New & hot: Classical

JBRH 002

Marilyn Nonken, Live from Roulette (May 23, 2016)
"Vortex Temporum Revisited" Project
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Patricia Franchini:  What is your greatest ambition in life?
Parvulesco: To become immortal… and then die.
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Patricia Franchini: It’s sad to fall asleep.  It separates people.  Even when you’re sleeping together, you’re all alone.
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"À bout de souffle" (English “out of breath”) takes its title from Jean-Luc Godard’s 1960 film (English: Breathless).  My piece shares no direct relation to the narrative of the film, but the compositional process drew inspiration from both the (then) innovative use of jump cuts that film critic Andrew Sarris analyzed as representing “the meaninglessness of the time interval between moral decisions”, and the two quotes above.

Written for the same scordatura tuning as Grisey’s magnus opus Vortex Temporum, it was a great hurdles to compose something new in dialogue with such a monumental and personally influential work.  I focused on simultaneously highlighting and obscuring the relationship between the piano’s standard equal temperament and the four quarter-tones available.  I play with the idea of Grisey’s structural arc and the Ravel arpeggio by presenting repetitive ostinato gestures nested in sonic, resonant arcs that bloom and decay through processes of dynamics, timbre, and registral expansion – a sort of restless breathing.

À bout de souffle (2016) for piano scordatura

IMPORTANT: Please listen at a LOUD comfortable volume that makes your ear parts move a little. You should hear a lot of air shifting. (Ideally headphones or biggish bass-friendly speakers.) 


Written in close collaboration with Distractfold Ensemble, featuring: 


Rocío Bolaños - bass clarinet (w transposition pedals)
Daniel Brew - electric guitar
Linda Jankowska -  bowed kick + snare drums (drums outfitted with bridges + strings)
Christian Smith - bowed kick drum (as above)+ other percussion
Alice Purton - cello (w transposition pedals)
Sabrina Schroeder - transducers (playing bass drum, floor tom, and plywood cubes via live-manipulated sound waves through transducers).

Transducer performance interface developed with programming and design support from Josiah Oberholtzer, and from Michael Acker of the Experimentalstudio de SWR Freiburg. 

This live-performance recording was made at the 48th Internationale Ferienkurse in Darmstadt (Aug. 7th, 2016)

BONE GAMES (2016) for amplified ensemble

for soprano, double bass, and electronics

Anika Kildegaard - soprano
Will Yager - double bass

please continue (2020)

slowed  reverb  pluto projector - rex orange county  violin part 1 hour

Little gift from me 2 u 

Ty for all the love
Composed by me

Amends(elias)

The Duel from “The Empire Strikes Back” for 8 trombones and piano
Music by John Williams
arr. Karim Elmahmoudi

Fellow fans of John Williams music frequently ask me if I have a favorite cue that he’s written for Star Wars. It’s really hard for me to choose just one. There are so many great ones. But one of my all time favorites is “The Duel” from “The Empire Strikes Back.” 

I saw Empire in the theater when it first premiered. I was 6 years old and it made quite the impression on me. It was the first Star Wars movie I had ever seen and I was instantly hooked on John Williams’ music. No surprise that I picked a brass instrument when it came time to do so a few years later in my school music program. 

“The Duel” is an amazing 4 minute distillation of so much of what I love about the music of Star Wars. For years I’ve thought about arranging this climactic scene. Typically I don’t record other peoples arrangements as I enjoy doing my own versions but in this case, I made an exception.

Meet my friend Karim Elmahmoudi. He’s a wonderful composer, arranger and trombonist who reached out to me almost 3 years ago to connect about our mutual love of all things trombone, John Williams and especially Star Wars scores. He has sent me original compositions as well as arrangements over the years and I was his guest on an interview series he does. He’s a wonderful spirit and I look forward to the day when we can meet in person after this pandemic is in our collective rear view mirrors.

Well, this past April, he reached out and very graciously asked if I could record the contra part on his new arrangement of “The Duel” which is scored for 2 alto trombones, 4 tenor trombones, 1 bass trombone, 1 contrabass trombone and piano. He said he knew how busy I am and it was a tall ask. It was like he “felt a great need in the Force” as I had literally been just revisiting the idea of an arrangement of this cue when I got his email. I said to Karim, “This arrangement looks great! I think I want to do the whole thing myself! Problem is you’re gonna have to be patient. I’ve got a ton of other initiatives and projects that I need to do first but I WILL get to this. And I’ll add some SuperNova touches to the arrangement… sound good?”

So here it finally is! Karim and I both really have a powerful connection and reaction to this cue. It’s got so much in it but the most powerful moment is the Han and Leia theme that happens after the fugue section at the 2:50 mark. I’m actually getting goose bumps just typing this… you’ll hear what I mean.

Some how this cue captures a lot of what I’ve been feeling during the pandemic: feeling of fighting a seemingly insurmountable foe, the underlying terror of this battle, feeling of mutual struggle by my friends and family, final break through, escape and triumph… all in 4 minutes!

Last but certainly not least, I wanna give a huge thanks to Constanze Hochwartner for tackling the piano part on this arrangement. It is such a great color adding the piano to my NovaDub trombone choir sound and she sounds absolutely terrific.

I will be making a video of this so look for that in the coming weeks but I just couldn’t wait to share the recording!

Enjoy!!

The Duel From The Empire Strikes Back

Advent Sunday / The Feast of Title and Dedication / Live Sunday Mass / November 29, 2020 / The Church of the Advent, Boston.

The Rev'd Dr Jeffrey A. Hanson, Celebrant
The Rev'd Douglas Anderson, Preacher
Members of The Choir of The Church of the Advent
Mark Dwyer, Organist & Choirmaster
Ross Wood, Assisting Organist & Choirmaster

https://www.theadventboston.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/bulletin-29-11-2020.pdf

Advent Sunday 2020

2020.11.29 Live Sunday Mass Webcast

One of the strongest teenage piano trios in the country performs Beethoven with passion and precision. They’re joined by a young vocalist performing Shakespeare, and a 15-year-old violinist who just might be an orchestral conductor someday.

Show 392 - Full Episode

18-year-old cellist Maximus Gurath

Note: 1:00 features PS's Solo Violin B doubling an octave above.

Website: www.performancesamples.com
Soundcloud: @performancesamples
Facebook: facebook.com/performancesamples

Vista - The Ballroom - by Aaron Sapp

This is an arrangement  for the Wind Ensemble students at Williamsville East High School (Buffalo, NY area) that I composed last week. They needed a Hanukkah piece, so I wrote this for them.  It's a festive 2'15" piece entitled "Dreidel Fanfare." Those of you who know me, know that 
 I enjoy arranging, particularly for the holiday season. I hope that you like it!

Dreidel Fanfare For Listening

Happiness

Composer originally from Charleston, SC - Currently based in Rhode Island.

please continue (2020)

Nick Bentz