GO BEARS! is a graphic score created for my composition students, an example of 'Augenmusik'--eye music--for them to try for themselves. Sometimes music should be seen and not heard! It incorporates bits of the UCA (University of Central Arkansas) Fight Song and Alma Mater.

Go Bears-Augenmusik (Eye Music)

*Recording of MIDI sounds (oboes and bassoons—better than 'choir ahs')*
O Filii et Filiae is a grand motet based on the well-known Easter hymn by Jean Tisserand, O.F.M. (d. 1494). Including the opening and closing Alleluias, the key of each section is derived from the notes of the Alleluia itself. Each Alleluia verse response becomes more elaborate as the piece progresses. Although too long for most liturgical uses, all twelve verses are set in a modular way so that different verses may be sung on different feast days.

Dickinson - O Filii Et Filiae

Rhapsody for Piano and Wind Ensemble, composed for the 100th Anniversary of the University of Central Arkansas bands, premiered at the Meyerson Center in Dallas, TX, by pianist Neil Rutman, conductor Ricky Brooks and the UCA Wind Ensemble, April 14, 2014.

Rhapsody for Piano and Wind Ensemble

(***Note about the recording: After the premiere of Transfiguration, the two transitions between the three movements were cut, and a tempo change at the end of movement 1 (mm. 210-230) was made, making the duration just under 20 minutes. The Soundcloud link below is a recording of the premiere.)

Commissioned by the Quapaw Quartet with a grant from the Fromm Music Foundation.

Transfiguration depicts an epiphany--a dramatic, revelatory moment, as one might experience in an encounter with the Divine. The biblical accounts of Jesus' Transfiguration were the impetus for this piece, however it is not a programmatic retelling of the story. Rather, it is a musical expression of a contemplation of the story's meaning. It begins with our outward struggle with the world around us. There are hints of a different life, but they are drowned out by the cares and troubles that we all have. Later, we seek satisfaction through diversions which leave us unfulfilled. The hints remain, but they are ignored. Finally, after an inward struggle, we are open to the life-changing event.

Transfiguration is cast in three connected movements. The first movement introduces two musical ideas—a four note chromatic cluster and a seven note chromatic melody—which are transformed over the course of the work. The chromatic material expands out to minor thirds and octatonic elements in the second movement, and eventually in the finale to major thirds and augmented sonorities.

Transfiguration

From Heavenly Harmony

Commissioned by the Music Teachers National Association and the Arkanasas Music Teachers Association in 2016.

Text by E. E. Cummings

what time is it?it is by every star
a different time,and each most falsely true;
or so subhuman super-minds declare

 —nor all their times encompass me and you:

when are we never,but forever now
(hosts of eternity;not guests of seem)
believe me,dear,clocks have enough to do 

without confusing timelessness and time. 

Time cannot children,poets,lovers tell—
measure imagine,mystery,a kiss 
—not though mankind would rather know than feel; 

mistrusting utterly that timelessness 

whose absence would make your whole life and my 
(and infinite our)merely to undie

"what time is it?it is by every star", from COMPLETE POEMS: 1904-1962 by E. E. Cummings, edited by George J. Firmage.  Copyright 1923, 1925, 1926, 1931, 1935, 1938, 1939, 1940, 1944, 1945, 1946, 1947, 1948, 1949, 1950, 1951, 1952, 1953, 1954, (c) 1955, 1956, 1957, 1958, 1959, 1960, 1961, 1962, 1963, 1966, 1967, 1968, 1972, 1973, 1974, 1975, 1976, 1977, 1978, 1979, 1980, 1981, 1982, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991 by the Trustees for the E. E. Cummings Trust.  Copyright © 1973, 1976, 1978, 1979, 1981, 1983, 1985, 1991 by George James Firmage.  Used by permission of Liveright Publishing Corporation.

Sonnets And Songs, 1. what time is it?it is by every star

Commissioned by the Music Teachers National Association and the Arkanasas Music Teachers Association in 2016.

