Performed by Dal Niente
Score:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/nz710g1xn8z09i1/Mirages.pdf?dl=0

Mirages - for flute and electric guitar

Program note:

Ex nihilo is a Latin phrase meaning “out of nothing” or “from nothing.” Its most common use occurs in theology with the phrase creatio ex nihilo, which means “creation from nothing.”

In classical philosophy, ex nihilo also appears in the phrase ex nihilo nihil fit, which means “out of nothing comes nothing.” 

In mathematics, a solution to a problem can be called ex nihilo if it appears without a working.

In military organization, a unit is ex nihilo if it forms without significant members of other units.

In computer programming, a created object is called ex nihilo if it does not use another object as its prototype.

My piece explores all these meanings.

Structurally, the piece is in a rough arch form, with the center section acting as a sort of fulcrum upon which the piece undergoes several transformations. Harmonically, the piece is a mixture of octatonic, chromatic, and diatonic elements, all freely juxtaposed with one another. Another notable element of the piece is the use of polymeter, which occurs in multiple episodes throughout, achieving its highest complexity in the climax.

This piece explores the creation and evolution of musical materials and everything that can happen in between. In those spaces lie vast potential. 

Link to score:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/2e5vp7uz6g9wwjs/Ex%20Nihilo.pdf?dl=0

Ex Nihilo (for chamber ensemble)

Written as a speedwriting assignment for Longy's Divergent Studio.

Performers:
Jared Cote: trumpet
Julian Bernal: viola
Oliva Katz: cello

Reaching, Calling (for trumpet, viola, and cello)

Music and Lyrics by Kris Peysen

Commissioned and performed by loadbang at Longy's Divergent Studio - 2024.

Ty Bouque - baritone voice
Andrew Kozar - trumpet
William Lang - trombone
Adrian Sandi - bass clarinet

Lyrics:

I see you. 
You’re straining. 
Eager to abandon.
You must remain.
I see you strive to eclipse these sorrows, to leave us here –
wallowing for the chains we made in testament.

You must bleed like I do.
You must fear as I do.
You must live as us.
Escape is for the guilty.

Suffocate.
Isolate.
Emulate.
Abdicate your reason.
Deprecate.
Validate.
No escape.
Debilitate for this indeterminate threat.

I see you. 
You’ve strained me – frustrated every constraint.
Difficult to surmise why you’ve not succombed.
You act as though you’re free even though in fact you’re bound here with us -
Suffering, struggling, lingering, weakening.

Proper to be here. 

It’s such a burden to make you understand.
You’re here with me, to sate this need,
but your penance lacks guilt.

I want to see you hollow.
I need to pull you down with me.
Give in to spite, and fear, and suppress your sinful thoughts.
Help validate these prison walls.

I want...I need... I want...I need...
I want. I need. Recant. Concede.
I’ll pull to me and make you bleed.
You’ll die entwined with me.

Bleed with me.
Fear with me.
Stay with me.
Here with me.
Bear with me.
Bound with me.
Drown with me.

Score: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/7acjz37qwe23gh27fodib/With-Me.pdf?rlkey=8ip6xkgxl6cdd9kjppgiwy9hx&dl=0

With Me (for loadbang - baritone voice, trumpet, trombone, and bass clarinet)

Performed by Texas New Music Ensemble, July 2025

This piece, for pierrot sextet, originally began as a solo piano work written as part of a speedwriting assignment. Feeling there was more to what I had written (about a minute’s worth) I decided to expand what I had into a longer work for pierrot ensemble. The piece’s orchestration reflects this backhistory, as all the other instruments initially emerge out of the piano – then, as the piece progresses, the piano acts as a guide of sorts, shepherding the rest of the ensemble along the work’s trajectory, until at the end it simply…lets go. For this piece I also exercised more restraint than I typically do – having written many pieces with a large amount of aggressive energy, I thought it would be nice to do something a little understated.

The work’s title is a quote from the novel A Memory of Light, the final volume of Robert Jordan’s fantasy epic The Wheel of Time. This quote comes at a very impactful moment in the novel, and really stayed with me after having read it. As I was wrapping up this piece, I thought the quote would work very well as a title, since it in many ways describes what happens musically – while also serving as an homage to a book series that has had a large impact on me personally.  

Link to score:
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/l7jarka9kx6rposzbj8y2/He-came-like-the-wind-like-the-wind-touched-everything-and-like-the-wind-was-gone.pdf?rlkey=mvv0vd36gwf7tvadylejayjim&dl=0


He came like the wind, like the wind touched everything, and like the wind was gone (pierrot sextet)

Written for Uiowa's 24 + 24 concert.

