Commissioned by the Lyric Chamber Ensemble of Detroit, my fourth string quartet is a memento of growing up in Harlem during the 1960s. In four movements, the two movements heard here are "NameGames," where I allude to several rock, pop and soul songs of the era, and "March (Because I always wanted to be a Marine)," where the Marine Corps hymn is given a soul-stirring treatment alongside patriotic tunes, jazz riffs and some very dissonant, albeit fun, textures!

String Quartet No. 4, "Memories of my youth"

The first movement of my symphonic suite for string orchestra culled from incidental music for Thomas M. Disch's theatrical adaptation of General Lew Wallace's celebrated novel.

Praeludim in Aeternia from Ben-Hur

Commissioned by the Houston Symphony Orchestra, Lazy Lion is an orchestral parable in the form of variations that can be performed with narration or without.

Lazy Lion

A motet for women's chorus (SSAA with sections for solo soprano and alto) set to a text designated for the Offertory for the Second Sunday of Lent:

Meditabor in mandatis tuis,
quae dilexi valde:
et levabo manus meas ad mandata tua,
quae dilexi.

I will meditate on your commandments
which I love exceedingly;
I will lift up my hands towards your
commandments which I love

Psalm 118(119): 47, 48

Meditabor In Mandatis Tuis

A motet for women's chorus (SSAA + solo soprano)set to a text designated for Offertory or Communion for the First Sunday of Lent.

Scapulis suis obumbrabit tibi Dominus,
et sub pennis ejus sperabis,
scuto circumdabit te veritas ejus.

The Lord will overshadow you with his pinions,
and you will find refuge under his wings.
His faithfulness will encompass you with a shield.

Psalm 90(91): 4-5

Scapulis Suis

Motet for soprano, baritone and SATB Chorus set to a portion of the 29th Chapter of the Book of Job:

Oh, that I were as in months past,
As in the days when God watched over me;
When His lamp shone upon my head,
And when by His light I walked through darkness;

Because I delivered the poor who cried out,
The fatherless and the one who had no helper.
The blessing of a perishing man came upon me,
And I caused the widow’s heart to sing for joy.
I put on righteousness, and it clothed me;
My justice was like a robe and a turban.

Job 29:2-3, 12-14
(New Kings James Version)

Oh, That I Were As In Months Past

Commissioned by photographer Robert Jones and Middlebrow Books in 2019 to promote his book "Hitchcock's California: Vista Visions From The Camera Eye", Hitch! was composed as an homage to the films of Hitchcock and also as a tribute to Bernard Herrmann, the composer primarily associated with the celebrated director.

Scored for a string quintet of two violins, viola, violoncello and bass, this work can also be performed by a small string orchestra.

Hitch!

This work was composed between 1987 to 1991, originally as a three-movement work. Upon engraving it when I received a query about it for performance, I realized that the first movement dwarfed the other two movements in duration and dexterity, and I decided to revise the sonata.

Because of its length I decided that the first movement should be a stand-alone composition while the remaining two movements - Night Song and Rondo - will be another composition on its own.

The present Sonata, which was heavily during the spring of 2021,  is in one movement comprised of several sections alternating between slow and fast, with three cadenzas that further explore the material presented in the work. The music is also driven by its shifting metrical changes and free use of tonal and modal melodic and contrapuntal modules.

Sonata For Horn & Tuba

An intermezzo for large orchestra inspired by the life of Fannie Lou Hamer (1917-1977)originally composed for a call for scores by Opera North.

Fannie's Homecoming

The first movement of my Woodwind Quintet, composed between 2004 to 2018. Though the movement follows the architectural methods of the Baroque passacaglia, it is also very abstract in its use of melodic transfiguration and tonal schematics. 

This movement is dedicated to the memory of Chuck Bond, a man I worked with while I was employed as a manager for a newspaper delivery company in the Hudson Valley.

Woodwind Quintet - Passacaglia (In Memoriam Chuck Bond)

The second movement of my Woodwind Quintet, composed between 2004 to 2018.

Woodwind Quintet   II - Scherzo

A mentor and close friend for many years, Ed Bland's unique blend of jazz, funk and modernist trends inspired me to write this tribute to his legacy, inspired by listening to a recording of Stravinsky's Rite of Spring during a break in a rehearsal with several jazz musicians in 1943, and an imaginary jam session on that groundbreaking work that followed.

Escapades (In Remembrance Ed Bland)- A Funky Epitaph for Saxophone Quartet

String Quartet No. 7 - Scherzo

A symphonic suite for string orchestra compiled from incidental music composed in 1989 for Thomas M. Disch's theatrical adaptation of General Lew Wallace's celebrated novel. The work is in four movements:

I - Praeludium in Aeternia (depicting Wallace and Mary Surratt, who was found guilty as part of a conspiracy to assassinate Abraham Lincoln. Wallace was a member of the military tribunal)

II - The Battle and Aftermath on the Aegean Sea (depicting Judah Ben-Hur, Quintus Arrius and Judah's mother and sister Miriram and Tirzah)

This is a MIDI realization of the score.

Ben-Hur, Part 1 - 1st and 2nd Movements

A symphonic suite for string orchestra compiled from incidental music composed in 1989 for Thomas M. Disch's theatrical adaptation of General Lew Wallace's celebrated novel. The work is in four movements:

III - Love Scene By The Lake Near Antioch (depicting Judah, Iras the Egyptian and Judah's thoughts about Esther)

IV - The Grove of Daphne; At the Camp of Sheikh Ilderim (depicting Judah training for the chariot race, the festivities at Ilderim's camp, and Judah's thoughts of Messala)

This is a MIDI realization of the score.

