude Villaret and the Thailand Philharmonic Orchestra, for premiere in their 9th Season (2013-14). 

Transgression/Regression, for orchestra

The title of Allusions to Past Mistakes refers to the frequent quotations of my own works within the piece. Allusions is very personal to me, for its coded references are meant for an audience of one (guess who). In the past, not all of my compositions have succeeded to the degree I would have liked, either as a result of the performance (interpretation) or through my own choices (composition). Regardless of the reason, many moments within works that have failed still appeal to me. Here I revive a few of these moments as artifacts and imbue them with new life as structural elements for a new work with, hopefully, a more successful outcome. 

I wrote Allusions to Past Mistakes for my friend and colleague, the wonderful bass clarinetist Grzegorz Grzeszczyk. I am grateful to him for premiering the work in August 2013, at Mahidol University College of Music. 


JamesJOgburn

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