short (circuited) opera (Anne Rhodes and Jeffrey Gavett)

The Three Truths, A Robot Opera

My second String Quartet in one movement traces an extremely stretched snippet of the Requiem plainchant and builds new worlds out of an abstract chorale constructed around the buried cantus. Little lives pop up and die unexpectedly. such is life. A melodic sensibility is inspired by the Highland Bagpipe Piobaireachd "Cumha Na Marbh" (The Lament for the Dead), and textures inspired by piping, gamelan, early polyphony, Ligeti ad Bartok.

02 Cumha Na Marbh - Requiem Aeternam Dona Eis (String Quartet No. 2, Kubrik Quartet)

Matthew Welch - voice and arrangement
Alan Bevan - bagpipes
William Barrie - composer

Andrew McNeil Of Colonsay : piobaireachd: arr. Welch

Matthew Welch

Terra Incognita (String Quartet No. 3) 2018-2023
I. Fossil Formations - 76 bpm (30 min.)
II. Observing Organisms - 88 bpm (20 min)

Terra Incognita is my monolithic treatise in harmony, counterpoint and structure. It was slowly composed over the course of five years. The contrapuntal lines of Observing Organisms grow directly out of the harmonies in Fossil Formations. The note spellings are conceived as integral to the investigation of voice leading and harmonic possibility. To aid the comprehensibility of this harmony, a score of Fossil Formations with a keyboard and “continuo” style harmonic analysis has been included. In its original conception, this music was written as my third string quartet, and fashioned into two movements that are respectively slow and fast. However, Terra Incognita’s formal structure and texture allow it to function as an open score, as well. It can be performed by string orchestra, chorus, band, or any ensemble that can cover the parts. Solo polyphonic instruments, like organ or piano, may perform from the keyboard part from the version of Fossil Formations with the “continuo” style harmonic analysis, either in concert with an ensemble, or alone. To accommodate multiple performance contexts, the repeated phrases may be played more than twice to elongate the work, or eliminated entirely to present a shorter, 25 minute work. Rather than providing numerous detailed performance directions, I believe the movement titles are sufficient for the imagination. Observing Organisms ossia: unmanageable double-stops may be substituted with a pattern of alternating 1/8th notes, derived from the double-stop, starting on the lower of the note pair.

 Terra Incognita is dedicated to my son Mason Reid Welch-Lueck.

TERRA INCOGNITA (String Quartet No. 3) I. Fossil Formartions (with Pipe Organ)

Matthew Welch

Terra Incognita (String Quartet No. 3) 2018-2023
I. Fossil Formations - 76 bpm (30 min.)
II. Observing Organisms - 88 bpm (20 min)

Terra Incognita is my monolithic treatise in harmony, counterpoint and structure. It was slowly composed over the course of five years. The contrapuntal lines of Observing Organisms grow directly out of the harmonies in Fossil Formations. The note spellings are conceived as integral to the investigation of voice leading and harmonic possibility. To aid the comprehensibility of this harmony, a score of Fossil Formations with a keyboard and “continuo” style harmonic analysis has been included. In its original conception, this music was written as my third string quartet, and fashioned into two movements that are respectively slow and fast. However, Terra Incognita’s formal structure and texture allow it to function as an open score, as well. It can be performed by string orchestra, chorus, band, or any ensemble that can cover the parts. Solo polyphonic instruments, like organ or piano, may perform from the keyboard part from the version of Fossil Formations with the “continuo” style harmonic analysis, either in concert with an ensemble, or alone. To accommodate multiple performance contexts, the repeated phrases may be played more than twice to elongate the work, or eliminated entirely to present a shorter, 25 minute work. Rather than providing numerous detailed performance directions, I believe the movement titles are sufficient for the imagination. Observing Organisms ossia: unmanageable double-stops may be substituted with a pattern of alternating 1/8th notes, derived from the double-stop, starting on the lower of the note pair.

Terra Incognita is dedicated to my son Mason Reid Welch-Lueck.

TERRA INCOGNITA (String Quartet No. 3) II. Observing Organisms (with SYNTHs)

Matthew Welch

The Labyrinths of Borges
Piano Sonata No. 1
2007-23 (30 mins)


I. The Circular Ruins (72 BPM)
II. The Garden of Forking Paths (80 BPM)
III. The Library of Babel (88 BPM)
IV. The Minotaur (100 BPM)


The Labyrinths of Borges is the skeletal backbone and musical engine derived from my first opera, Borges and the Other, based on the life and stories of Argentine master of fiction and magical realism, Jorge Luis Borges. Labyrinthine contrapuntal lines reflect in sonic mirror images through four movements of post-minimal meditative pattern-music.

The Labyrinths of Borges_(Piano Sonata No. 1)_IV. The Minotaur

The Labyrinths of Borges_(Piano Sonata No. 1)_III. The Library of Babel

The Labyrinths of Borges_(Piano Sonata No. 1)_II. The Garden of Forking Paths

The Labyrinths of Borges_(Piano Sonata No.1)_I. The Circular Ruins

A long-form solo piano piece in the style of and dedicated to Morton Feldman. Composed in October of 1998 when I was 22 yrs old and saturated in the music of Feldman. Inspired by constellation-watching, this piece looks at the big dipper, or the four main points in the "pot" and only uses four pitches A#, B, C and Db, but just about in every combination and register.

Performed and Recorded by Shawn Onsgard, Brooklyn NYC, 2011.

Ursa Major, for Morton Feldman (1998)

Matthew Welch (bagpipes) - USA
Christian Weber (bass) - Switzerland

Recorded live in Concert at Moods, Zurich, Switzerland, 2011.

Matthew Welch

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