Xantippe's Rebuke was written for Libby Van Cleve. It is for eight taped oboes and one live, solo oboe. The eight taped parts are equal and dependent, while the solo part is meant to be a solo with the tape as accompaniment. The piece works very carefully with the unique sound of the oboe. (The partials of the oboe are so strong that I had to stop using headphones while I worked on the piece.) The taped oboes are written to exploit the harmonic properties of the oboe's sound, combining to create combination and interference tones. I started with unison pitches that created the richest sound and built the piece from there. Most of the subsequent pitches and phrases that I wrote occurred naturally before I notated them later on in the piece, and these in turn created others. So, in effect, the nature of the oboe and its natural sound determined the direction of the piece. The solo part starts off by playing notes that are being created, but not notated, on the tape, continuing on to play a melody that “floats” above the taped oboes. Xantippe was the wife of Socrates.

Xantippe's Rebuke

Dido in a Minute (2003)is a one minute excerpt from Dido Remembered, which is for synthesizer and prerecorded sound. It is an aural visualization of Dido’s Lament.

Dido In A Minute

Guy de Polka (1987)is for solo accordion and was written for Guy Klucevsek. It’s a serious, as opposed to a playful, polka, and plays with the unique sound qualities of the accordion.

Guy de Polka

Night Blossoms (2001), for vocal quartet, was commissioned by Kiitos. It uses a haiku by Yofu translated by Lucien Stryk (Night cherry blossoms tinted by the bonfire.).

Night Blossoms

Copralalia (2002), la la la is for two sopranos and taped voices. “Copralalia” is the term for the vocal outbursts of Tourette’s Syndrome sufferers. It derives from the Greek word “copros,” meaning “shit.” I wrote this piece when I was working on a project about witches, trying to find explanations for why some people were/are called witches. I thought that the vocal outbursts of Turette’s Syndrome would be frightening and perhaps sufferers from it could be called witches. The lyrics are by the medieval French poet Castelloza

Copralalia La La La

My work has always been concerned with exploring sound phenomena. Initially this was done in rather direct, almost linear, ways, writing pieces for multiples of instruments, or similar instruments, that I could perform myself, taking advantage of 8-track tape machines to make the  pieces. I was able to write for other instruments with the advent of midi playback. Throughout, my approach has always been to work very carefully with the specific sound properties of the instrument I was writing for, qualities that change from instrument to instrument. Gulf War Syndrone (2004-6)is a departure, in that I'm using a variety of instruments and sound sources. I am using fragments of a field recording I made in Germany in 1990, which was an anti-war demonstration in Cologne which had a number of trombones playing long tones and a man ranting unintelligibly. It was a striking sound, and I've been dying to incorporate it into a piece ever since. The pre-recorded part also uses layered voices from politicians and manipulated voice, tambourine, and oboe that are derived from middle eastern pop music. I had hoped that this piece would be out-dated after the 2004 election. However…..

Gulf War Syndrone

Note Passing Note (1981)is for live voice, two taped voices, and slides (light). The taped voices are recorded separately and come out of separate speakers. The speakers are placed on either side of the performance space. The live voice moves from speaker to speaker, matching pitches, distorting them, and "pulling" them from one speaker to the other. Many of the intervals are microtonal and create beats, resultant tones, and interference tones. The singer can actually change the sounds by moving around, intersecting the sounds in space, and creating new ones. The singer passes through the slide images - slashes of white light tinted at the edges with strong colors, hints of color, spectral colors.

Note Passing Note

Prospero’s Sigh (2016)is a short piano concerto that was written for Emanuele Arciuli. The initial inspiration was from the opening four note phrase from Mozarts Piano Concerto K.466. It works with the timbres of the orchestral instruments, passing phrases from one to another.
Bari Conservatory Orchestra, Giovanni Pelliccia conductor.

Prospero's Sigh

Given my usual compositional concerns: polyphonic writing for at least four voices of like or similar instruments, I found Corrina Ocarina  really difficult to write: only writing for two voices (three if you want to get fussy and count both hands of the harp) and for two instruments that have a relatively thin overtone series and that produce their sounds in totally different ways. I tried to solve this by creating afterimages of sound between the two instruments, starting off sparsely and then building up to a thoroughly indulgent cascade of sound. In a way, it is almost a parody of a typical flute and harp piece. Sarah Curtiss-flute, Shelley Du-harp

Corrina Ocarina

Lake Eden is for open instrumentation and was written for Relâche, a new music group from Philadelphia. It has four sections played in a progressive quasi-rondo form. Each section has a number of phrases, except for the first section, which has only one. The performers select a phrase from each section every time they go through the rondo form. Upon successive repetitions the phrases chosen can either be the same or different than the ones chosen previously. "The title came to me on a hot, sticky day in New York when I was writing the piece, and I remembered Lake Eden, a beautiful little lake in Vermont that I used to go to every day in the summer."
Concert recording at the One Aught Festival in 2001 - Vermont Contemporary Ensemble.

