Introduction & first two movements of a Five movement work: Intro; I. Harbor Boats, Waves Lapping; Interlude; II. Quiet Pond, Gentle Rain. 

Premiered on “Evening of Shakuhachi and Koto Music” concert series with Marco Lienhard, shakuhachi; Ryuko Mizutani, koto presented in Gasson Hall, Boston College on May 15, 2005

The score is available from J. W. Pepper Music: https://www.jwpepper.com/Water-Music/10488326.item

Water Music - mvts I II

With the upcoming U. S. Memorial Day observance, my posting here is a musical meditation in remembrance of all those who gave their lives in wartime service.

Additionally, this posting is in remembrance of so many civilians around the world who have perished in war.

This brief duo for clarinet and cello grew from personal reflection of the tragedy of the Vietnam War. I served as a U. S. Army bandsman-clarinetist with the 19th Army Band at Fort Dix, New Jersey and with the 3rd Infantry Division Band in Germany. I composed the first version of this work for solo clarinet in the year following my discharge.

Fifty years later, after decades of more wars and armed conflicts beyond the Vietnam era, I am still trimming and shaping my tiny personal "Meditation in Time of War" which has evolved into a duo for clarinet and cello.

A Meditation In Time Of War, 1973 - ????

A SATB choral setting of the closing lines to Abraham Lincoln's 1861 inaugural address where he appeals to "the better angels of our nature"

Closing lines to Lincoln's address:
"We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature."

Voices are generated by Note Performer3 software from a Sibelius Score.

The score is available for perusal and purchase through Universal Edition: https://www.universaledition.com/martin-schreiner-8247/works/lincoln-s-angels-35854

Lincoln's Angels

Realized using Notion and Studio One featuring VSL Synchron Elite Strings. Shortened version, full length coming soon!

25-11 - Glazunov - Theme and Variations Op 97

Thought at first that grief had brought him down,
His wife dead, his own hand dug the grave
under a willow oak, in family ground—
he got home sick, was dead when morning came.
By week’s end, his cousin who worked in town
was seized at once by fever and by chill,
left his office, walked back home at noon,
death ripening in him like a boil.

Soon it was a farmer in the field—
someone’s brother, someone’s father—
left the mule in its traces and went home.
Then the mason, the miller at his wheel,
from deep in the forest the hunter, the logger,
and the sun still up everywhere in the kingdom.

Ellen Bryant Voigt (by permission of the poet)

A SONG ALBUM

1918 (Thought at first that grief had brought him down)

The barber, the teacher, the plumber, the preacher,
the man in a bowler, man in a cap,
the banker, the baker, the cabinet-maker,
the fireman, postman, clerk in the shop,

soldier and sailor, teamster and tailor,
man shoveling snow or sweeping his step,
carpenter, cobbler, liar, lawyer,
laid them down and never got up.

O, O, the world wouldn’t stop—
the neighborhood grocer, the neighborhood cop
laid them down and never did rise.
And some of their children, and some of their wives,
fell into bed and never got up,
fell into bed and never got up.

Ellen Bryant Voigt (by permission of the poet)

1918 (The barber, the teacher, the plumber, the preacher)

I had not thought the rose might bleed,
bring its own memory forward,
the irregular rhythm of grief
a message nearly missed
until the day you understand
what a single thorn can do.

But let’s sing about picking raspberries
while joyful human and avian chatter
floats across dry fields sprinkled
with fallen starlight of bindweed, 
and how the wisp of thorn 
on a raspberry stem can prick
deep as that of a rose.

Meg Freer (by permission of the poet)

A Single Thorn (Memory of a Rose in Tbilisi)

Prologue

After the first year, weeds and scrub;
after five, juniper and birch,
alders filling in among the briars;
ten more years, maples rise and thicken;
forty years, the birches crowded out,
a new world swarms on the floor of the hardwood forest.
And who can tell us where there was an orchard,
where a swing, where the smokehouse stood?

