"lies waiting" for piano 4-hands

Performed Jan 23, 2015
Piano: Michael Betz, Haley Olson

Written for Musika Nova's 24-hour composition challenge

Premiered in Urness Recital Hall
St. Olaf College
Northfield, MN

lies waiting

This set primarily contains samples from 8Dio Lacrimosa - an Epic Choir - Music Software Instrument (VST/AU/AAX) by www.8dio.com

Lacrimosa is the largest choir (200 person) ever sampled and was derived from our exclusive V8P sample catalogue. Lacrimosa was recorded in a pyramid like structure with 70 Basses, 60 Tenors, 40 Altos and 30 Sopranos. This allows the males to be equally powerful to the women - who commonly dominate the mix in epic choral scores. We will be releasing a variety of videos, demos and other facts about the library in coming days. Lacrimosa contains 3 microphone positions (Mixed, Decca, Far) and contains an insane amount of articulations, including layered True Legato, extensive sets of Multi-Vowels (allowing the choir to sing 100% realistic and fast), Staccato, Power-Marcato, Arcs, Sustains and many other elements. 17.5GB (lossless compressed from 42GB). 16.500 samples. 

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8Dio Lacrimosa Epic Choir: "The Empire" by Michal Cielecki

Sarah Porwoll-Lee, clarinet
Ben Osterhouse, cello

Nine Wee Drams

"cataract" - Jack Langdon (b.1994)
Directed by Timothy Mahr
Performed by The St. Olaf Band
Apr. 9, 2017 - Skogland Auditorium, St. Olaf College

cataract for large concert band is an exploration of the formal devices utilized in the visual art of Bridget Riley, specifically in reference to her work Cataract 3. Her art often employs the serial repetition of monochromatic lines to create optical illusions and sensations of movement for the viewer. My piece uses subtle internal variations through extended repetitions to create an environment conducive to temporal confusion and sonic immersion.

I have always been interested in how music has this capacity to bring listeners and musicians to a state of timelessness, while simultaneously relying entirely on the passage of time to give it identity and expression. I use unusual orchestration and sounds atypical to the concert band to heighten the necessity for active listening and to encourage a type of "sonic acuity" only encountered when listening to sounds unfamiliar. Just as Bridget Riley uses her art to explore the ways in which the eye works to create compositional sense of a work of art, I use this music to explore the ways in which we encounter the intersection of sound articulated intentionally in time, and the ways we attempt to engage with the nature of time itself in the act of listening.

This piece is dedicated to The St. Olaf Band and Dr. Mahr, in gratitude for their constant support and grounding during my four years on the hill.

cataract for large concert band [The St. Olaf Band]

This work was written and performed at nief-norf Summer Festival 2017 in Knoxville, TN. 

It was written as a musical diary entry about my struggle with depression and anxiety and the eventual realization that happiness is something we create from within.

How To Kill A Hummingbird: Improvisation On Depression, Anxiety, and Happiness

Performed by the Adamas Saxophone Quartet

Program Notes: My usual route from my apartment to classes at the University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre, and Dance crosses the Huron River three times. I have spent countless hours paused by its banks, studying its currents and depths, watching it flow past the many bends and obstacles in its course, and observing the gradual coming and going of the seasons. The ease and spontaneity with which the river flows has been a source of great comfort and wisdom during the more uneasy and constricted periods of my time here in Ann Arbor. Don’t Push The River is about how we can emulate the river’s naturalness and grace in the ways that we approach the difficult bends and obstacles in the course of our lives.

Headphones or earbuds are recommended, and the beginning should be very soft.

Commissioned for "The River In Our City" festival in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and recorded by Solid Sound Recording Company.

Don't Push The River (2017)

MICHAEL BETZ recorded live @ Kitty Cat Klub, Minneapolis, MN on 07-25-18

MICHAEL BETZ @ Kitty Cat Klub    07-25-18

A setting of e. e. cummings' poem for chorus.

Premiered by the International Orange Chorale of San Francisco, December 8 and 15, 2018.

love is a place

Words and music by Michael Betz.

Commissioned by Dean A. Genth and Gary W. Swenson for the Mason City High School Concert Choir.

Recording from MCHS Vocal Music Department's 2017-2018 CD, "Listen." Recorded by Comprehensive Sound Services. Joel Everist, conductor; Rachel Everist, pianist.

Photograph provided by and copyrighted by Dean A. Genth. 

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Commissioners’ Note:

When we asked Michael Betz to accept a commission for a composition about bullying, we were aware of the existing robust catalogue of quality choral works addressing this subject. But we envisioned something more, something deeper that would enable to listener to more fully understand the issue of bullying—from the victim’s standpoint, yet also from the vantage point of the perpetrator. After interviewing dozens of students from Iowa’s Mason City High School, his alma mater, Michael fashioned a work that combined gymnastic complexities of music and agile poetry of lyrics to let us know that there is no single meter, key signature, rhythm or style that will completely address the variegated social phenomenon called bullying. No simple, singular solution exists. But all paths forward, all journeys to understanding, all solutions to sadness begin with the same step: first and foremost, we must listen.

