Commissioned by the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, for the Flux quartet
marcoadrianramos.com

Barro tejido para la muerte de Mario Lavista o Cuarteto II (2022)

"Breathing Sunlight" is about spending time with our loved ones, knowing that they'll leave us soon. Simple moments, like lying on the grass or in the sun, breathing - moments of conscious or unconscious stillness - feeling the amount of love we can feel in the time we have left. 

The piece is loosely based on the North Indian Classical Raga Bhimpalasi. Premiered by Johnny Gandelsman (violin) and Joshua Roman (cello) on Sept. 19, 2017 in Boonville, CA. Infinite thanks to the Gabriela Lena Frank Creative Academy for Music for making this possible.

Breathing Sunlight (violin & cello)

This piece began from an impromptu trip to the New York Historical Society, where I encountered five breathtaking paintings. Thomas Cole’s lush painting style in the series, Course of Empire embodies American Romanticism. The paintings tell a dramatic tale that reminds us of the power that nature and humanity inflict on one another. Through his perspective of landscape, Cole takes us on a journey of the birth and inevitable destruction of a civilization. This piece focuses on The Savage State, which is the original title given to Cole’s first painting out of a five-part series. This painting depicts mankind’s first attempts at conquering the wilderness. 

In my interpretation, I focused on the power of nature. I worked to capture the majestic, and at times terrifying scenery. My goal was to evoke the elements of Romanticism in a way that pays tribute to Cole’s own style. I achieved this by using my own tonal language to bring the importance of the message to our current time period. The ideas of hubris and failed ambition dominate this series in addition to the credo that nature will always prevail.

Part I, From Thomas Cole's Course of Empire

The compositional process of No Spoilers was initiated at the request 
of a close guitarist friend. Having never written for the instrument, I was 
filled with trepidation at where to begin. After several attempts and a 
number of years since its request, the piece finally came to completion upon moving to Los Angeles in fall of 2017. My primary objective in writing it was to create a work that is idiomatic in the sense that it builds upon the standard repertoire while simultaneously diverging from it. The use of harmonics, scordatura, and other special techniques help to create this specific sound world that I sought. 
The title is a reference to preconceptions that we have on music, people, and life and the deliberate act of breaking those notions.

No Spoilers was premiered by Bokyung Byun on November 5, 2017 in Los Angeles.

No Spoilers

--- Rain Shadows ---

Composed by Natalie Moller, 2016
Written for Sophia Han

shadow I. dreaming in sand
shadow II. hollow trees
shadow III. fire and amber
shadow IV. the desert is a garden


a prayer
for California--your
drought-parched, cracking earth,
seared by wildfire and splintering in sunlight,
resilient; regrowing in the
wake of ash and bone-dust
of fallen trees


---------------------------

Premiere Recording:
Performed by Sophia Han
January 23rd, 2017
Florida State University

Rain Shadows

Psalm 8:4-5
"What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?

For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour."

Performed by Front Porch Ensemble
Karalyn Schubring - Piano
Benjamin Jackson - Violin
Matthew Wildman - Bassoon
Jacob Rogers - Percussion

Artwork by Samuel Evensen - www.samuelevensen.com/

A Little Lower Than the Angels

A Little Lower Than The Angels

Régulo Stabilito, University of Michigan Philharmonia Orchestra.

Portals (2017-18) for orchestra

When I look around myself for an idea, when I feel as though I have nothing to work with, when I feel as though I am nothing, when I've been made to feel that I am nothing, I look to the strong women that surround me for inspiration. Women's stories are tales of strength, perseverance, fire, and drive. And as the tides of history churn, gaining momentum, it's no longer dangerous to declare that now it's our turn--the women's turn.

The text for this piece is: "Hush now, baby. Don't say a word. Now it's time for the women's turn."

Don't say a word (2017) // Eighth Blackbird & Annika Socolofsky

marcoadrianramos.com
"This piece was conceived during the inaugural Gabriela Lena Frank Creative Academy of Music Composition Workshop in 2017; I am very grateful to Gabriela Lena Frank, Johnny Gandelsman, and Joshua Roman for their part in its formation. The work unfolds in a series of lyrical episodes, ranging from the bittersweet to the almost mystical." 
-program note from first performance (Paul Hall, Juilliard Feb 2018)

Manami Mizumoto, violin
Aaron Wolff, 'cello

Unknown album (2/23/2018 10:06:10 AM)

Verónica o Serenata (2017)

"Night Nihilism" for 8 Violas was written for the "CoLab" concert at the University of Michigan 2018.

"Night Nihilism" for Eight Violas

Honk If You Love Me (2018)
for clarinet, electronics, and optional Bharatanatyam dancer

Commissioned by Third Angle New Music

Program note:

In any large city, the sound of car horns riddles every street. But whenever I visit a city in India, the level of this traffic-filled soundscape is taken to an extreme, with a constant barrage of wild, animated, and exuberant car horns and songs like “Happy Birthday” which play every time a car is put into reverse. These unique horns almost sound too melodic and friendly to be recognized as traffic noises elsewhere, and hence they are used differently when driving – rather than honking out of anger, they are used to communicate to other drivers and make each car’s presence known, almost as a form of self-expression. In many ways, these drivers are reclaiming technology and using it to communicate – the most human and individual act possible. In essence, this piece Honk If You Love Me is a meta-version of this phenomenon, using electronics to disintegrate these traffic sounds and recontextualize them into something deeply personal and human.

My sincere thanks to Subashini Ganesan for her work in choreographing this piece, to Lou DeMartino for his musical artistry, and to Lisa Volle, Sarah Tiedemann, and everyone at Third Angle New Music for commissioning this work.

Honk If You Love Me

Nina Shekhar

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