Violin I : David Brown
Violin II : Courtney Chang
Viola : Abigail Magoon
Cello : Meredith Bates

Shortly after receiving my bachelors last Spring, I met up with a jazzer and teaching colleague at a South Philly coffee house to discuss music. One of the topics he shared with me were his transcriptions of Chick Corea tunes. Being a longtime fan of Return to Forever, Mahavishnu Orchestra and the like, I was like a kid in a candy store, grabbing and remembering all the sweet, sweet theoretical systems I could remember in order to take them back to my room and feast on them later. "Five" is the sugar rush that resulted from this feast; a manic, playful manifestation of Chick Corea's food for thought.

"Five" was premiered in the presence of Joseph Schwantner at the University of Delaware's Schwantner Festival. This performance took place at the "Two Quartets and a Quintet" concert on April 27, 2013, in Newark, DE.

Five for String Quartet (Live Performance, 2013)

Full version of the Harpsichord piece previously posted.

The Machine Comes to Life (2013)

Theme written in honor of an underrated character from an underrated book.  Written for solo piano, performed by the composer.

Mouseglove the Thief (2013)

"Latona St. Bounce" is a piece for solo Vibraphone specifically catered to the strengths of UD alum and longtime friend Evan Campbell (website: http://evanrcampbell.com).  Its construction is the result of systems that fuse both Contemporary Classical and Jazz.  The strongest markers of this marriage of genres are a fluid (yet strict) interpretation of Arnold Schoenberg's 12-tone method of serial composition nestled within a character and style deeply rooted in jazz traditions.   


The creation of this work was sparked by a hot tip given to me by Dr. Cynthia Folio at Temple University that renowned composer and theorist Robert Morris would be giving a master class at my alma mater and that I should come and check it out.  Although I had never given 12-tone composition all that much thought before, the ways in which Dr. Morris demonstrated the macro and microstructures within his piece at the master class inspired reflection about how I could practically incorporate this practice into a musically compelling and personally significant piece of music.



It is at this point in time that I came across the work composer Scott Bradley did for the cartoon classic "Tom and Jerry."  His use of the 12-Tone technique to create light, humorous music was the straw that broke the camel's back.  I sat down at my keyboard and wrote the opening row to the piece, and the rest of the material blossomed from that moment.

Michael Stambaugh

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