Batter’s Box for Soprano and Piano
Duration: 18’
Text by Kenny Berkowitz and Bridget Meeds
Performers: American Modern Ensemble: Dmitri Pittas, tenor; Blair McMillen, piano
Publisher: Bill Holab Music: http://www.billholabmusic.com/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=103_137&products_id=914
Online Perusal Score: https://issuu.com/robertpaterson/docs/batter_s_box_fs_bound
For More Information: https://robertpaterson.com/batters-box

PROGRAM NOTES
Batter's Box is my second song cycle written in collaboration with Bridget Meeds, a poet, and Kenny Berkowitz, a journalist. The first project we worked on together was Thursday, a song cycle for soprano and piano in which the text consists of fictitious answering machine messages. This time, we specifically decided to tackle a subject that we thought might entice people into the concert hall who might not normally attend classical concerts. The text is loosely based on the life of baseball giant Mike Piazza of the New York Mets. Each movement represents a different phase of the game, and Piazza’s thoughts of his father tie everything together. However, overall, I interpret this cycle as being less about Piazza the individual and more about the all-American baseball player.

Winter Songs

Batter's Box - 3. Rain Delay

Strange Lives

chillax electronic instrumental ... "like it says on the can"
(first session with arturia microfreak synth)

rockon2020

keeping calm (and carrying on)

Sixth track from my debut EP 'armored goosebump'. Original is a poem in Dutch by me, published in the volume ‘Onze nieuwe maat H’ by publishing house ‘Douane’ in 2010. It's about a friend of a friend who came over to help out with some gardening work. hope you like it and thanks for the love!

Now with videoclip! https://youtu.be/mCSsr7yY4VY

Lyrics & vocals by me
Music & production by Martijn van Dijk
https://soundcloud.com/meneervandijk
Official release 2021


A beautiful day

I’ve gone and cleaned my house again
Chase
Well To be honest it’s been twice since then
Chase
got scared sober just last night 
when this girl turned out to be
into me

I have been laughing at it all again
Chase
been allowed a kiss before I ran
Chase
rubbing cheese stains from my rug
cause my thug cat
still lacks some boundaries

It is a beautiful day
you’d say
up to our balls
in the dirt
in the rain

Yes It’s a beautiful day
you’d say
pulling weeds
from my backyard 
lending a hand

Friend of my friend

I was drinking in our local bar
Chase
where just last week you went too far
Chase
just to reach me one more time
rallying in rhyme
through our friend Sally

It is a beautiful mourning card 
Chase
damn it for hitting me this hard
Chase
damn my whining about better days
damn it, Chase,

the sun is shining 

It is a beautiful day
you’d say
up to our balls
in the dirt
in the rain

Yes It’s a beautiful day
you’d say
pulling weeds
from my backyard 
lending a hand

Just a friend

It is a beautiful day
you’d say
up to our balls
in the dirt
the pouring rain

Yes It’s a beautiful day
you’d say
never heard you whining
damn it, Chase,
the sun is shining

Armored Goosebumps

a beautiful day

A Beautiful Day

Another song about friend(s) in need

LYRICS:

It seems to me that we’ve done it all wrong
It came to me when I was writing this song
Gonna start again and we can start at the end
Didn’t need to mend, think I just needed a friend

I’m falling apart
You’re driving a stake through my heart

You came to me when you were needing a hand
Afloat at sea, we put you back on dry land
You threw it all back in the drink
You blew it on smack and down your sink

We’ll try another time
Just one more time
One more time again

Dry Land (Try Another Time)

Elegy for Two Bassoons and Piano
Duration ca. 10'
Performers: American Modern Ensemble; Charles McCracken and Gilbert DeJean, bassoons; Elizabeth DiFelice, piano
Publisher: Bill Holab Music: http://www.billholabmusic.com/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=1073

PROGRAM NOTES (SHORT VERSION — FOR PROGRAMS)
After hearing my music, and in particular, my Sonata for Bassoon and Piano, bassoonist Charles McCracken asked me to write Elegy for two bassoons and piano in memory of his father, Charles P. McCracken, a well-known and highly-regarded cellist in the New York musical community. His only request was that I quote a work that his father loved to play, one of the cello suites by J.S. Bach. I also love Bach’s music, so this was an easy request. I quote Bach’s Fifth Cello Suite, one of his father’s favorite pieces, and also Bach’s Third Cello Suite, a work that Charles Jr. likes, creating a sort of father and son pairing of references. Although Charles described his father as gregarious, fun loving and larger than life, this work is perhaps more earnest than humorous, but with a sense of playfulness in the way I manipulate the musical materials.

Elegy was commissioned by Charles McCracken and Gordon Harris through the American Composers Forum and is written in memory of Charles P. McCracken.

