Septet - Excerpts

This is the underscoring for the finale scene from "Performanceless: Chapter 2", a long form video essay made for JazzYYC's online festival in 2021. Several people had asked me to hear it in isolation, so what a better opportunity than this to share it with you all.

The theme used throughout is from the execution-waiting-music from the finale of Tosca, 'Com'è lunga l'attesa!', a bit of a dark inside joke apropos our time.

Special thanks to my friend Brett McDonald for the wonderful clarinet solo.

Performancelessness Chapter 2 - Finale

A very washy ambient track made with a variety of keyboard samples.
Enjoy with headphones for even more detail!

Scale, Moving Downward

Opening track from my 2020 digital album "Things That Seemed Important At The Time".

Things That Seemed Important At The Time

Berceuse

I wrote this melody several years ago, I joke that it's one of the only true "melodies" I've ever written. Although I have performed it a few times, I have yet to make a recording of it until now. Enjoy!

Pelirroja

This was a piece composed for a production of Samuel Beckett's "Breath" at Theater Calgary in October 2021.

A special thank you goes to Mark DeJong for the integral solo bass clarinet part.

Music for Samuel Beckett's "Breath"

Here's a remix of a track from 2021's big hit, "Temporarily Yours", an album of improvisations I made with violinist and longtime collaborator Laura Reid. Perhaps a little EP is on the horizon....

Stay Tuned!

Temporarily Yours - Remix Teaser

Archival excerpt 2/2 from an ad hoc chamber reading session I put together at the Grand Theater (Calgary) in June 2022. Many thanks to the musicians:

Jiajia Li - Bass Flute
Nikki McCaslin, Will Quinn - Trombones
Nia Devetzis - percussion
Laura Reid - violin
Patrick Staples, Jonathan Wielebnowski - basses

Septet Excerpt 2

Septet - Excerpt 1

Single from my forthcoming album "Things of Little Consequence"

“...was It This That Came First...” (trio)

Original Program Notes:

I have been drawn to miniatures as of late because they seem only ever more true to life. A series of moments, some beautiful, some vexing, all begging for an explanation as to their meaning and arrangement. The catch is, whatever “meaning” we may find, wish for, or declare, is but a superimposition of our own making. Our stories about ourselves or our lives, as interesting as they may be, sit atop a bedrock of meaninglessness, incoherence, and dissatisfaction.

In music, meaning has always felt elusive to me. Instead, this search is often substituted for an adjudication of rule following, norms, or living up to particular musical expectations. These pieces come awfully close to suggesting ‘normal’ musical behaviors, and yet fall short of offering satiety in that respect. Miniatures, on account of their brevity, frustrate musical expectations that one might long for. They cannot really be said to undergo any kind of development, repetition becomes either difficult (or gratuitous), and often they suggest participation in a whole that is maddeningly difficult to demarcate.

In listening to these pieces, consider that, of all the great human qualities, fighting that bedrock of dissatisfaction is one of the most inextinguishable. Such is life.

I. Sinfonia
II. Liturgical Song
III. Romancero
IV. Popular Song
V. Finale Ultimo

Five Miniatures

Four Short Pieces

Paseo

Improvisation on John Cage's composition, "In a Landscape".
Mark Limacher, ersatz rhodes
Laura Reid, violin

Mark Limacher

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