Text by E. E. Cummings

the great advantage of being alive 
(instead of undying)is not so much 
that mind no more can disprove than prove 
what heart may feel and soul may touch 
—the great(my darling)happens to be 
that love are in we,that love are in we 

and here is a secret they never will share 
for whom create is less than have 
or one times one than when times where— 
that we are in love,that we are in love: 
with us they've nothing times nothing to do 
(for love are in we am in i are in you) 

this world(as timorous itsters all 
to call their cowardice quite agree) 
shall never discover our touch and feel 
—for love are in we are in love are in we; 
for you are and i am and we are(above 
and under all possible worlds)in love 

a billion brains may coax undeath 
from fancied fact and spaceful time— 
no heart can leap,no soul can breathe 
but by the sizeless truth of a dream 
whose sleep is the sky and the earth and the sea. 
For love are in you am in i are in we

"the great advantage of being alive". Copyright 1952, © 1980, 1991 by the Trustees for the E. E. Cummings Trust, from COMPLETE POEMS: 1904-1962 by E. E. Cummings, edited by George J. Firmage.  Copyright 1923, 1925, 1926, 1931, 1935, 1938, 1939, 1940, 1944, 1945, 1946, 1947, 1948, 1949, 1950, 1951, 1952, 1953, 1954, (c) 1955, 1956, 1957, 1958, 1959, 1960, 1961, 1962, 1963, 1966, 1967, 1968, 1972, 1973, 1974, 1975, 1976, 1977, 1978, 1979, 1980, 1981, 1982, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991 by the Trustees for the E. E. Cummings Trust.  Copyright © 1973, 1976, 1978, 1979, 1981, 1983, 1985, 1991 by George James Firmage.  Used by permission of Liveright Publishing Corporation.

Sonnets And Songs, 2. the great advantage of being alive

Commissioned by the Music Teachers National Association and the Arkanasas Music Teachers Association in 2016.

text by E. E. Cummings

being to timelessness as it's to time, 
love did no more begin than love will end; 
where nothing is to breathe to stroll to swim 
love is the air the ocean and the land 

(do lovers suffer?all divinities 
proudly descending put on deathful flesh: 
are lovers glad?only their smallest joy's 
a universe emerging from a wish) 

love is the voice under all silences, 
the hope which has no opposite in fear; 
the strength so strong mere force is feebleness: 
the truth more first than sun more last than star 

—do lovers love?why then to heaven with hell. 
Whatever sages say and fools,all's well


"being to timelessness as it's to time". Copyright 1950, © 1978, 1991 by the Trustees for the E. E. Cummings Trust,  from COMPLETE POEMS: 1904-1962 by E. E. Cummings, edited by George J. Firmage.  Copyright 1923, 1925, 1926, 1931, 1935, 1938, 1939, 1940, 1944, 1945, 1946, 1947, 1948, 1949, 1950, 1951, 1952, 1953, 1954, (c) 1955, 1956, 1957, 1958, 1959, 1960, 1961, 1962, 1963, 1966, 1967, 1968, 1972, 1973, 1974, 1975, 1976, 1977, 1978, 1979, 1980, 1981, 1982, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991 by the Trustees for the E. E. Cummings Trust.  Copyright © 1973, 1976, 1978, 1979, 1981, 1983, 1985, 1991 by George James Firmage.  Used by permission of Liveright Publishing Corporation.

Sonnets And Songs, 3. being to timelessness as it's to time

Commissioned by the Ursa Trio (Kelly Johnson, clarinet; Linda Hsu, violin; Stephen Feldman, cello) for their tour of China, Taiwan and Korea.

Punctus Contrapunctus

"Symphonia Sacra" is a three-movement work based on Renaissance models, but in a contemporary harmonic language. The first movement, 'Madrigal,' was inspired by the tortured chromaticism of much of Carlo Gesualdo's music. The second movement, 'Motet,' is remeniscent of scared works by many composers of that era. The third movement, 'Canzona,' like those works in Gabrieli's sacred symphonies, features the long-short-short rhythm, imitative entrances, and metric modulations from duple to triple meters.

Paul Dickinson | Composer

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