Premiered 10/11/2013
Recording of performance at University of Kansas, 4/12/2014
Mary Jamerson, Flute
Jeremiah Rittel, Clarinet
Kate Jones, Violin
Rachel Czech, Cello
Shun Jung Hsu, Piano
Ian McClaflin, Percussion

Program notes:
“Rituals of Ancient Voices” is a musical depiction of a druidic ceremony as I imagined it. The beginning of the piece, utilizing extreme registers of each instrument in the ensemble and unusual techniques, is the incantation of the ritual, an offertory. The solo clarinet hauntingly calls for the ceremony to begin, and the piccolo soon joins in with the opening incantation. The chant tune then appears and is followed by the dancing ritual. This brisk section is a primal dance in odd meters, depicting the ebb and flow of a primal ceremony. After the dance, the chant reappears in the higher registers of piano and crotales, creating a mystical effect. As the piece ends, the effects of the ritual fade away. The piece concludes with a piano echoing the chant chorale style.

Rituals of Ancient Voices

The Pathless Woods

Composed by Justin Pounds in 2012, this piece for the MU New Music Ensemble is inspired by Indian film music, particularly that of the film Magadheera. The music is reflective of the film's main character, Bhairava.

Bhairava

Performed by the 2013-14 Mizzou New Music Ensemble.

Meditation. for septet

Loki is a piece inspired by the music of Mr. Bungle. I chose the title because of the music's quick changes in style. This reminded me of the Norse God, Loki, because of his ability to shape-shift and him being the god of trickery.

Loki

Reading by Wild Up.
Live Recording - Los Angeles. National Composers Intensive May, 2015.

Illegal Cycles - Jose Martinez (Chamber Orchestra)

Natalia Bolshakova, piano, Columbia Civic Orchestra, Stefan Freund, conductor

Commissioned by the Columbia Civic Orchestra with funding from the Sinquefield Charitable Foundation

SUN WILL RISE IN BLACK

In 2016-17, four Mizzou composers were commissioned to write new works celebrating the August 21, 2017 Total Solar Eclipse. The pieces by Hans Bridger Heruth, Dustin Dunn, Doug Osmun, and Jake Smucker -- performed by the Mizzou New Music Ensemble -- are woven together into an Eclipse Symphony, which traces the eclipse from its arrival (Heruth's "In the Shadow of the Moon") to climactic peak (Osmun's "Convergences") to its final departure (Smucker's "But You Have So Much to Live For").

The four pieces were premiered first at the Bond Life Sciences Center at the University of Missouri in April 2017, then reprised at the St. Louis Science Center Planetarium in May 2017.

Hans Bridger Heruth - In The Shadow Of The Moon

Medeski Martin & Wood and Alarm Will Sound have announced the release of a new collaborative album, 'Omnisphere,' due September 14 via MMW's own imprint, Indirecto Records. The collection poses a compelling question: What would happen if one of the most adventurous groups to emerge in jazz and improvised music in the last three decades were to join up with an orchestra that counts among the boldest forces in contemporary classical? The results are both expected, in the peerless level of the musicianship, and stunning, in the sweeping stylistic range of the program. But more than anything, 'Omnisphere' speaks to the respect and creative kinship shared between these two trailblazing ensembles.

Recorded live at The Newman Center in Denver, Colorado in February 2015, 'Omnisphere' fulfills a long-held aspiration for Medeski, drummer-percussionist Billy Martin and bassist Chris Wood. In the earliest days of the band, they would often listen to classical and chamber music as a source of musical inspiration, conceptualizing the idea of how to merge their freewheeling improvisational jazz explorations with the more composed approach of orchestral music.   

The album's seven-track program strikes an ideal balance, with original music by members of both groups, plus new AWS arrangements of two cuts off MMW's 'End of the World Party (Just in Case)'—the title track for which was is the album's first single premiered today at DownBeat (listen and share here). That 2004 release featured the trio's trademark avant-grooves underneath an array of keyboards—including plenty of Mellotron—with pop-savvy production by the Dust Brothers' John King. On these reinventions of "End of the World Party (Just in Case)," arranged by cellist Stefan Freund, and "Anonymous Skulls," arranged by violinist Courtney Orlando, the album's atmospheric replicas of strings and choir are made real through Alarm Will Sound's rich orchestral tapestry. Think of classic soul-jazz-with-strings LPs, though on another plateau of insight and imagination.

Martin's "Coral Sea," given an impressionistic arrangement by founding AWS trumpeter Jason Price, explores "colors and hues and nuance—all these things that are barely there," the composer says. Medeski's offering, "Eye of Ra," is a 20-minute tour-de-force that reflects the panoramic scope of his influences and experience—from shades of Stravinsky and Shostakovich that underscore his training at New England Conservatory, to rollicking, hard-grooving sections that summon up the NYC downtown scene.

The lead-off composition, "Kid Tao Mammal (Unworldliness Weirdo)," was commissioned for the project and written by founding AWS percussionist Payton MacDonald, and it sets the pace for the beyond-genre music to follow: speedy, cresting waves of strings and woodwinds, with startling punches of brass; funky rhythms bolstering Medeski's psychedelic electric piano; an ambient, near-dissonant section split open by Martin's drum solo; a thrilling finale. Other works composed by AWS personnel include multi-instrumentalist Caleb Burhans' "Oh Ye of Little Faith...(Do You Know Where Your Children Are?)," which evokes the gorgeously emotive, slow-burning side of the Minimalists; and Miles Brown's cyclical, noirish "Northern Lights," named in part after the Detroit lounge where the bassist had a regular jazz-trio gig. Onstage, Brown called his contribution "an opportunity for me to write for my band, and for a band that I've been listening to for a long time that I know could handle some improvisation. Just a little bit,” he added, chuckling.

Medeski Martin & Wood w/ Alarm Will Sound's 'Omnisphere' is out September 17, 2018 on limited edition 2-LP vinyl and digital formats.

OMNISPHERE
Track Listing

1. "Kid Tao Mammal (Unworldliness Weirdo)"
2. "Anoymous Skulls"
3. "Coral Sea" 
4. "Oh Ye Of Little Faith... (Do You Know Where Your Children Are?)"
5. "Eye Of Ra"
6. "Northern Lights"
7. "End Of The World Party (Just In Case)"

Medeski Martin & Wood - "End Of The World Party"

Episode 77 of ADJ•ective New Music's podcast, Lexical Tones. Robert McClure interviews composer and percussionist José Martínez.
https://josemartinezcomposer.com/

Visit www.adjectivenewmusic.com for more information about ADJ•ective New Music, the ADJ•ective Composers' Collective, and Lexical Tones.

77 - Jose Martinez

Mizzou New Music Initiative brings together a diverse array of programs intended to position the University of Missouri School of Music as a leading center in the areas of composition and new music. Programs included as a part of the initiative are the Mizzou New Music Ensemble, the Mizzou International Composers Festival, the Sinquefield Composition Prize Commission, the Creating Original Music Project, and the Missouri Composers Project. Additionally, the Mizzou New Music Initiative is pleased to partner with The Sheldon to commission a series of new classical works to be performed at The Sheldon in St. Louis each season.

The Initiative and partnership with The Sheldon is the direct result of the generous support of Dr. Jeanne and Mr. Rex Sinquefield, and the Sinquefield Charitable Foundation. The Sinquefields’ vision is to create an incubator for the composition and performance of new music, and to position Missouri as a major center for the music of tomorrow.

Hans Bridger Heruth - In The Shadow Of The Moon

Mizzou New Music Initiative

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