Name: Chamber Symphony by Nicholas Perry Clark
Duration: 16 min 2 s
Description: Chamber Symphony is a three-movement work completed in March of 2014. The piece utilizes a 17-person chamber orchestra of 10 winds, 4 strings, 2 percussionists (using everything including a blender), and synthesizer. I. Cannabis Infectuous - II. The Man in White - III. At a Party - Total Shutdown

performed live on 2/5/15 by Pale Blue Wind Ensemble 
Michael Arnold - solo trumpet
Jason Missal - conductor

pdf of score and trumpet part available here:
http://www.michaelmikulka.com/trumpetconcerto.html

Concerto For Trumpet And Wind Ensemble

“Light Cycles” is an exploration of a harmonic language that is based on the chord progression at the beginning of the piece. Throughout the work, this progression comes back presented in a variety of ways, transposed each time and alternating with other sections. I enjoyed taking existing harmonies and finding creative ways to twist them and reinterpret them, in the same way that words which are spelled and pronounced the same can have a variety of different meanings, to create what I hope is an organic structure.

Flute: Stephanie Bell
Clarinet: Micah Wright
Violin: Kenneth Liao
Violas: Salwa Bachar, Georgi Dimitrov

Conducted by Austin Chanu

Feb. 22nd, 2015

Light Cycles

Chamber Symphony is a three-movement work completed in March of 2014. The piece utilizes a 17-person chamber orchestra of 10 winds, 4 strings, 2 percussionists (using everything including a blender), and synthesizer. I. Cannabis Infectuous - II. The Man in White - III. At a Party - Total Shutdown

Chamber Symphony

Timestretched to the length of the longest recording. Now available for download / vinyl: https://heyexit.bandcamp.com/album/every-recording-of-gymnopedie-1

buy the vinyl

Every Recording of Gymnopedie 1

To The Stars, Bowen. To The Stars!

David M. Gordon's 2008 "Quasi Sinfonia," for 16 players, performed live by Contempo under the direction of Cliff Colnot. The four movements, which are performed without pause, are: 

I. Allarmi
II. Ritual (starting at 5:28)
III. Tema con variazioni (starting at 12:13)
IV. Allarmi e campane (starting at 21:13)

For further details, go to www.davidmgordon.com.

Quasi Sinfonia (2008)

Rehearsal recording of first half - May 2017. American Composers Orchestra; David Tinervia, baritone.

Part 1: Into the Weddell Sea
Part 2: Trapped in Pack Ice 

Music composed by: Nina C. Young
Text written by: Nina C. Young and David Tinervia
Optional Generative video by: R. Luke DuBois

"Out of whose womb came the ice" creates a sonic and visual glimpse of a segment of the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition (1914-17).  In August 1914, at the onset of WWI, polar explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton gathered a crew of 27 men and set sail for the South Atlantic.  They were in pursuit of the last unclaimed prize of the Heroic Age of Exploration: to be the first to cross the Antarctic continent by foot.  Upon entering the Weddell Sea, they encountered unusually foul weather.  Weaving south through the treacherous seas of ice, their ship, the Endurance, became trapped only 85 miles from their destination.  After months of waiting for the ice to break, the ship was crushed and sank, leaving the crew stranded upon the ice floes without any means of contacting the outside world.  In pursuit of survival, Shackleton and his crew endured 22 months traversing ice floes up the Antarctic Peninsula.  The final leg included a deadly 800-mile open boat journey in their lifeboat, the James Caird, in hopes of reaching South Georgia Island.  The crew was rescued on 30 August 1916; everyone survived.  Though this expedition failed, it remains one of the most miraculous stories of polar exploration and human survival.

"Out of whose womb came the ice" looks at the expedition from the time they enter the Weddell Sea (December 1914) to the sinking of the Endurance (November 1915).  The vocal and orchestra music focuses on the crew’s perception of the Endurance in relationship to their surroundings.  She goes from being simply a ship, to a lifeline and memento that connects them to the world they left behind.  Once she sinks, they are truly left alone.  The visuals and electronics offer narrative elements drawn directly from documents of the journey: journal entries of the crew and images by expedition’s official photographer Frank Hurley.

Out of whose womb came the ice (excerpt) for baritone voice, orchestra, and electronics

The first half of my young-audience piece, entitled Compose Yourself!
Starts with an energetic 2-minute overture, subliminally introducing all sections and instruments of the orchestra, as well as themes that are developed throughout the work.
Following that is a step-by-step, humorous and educational introduction to all the families and instruments of the orchestra.
The 2nd half (not included) includes a section where the children actually compose and perform their own world premiere.

Compose Yourself!: Overture - families - inst. demos

London Symphony Orchestra/John Adams
with the St Lawrence String Quartet
27 January 2013

John Adams Absolute Jest for String Quartet and Orchestra

John Adams conductor
St Lawrence String Quartet
London Symphony Orchestra

The use of quotations from other works is explored in this programme conducted by John Adams: Copland’s Appalachian Spring makes use of the Shaker melody Simple Gifts, whilst Ives parodies the performance of a country band using an impressive list of quotations including London Bridge and Yankee Doodle. Adams’ own Absolute Jest incorporates more than a half dozen Beethoven fragments, mostly from the late string quartets.

Chamber Symphony

Nicholas Perry Clark

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