When two friends became engaged last fall, I improvised a short piece that encapsulated my feelings about it. This is basically an orchestration of that improvisation, though it also removes some fumbling around.

It's a classical piece, but its simplicity edges it over into the "soundtrack" area, although it's not a soundtrack to anything.

Mark Arnest: Engagement Piece

Engagement Piece

Demos for WYNOT Radio Theatre
Evil Bar Music: The steroidal band, playing in the sort of bar frequented by gangsters
The Dame: You know the type
Chase Music: In the quiet spot, perhaps someone's being chased through a library ...

Chase Music 0919

The Dame 0921

Evil Bar Music 0921

The first movement represents the ethnic hodge-podge of the miners’ camp with 11 folk songs from 10 different nationalities: American (two songs),  English, German Jewish, Greek, Italian, Macedonian, Mexican, Romanian, Russian, and  Westphalian. In honor of Louis Tikas, the strike’s leader, the Greek tune initially heard on  the clarinet often takes the lead. The folk songs gradually coalesce around the two main  themes, which have been introduced in fragments.

Ludlow  1. Morning At The Camp

The Death Special was the strikers’ nickname for an improvised armored car, mounted with a machine gun, that the mine-owners’ detective agency used to harass the strikers. The rondo theme is intensified at each return by altering its harmonic context without   changing the theme’s pitches. The continuously repeating nine-and-a-half-beat rhythmic ostinato spells “death” in Morse code. In several rhythmic augmentations it also affects the movement’s proportions while providing seemingly random interjections.

Ludlow: 2. The Death Special

The third movement depicts the climactic event of the assault on the camp: The fire in which two women and eleven children suffocated. The “death” rhythm reappears at the climax, where the first movement folksongs are devoured by the flames. 

Ludlow: 3. Fire

A genre-bending riff, minimalist but dense, loosely inspired by Johnny Winter's "Rollin' and Tumblin'." 

Shout (for 23 strings)

This piece was composed for a dying friend. It obviously veers a little close to Rachmaninoff's "Isle of the Dead" via Mahler's "Adagietto," but as Oscar Wilde quipped, "all bad poetry comes from the heart."

This was my first project using the Vienna Symphonic Library Synchron Strings. The library is not yet complete, which created issues in the 2nd violins and violas, but for the most part it's adequate.

Sarabande for D

This piece was composed for a close friend who was dying. It may veer a bit close to being a cross between Rachmaninoff's "Isle of the Dead" and the Adagietto from Mahler's Symphony No. 5, but as Oscar Wilde said, "All bad poetry comes from the heart." Revised to take advantage of VSL's Synchron Player.

Sarabande For D (Synchron Player)

I am a composer, pianist and music teacher living in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

Mark Arnest

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