My Serenata in Stile Antico is suffused by seventeenth-century Italian Baroque music. The opening Ciaconna is predicated on a four-measure repeated bass line. The Siciliana in modo hypodorico that follows is an homage to Fr. Athanasius Kircher, S. J., a polymath who wrote on music theory as well as on science and archeology, and who founded what may well be one of the first museums of natural history. The third movement, Aria, is a fantasia on one of the most popular monodies of the seventeenth century, Guilio Caccini’s “Amarilli, mia bella,” which was published in 1601. The finale is cast as a theme and variations based on a lively canzonetta by Fr. Orazio Vecchi, “So ben mi c’ha bon tempo.” (This title can be translated as “I know somebody who is having a good time.”) The coda of this final movement is itself a variant of a variation of Vecchi’s canzonetta found in Michael Praetorius’s Terpsichore, a collection of some 300 dances published in 1621.
I have scored the Serenata in Stile Antico for oboe and strings. It is not whatsoever an oboe concerto, however: the oboe represents a tiny woodwind section consisting of a single instrument. My intention concerning the “performance practice” of this Janus-faced work is quite simple: play it tastefully on modern instruments in a modern manner. Composing this score, I followed the example of Ottorino Respighi’s ravishing Antiche arie e danze. 
The Serenade in Stile Antico is dedicated to Margie Cooper. Margie and her husband Grant, who conducts this performance have been dear musical and personal friends of mine for decades.

Serenata in Stile Antico was premiered on 15 June 2024. Cheryl Bishkoff, oboe; Grant Cooper, conductor; and the International Baroque Soloists.

Serenata in Stile Antico for oboe and strings

String Quartet #72 Mvt 2.wav

String Quartet #21

This setting of Yeats' great poem is published by earthsongs, and is one of my most frequently performed pieces. http://www.earthsongschoralmusic.com/catitem.php?seqnum=100078

An Irish Airman Foresees His Death, for male chorus

The "Vision of Dame Julian of Norwich" is scored for soprano, string quartet, and harp. The soprano is Camille King, for whom this score was composed. The score is published by FatrockInk Music Publishers: http://www.fatrockink.com/076-1804.html

The Vision of Dame Julian of Norwich for soprano, string quartet and harp

This piece is published by FatrockInk Music publishers: http://www.fatrockink.com/026-1807.html This is a setting of the 23rd Psalm for soprano and oboe, written for Camille King, soprano.

"The Lord is my Shepherd" for soprano and oboe

String Quartet #23

This piece is published by Editions BIM: http://www.editions-bim.com/byron-adams-variationes-alchemisticae-for-flute-viola-cello-and-piano.html?___SID=U 

This brilliant performance is by Les Sync.

Variationes alchemisticae  (2005)                       	 Byron Adams (b.1955)
for flute, viola, violoncello and piano 

1.	Thema: 		Prima materia
2.	Operatio I: 	Solutio (by Water)
3.	Operatio II: 	Sublimatio (by Air)
4.	Operatio III: 	Coagulatio (by Earth)
5.	Operatio IV: 	Calcinatio (by Fire)
6.	Operatio V: 	Mortificatio (by Suffering)
7.	Finale: 		Coniunctio (Reconciliation)

Program Note:

Byron Adams: Variationes alchemisticae for flute, viola, violoncello and piano

Of these variations, the composer writes: “To this score, I have affixed a quotation from The Emerald Tablet of Hermes Trismegistus, an enigmatic alchemical text: Et sicut omnes res fuerunt ab uno, meditatione unius: sic omnes res natae fuerunt ab hac una re, adaptatione (‘And as all things proceeded from one, through the mediation of the one, so all things came from this one thing, through adaptation’). Often derided as charlatans, most alchemists sought after the gold of spiritual truth through an elaborate system of symbolism activated by transforming primal matter (prima materia) through a series of experiments (operatio). If successful, this process could effect a reconciliation of the opposites: water and fire, earth and air. Such reconciliation was achieved through suffering, the dismemberment (mortificatio) of the primal matter. My score, a set of ‘alchemical variations,’ is thus filled with formal and numerological symbolism. (The listener needs to know nothing of such arcane matters to apprehend this music fully.) Variationes alchemisticae was commissioned by Chamber Music Palisades, was premiered by them in 2005, and was dedicated to the late Conrad Susa as a gift for his seventieth birthday.”



Variationes alchemisticae

This utterly beautiful and otherworldly performance of Byron Adams's "Ashes of Soldiers" for a cappella chorus is by the Eastman Chorale, William Weinert, conductor. This performance was recorded in Finney Chapel at Oberlin. The moving photograph is by Ally Goebert

	Text: Ashes of Soldiers


I chant this chant of my soul in the name of all dead soldiers.
Faces so pale with wondrous eyes, very dear, draw close,
Gather closer yet, but speak not,
Phantoms of countless lost,
Invisible to the rest henceforth become my companions,
Follow me ever – desert me not while I live.
Sweet are the blooming cheeks of the living – 
Sweet are the musical voices sounding, 
But, sweet, ah sweet, are the dead with their silent eyes.
Dearest comrades, all is over and long gone,
But love is not over – and what love, O comrades!
Perfume from battle-fields rising, up from the battle arising,
Perfume therefore my chant, O love, immortal love,
Give me to bathe the memories of all dead soldiers,
Shroud them, embalm them, cover them all over with tender pride,
Make these ashes to nourish and blossom,
O love.

Adapted by Byron Adams from “Ashes of Soldiers”
Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass

Byron Adams's "Ashes of Soldiers," performed by the Eastman Chorale at Oberlin

This performance was conducted by Jane Ring Frank; the ensemble was Boston Secession. The text is by Walt Whitman from one of his Civil War elegies. "Ashes of Soldiers" is published by E.C. Schirmer.

Ashes of Soldiers


I chant this chant of my soul in the name of all dead soldiers.
Faces so pale with wondrous eyes, very dear, draw close,
Gather closer yet, but speak not,
Phantoms of countless lost,
Invisible to the rest henceforth become my companions,
Follow me ever – desert me not while I live.
Sweet are the blooming cheeks of the living – 
Sweet are the musical voices sounding, 
But, sweet, ah sweet, are the dead with their silent eyes.
Dearest comrades, all is over and long gone,
But love is not over – and what love, O comrades!
Perfume from battle-fields rising, up from the battle arising,
Perfume therefore my chant, O love, immortal love,
Give me to bathe the memories of all dead soldiers,
Shroud them, embalm them, cover them all over with tender pride,
Make these ashes to nourish and blossom,
O love.

Adapted by Byron Adams from “Ashes of Soldiers”
Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass

Byron Adams  Ashes of Soldiers for unaccompanied chorus

My "Suite in Olden Style" for solo organ is an homage to the Baroque music, that I love, and was composed for the pleasure of it. It is cast in four movements: Sinfonia, Fugue, Siciliana, and Rigaudon. As of yet, this score is unpublished. The organist on this recording is the spectacular Jason Klein-Mendoza.

Byron Adams: Suite in Olden Style for solo organ

These pieces and more are available at:   www.scoreexchange.com/profiles/paulbeedle