Composed for fixed electronic media on the 6th of May, 2018,  this surrealistic sonic image of a piano was inspired by a reading of D.H. Lawrence's eponymous poem from 1913.

The entire piece is freely composed around the Dorian mode on D, but with pitch and speed modulations serialized using a row of microtonal and tempo inflections. 

PIANO
by D.H. Lawrence 

"Softly, in the dusk, a woman is singing to me;
Taking me back down the vista of years, till I see
A child sitting under the piano, in the boom of the tingling strings
And pressing the small, poised feet of a mother who smiles as she sings.

In spite of myself, the insidious mastery of song
Betrays me back, till the heart of me weeps to belong
To the old Sunday evenings at home, with winter outside
And hymns in the cosy parlour, the tinkling piano our guide.

So now it is vain for the singer to burst into clamour
With the great black piano appassionato. The glamour
Of childish days is upon me, my manhood is cast
Down in the flood of remembrance, I weep like a child for the past."
(https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44580/piano)

Piano, for electronics (2018)

Flesh (2022, mockup)

Contemporary Insights Ensemble, conducted by Zach Seely
Festival des Zentrums für Gegenwartsmusik, Leipzig, 16 June 2022

Rules of Engagement (2013-2019)
This cycle of three works focuses on Israel’s war on the Gaza Strip in the winter of 2008/9, commonly referred to as Operation Cast Lead. 

1. Hora’ot Pticha Be’esh (2013)
Fixed media
2. Al-Shifa (2014)
String quartet and fixed media
3. Sumud (2019)
Ensemble

The title of the third piece, Sumud, refers to the principle of steadfastness that has come to play a special part in the Palestinian ethos of resistance, be it overt political or military resistance or simply the everyday resistance of going about one’s life despite the suffering inflicted by the occupation. This piece uses a large ensemble and loosely takes up some of the pre-recorded sounds from the first piece, adapting them to a live setting. As in the second piece, these are references to certain sound worlds rather than actual quotations; a microtonally-tuned guitar mirrors the pre-recorded oud sounds, while the accumulation of percussion sounds and reed textures are taken up and given a new physical presence in the live situation. The principle of sumud manifests itself in the music’s insistence and ultimate distillation of expressive focus from conflict and unease.

The overall direction of the cycle, then, is away from concrete documentation and towards musical sublimation, towards something that is separate from the horrors of Cast Lead despite issuing from them. When I first arrived at this conception, I was slightly disturbed by what could be perceived as a de-politicisation, as a disappearance of the real world in the aesthetic. In the meantime, however, I have reached the position that despite the powerlessness of such music to counteract the ongoing ordeals of Palestinians, it is more meaningful – as long as one operates in the realm of art rather than direct activism – to attempt a transcendence of horror towards something that offers a trace of autonomy. In this respect, it is important that the cycle begins with Hebrew and ends with an Arabic title; although the soldier’s testimony is vital evidence, the voice of the occupier should not be granted the last word, and despite the victimisation of Palestinians in Gaza and elsewhere, they must not be reduced to mere victims. That is the ultimate message of the cycle.

https://wielandhoban.wordpress.com/2020/03/06/the-rules-of-engagement-cycle/

Sumud (Rules of Engagement III) (2019, large ensemble)

you asked me to come
for electronics (2023)

This piece began life as a song for voice and piano based on E.E. Cummings' eponymous poem. However, I decided to subject my entire setting to a sort of cubist treatment and it resulted in a piece for fixed electronics with percussion sounds. 

Here is the poem:

you asked me to come:it was raining a little,
and the spring;a clumsy brightness of air
wonderfully stumbled above the square,
little amorous-tadpole people wiggled

battered by stuttering pearl,
                                leaves jiggled
to the jigging fragrance of newness
—and then.  My crazy fingers liked your dress
….your kiss,your kiss was a distinct brittle

flower,and the flesh crisp set
my love-tooth on edge.  So until light
each having each we promised to forget—

wherefore is there nothing left to guess:
the cheap intelligent thighs,the electric trite
thighs;the hair stupidly priceless.

you asked me to come, for electronics (2023)

Three Romances for Orchestra
Composed between July-October 2023.

