This is a 'mixtape' of some of my recent compositions.

Listen(ing)

An excerpt of the first and second movement of my new work that will help celebrate the opening of James Turrell's new Skyspace, "The Color Inside."

Yunji Lee, violin 
Chloe Park, violin 
Andrew Haduong, viola 
Mic Vredenburgh, cello 

Lightscape - Dawn/Day (excerpt)

This is a transcription of a choral work I wrote when I was 23. The title translates to "Music, Gift of the Highest God."

Northwestern University Symphonic Band, Shawn D. Vondran, conductor

Musica Dei, donum optimi

Three Images  was commissioned by the Kenari and Barkada saxophone quartets for a combined performance given on March 12, 2016 in Lubbock, TX at the 2016 North American Saxophone Alliance National Conference in Hemmle Recital Hall.


The Golden Hour

This piece was commissioned by Musiqa and was premiered at the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston on May 5, 2016.

Dan Gelok, soprano saxophone; Matt Singletary, alto saxophone; Seth McAdow, tenor saxophone; Evan Withner, baritone saxophone

Program Note:

The five short miniatures of Saxophone Quartet No. 2 are all responses to Mark Flood’s 2016 exhibition called “Mark Flood: Gratest Hits.” In his exhibit, Flood engages with pop culture (among other things), which he refashions or adulterates in some way in order to comment upon mass media. I decided to mirror Flood’s practice of altering familiar mainstream messages in my first and last miniatures. In “Always,” I chose to parody the theme from a 1993 Coca-Cola ad campaign by overlaying the familiar melody on top of a somewhat janky funk groove, which is colored with multiphonics. In a similar vein, “This Just In” parodies the ABC World News theme. “Whispers” and “Lullaby” are responses to Flood’s lace paintings. In the context of his art, the lace paintings stand out as intentionally direct as they are constructed in an obvious way – lace applied, painted over, and removed – and are ostensibly free of the outspoken satire or social commentary pervading the rest of the exhibit. “Whispers” and “Lullaby” echo Flood’s technique and entice the listener through willfully familiar uses of traditional texture, harmony, and melody.

I. Always

IV. Lullaby

This was commissioned and premiered by line upon line:

Adam Bedell, Cullen Faulk, and Matt Teodori

Program note:

After the sun sets, there is a time when the light from the sun is scattered in the upper atmosphere and the surface of the Earth is between dark and light. In it, the clouds change color, things slow down, and the stars begin to twinkle as the Sun’s light completely disappears. In the Gloaming tries to capture this. The piece lightly pulses at the beginning  and fades away more and more with each new chord.  The instrumental combination helps capture the ephemeral sense of twilight as the wispy clouds melt into the night. The stars take over the piece (in the glockenspiel) as the clouds and light fade away into the ether.

In The Gloaming

Synchronicity in Purple Minor was commissioned by The Blanton Art Museum at the University of Texas at Austin and was premiered on September 11, 2011 at Memorial Drive UMC in Houston, TX. 

Synchronicity in Purple Minor  was inspired by the Synchromy in Purple Minor  by Stanton MacDonald-Wright, which can be seen in the American and Contemporary wing of The Blanton Museum.

I love to think of music in terms of color, and, as it turns out, so did Stanton MacDonald-Wright, who, in 1912, founded an art movement called Synchromism.  This movement is special to me because it is founded on the principle that color and sound are similar phenomena and can be manipulated in similar ways.  

To shed a bit of light on the title, the term Synchronicity was coined by Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung and refers to an experience of two or more events that are not causally related but work together in a meaningful manner.  

The work is in three main sections and is framed by an introduction and denouement.  There are three main musical ideas that are prominent throughout the work.  First, the quickly oscillating third used prominently in the piece, which, in my conception, resembles both the “dancing” of the colors in the work and their bleeding into one another as the harmonies change.  The second major element is the unison string technique, which I conceive to be a temporary concentration of color.  The final technique is a quasi-Doppler effect that is created by using quickly alternating pitches while simultaneously getting louder and softer, simulating the way the colors of the painting seem to “pop out” from the surface.  All of these elements are stated in the introduction and then developed throughout the work.

I would like to dedicate this piece to my mother, who, incidentally, was born the same day as its completion.  (Her favorite color is purple)


Synchronicity in Purple Minor

Liberation is a piece about breaking free from something that weighs down the spirit.This could be a painful relationship, a frustrating job, or some situation in which you have just HAD ENOUGH! 
The piece begins with a modal melody from which a good deal of the material in the movement is derived.After the melody is stated, there is an incessant back and forth, similar to bickering or arguing until there has been enough!The climax of the piece occurs as the saxophonist gratingly plays a multiphonic as loud as possible.The ending features a refashioning of the opening material.It is slightly hopeful, but still weary, as one might expect from a heated interchange.

This recording features Bob Eason on the alto saxophone.


Liberation

Aurora Borealis was inspired by the natural phenomenon that occurs in the northern latitudes.  In short, auroral events are caused by the collision of energetic, charged particles with atoms in the high altitude atmosphere.  Last year I spent most of my summer playing piano in a rock band aboard a cruise ship that traveled from Seattle, WA to Anchorage, AK and back several times.  During a geomagnetic event late one night, I was fortunate enough to see the Aurora in the distance while sailing from Juneau to Hoonah, AK.  The piece has three main figures: an ascending/descending tetrachord, a repeated eighth-note motive, and a melody (first heard in the clarinet).  

Aurora Borealis

Photo credit: @Edd___y (twitter)

I would have been remiss to neglect any noir or jazz-influenced sounds, as the saxophone is oft-associated with the sounds of jazz and blues. “Hiding” is a scherzo that explores the jazz/funk idiom. Whyte states that Hiding is “creative, necessary and beautifully subversive of outside interference and control…Hiding is the radical independence necessary for our emergence into the light of a proper human future.” This movement is all about groove and its manipulation and the saxophonist, at times, gains a bit of “independence.”

Solace IV. Hiding

Hailed as "extremely moving" by New Music Box and "especially sweet" by the Austin American Statesman, the music of Joel Love (b. 1982) explores an eclectic mix of genres, from short video pieces to works for chamber and large ensembles.

Listen(ing)

Joel Love | Composer