In the span of one month, I wrote this piece as the music for a dance to be choreographed by Ariella Brandon (NYU '17) and filmed at Coney Island by Carissa Henderson (NYU '16). It was recorded by Josh Henderson, a New York City based violinist and violist. You can watch the video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WDTHEcZokzI

Fiddler on the Beach (for the video "F L U X")

"Tequila!" is a short piece for percussion quartet that I wrote as a guest composer for the New Collaborative Prompt Series. https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-New-Collaborative/551649184898402 It makes use of bottles I fished out of my recycling as percussion instruments in addition to some auxiliary and body percussion. Huge thanks to the Palladium Percussion Quartet for the recording. https://www.facebook.com/palladiumpercussion

Tequila!

"Essie's Song," written for NYU First Stages 2014, is based on the love and life story of a singer-songwriter whose concert I saw in February named Essie Jain. She is English, and her husband is from New York. During her show, she mentioned how one day he walked across the Brooklyn Bridge and decided to tell her he loved her very much but didn't quite know what to do about it. That was my inspiration. Huge thanks goes out to Alex Gudhe (vocals), Ben Yee-Paulson (keys), Daryl Yang (trumpet), Tiger Darrow (cello), Pat Swoboda (bass), and Jim Bloom (drums). 

Essie's Song (Live Recording)

"Consider the Hummingbird" is inspired by and in part a setting of the essay "Joyas Voladoras" by Brian Doyle. The essay considers the ubiquity, diversity, and frustrating inevitability of love. The ironically tragic existence of the hummingbird (i.e. how a creature defined almost entirely by its heart lives only so fleetingly) is used as a metaphor for the powerful force of love on life--both the joy it can bring and the toll it can take. In the piece, I attempt to take Doyle's metaphor one level further; the hummingbird's ability to soar is portrayed as the melody leaps the interval of a major seventh, while the dark irony of its existence and inevitably premature death is conveyed by descending motion, situated in the low and dark register of the female voice. Additionally, the marimba's earthy tone reflects the subject of the human condition explored by the lyrics, and its range complements the dips and leaps in the vocal line. Vocals provided by the stunning Hayley Biegel (https://soundcloud.com/hayleybiegelmusic), Marimba by the extremely cool and talented Adam Holmes (https://soundcloud.com/adamholmesmusic), and track mixed by Aybar Aydin).

Consider The Hummingbird

"This Is Just a Test: Three Tonally Ambiguous Vignettes for Flute and Bassoon" has a back story. Borne out of my distaste for serial music, the piece is the product of a challenge I placed on myself to write a piece using a randomly generated tone row in an attempt to better understand the processes behind creating atonal music. As I started writing, I realized I was not being true to my voice in sticking strictly to the rows I had generated randomly. And so the more accurate term, "tonally ambiguous" was born. I use it to refer to the movements as a whole, as sections of each movement are in clearly defined keys. Walking away from the experience, I can now say I have a deeper appreciation for serial music and its possibilities. But as Jerica Oblak once told me, questions are far more interesting than answers and atonal music is just one answer. Big thanks to Zach Hicks (NYU '16) on flute, Joshua Butcher (Curtis '18) on bassoon, and Katie Pipal (NYU '15) for the recording.   


This Is Just a Test: Three Tonally Ambiguous Vignettes for Flute and Bassoon

Sextet was borne out of the compositional concept of “planing” (i.e. the parallel movement of two or more lines or—as I see it—taking a fixed musical gesture and reassigning it to different registers and/or harmonic areas). With planing comes a natural sense of call and response or echo as a gesture is explored and ultimately expanded upon in different ways. This is what you hear in the opening and closing sections. Additionally, Sextet has come to personally represent my compositional development over the past six years and how I feel I am just beginning to access my mature voice.

Kaitlyn Walker – Oboe
Samuel Marques – Clarinet
Mariel Mayz – Piano
Victoria Graves – Mezzo soprano
Aimée Niemann – Violin
Luis Mercado – Cello 

Sextet (Live Recording)

Having played trombone for ten years and ultimately leaving the instrument to pursue composition (a very emotionally charged experience in my life), writing a brass quintet was the last thing I wanted to do. Despite my protests, my teacher at the time, Youngmi Ha, encouraged me by saying it would come naturally and be a good piece for my portfolio. Reluctantly, I started composing and ended up coming back to her with a rough draft of the entire composition in one week. She was right; once I got going, I very much enjoyed applying my experiences as a brass player to my writing. As the title suggests, Capriccio focuses on whimsical, capricious changes of musical character and exploits the variety of colors, sounds, and textures of the brass family – my family. 

Brandon Bergeron – Trumpet
Max Morel – Trumpet
Casey Cronan – Horn
Jake Mezera – Trombone
Colin Benton – Tuba

Capriccio (Live Recording)

This piece is the first I have written under the instruction of my new teacher, Herschel Garfein. It has been a huge challenge for me as a large part of my work with him has been to discover and hone my compositional process. This has developed into a process in which I sketch ideas and develop components of my work in no particular order. It has been absolutely liberating in comparison to my previous approach of writing everything in a linear fashion and creating transitional material that was not always convincing "rhetorically," as Herschel would say. While bringing the first movement alone to fruition was mentally and emotionally exhausting, the reward has been great for me as I hope it is for you.

Mariel Mayz – Piano

Sketch (Non-linear) (Live Recording)

In the span of one month, I wrote this piece as the music for a dance to be choreographed by Ariella Brandon (NYU '17) and filmed at Coney Island by Carissa Henderson (NYU '16). When we initially met to discuss the music, I was given the goal to write a piece that depicts ocean waves and their multitude of characteristics, particularly the way they are in continuous flux. While you will hear these waves throughout the music in a variety of manifestations, Ariella and Camille (the dancer in this performance) have completely reimagined the choreography for live performance, moving away from the idea of ocean waves and envisioning the musical phrases and gestures as interactive entities existing outside and ultimately within the body of the dancer. 

Camille Delaney – Dancer, Choreography
Ariella Brandon – Additional Choreography
Aimée Niemann – Violin

Fiddler on the Beach (Live Recording)

A composition that represents the amazing feeling of breaking into new directions when you feel stuck in the same place.

Rain Check

Writer, musician, Sagittarius & social media enthusiast.

Jordan Rae Borg

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