Piano, Peter Kramer

The Garden was composed during the winter of 2023 and is dedicated to my friend Shay Scott who helped bring these pieces to life.

Movements:
1. Landscape I (grave)
2. Fuga I in C [fragment] (lento)
3. Lied (cantabile)
4. Ayre in E (andantino)
5. Chorale Prelude (misterioso)
6. Fuga II in F [fragment] (poco adagio)
7. Adagio (tempo giusto)
8. Serinette I in E [fragment] (con moto)
9. Landscape II (semplice)
10. Serinette II in C (maestoso)
11. Dein Bildnis (methodical)
12. Pastorale in F (a piacere)

Any moment might be our last. Everything is more beautiful because we're doomed. You will never be lovelier than you are now. We will never be here again.

So through my eyes her gesture, pouring in
On my mind’s eye, shaped mine; I stared wide-eyed
On the sun’s face, beyond the wont of men.

Fragments from: Homer, The Iliad and Dante, Paradiso Canto I (trans. Dorothy L. Sayers)

Artwork: Konrad Witz, Saint Christopher

The Garden (piano solo) [excerpts]

PROGRAM NOTE

Silence of the world of shades was composed between 2011/13 and was recorded, mastered and co-composed by Eastman Presser. Hannah Hammel, Joseph Monticello and Candy Chang performed the baroque flute parts.

…
And let me linger on, for there is still much to sing,
But now, weeping for joy,
Like a tale of love,
My song comes to its end, just as
The blush and blanch of it have been with me
From the start. But so things go.

Fragment from: Friedrich Hölderlin, At the Source of the Danube (trans. Richard Sieburth)

Artwork: Barbara Mason, Illuminate

Silence Of The World Of Shades (electroacoustic)

05/06/15 – Oberlin, OH – Waxen [quartet version] (viola, cello, flute, and piano)
PREMIERE – Oberlin Conservatory, Warner Concert Hall – Oberlin Conservatory CME (Timothy Weiss, conductor)

Artwork: Christy Wyckoff, Chukar Campground, North Fork Malheur

Waxen (flute, viola, cello and piano)

Artwork: David Rosenak, Plaid Pantry (2010)

Bagatelle

Full Album: www.youtube.com/watch?v=bGLPhODskbY

I want to be, another man
Come down (back) to me, please understand
Come rescue me, please take my hand
I want to be, with you again

Calling, endlessly
Falling, in love again

I want to be, another man
Come down (back) to me, please understand
Come rescue me, please take my hand
I want to be, with you again

Calling, endlessly
Falling, in love again

Come rescue me, please take my hand
I want to be, with you again
with you again, don't go away
with you again...

Artwork: Lily Mae Martin, Morning Song

In Love Again

Full Album: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bGLPhODskbY

Artwork: George Sand, Common Thistle

Song Without Words

Peter Kramer, piano 
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0YYpggo0Dpg
Artwork: Louis Finson, Allegory of the Four Elements, 1611

JS Bach - French Suite No.3 in B minor (Sarabande)

Full Album: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rxKecpWFawQ

Country Tune

02/02/17 – Tallahassee, FL – Eolian (violin solo)
Florida State University – Benjamin Sung, violin

Program Note:
Eolian refers to the mode that is today commonly known as the Aeolian mode. The nature of this piece stems from the complex history of the Aeolian mode (all modes in general) and its etymology, mainly dealing with the concept of wind and erosion finding its roots in the name of the Greek god Aeolus "ruler of the winds". Structurally this solo is based on the prelude and fugue model of the baroque era. The opening prelude presents a sound world that is interrupted by wind-like gestures, and is in part inspired by the instrument known as the Aeolian harp, an instrument placed outside or at an open window whereby the strings are put into motion by wind alone. The concluding recitative and quasi fuga (canonic fugue) never fully generate into a traditional form, rather an antiphonal call and response between pitched dyads and wind-like gestures takes place, which is further eroded over the course of the piece. Eolian is part of the Melos Cycle for string quartet, in which a series of solos and duos are performed one after another (attacca), each based on a mode and the concept of its etymology and complex historical utilization.

Eolic "...was fittest for lyric verses, as having a particular sweetness mixed with gravity."
-Brossard Dictionary (1703)

Eolian (violin solo)

Performance by Longleash trio
Recording by Chris Kincaid

score video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yqTRB0bQjQw&t=541s

PROGRAM NOTE
Pietà was written during the Spring and Summer of 2017 for Pala Garcia, John Popham and Renate Rohlfing for the Loretto Festival 2017.

