Classic

This piece is constructed in 3 movements in attacca form.
I. Lac calme, réverbération des vagues ondulantes, et lumière... /
잔잔한 호수, 일렁이는 물결의 잔향, 그리고 빛...
II. Une ombre, apparaît peu à peu... /
서서히 드리워지는 그림자...
III. Le festin des éclats lumineux /
빛 파편들의 향연

Premiered in Seoul art center
by Timf ensemble

09.22.2022

Son de Lumiére- refletèe dans le lac

Premiered in Geneva
by HEM ensemble
03.06.2022

Rouge, La Couleur Provocante

La vision de l'extase II

Scarbo (orchestration)

forest migrations (2024) for orchestra
by Paul Novak

Forests slowly move to new geographic areas across many generations in response to environmental threats such as climate change. These migrations demonstrate the power and versatility of the natural world, which we think is static but is truly always developing and adapting. However, the phrase “forest migration” to me also darkly alludes to the very different migration that trees undergo as forests around the world are destroyed. And I have been thinking about the great debt musicians owe to trees. So many of the instruments we play are constructed from wood, and in a certain sense the creation of these instruments seems, poignantly, like a third type of migration.

forest migrations explores different layers of time, with active layers of surface motion always buoyed by the slow movement of the forest. Much of the material of the piece is built from tightly interwoven canons which unravel patiently throughout the ensemble like the mycelium network of a forest. Throughout the piece, the wooden instruments of the orchestra resonate in their most fundamental ways, with music built from natural harmonics, open strings, and melodies of interlocked fifths. My aim was to create a sound world that is patient and resilient, like the natural world this piece pays homage to.

forest migrations ​was commissioned by American Composers Orchestra through the 2020 Underwood Commission. 

Recorded by Aspen Conducting Academy Orchestra, Ulysses Derrien, conductor


forest migrations (2024) for chamber orchestra

Paul Novak