Dean A. Genth
Gary W. Swenson

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About the Piece:

When I was first approached by Dean and Gary about this commission in the summer of 2016, I found the subject matter and scope to be overwhelming. I felt that I had a charge to try to singlehandedly resolve the issue of bullying through a piece of music—a daunting task, to say the least. 

I wanted to write something that wasn’t trite or didactic—something more timeless in nature that acknowledged the complexity of the issue at hand. Finding a text that fit these requirements was difficult. Much of the text about bullying is contemporary and not in the public domain, and tends to address bullying toward a specific group of people, as opposed to looking at it from a universal viewpoint. As such, I elected to write my own text. Early in the compositional process, I collected the thoughts of the MCHS Concert Choir. I sorted their words and phrases and saw recurring themes of compassion and understanding, which were guiding principles as I created the text, ultimately leading to the title: “Listen.” 

Any opportunity to wield my art in a community-oriented way that might cause people to think about something differently is not only a great privilege but a welcome reminder of why I do what I do. I am honored to have been commissioned to write this piece and to be the conduit of this message. 

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Text:

Listen!
Listen to the sound
What do you hear?

I hear an echo
An echo of my thoughts
Reflecting back your words

I long for silence
Give me silence
Give me peace
Silence

I heard a storm blow
I heard a storm blowing 
Through the wilderness

And through the bitter wind
The sound of many voices
Crying out in fear

And now I hear a voice
Not calling from the storm but
Deep within myself

I know I have no choice
The time has come to salvage
Beauty from the mud

Picking up sticks and
Picking up stones
Scattered like arrows
Broken not on bones
But souls
(Resilient and scarred)

To build a shelter
Or a ladder to the sky
To lift your head
Above the clouds

And see the rain above
The one who shot the bow
And help them climb
The ladder too

For now I know the pen is 
Mightier than the sword
The word is sharper than 
The blade

I’ll climb the ladder and be brave enough to land
The fall

Through all this pain and fear
I have a recollection
Of how to empathize
And be aware

That all of us are broken
And all of us have cried
All of us have spoken truths and
All of us have lied

Understanding
How to stand above
The things beneath
Our will to love

Listen!

Listen (2018) - MCHS Concert Choir

COMETS OV CUPID vs MICHAEL BETZ recorded live @ House by the Witches Tower, Minneapolis, MN on 09-21-19

COMETS OV CUPID vs MICHAEL BETZ @ House by the Witches Tower 09-21-19

Michael Betz is a composer, producer, and multi-instrumentalist from Mason City, IA, currently based in the Twin Cities, MN. His compositions are not limited to the concert stage and have appeared in a variety of media, including Android apps by developer Nathan Tornquist and the YouTube series Chadtronic. As a keyboardist, he is comfortable in a variety of musical contexts and maintains an active performance schedule as a jazz pianist, collaborative pianist, and sideman (recently appearing with the Fringe Pipes and George Faber). He also performs as a solo improvisational synthesizer player and has played Twin Cities experimental music series such as Drone Not Drones, the Tourniquet Noise Series, and Khyber Pass Thursdays. Betz served as principal percussionist in the St. Olaf Band and St. Olaf Orchestra and continues to make appearances with local ensembles, including the Wayzata Symphony Orchestra and Bloomington Symphony Orchestra. As a chorister, he is the bass section leader with Magnum Chorum and also regularly sings with MPLS (imPulse), Aliro Voices, and PopUp Choir. He teaches private piano, guitar, and and beginning orchestral string lessons through the Minnetonka Music Academy.

Betz is a recipient of the American Composer Forum’s Jerome Fund for New Music grant. His orchestra work Enclosure was awarded Honorable Mention in the Minnesota Orchestra Composer Institute. Four of his works have received finalist designation in the ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composer Awards. He has also received recognition in calls for scores from the Solo and Chamber Timpanist’s Initiative and Symphony Number One. He has received commissions from the Source Song Festival, Magnum Chorum, St. Olaf College, and Mason City High School, among others. His music has been performed in Europe and the United States and has been heard locally in many Twin Cities classical music venues such as Westminster Hall, Antonello Hall, Studio Z, the Baroque Room, and the Schubert Club Courtroom Concert Series. Performers of his music include Aliro Voices, RenegadeEnsemble, Neoteric Chamber Winds, pianist Mary Jo Gothmann, baritone Alan Dunbar, flutist Yoshi Weinberg, the Vine Orchestra, the St. Olaf Band and St. Olaf Orchestra, Una Vocis Choral Ensemble, the Mason City High School Symphonic Band and Concert Choir (IA), and chamber ensembles from the University of Iowa and Roseville Area High School (MN).

Betz holds a B.M. in Theory and Composition from St. Olaf College, where he studied with Timothy Mahr and Justin Merritt. He also studied composition with David Conte at the EAMA-Nadia Boulanger Summer Institute. Betz is a member of ASCAP and the American Composers Forum.

Listen (2018) - MCHS Concert Choir

Michael Betz

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