Gan 2nd mvmt

Bon II

Scamp

Live recording from Fifth House Ensemble's Fresh Inc. Festival on June 19th in Bedford Hall at the University of Wisconsin-Parkside. Performed by the Rogue Trio (Kathleen Strahm [violin], Justin Rollefson [alto saxophone], Mary Strobel-Price [piano])

The act of stepping off the well-marked trail is both unnerving and freeing. “The Pathless Woods” delves into this beautiful world, exploring the wind through the trees, the chirping of the birds, and the rustling and chattering of the squirrels and chipmunks as they scurry through the brush as we listen and relish in this gentle, unencumbered wildness.

The Pathless Woods - for Violin, Alto Saxophone, and Piano

John Cage's 4'33" with a Huge Shitty Drop at the End

Recorded by Lydian Quartet

I – NODE: Tuning Knot  00:00-03:22
II – Recently Found Fragments: Chant Loop  03:28-11:38
III – Striding Rituals: Nocturnal Gatherings for Mass Wooing  11:44-17:30
III.5 or 5.IV – Optional habits  17:43-18:40
IV – CODEX: I know I know this (…almost remembering…)  18:44-25:04
V – Turn the Corner: Post-Rapture Celebration  25:08-28:04
VI - NODE: Ex nihilo…In nihil [-for Mary Ruth-]  28:05-35:30

Treatises for an Unrecovered Past is dedicated to the Lydian String Quartet and was composed as part of their Composition Commission Award, which was made possible by the generosity and vision of Marjorie B. and Martin Cohn. It was composed in San Francisco and Cambridge and is 35 minutes long.

Treatises for an Unrecovered Past (2013-14/rev. 2017) for string quartet

Electronic Etude No. 1 synthesizes sine tones and processes the sounds of a trumpet during a live performance.  The processed sounds include the harmonization of the trumpet.  This harmonization takes the trumpet’s sound and bends it to create harmonies of 2nds, 3rds, 5ths and octaves above and below the sounding trumpet pitches.  The harmonization appears in a number of ways ranging from simple imitation to high-speed, randomized counterpoint.  The sine tones create an atmosphere of reflection, while the live trumpet and harmonizations steadily increase in tension to a climactic moment that ends suddenly with a low sine tone.  This tone creates a wall that the frantic trumpet and harmonizations run into, stopping the frenzied momentum in its tracks.  The closing material is somber in nature with a gloomy reflective sine tone progression ending the work.

Electronic Etude No.1

"Polaris" (Finale from "Beacons")
Live recording by the Hodgson Wind Ensemble at 2017 CBDNA National Conference in Kansas City.

Polaris (finale from Beacons)

Polarity is a rhythmically driven work for tenor saxophone and electronics.  The electronics are fixed and maintain a rhythmically strict counterpoint with the tenor saxophone for most of the piece.  The piece could abstractly be thought of in two sections: fast then slow, but it is much more effective to think of the beginning and the end as two polar opposite types of music.  The first type is quick and rhythmically complex, while the second is slow and lyrical.  Everything around and in between these aesthetics is a gradual transformation into or out of one of these two poles.

Polarity was commissioned, recorded, and premiered by Harrison Clarke.

Polarity for Tenor Saxophone and Fixed Media

Arranged by Benjamin Dawson
Commissioned by Dr. Daniel Bara, for the University of Georgia Hodgson Singers
Performed by the Hodgson Singers on Nov. 7, 2019, Athens, GA
Daniel Bara, conductor
Robert Strebendt, solo

Polaris (finale from Beacons)

Peter Van Zandt Lane

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