performed by le Nouvel Ensembe Moderne; Lorraine Vaillancourt, conductor

Strange Loops, for chamber orchestra and electronics

composed and performed by Christopher Otto
engineered, edited, mixed and mastered by Christopher Botta

Violin Octet

A stay in Bali in 1976 marked a turning point in Claude Vivier's career. Most of the subsequent works were to show the influence of the atmosphere of this Pacific island, whose inhabitants call it the "Island of the Gods," or Pulau Dewata. Vivier said of this piece, "I wanted to write...a piece imbued with the spirit of Bali: its dances, its rhythms and, above all, an explosion of life, simple and candid." The original score does not indicate any instrumentation, rather, it is left to the performers to decide. This orchestration draws on the sounds of the Indonesian Gamelan, using a small percussion orchestra, including gongs, mallets and drums, to signify the Balinesian spirit to which Vivier alluded. It was commissioned by Jeffrey Milarsky for the Manhattan School of Music Percussion Ensemble in 2009.

Live premiere recording

Pulau Dewata by Claude Vivier/Jeff Myers

Jeff Myers: Goodnight from Neuma Records, February 2025

Jeff Myers: 3. Pulsar (from Goodnight)

dopamine was written for the JACK Quartet. It uses scordatura (retuning) and natural harmonics on the all the instruments to obtain precise microtonal notes and chords. The title refers to a hormone and neurotransmitter which occurs in humans and some mammals. Dopamine is typically associated with the pleasure system; people with higher dopamine levels tend to seek out more pleasurable activities and vice versa. Dopamine is also associated with creativity and the generation of new ideas. I used dopamine as a metaphor for this string quartet because it was written within a short span of a few days in an unprecedented creative fervor. My motivation came from both the creative experience and from the music itself, which gave me great pleasure to listen to. Perhaps my own level of dopamine was very high as I wrote this music. I suppose I will never know.

BUY
https://jeffmyers.bandcamp.com/track/dopamine

dopamine for string quartet

Bill Kalinkos, clarinet, John Orfe, piano

Evensong Extras

As Desperation Sets In

"The Cold Pane sets five poems by esteemed Kentucky author, farmer, activist, and scholar, Wendell Berry. The cycle alternates between poems that describe the external, natural world—and particularly, the seasons—and poems that describe the internal, human world of grief. This basic opposition between external and internal carries with it other, related oppositions: cyclical versus linear conceptions of time and life, light versus darkness, and objectivity versus subjectivity. I composed the songs dealing with the natural world according to more-or-less strict processes—systems that, once set in motion, operate according to their own internal logic, without adjustment or interference on my part. My aim was to mirror, in a metaphorical way, the physical laws of the natural world. In contrast, for the songs dealing with the internal, human world—“The Cold Pane,” and “The Widower”—I wrote in a much more intuitive, spontaneous, and traditionally lyrical mode. “The Widower,” on a personal level, describes exactly an experience my father had, and it was with this poem that I began to build a cycle. As a whole, the cycle explores how we continually seek meaning in and attempt to draw significance from the qualities and events of the natural world, and asks whether the meaning and significance we find there is revelation, or just an imposition of our human desires, or both. When is nature actually speaking to us, and what can we know? 

Canon and imitation are central to the piece, both as formal constructive devices, and, more abstractly and poetically, as metaphors for one entity following or searching for another. The work’s harmonic structure oscillates between two centers: G-sharp minor and A major. This semitone relationship intentionally references the related tonal structure of Mahler’s Fifth Symphony—a piece that has a very special place in my heart. The final song in The Cold Pane, “Again,” uses the harmonic series and the acoustic principle of sum tones as a sonic metaphor for the rebirth and return to light evoked in the song’s text. 

This piece’s unusual instrumentation grew out of two desires: first, to create an ensemble in which all the performers could stand; and second, to reference, but not explicitly duplicate, the instrumentation of the bluegrass band—a sound world and singing style that has been a major source of inspiration for me. Previous works of mine have drawn inspiration from certain folk singing traditions from Kentucky—particularly, Appalachian ballad singing and Old Regular Baptist hymnody. The influence of these traditions is less prevalent here, though the folk-wisdom quality of the words for Berry’s “The Cold Pane” did briefly invite a hymn-like sound world into the piece. In any case, this piece continues my investigation into the people, places, and cultural practices of my home state." —Shawn Jaeger

Shawn Jaeger - The Cold Pane - Talea Ensemble

For 10 wind instruments, performed by fellows of the Tanglewood Music Center, conducted by Alexandre Bloch.

Pasiphae Verses, for ten wind instruments

Clarice Jensen, the composer, cellist, and Artistic Director with the Brooklyn-based ACME — that’s the American Contemporary Music Ensemble — has a new cassette release out via Geographic North, titled Drone Studies.

The two pieces that make up this release, titled “The Organ that Made You Bleed” and “One Bee” show off an improvisational and naturally expressive tonal exploration that veers away from the compositional works she’s created with ACME, and via collaborations with artists such as Jóhann Jóhannsson, Max Richter, A Winged Victory for the Sullen, Dustin O’halloran, Stars of the Lid, and more.

Host Chad Radford met up with Jensen and Jonathan Turner at Knoxville, Tennessee’s Big Ears festival in March of 2019, where they discussed these two side-long pieces and their relationship to her body of work.

Photo by Ryuhei Shindo.

Learn more about Clarice Jensen's "Drone Studies" tape at https://claricejensen.bandcamp.com/album/drone-studies

Artist Spotlight: Clarice Jensen on "Drone Studies"

performed by Janus from the album "I Am Not"

Keymaster

The music of Jeff Myers has been called “Striking…and harmonically rich” by the New York Times and “…brilliant and powerful…” by The Classical Voice of New England. Myers draws on preexisting musical works, styles and genres, as well as visual art and natural phenomena. Filipino kulintang music, works by M.C. Escher, overtone music, folk music and geographical narratives have been a source for inspiration. His operatic collaboration with writer and filmmaker Royce Vavrek yielded the one-act opera The Hunger Art, based on Kafka’s "The Hunger Artist" and the Adam and Eve story. Currently Myers is working on a new full length opera with Mr. Vavrek (Maren of Vardø) and a new one-act opera with writer Quincy Long (Buried Alive) As part of American Lyric Theater’s “Poe Project”.

His music has been played by Hilary Hahn on her international tour (encores project and forthcoming recording on Deutsche Grammaphon), ensembles such as L’Orchestre National de Lorraine, American Composers Orchestra, Ann Arbor Symphony, New York Youth Symphony, members of New World Symphony, University of Michigan Symphony Band, American Lyric Theater, Center City Opera, Aspen Contemporary Ensemble, Transit, PRISM Saxophone Quartet, and the JACK Quartet. He has received awards from The American Academy of Arts and Letters, BMI, as well as fellowships from the Aspen Festival, Tanglewood, Festival Acanthes, the Atlantic Center for the Arts, and grants from institutions and private funds such as the Jerome Foundation, American Music Center, Puffin Foundation, the Yvar Mikhashoff Trust, the Anna Sosenko Trust, and The Fromm Foundation. His music has been heard at Carnegie Hall, Library of Congress, Kimmel Center, Darmstadt, Gaudeamus, Symphony Space, Arsenal, Le Poisson Rouge, and the Tenri Cultural Institute to name a few. Myers holds degrees from San José State University, the Eastman School of Music and the University of Michigan. He currently resides New York as a freelance composer.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

dopamine for string quartet

Jeff Myers Composer