Performers:
Eb cl. - Lauren Kinane
Bb cl. 1 - Kate Gelsinger
Bb cl. 2 - Tyler Pfalzer
Bass cl - Tim Young



The Garden - Cl. Quartet

Premiered February 1, 2017 Griswold Hall, Peabody
Chelsea De Souza, piano

1. sleep without waking
2. grotesque dreams
3. beautiful nightmares
4. like a dream upon waking…

Written in the autumn of 2016, four lullabies is a set of short pieces intended to conjure images of a sleep disturbed.  The first two lullabies utilize short melodic fragments written in 2013 that I admittedly am too fond of to simply scrap.  I reharmonized these sketches and integrated them into my current harmonic language, with the core of the harmonies being formed around the interaction of two pitch collections.  The first lullaby is the only one with the traditional intent of a lullaby, meant for one who cannot take comfort in sleep.  The second and third lullabies deal with dreams; dreams that are haunting, and nightmares that are enrapturing.  The final lullaby is a chant that fades away like the sudden decay of a dream so poignant but suddenly gone.

four lullabies

Performance by the Encore Wind Ensemble, March 12, 2017

Program Notes
Dedicated to the Dr. Holcomb and the Fredonia Wind Ensemble, Winter Unending, Invincible Summer was composed during the Spring of 2015 for a reading with the Fredonia Wind Ensemble and then later revised during the summer. The title of the piece borrows from a quote by French author and philosopher Albert Camus,

“In the midst of winter, I found there was, within me, an invincible summer.
And that makes me happy. For it says that no matter how hard the world pushes against me, within me, there’s something stronger – something better, pushing right back.”

It is this sense of endless perseverance and inner strength that inspired this piece, which was composed as a tribute to people who suffer from depression. Mental illness is often overlooked in many cultures and viewed with a negative stigma. People tend to believe that the sufferer is merely weak and not actually suffering from a legitimate biochemical imbalance. Throughout my life I’ve had close friends who I have watched battle with depression, and I believe them to be some of the strongest people I’ve ever met. The piece is meant to depict a narrative of a transition from a cold, lonely winter that thaws and brings the listener someplace warm.

Winter Unending, Invincible Summer

Performed by the Virtuosi Players of the Brno Filharmonie and recorded with Ablaze Records

Program Notes
Written during the summer and fall of 2015, what if... is a piece that seeks to explore one moment of music to its fullest as both a micro and macro idea. The piece was inspired by a question that my teacher would ask me whenever he sensed me getting stuck in my own music. He would refer to it as a game, saying, "Well why don't you play the 'What if' game with your materials this week?" This compositional exercise is the goal of the piece; to utilize about 2 seconds of sound to generate an entire piece.

what if...

Read by the Peabody Studio Orchestra, Nov 2nd, 2017
Conducted by Julie Desbordes

PROGRAM NOTES

MARTHA: What’s the autumn?
JAN: A second spring when every leaf’s a flower.

-Albert Camus, 1944, Le Malentendu (The Misunderstanding), Act 2.

I first encountered an excerpt of this quote some time in the autumn of 2015 while completing my undergraduate studies in Western New York. A friend of mine posted a photo on Facebook of a sprawling hillside covered in autumn foliage with only the words, “Autumn is a second spring when every leaf’s a flower.” Having experienced a few of the autumns that Western New York is famous for, I felt quite taken by the sentiment, but at the same time perplexed by its ascription to Camus. Camus being one of my favorite authors, I felt the quote seemed a bit too romantic for his usual existential angst. After doing some digging I found the quote is derived from the play Le Malentendu, one of his earlier works.

When read in the context of the play, the quote takes on an entirely different meaning; rather than being a simple commentary on the beauty of autumn, the quote instead suggests that autumn is a season of deception and false beauty, a transitory season where all appears to be in bloom, masking death beneath a colorful facade. This idea of a beautiful season of death and passing resonated with me, and reminded me of perhaps a springtime parallel: the Japanese cherry blossom tree. The cherry blossom tree blooms en masse and over the course of only a few days loses all of its petals in a stunning cascade; its life short, only in death does it achieve its true splendor. Historically and culturally, the cherry blossom serves as a metaphor that in life, all things, both beautiful and painful, will and must pass. It is this sentiment, the idea of transience, fleeting beauty, and a balance of life and death that serves as the essence of this piece.