Star Crossing

Elegy for Two Bassoons and Piano

Sonata No. 1 for Violin and Piano
Duration: 20'
Publisher: Bill Holab Music: http://www.billholabmusic.com/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=103_137&products_id=1107
Online Perusal Score: https://issuu.com/robertpaterson/docs/sonata.i-vln.pno.-fs-bound-perusal
For More Information: https://robertpaterson.com/sonata-no-1-for-violin-and-piano

PROGRAM NOTE (SHORT VERSION FOR PROGRAMS)
The first movement, Adagio – allegro con uno trotto – adagio begins and ends in a somewhat Romantic style, but with a twist: the end of the movement sounds like a record scratch, as if what you just heard is a track from an old vinyl LP. I became fascinated with the sound of record scratches when I noticed them in many commercials, although this is somewhat ironic since no one really plays records anymore.

The imaginary title of the second movement, Schizando (derived from ‘schizophrenia’) is a word I came up with to describe a musical style centered on fast, abrupt changes. This movement also reveals an obsession with sequences: sequence-like chord patterns decay by gradually becoming more dissonant as they evolve. These sequential sections alternate with “siesta daydream” sections, akin to channel surfing with a remote control. I was recently on the road for two months with my wife Victoria while she was touring, so on a personal level, traveling on the road to a different hotel every week probably influenced how I wrote this movement. We were never in the same place for very long and many of the hotels looked the same. Our lives were not that dramatic. I started craving drama, particularly in the music I listened to, and this probably spilled over into how I wrote this movement.

The third movement, Largo is slow and broad and inspired by the phrase "the weight of the past." There are time markers that delineate certain sections, reminiscent of the ticking of a clock. There are a number of composers whose works influenced me in this movement, such as the later works of Arvo Pärt and the slow movements of some of Beethoven’s sonatas. I was also pre-occupied with wanting to write a movement that contained mostly “open” notes, i.e. half notes, whole notes and double whole notes.

My main influences for the last movement, Allegro con moto are the early formal ideas of Igor Stravinsky, folk-style fiddle playing and jazz. There are a few false starts when piano chords come crashing down and a few somewhat humorous sections. Many of the themes from the previous three movements reappear in this movement.

As with many of my earlier works, my goal was to create a four-movement work in which all of the movements are quite different from each other. In a sense, I view this multi-stylistic approach as the result of wanting to embrace a variety of tools. As a result, as I wrote this I did not have an allegiance to any one particular style, as each one hopefully elicits a certain, distinctive emotional response.

Joy: Music for Violin and Piano

Sonata No. 1 for Violin and Piano - I. Adagio, Allegro Con Uno Trotto, Adagio

Sonata No. 1 for Violin and Piano - I. Adagio – allegro con uno trotto – adagio

This one is months in the making, but we thought it was worth the wait. I produced the beat and sent it over to Kyle Anderson, an unbelievably talented singer and songwriter who was introduced to us by a mutual fan, Colin (we <3 you Colin, this wouldn't have happened without you). Shoutout to my songwriting partner Greg DeYoung ("Five Days", "This Year's Lament", etc.), who helped me cross the finish line on this one. It really does take a village.

Check out Kyle Anderson's page asap, you won't regret it.

Note - I sampled the first couple lines from Dominic Fike's part in "Hit Me Up" w/Omar Apollo, as Dominic is my biggest musical inspiration and it fit too perfectly. I highly recommend giving it/him a listen.

Between The Lines (feat. Kyle Anderson)

A music representation of a feeling of despair. 
--
Photo by Dmitry Schemelev on Unsplash

Despair

Despair – Ambient & Cinematic Music

A mixture of flavors that someone like Kehlani would style on!!

S.N.S. VOL 2 (Produced by Blackmanta1989$)

American composer Robert Paterson is a true New Yorker—born and bred in Buffalo, he lived in Rochester and Ithaca for over ten years, in New York City for over twenty years, and now lives in Saratoga Springs, near the Adirondacks. Paterson’s colorful music embraces a wide variety of themes, everything from goddesses and online dating to mathematics and the environment. His music is filled with emotion and fierce rhythmic energy, marked by elegance, wit, and meticulous craftsmanship. Named Composer of The Year by the Classical Recording Foundation at Carnegie Hall, Paterson is the winner of the Alfred I. DuPont Award, and his opera Three Way won the Grammy® under Best Classical Producer of the Year. His music is often a Best of the Year pick on National Public Radio. His orchestral tone poem, Dark Mountains, regularly airs on NPR’s Performance Today. Three Way premiered with Nashville Opera, then BAM (Brooklyn Academy of Music), and across the United States. Minnesota Orchestra, Louisville Orchestra, The Oratorio Society of New York, Buffalo Philharmonic, Albany Pro Musica, Albany Symphony, Musica Sacra, Austin Symphony, Vermont Symphony, and ensembles worldwide perform his works. Paterson gives masterclasses at the Curtis Institute of Music, New York University, the Aspen Music Festival, the Cleveland Institute of Music, and more. He is the Artistic Director and house composer for Mostly Modern Projects. Robert is a lifelong vegan and advocates for animals and the environment, celebrating the natural world with ground-breaking works such as his Triple Concerto, A New Eaarth, Listen, and I Go Among Trees.

Batter's Box - 3. Rain Delay

Robert Paterson Composer