Ben-Hur, Part 2 - 3rd and 4th movements

Originally composed for the first BBC Masterprize competition in 1997, this symphonic elegy for large orchestra is a meditation on the moments of death while reflecting on the past.  The score was expanded and revised in 2014 with further edits and corrections in 2021. This work has yet to receive a world premiere performance.

A Passion Of Our Time (In Memoriam Betty Shabazz)

The first of five songs set to the poetry of Anne Brontë (1820-1849)for mezzo-soprano and piano or orchestra. Initially composed between 1988 and 1989, the songs went through two revisions, one in 2012 and the other in 2018.

I - A Reminiscence

The second of five songs set to the poetry of Anne Brontë (1820-1849) for mezzo-soprano and piano or orchestra.

II - Oh, They Have Robbed Me Of The Hope

A short work originally written for a call for new scores from The Red Hedgehog Trio. This is the original version, as a new and expanded version of the work was composed in 2020.

Night Journey - Nocturne For Horn, Violin And Piano

This work is the first part of a large-scale setting of John Milton's epic poem. The first section, entitled Sinfonia Sacra, is an induction comprised of four poems that serves as a prologue to the vast second part, which Milton entitled "Hymn." 

Whereas the second part will be for soloists, chorus and orchestra, the first parr is strictly for a cappella chorus, with soprano and tenor soloists in the third and fourth sections, respectively.

The text can be found anywhere online. The score is available by request.

II - That Glorious Form

Three Fanfares from "King Lear":  Fanfare #1 ("Lear")

The second of three fanfares inspired by Shakespeare's tragedy for large brass ensemble, originally composed for small brass ensemble in 1975, yet revised and expanded for large brass ensemble and percussion in 2019.

Three Fanfares from "King Lear": Fanfare #2 ("The Royal Court")

The third fanfare from a set of fanfares inspired by Shakespeare's tragedy originally composed in 1975 for small brass ensemble, yet revised and expanded for large brass ensemble and percussion in 2019.

Three Fanfares from "King Lear": Fanfare #3 ("The Battle")

This concert overture was composed in the summer of 1984 while I was residing in Queens when Geraldine Ferraro became the first woman nominated to run for Vice-President on a major party line. The optimism and spirit of America is embodied in this work, which is one of the few works I composed that is in the populist Americana tradition of Copland, Piston, Jerome Moross and Elie Siegmeister.

This is the original version of the overture as it has since undergone an extensive revision. The new edition will receive its premiere in May 2023 by the Phoenix Symphony with Tito Muñoz conducting.

Fanfare G.A.F. - An American Overture

The first of five songs for mezzo-soprano and orchestra set to the poems of Anne Brontë. Initially composed between 1988-89, this version for orchestra was produced between the fall of 2019 and the spring of 2020.

A Reminiscence

Yes, thou art gone! and never more
Thy sunny smile shall gladden me;
But I may pass the old church door,
And pace the floor that covers thee, 

May stand upon the cold, damp stone,
And think that, frozen, lies below
The lightest heart that I have known,
The kindest I shall ever know. 

Yet, though I cannot see thee more,
'Tis still a comfort to have seen;
And though thy transient life is o'er,
'Tis sweet to think that thou hast been; 

To think a soul so near divine,
Within a form, so angel fair,
United to a heart like thine,
Has gladdened once our humble sphere.

The  third of my Five Anne Brontë Songs, scored for Mezzo-soprano and an ensemble comprised of Oboe doubling on English Horn, Clarinet doubling on Bass clarinet, French Horn, Violin doubling on Viola, Violoncello and Piano, which was prepared in 2018-19 and revised in 2020.

III - Night_Chamber Version

The first of my Five Anne Brontë Songs, scored for Mezzo-soprano and an ensemble comprised of Oboe doubling on English Horn, Clarinet doubling on Bass clarinet, French Horn, Violin doubling on Viola, Violoncello and Piano, which was prepared in 2018-19 and revised in 2020.

I - A Reminiscence_Chamber Version

Scored for flute (doubling on alto flute), clarinet (doubling on bass clarinet), percussion, violin and cello, this work was originally to be part of a chamber symphony that was never finished, and instead served as a musical elegy to one of America's finest writers.

Unknown album (7/18/2013 5:03:06 PM)

Epitaph: In Memoriam Alex Haley

This composition is the revised and expanded version of a work originally composed in 2015 on a call for scores from The Red Hedgehog Trio. The new version was written at the request of composer-pianist-conductor Leonard Lehrman and violinist Dan Hyman for a series of virtual concerts for the 2020-21 season.

This version is in one continuous movement comprised of ten sections: Prologue, Nocturne 1, Toccata 1, Traversion 1, Nocturne 2, Traversion 2, Toccata 2, Traversion 3, Nocturne 3 and Epilogue.

Night Journey For Horn, Violin And Piano (2020 Version)

The Sonata for Solo Oboe is an expanded re-working of my Sonatina for Solo Oboe dating from 1989-90, which is now removed from my catalogue of works. The Sonatina was composed while I was residing in the Park Slope section of Brooklyn and was inspired by my walks around Prospect Park.

Like the previous work, the Sonata is comprised of three movements entitled Pastorale, Elegy and Caprice.

Sonata For Solo Oboe  II - Elegy

Sonata For Solo Oboe  I - Pastorale

Composer-conductor based in the lower Hudson Valley region of New York whose music has been played by several major orchestras and chamber groups in America. Scott has also held directorships with numerous orchestras, chorales and concert bands in the greater New York metropolitan area.

K. Scott

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