(autumn is) a second spring

monologues and musings from the brink

Dear Mother
I. 보고싶은 어머니께 (dear mother)
II. 아픔 (pain)
III. 정 - 아리랑 (Jeong - Arirang)

Dear Mother is a suite of three simple songs intended as a gift for my birth mother. The first movement is a kind of imaginary lullaby. The week after I received my first letter from my birth mother, I reflected on what it meant to me to connect with her after all these years, and this is the music that came to mind.
The centerpiece of this suite is the second movement, titled 아픔 (ah-puhm), the Korean word for pain. This pain can be likened to a uniquely Korean word, Han. Han is thought to be a cultural object, ingrained in the psyche of all Koreans. To borrow from Soojung Jo, Korean adoptee and author of “Ghost of Sangju: a memoir of reconciliation”, han can be thought of as:
“an intrinsic Korean emotion of sorrow, grief, oppression, isolation, loneliness, and resentment of suffering which leads to forgiveness and deep love... There is no literal translation [for han]. It’s a state of mind. Of soul, really... A sadness so deep no tears will come. And yet, there’s still hope.”
There is a pain unique to Korean adoptees and their mothers. A pain of knowing something has been lost but never knowing what that thing is. A pain that must be forgotten if one is to survive. After love, this pain is the first bond that the adopted children of the generations lost can form with their birth mothers, should they be lucky enough to reconnect.

"I had to keep the guilt of having to choose your adoption and the thought of never being able to meet you buried in my heart.”

The third movement, Jeong - Arirang is my own personal setting of Arirang, a traditional Korean melody. Arirang is known as the unofficial national anthem of all of Korea, and there are an estimated 60 different regional variations of Arirang. Jeong is another word unique to Korean, and can be thought of as a deep love and compassion that all Koreans feel towards one another. I remember hearing Arirang as a child and feeling some distant resonance with it. It felt foreign to me, but somehow it also felt familiar. Arirang was the first connection I felt with my Korean heritage, so I decided this setting should be for cello, the instrument that my mother plays. Omma, perhaps you gave me music, so I give this to you.

Dear Mother - 보고싶은 어머니께

The story of Orpheus tells of a young man who could charm the hearts of men, beasts, and even the gods through the power of his song. Despite being the center of the story, Eurydice has little to no agency. Even her decision to marry Orpheus is questionable due to his ability to charm whoever he wanted. Frankly, Eurydice’s experience is entirely unfair and out of her control. In Virgil’s telling of the story in Georgics book IV, Eurydice does not speak until her second death at the entrance to the underworld. This piece is meant to explore that moment, suspended in time where Eurydice, who has been following Orpheus throughout the entirety of the story, is finally given the agency to deliver her monologue before her return to the underworld. One might be tempted to read this monologue as the somber farewell of two lovers being torn from one another, but if read with a tinge of spite it becomes quite damning. Eurydice is finally expressing the consequences of Orpheus’ actions, dooming her to a second death. 

Performed by Christian Paquette, flute

Pale Swam Her Spirit

Anywhere Arirang (midi mockup)

Studio recording of the the latest piece I've composed.
321GO is written for Flute, 2 Bb Clarinets, and Piano.
Program notes:
The inspiration of this piece was rather interesting.  Originally, it was a piano solo project for beginning composition class, and the inspiration came from two of my best friends.  Two sections are found in this piece, alternating back and forth in a Rondo form.  One of the sections is erratic and random, and the other is formed around a specific scale.  The title "321GO" is somewhat of a catch phrase of one of my friends, but then it became even more appropriate when, due to unforeseen circumstances, I suddenly had three days to write the ensemble transcription for this concert.
Flute: Emily Annesley
Clarinets: Sai Ceng, Kate Gelsinger
Piano: George Ryan
Recording engineer: Tim Bausch

321GO

Composer, Oboist, Potato Enthusiast.
Long Island, Fredonia, Baltimore.
SUNY Fredonia - B.A. Music Composition - 2016
Peabody Conservatory - M.M. Music Composition - 2018

Matthew J. Pellegrino

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