Lake Eden

Pipe Dreams was written for the organ in St. Peter’s Köln, which has two sets of pipes at opposite ends of the church. Each rank has separate sounds and stops that can combine to create microtonal intervals. Pipe Dreams is a structured improvisation, exploring antiphony and the specific sounds of that organ, extra-musical as well as musical. The tempos and exact notation are left open; the notation is just a musical skeleton for the actual notes played. Ornamentation occurs when the sound warrants it: i.e., to not only obtain musical results, but to make extra-musical sounds occur. The weather affected the sound and action of this organ, changing every day, so realization changed daily. The melodic material is very simplistic, because that is what created the most interesting resultant sounds. Mary Jane Leach-organ

Pipe Dreams

Dowland's Tears

Tricky Pan was written for (and performed by) David Lee Echelard and is for countertenor solo and eight taped tenor/countertenors that are an accompaniment to the solo. I used Solage's piece Tres Gentil Cuer as a source for lyrics and some of the musical ideas. (Solage was a 14th century poet and composer.) The taped parts create a bed of sound that the soloist sings over, with entries panned so that they form their own spatial rhythm. I used the original text, because I like the sound of the old French, and old French brings out the best qualities of a countertenor's voice.

Tricky Pan

Minos, for tenor soloist and mixed chorus (SSAATB, is the sixth section of a work-in-progress, Ariadne of Knossos, a piece exploring the pre-Hellenic origins of the Ariadne myth. I have used lyrics from several languages, which reflects the many different strands of the Ariadne myth. This section is an evocation of the bull, which was sacred in Crete before the Greeks conquered it.

Minos

"Ceremony of the Bull" is the third section of a work-in-progress, Ariadne of Knossos, which is a theatrical musical piece exploring the pre-Hellenic origins of the Ariadne myth. It is for mixed chorus (SSAATB) and string quartet. I have used lyrics from several languages, which reflect the many different strands of the Ariadne myth. This section is an evocation of the bull, which was sacred in Crete before the Greeks conquered it.

Ariadne of Knossos

Ceremony of the Bull

"Ariadne’s Lament" is a piece for eight sopranos. It is the third and final piece of works for eight women's voices inspired by and loosely based on a madrigal by Monteverdi, "Lamento d’Ariana," using it as a source for pitch and syllables. I have always loved Monteverdi’s close harmonies, the tension in them, and I wanted to extend them. "Ariadne’s Lament" is the culmination of the first two pieces. It uses more obvious phrases from Monteverdi and more contrasting sections and writing techniques.

Ariadne's Lament

The Crane Dance is a dramatic solo for soprano and women's chorus describing the holy dance of Crete. In ancient Crete there was a form of choral dance using choruses of girls who accompanied dancers, called the hypercheme, in which a dancing and gesticulating chorus was reinforced by a stationary group of singers. There are no dancers in this piece, but the singers describe a dance. The piece starts fairly serenely and builds in intensity as the dancing becomes more frenzied, which is reflected in the choral accompaniment.

The Crane Dance

"Semper Dolens" (2018)is for 6 taped flutes and solo flute. It is loosely based on a John Dowland piece "I Saw My My Lady Weep." It works with sustained harmony and dissonance. There is a saying about Dowland: "Semper Dowland, Semper Dolens" (always Dowland, always doleful), which inspired the title. Performed by Manuel Zurria

Semper Dolens

For piano, voice, and taped piano e-bowed tones. Recorded live at The Stone, 6/12/2009 - MJ Leach-performer.

Piano E-Tude

Dido Remembered is for synthesizer and prerecorded sound. It is an aural visualization of Dido’s Lament.

Dido Remembered

Written in honor of Ruth Crawford-Seeger, in honor of her 100th birthday. Combining the classical and folk elements of her work. Recorded at Cal Arts, Mark Menzies performing.

Mary Jane Leach-By'm Bye

MARY JANE LEACH is a composer/performer whose work reveals a fascination with the physicality of sound, its acoustic properties and how they interact with space. In many of her works Leach creates an other-worldly sound environment using difference, combination, and interference tones; these are tones not actually sounded by the performers, but acoustic phenomena arising from Leach’s deft manipulation of intonation and timbral qualities: “an acoustic Through the Looking Glass world based on sound that the performer is not making.” (The New Yorker).

mjleach

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