J. Michael Dunn, tuba

Score is available at jlacomposer.com

Infamy... for tuba & sound file

Cain Budds, guitar

Score is available at jlacomposer.com

Soundscape for guitar & sound file

Virginia Zingara, flute
Joe L. Alexander, tuba

Score is available at jlacomposer.com

Yesterday  &  Today Alabama Vignettes  live performance

TMD String Quartet
     Hyae Rhyun Yim, violin
     Seung Ah Choi, violin 
     Soo Kyung Jeong, viola 
     Jeong Jin-a, cello 

Contact the composer for the score and parts.
jlacomposer.com

Mother's Grace SQ Arrangememt

L'appel du vide for string quartet (2016)

Dalit Warshaw, composer and pianist.

I call CONJURING TRISTAN a "narrative concerto for piano and orchestra." It is based upon Thomas Mann's novella "Tristan," in which Mann's familiar theme of the  irreconcilable dichotomy between Life and Art is revisited through the character  of Gabriele, a young mother and former pianist in treatment for consumption at  the sanatorium of Einfried. A writer and fellow resident named Spinell reignites  her artistic spirit and encourages her to play through Wagner's opera "Tristan  und Isolde," a transformative "wonder-realm" of experience for both. After a  confrontation between writer and husband, Kloterjahn, Gabriele dies. 

The piece incorporates heavily the leitmotifs of Wagner (notably in the cadenza, as the piano/protagonist plays a fantasy on the themes of Tristan und Isolde, corresponding to the climactic moment in Mann's story). The structure of the concerto is comprised of the following four sections:

I. Overture - Theme I ("Gabriele") - Theme II ("Spinell") - Dialogue ("Scherzando")

After a brief overture depicting the sanatorium "Einfried" (literally translated as "enclosure"), we are introduced to Gabriele, a willowy, open-ended theme characterized by an ascending figure of D-E-F-G. Her theme has two parts, the B-section describing her illness as her coughs are bandied about between orchestra and piano. Spinell, a quixotic, eccentric and Romantic figure, is personified by a whimsical, staccato melody in bassoons and pizzicato low strings, interrupted by occasional outbursts of gallant lyricism in the strings.

II. "Ballet of Maladies"

Akin to a development section, the characters' motives are fragmented and Wagner's leitmotifs from "Tristan"appear in different manifestations, as we are now introduced to the other residents of Einfried, with their various symptoms. Gabriele's motives (both four-note phrase and "cough") are presented in fragmentation by the piano, becoming increasingly overwhelmed by the orchestra, ultimately leading to a crash that ushers in the cadenza.

III. Cadenza.

This cadenza is a fantasy on the prominent "Tristan" leitmotifs. It coincides with the climactic scene in Mann's story, in which Gabriele plays through Wagner's opera in its entirety at the piano.

IV. Conclusion: Spinell's Letter (Fugato) - Confrontation with Kloterjahn - Gabriele's Death

As Spinell spars with Kloterjahn (embodying the ultimate conflict of Life versus Art), the leitmotif of Marke (from Wagner's "Tristan") is heard for the first time. The confrontation is interrupted by a sudden scream, as Gabriele endures her final coughing spell. Her theme is heard once more in farewell, entwined with Wagner's leitmotif depicting Tristan's death in Act III. At the conclusion, the famously unresolvable" Tristan chord"is resolved in its two capacities, enabling interplay between alternate enharmonic spellings: both resolutions (one in G# minor, the other in A minor) are superimposed, allowing for an ambiguous bitonal chord (indeed, an "impossible" reconciliation between the keys of A minor and G sharp minor) to close the piece. 

This recording is taped from a radio broadcast aired in 2015.