Ellen Bryant Voigt (by permission of the poet)

1918 (Prologue)

Who said the worst was past, who knew
such a thing? Someone writing history,
someone looking down on us
from the clouds. Down here, snow and wind:
cold blew through the clapboards,
our spring was frozen in the frozen ground.
Like the beasts in their holes,
no one stirred - if not sick
exhausted or afraid.  In the village,
the doctor’s own wife died in the night
of the nineteenth, 1919.
But it was true: at the window,
every afternoon, toward the horizon,
a little more light before the darkness fell.

Ellen Bryant Voigt (by permission of the poet)

1918 (Who said the worst was past)

Liquid Crystal  -   Musical Variations for organ

For Flute, Oboe, English Horn, Clarinet, Bassoon, Bass Clarinet, Harp, Marimba, Percussion.


Suite for Woodwinds and Percussion No. 3

I am a composer and producer of instrumental music in several genres, including ambient soundscapes, electronica, orchestral and chamber music.  

Musical influences include John Coltrane, Igor Stravinsky, Gustav Holst, Claude Debussy, Maurice Ravel, Tangerine Dream, Robert Prince, Frank Zappa, Brian Eno, Heinrich Ignaz, Franz von Biber.

My Method of Composing and Producing
------------------------------------------
I'm sharing my method of composing and producing music recordings in case other composer-producers like me might find ideas worth exploring in their own work. I use this method for Classical, Avant-Pop or Neo-Folk Instrumental genres, not for Ambient and Soundscape pieces. Non-composers might find this explanation interesting, but having a bit of music theory background will definitely help. I consider myself a humble learner when it comes to music theory. 

I owe a debt of gratitude to British musician and educator Gareth Green, whose Music Matters online courses and free YouTube lessons have taught me so much over the past few years. Thanks to his instruction, I’ve moved from struggling to compose music by trial and error to something more enjoyable and productive. The knowledge I've gained has taken my work in new and expanding directions. As the saying goes, “Theory is not a cage — it’s a map. It doesn’t make the journey for you, but it keeps you from getting lost.” 

When I start a new piece, I begin by choosing a key, and picking a scale drawn from one of these sources:
 
1) Western Tonal / Functional Harmony - major or minor chords I II III IV V VI VII
2) Modal Harmony - Dorian, Phrygian, Lydian, etc.
3) Slonimsky's "Thesaurus of Scales and Melodic Patterns" 
4) Messiaen’s "Seven Modes of Limited Transposition" 

For many pieces, I also decide on a progression, one as a simple as I IV V, or something more elaborate.  

Next I create a "scales and progressions" piano track in my DAW (digital audio workstation software) and enter the chords I to VII in my chosen key. These harmonized scales serve as a basis for writing multipart harmonies and finding pivot chords for key modulations. 

At the start, I know what instruments I want to use, making adjustments along the way. I tend to write chord parts first, then melodies created through a mix of improvisation and direct input in the DAW. Sometimes I start with a melody.

I develop melodies and variations of a phrase by some combination of: a) passing it from one instrument to another, transposing it by an interval that sounds pleasing, b) reversing it, c) inverting it around the tonic (first) note of the scale. These are well-known methods. 

After completing a section, I choose another scale and maybe a new key and repeat the process until I have a draft of the entire piece. Then I export a recording and listen to it “offline”, take notes of errors and new ideas, and incorporate them back into the piece. Often this “compose / listen / compose” cycle is repeated many times. These iterative cycles include adding new ideas, polishing transitions between sections, changing the arrangement, and incorporating expressive details like accents, and articulations (staccato, sustain, portato etc.). I’m often working several different pieces at once. 

Last is mixing and mastering: balancing the loudness between instruments and adjusting elements like reverb, compression, and equalization. I tend to mix as I compose, even though many producers frown on that approach. I find mixing as I go helps me envision the completed piece and make adjustments to the choice of instruments; it self-inspires me when the piece is starting to sound good.  At the end I do a final mix, but as the saying goes, “A mix is never finished — it’s surrendered.”

In the end, this method gives me a basis for exploration and creativity and helps me stay focused. The goal is always to make a piece of music that feels expressive, cohesive, and emotionally resonant.

Suite for Woodwinds and Percussion No. 3

Jim Lynch