1. I lie here thinking of you [0:00]
2. I see a wild civility [4:59]
3.  When I die, I want your hands on my eyes [11:11]

Composed as a sequel to my Three Instances for Orchestra, the difference between these pieces and its predecessor is exactly in the title (despite the formal similarities: a moderately paced first movement, a fast second movement and a slow third). The Instances are more abstract in their content, besides being composed for a smaller orchestra. The Romances are more explicitly "amoureux", love-struck. 

I preface each movement with a line from a love poem. The first movement, based on "Love Song" by William Carlos Williams, is a yearning address from one lover to another separated by a great distance. The second, from "Delight in Disorder" by Robert Herrick, highlights the beauty of imperfection. The third movement, inspired by Pablo Neruda, brings the cycle to a full circle with death and acceptance.

Love Song – William Carlos Williams
I lie here thinking of you:—
 
the stain of love
is upon the world!
Yellow, yellow, yellow
it eats into the leaves,
smears with saffron
the horned branches that lean
heavily
against a smooth purple sky!
There is no light
only a honey-thick stain
that drips from leaf to leaf
and limb to limb
spoiling the colors
of the whole world—
 
you far off there under
the wine-red selvage of the west!


Delight in Disorder – Robert Herrick 

A sweet disorder in the dress
Kindles in clothes a wantonness;
A lawn about the shoulders thrown
Into a fine distraction;
An erring lace, which here and there
Enthrals the crimson stomacher;
A cuff neglectful, and thereby
Ribands to flow confusedly;
A winning wave, deserving note,
In the tempestuous petticoat;
A careless shoe-string, in whose tie
I see a wild civility:
Do more bewitch me, than when art
Is too precise in every part.


When I die, I want your hands on my eyes – Pablo Neruda 

When I die, I want your hands on my eyes.
I want the light and wheat of your beloved hands to pass their freshness over me once more.
I want to feel the softness that changed my destiny.

I want you to live while I wait for you, asleep.
I want your ears still to hear the wind, I want you to sniff the sea's aroma that we loved together,
to continue to walk on the sand we walk on.

I want what I love to continue to live,
and you whom I love and sang above everything else.
to continue to flourish, full-flowered.

So that you can reach everything my love directs you to.
So that my shadow can travel along in your hair,
so that everything can learn the reason for my song.

Three Romances for Orchestra (2023)

Standard Deviations (2023)

All That Jazz was composed as a piece for a cycle of Nocturnes which eventually became 'Facing the Night'. On reviewing the piece, I considered it to be sufficient as a standalone piece and as an exploration of highly chromatic jazz. Listen in for a quotation of a jazz standard! 

Cover Art: All That Jazz, M.Sani.

All That Jazz, for MIDI (2021-22)

In my boundless turmoil (در التهابم از حد بیرون) 
For Ekmeles vocal ensemble - 6 voices
on a poem by Nima Yushij

Sound Plasma festival for alternative intonations 2023 Tallinn

Recorded by Klassikaraadio / Estonian Public Broadcasting
Sound engineer Teet Kehlmann
Recording location and time: Sept 28, 2023 House of the Blackheads, Tallinn

In my boundless turmoil

I: On Receiving the First News of the War
Isaac Rosenberg (1890-1918)

Snow is a strange white word;
No ice or frost
Has asked of bud or bird
For Winter’s cost.
Yet ice and frost and snow
From earth to sky
This Summer land doth know;
No man knows why.
In all men’s hearts it is:
Some spirit old
Hath turned with malign kiss
Our lives to mould.
Red fangs have torn His face,
God’s blood is shed:
He mourns from His lone place
His children dead.
O ancient crimson curse!
Corrode, consume;
Give back this universe
Its pristine bloom.