CONJURING TRISTAN for piano and orchestra (2015)

"The Colour of Water" for solo saxophone(s) (soprano/alto/baritone) and chamber orchestra commissioned by the Saxophonia festival (LV) and Klaipėda Music Spring (LT) 


"I expected to find complete darkness down below but at some point, much to my surprise, the ocean floor appeared transparent and radiant". Jacques Piccard, Swiss oceanographer and engineer

"..e il naufragar m'è dolce in questo mare". Giacomo Leopardi (..and sinking in this sea is sweet to me)

“The Colour of Water” is the 3rd part of my Latvian trilogy together with “Elongation of Nights” (2009) for string orchestra and “Observation of Clouds” (2012) for voices, winds and strings, continuing to explore some discoveries made in the first two parts and also dedicated to Riga Sinfonieta, Maestro Normunds Šnē and the Lithuanian saxophone player Arvydas Kazlauskas residing in Latvia.

The piece is an attempt to poetically reflect on the illusory colour of water that doesn’t actually exist, trying to give answers through musical metaphors of reflection and generating the musical material while applying mirror principles which predetermine both macro and micro levels. The solo part is based on the obsessively oscillating pendulum of low and high notes gradually increasing the distance between them. As a consequence, the expanding space between the opposite poles is being filled in with the orchestral “liquid” of changing timbre/harmony colours until this symbolic container becomes inevitably overfilled.

The strings are placed on the stage in a way to create the sound moving in an hypnotic circle/vortex which unites the swinging opposite poles of the solo part, whilst the soloist is being surrounded by the rising waves and submerged deeper and deeper down where the breathing stops and the tension of the polarity is released. Justė Janulytė

"The Color of Water" for saxophone(s) and chamber orchestra (2017)

Published by The FJH Music Company, Inc., 2018. 
Commissioned by the Mount View Middle School Band (Maryland). 
Grade 3

'Shimmering Joy' (gr. 3) for concert band

Performed by Ken Ozzello and the University of Alabama Wind Ensemble (Jon Whitaker, trombonist).

Tyler S. Grant's Album

'Paceline' performed by Jon Whitaker and the UA Wind Ensemble

by Anthony Carson
for clarinet, bassoon, viola
Atlantic Music Festival, Summer 2017 Premiere

Carson: "Variations On A Sacred Piece"

Luke Ellard, Clarinet; Amy Wang Hiller, Violin; Jacob Nydegger, Piano
Spring 2018 Recital; Denton, TX

Bartók: Contrasts, I. "Recruiting Dance"

Joe L. Alexander is an American composer of band, orchestral, chamber, choral and electronic music.  His music has been performed throughout the United States, Germany, Greece, Italy, Russia, Scotland, and South Korea. Many of his compositions have been performed on recitals/conferences of the Birmingham Art Music Alliance; the College Music Society; the Louisiana Composers’ Consortium; National Association of Composers, USA (NACUSA); the Society of Composers, Inc.; the Southeastern Composers’ League; the Southeastern Electro-Acoustic Composers Collective; and the International Tuba Euphonium Association. His music has been featured at Bowling Green State University’s annual New Music & Art Festival, the Electroacoustic Barn Dance, the Birmingham New Music Festival, New Music on the Bayou Festival and New Music for Young Ensembles Composers' Competition. His "Two Bryant Songs" (soprano, Bb clarinet and piano) are recorded on Winds and Voices, by Living Artist Recordings; his SATB choir piece, "Summer Sounds Beckon Me" (text by L. B. Morgan), is on Ablaze Records' New Choral Voices, Volume 3; his "Chopawamsic" (trumpet and soundfile) is on Ablaze Recordings' Electronic Masters, Volume 7; and the SATB choir piece, "The Lighthouse" (text by Katie Ballinger), has just been released on Ablaze Records' New Choral Voices, Volume 4. Recently, his "Partita #4 for unaccompanied euphonium" was selected for the Semifinal Round of the 2019 International Tuba Euphonium Association's Solo Euphonium - Artist Division competition at the ITEC in Iowa City, Iowa. In 2012, Alexander was the commissioned composer for the 2012 Louisiana Music Teachers Association, and in 2017, he was the Mississippi Music Teachers Association commissioned composer. Dr. Alexander is a Professor of Music at the “W” where he teaches Theory, Composition, Music History and Brass. 
www.jlacomposer.com/

Yesterday & Today Alabama Vignettes live performance

Joe L. Alexander

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