Our father who art in heaven,
Hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come. 
Thy will be done
On earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread,
…

Pour the unhappiness out
From your too bitter heart,
Which grieving will not sweeten.

Poison grows in this dark.
It is in the water of tears
Its black blooms rise.
…

“…I’m tired now.
Sometimes I talk too much. That’s happiness.”
…

Give us this day our daily bread…

(Fragments from: Lord’s Prayer – English vernacular version, Another Weeping Woman – Wallace Stevens, Three Views of a Mother – John Ciardi)

Pietà (piano trio)

JCF Fischer
Ricercar pro Festis Paschalibus
super Initium Cantilenae
Crist ist erstanden

Christ is risen
from all his torments,
we should all be joyful at this,
Christ wants to be our consolation.
Lord have mercy.

If he were not risen,
then the world would be lost.
Since he is risen,
we praise the father of Jesus Christ.
Lord have mercy.

Alleluia,
alleluia, alleluia!
We should all be joyful at this,
Christ wants to be a consolation .
Lord have mercy

JCF Fischer - Ricercar pro Festis Paschalibus

01/16/19 – Chicago, IL – Tremulant (clarinet, bassoon and piano)
PREMIERE – Elastic Arts – Zachary Good, clarinet; Benjamin Roidl-Ward, bassoon; Daniel Pesca, piano

PROGRAM NOTE

Tremulant (a device on a pipe organ that varies the wind supply creating a trembling and vocal-like sound effect) was composed during the Spring and Summer of 2018. This piece was written for my good friends Benjamin Roidl-Ward, Zachary Good and Daniel Pesca

Movements:
1.	Crossing (chorale variations)
2.	Duo
3.	Canon and chorale
4.	Coda

For my feet your holy word is a blazing lantern, a light that shows me the way forward; as this morning star rises upon us… 

-Lazarus Spengler, Durch Adams Fall is Ganz Verderbt (stanza 9)

…
Perhaps it only crosses, over and over,
the heart of an angel, itself still searching for
and never finding the right direction
to endure the moment.

-Christine Lavant, In der Regenrinne badet ein Vogel [fragment] (trans. David Chorlton)

Tremulant (clarinet, bassoon and piano) [mov 1]

In Nomine I [anon] (English Tudor Music)

JS Bach - French Suite No.1 in D minor (Minuet I)

02/12/20 - New York, NY - Somethings spoken a handful of times (string trio)
PREMIERE - Future Space - Chartreuse Trio

PROGRAM NOTE
Some things spoken a handful of times was written during the Winter of 2019 for my friends of the Chartreuse Trio.

Movements:
1.	prayer — augmentation
2.	variation I
3.	“to Daniel” — …wie ein hauch… — “Gloria tibi trinitas”
4.	glacially “glosa” — variation II — 3 fragments

. . . . I waited unseen and always,
And slept while God carried me through the lethargic mist, 
And took my time . . . . 

Not all birds that sing
Give help to heaven. But where
Song fails there blindness comes
To the poor prisoner.
Yet the last of all is life.

. . . . the closest
Simplest things—this moment with you,

Fragments from: Song of Myself and A Song for Occupations, Walt Whitman; Hölderlin to Sinclair, Erich Fried

Somethings spoken a handful of times (string trio)

Sonore was written during the Fall of 2018 and is dedicated with love and admiration to my harpsichord teacher and friend Webb William Wiggins.

…A grey cold bit of weather without wind, or some other bit equally characteristic brings us the recollection of an analogous day which had given us a special impression. What happens for times happens also for places, and for all impressions which travel in pairs.

Fragment from: Dust for Sparrows, Rémy de Gourmont (trans. Ezra Pound)

Sonore (harpsichord solo)

Zachary Good, Alto Recorder: https://zacharygood.com/

PROGRAM NOTE

Heights was written in the Spring of 2019 for Zachary Good, it is an adaptation of Sonore a harpsichord solo written for Webb Wiggins.

Caressed by sweet encirclement of fog
In which I lived and moved and had my being
Oh! So briefly…

And saw, beyond the field, a scarlet sun rising,
Rising, rising to blaze and bless with sudden clarity.

Fragments from Cecily Jones SL, Waking one morning to thickest fog

Heights (alto recorder solo)

Website/Contact : http://peterkramermusic.wordpress.com

Peter Kramer was born in Portland, OR. He is active as a composer and educator in New York City.

Peter Kramer

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