II (3'35") - But I was Looking at the Regular Stars
Wilfred Owen (1893 - 1918)

Bugles sang, saddening the evening air,
And bugles answered, sorrowful to hear.
Voices of boys were by the river-side.
Sleep mothered them; and left the twilight sad.
The shadow of the morrow weighed on men.
Voices of old despondency resigned,
Bowed by the shadow of the morrow, slept.
(…) dying tone
Of receding voices that will not return.
The wailing of the high far-travelling shells
And the deep cursing of the provoking (…)
The monstrous anger of our taciturn guns.
The majesty of the insults of their mouths.

III (8'30") - Words Whispered to a Child Under Siege
(Joseph Fasano - b. 1982)

No, we are not going to die.
The sounds you hear knocking the windows
and chipping the paint
from the ceiling, that is a game the world is playing.
Our task is to crouch in the dark as long as we can
and count the beats of our own hearts.
Good. Like that. Lay your hand
on my heart and I’ll lay mine on yours.
Which one of us wins
is the one who lov es the game the most
while it lasts.
Yes, it is going to last.
You can use your ear instead of your hand.
Here, on my heart.
Why is it beating faster? For you. That’s all.
I always wanted you to be born
and so did the world.
No, those aren’t a stranger’s bootsteps in the house.
Yes, I’m here. We’re safe.
Remember chess? Remember
hide-and-seek?
The song your mother sang? Let’s sing that one.
She’s still with us, yes. But you hav e to sing
without making a sound. She’d like that.
No, those aren’t bootsteps.
Sing. Sing louder.
Those aren’t bootsteps.
Let me show you how I cried when you were born.
Those aren’t bootsteps.
Those aren’t sirens.
Those aren’t flames.
Close your eyes. Like chess. Like hide-and-seek.
When the game is done you get another life.

Voices, receding...

See the score: https://issuu.com/utsyochakraborty/docs/chakraborty_a_concerto_for_piano_and_orchestra

A Concerto for Piano and Orchestra (2020-21) 

1. A Triptych: Prelude - Partita - Toccata I (0:00-10:30)
2. Introduction - Cadenza - Nocturne (10:30-20:05)
3. Finale - Toccata II (20:05-29:12)

to Nicolas Kingman, on his 45th birthday. 

"A Concerto for Piano and Orchestra" was composed between the months of August and December 2020, with revisions being made in January 2021. Writing a concerted piece for piano with orchestra had always been something I wanted to do. After six abortive attempts over a span of 7 years did this piece come along. As time passed, my own conception of the work changed. I wanted to create a piece in which the orchestra had an important role to play and was not just merely accompanying the piano. Each instrumental group is an individual voice, or as Harry Birtwistle says "voices in a football chorus". The piece is laid out in three movements, closely interconnected to each other. The first movement is a Triptych, beginning with a brash and aggressive prelude and then leading into a playful game (thus, partita) before concluding with a rhythmically agile toccata. The second movement, a nocturne, is linked to the previous movement via a cadenza. This movement features a melody, developing slowly in the winds and brass, with commentary from the Piano, percussion and strings, till there is an almost exultant release of energy making that developing melody present itself uninterrupted. This leads directly into the third movement, which transforms the material of the toccata of the first movement into a frantic, jovial dance which dies away in the spirit of the nocturne. 

The work is a 45th birthday present for Nicolas Kingman, with whom I have had some wonderful conversations in music and who "wanted to hear the Piano Concerto quite eagerly!" 


A Concerto for Piano and Orchestra (2020-21)

I am a composer, pianist, author ("Death of a Medium" [1992], "In my Own Light" [2014]), and political activist based in Dublin (Ireland) and Fürth (Germany).

Voices, receding...

Raymond Deane

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Utsyo Chakraborty

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