Score:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/0b93etsrtdbgpxd/Something%20Stutters.pdf?dl=0

Something Stutters (for English horn)

Program note:

This piece was created using sounds captured from a Moog synthesizer. Originally started as an assignment for Electronic Music class, it gradually morphed into an attempt by myself to apply the same dedication, attention to detail, and—above all—sense of emotional trajectory to a fixed media piece that I had heretofore reserved for acoustic music. The result is what I consider to be my first true “piece” in fixed media. Particular areas I paid special attention to in this piece were the frequency spectrum (i.e. EQ’ing), panning, dynamic range, and rhythmic density.

Do machines dream? If they do, it might sound something like this.

Tech rider:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/8vv04h6zjekwlof/Moog%20Dreams%20%28Tech%20Rider%29.pdf?dl=0

Moog Dreams (for 2-channel fixed media)

Program note:

My main concept of this piece was formal in nature. The idea in question was simple: a gradual increase in energy and intensity from beginning to end, finally culminating in an explosion, a feeling of everything drawing to a red-hot point. What I found interesting about this particular formal idea is that it owes more to rock music than to classical – indeed, it was listening to various rock songs that undergo this type of transformation that first gave me the idea for this piece. There are numerous songs in the rock world that have this type of formal construction (i.e. Stairway to Heaven by Led Zeppelin, One and The Day That Never Comes by Metallica, Starless by King Crimson, more Tool songs than I’d care to name, etc.) but when it comes to pieces in the classical realm that do the same thing, I was hard pressed to name even one. The reason for this, I believe, is that whether it’s sonata form, traditional fast-slow-fast arrangement of movements or sections of pieces, or even general treatment of musical themes, the idea of return is thoroughly ingrained in classical sensibilities, and this idea would of necessity preclude the type of form described above. 

What I wanted to do was to create a piece with this formal idea taken straight from the rock world, but with a “syntax” that was firmly planted in the traditions of classical music. The result is a piece that gets carried by its own momentum, and as such, has little room for backward glances. That said, there are definitely themes and other musical ideas that get developed and transformed throughout the piece. It is a fusion of sorts, one that I hope is both fresh and invigorating.

Link to score:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/g7lh2bvjhxlurua/Whirlwind.pdf?dl=0

Whirlwind (for trombone quartet)

Program note:

For this piece, I took a somewhat different approach towards conceptualization. Rather than have an overall arc in mind or an idea of various “events” that would occur throughout, I instead decided to start at the beginning, with a simple melody in the flute, and see where that would lead me. The rest of the piece flows organically from this one theme, as new ideas and melodies are constantly spun out and introduced until the piece at last reaches its apocalyptic climax.

I titled the piece To Awaken a God partly in reference to this climax, as well as to the musical processes that led me to arrive at it. Gods are portrayed in myriad cultures and mythologies, and they are invariably beings of immense power, and often better left undisturbed. For this piece, I wanted to end strongly, with no hint of closure or release. The resulting raw power displayed in the final bars is, I think, godlike. When the piece finally arrives to this point, there is nowhere to go from there, so it simply ends—leaving the rest, if there is any, up to the listener’s imagination.

Link to score:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/h3p22wsibufmeu3/To%20Awaken%20a%20God.pdf?dl=0

To Awaken A God (For Orchestra)

Performed by Invoke at Fresh Inc Festival.

Score:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/ras83rn6kaxnqeq/Strung.pdf?dl=0

Strung (for string quartet)

Performed at the 2018 Midwest Composers Symposium.

Score:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/tgubcvejxmxz373/Insinuations.pdf?dl=0

Insinuations (for chamber ensemble)

Link to score:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/pid5r8qr7jjbasj/Tectonics%20Phase%201.pdf?dl=0

Performed at Imani Winds Chamber Music Festival

Tectonics: Phase 1 (for wind quintet)

Link to score:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/8mi3y21hvrg81r2/Impressions%20of%20Morning.pdf?dl=0

Impressions Of Morning (for messiaen quartet)

https://www.dropbox.com/s/wb88v48mp0jq88n/Chasing%20Dawn.pdf?dl=0

Chasing Dawn (midi)

Performed by Hypercube
Jay Sorce - electric guitar
Andrea Violet Lodge - piano

Score:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/jsceklk5tta5fws/Tidal.pdf?dl=0

KrisPeysen

Pinned to spotlight

Popular tracks