Performed by the Ear Alliance at the 2021 Salisbury University Jazz Festival: 
Jeff Antoniuk (sax), Matt Michaud (guitar), Savino Palumbo (piano), Amy Shook (bass), Frank Russo (drums)
-Recorded by Colleen Clark
-Edited and mixed by Jerry Tabor

"Ruri" reinterprets a guitar melody that, by itself, sounds like a rock or blues lick. When the band enters, the lick takes on new sonic meaning. It's new-found freedom allows it to become a frequent motive, a counter melody, and a texture that deepens the harmonies with which it is heard. Contradictions, such as this upbeat "blues" ostinato being placed against the primary lyrical, almost ballad-like melody, are carried into other parts of the composition as well.

Ruri (2020), Live performance by the Ear Alliance

Part IV of "Changing the Message", a 4-part suite about facing adversity and overcoming through the pandemic.

Performed by the Ear Alliance at the 2021 Salisbury University Jazz Festival.  
Jeff Antoniuk (sax)
Matt Michaud (guitar)
Savino Palumbo (piano)
Amy Shook (bass)
Frank Russo (drums)

-Recorded by Colleen Clark
-Edited and mixed by Jerry Tabor

Cover image is a digital painting by Otto Laske called, "Rising".

Embrace It and Rise (2021), Live performance by the Ear Alliance

Room Tone (for oboe, bass clarinet, violin, cello, and percussion)
Composed 2012
Performed by the HELIX! New Music Ensemble
April 6, 2014 at Rutgers University
Copyright 2014 by Jerry Tabor
All Rights Reserved

Room Tone by Jerry Tabor

40-grit (2013, for percussion quartet) was composed for Eric Shuster and the 2013-2014 Salisbury University Percussion Ensemble. This piece features independent rhythms in each part that are measured by the performer's own breathing patterns. Multi-attack rhythms are measured both by breath and hand/arm capabilities. Ensemble coordination is managed by auditory perception of other parts. But allowances for performer perceptual differences are built into the time scale and unfolding formal design.

The work is designed to be performance by percussionists at any level of experience and highlights ability differences as features of the composition.

40-grit (2013, for percussion quartet) Premiere Performance

This excerpt is used by permission from Neuma Records. The composition appears in full on Electroacoustic Music VII (2002).

The title, "lemon; birch", is an implicitly descriptive metaphor for the procedures and sonic objects employed in the composition. The metaphor calls attention to a high amount of connectivity, interaction, substitution, and extraction that results in apparently disparate sonic components. These processes were applied to the composition’s sounds through the capabilities of a PC-based, real-time version of Iannis Xenakis’s UPIC System. In this program, sonic events are drawn on a virtual page on the computer screen by using the mouse. All or portions of each drawing can be copied and reconfigured with different dimensions that bear a strong or not-so-strong resemblance to the original visual image. Additionally, the images can be, in effect, scrolled through very quickly or slowly, or a moment within them can be settled on so that each component of the sonic event can be examined for its own validity to the compositional idea. In many cases, these explorations yielded new events that were also subjected to the same procedures previously mentioned. On the surface it may seem as though the sounds are unrelated but they are actually generated from the same four drawings. From this perspective the composition explores the relationships between well-defined and refined images and their often-ragged reflections. These intersections were created from the ground up as well as by grafting intensified components from existing sonic images into new contexts, giving them a completely new presence. The effect is in some ways similar to that of Robert Rauschenberg’s painting "Ace", in which seemingly isolated images reappear elsewhere in the work with new personality, thereby creating an almost imperceptible level of unity through unexpected forms of repetition. This is also true of the connections between uses for the lemon and birch trees. While they appear very different on their surface, they both have properties and uses that are strikingly similar, such as chemical extractions used for a wide variety of purposes.

Sample of lemon (2002, for computer-generated sound)

Premiere performance by the University of New Mexico Percussion Ensemble, Christopher Shultis, director.

Mood Exercise (1991, for percussion quartet)

And Evening Wakes (1989, for horn and piano, excerpt)

This excerpt is used with permission from Neuma Records. The full composition can be heard on New Music Series 4.

"veneer/semblance, extremities, verities" is an interpretation of all the detail to be found in a small moment of time being stretched into a monolithic exploration. The many strokes of timbre, shades of pitch variation, and deterioration of intention merge into a sonic environment not unlike the visual environment created by a large Rothko painting. Truth in sound and human intention are revealed and unraveled in unusual ways.

veneer (1992, for 2 violins, 2 violas, excerpt)

On Lavender Mist (2003, piano and computer-generated sound)

This recording is a rough mix of the Salisbury University Percussion Quartet's studio recording of "40-grit." When finished, this will appear on the Neuma Records release of Jerry Tabor's album called, "40-grit."

One interesting area to focus on occurs between 10:30 and 14:35. Here, time is decentralized so that each performer governs the pacing of their low tom-tom attacks by their own breathing patterns. The higher tom-tom rhythms are the result of each performer responding to the sonic imprint left by the other performers' (heard in the low toms). New sections are introduced when all the performers perceive that they have reached a certain degree of synchronicity. And there are many more intense formal features throughout the work that permit local sounds and form to warp in ways that only these performers can reveal. 

This composition is largely organized around the sound of monolithic sections of dense texture. Performers create these textures by integrating their physical limitations on the materials provided. But subtle changes take place within the textures that eventually evolve into dramatic changes in dynamics and density. 

The physical challenge of the piece is completely personalized for each performer. Percussionists have enjoyed playing this piece because the challenge is so personal, so tailored for them. The score is designed so that no matter who plays it, this will remain true.

40-grit by Jerry Tabor (rough studio mix)



Frieze was commissioned by Danielle Cumming (Professor of Guitar at Salisbury University) for the annual SU Classical Guitar Festival in 2011. The composition had to include as many guitarists as possible and allow guitarists of any level of proficiency to participate. Additionally, since Dr. Cumming is a champion of contemporary music, she insisted that the music reflect my experimental perspective on music. The premiere was successfully performed by an ensemble of 32 players (ranging in ages from middle school through college) seated in the balcony, which completely surrounded the audience.

The composition was designed in such a way that rhythmic and textural variety is generated by the various abilities of the players in the ensemble. The parts were conceived as a series of living and interacting sonic images attached to the walls—perhaps as musical counterparts to the friezes ornamenting the recital hall.

The cover art shown is the working score of Frieze. It is about 7'x7' in size and the colors are made from post-it notes, each of which represents a different event type. (General event types were used so that a performer with any experience could execute an indicated sonic activity at their own pace.)

The surround-sound aspect of the music was part of the compositional structure and to facilitate imagining all the parts in their proper space, the score was set up to reflect where the parts were positioned in the hall. (The score is read from the center out.) Once the score was complete, it was transcribed on to a timeline using graphic symbols so that even non-music-readers could read their parts.

Frieze (excerpt from rough studio mix)

A composer of experimental music and contemporary jazz, Jerry's music has been presented throughout the U.S. and in Europe. He is a professor of music, coordinator of theory and composition, and director of the jazz ensemble at Salisbury University.

Jerry Tabor

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