CAPTCHA for Baritone and Piano
Duration: 16'
Text by CAPTCHA
Performers: American Modern Ensemble, Jesse Blumberg, baritone; Blair McMillen, piano
Publisher: Bill Holab Music: http://www.billholabmusic.com/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=1473
Online Perusal Score: https://issuu.com/robertpaterson/docs/paterson_captcha_perusal
For More Information: https://robertpaterson.com/captcha-baritone-version

PROGRAM NOTES
CAPTCHA originated with an assignment I was given as a participant in the American Opera Projects (AOP) Composers & The Voice program. Throughout the year, we wrote a variety of arias and songs and were given various "challenges." Some of the challenges included using no more than four lines of text, using found text, using prose, and also trying to avoid the passagio (a term used in classical singing to describe where different voice ranges cross over, for example, where the chest voice and head voice cross). I neglected to incorporate any of the challenges into previous pieces, and I only had one song or aria left, so I had to incorporate all of the remaining challenges into a single piece.

For found text, I decided to use CAPTCHA texts. The term CAPTCHA (for Completely Automated Public Turing Test To Tell Computers and Humans Apart) was coined in 2000 by scientists at Carnegie Mellon University. A CAPTCHA is a program that protects websites against bots by generating and grading tests that only humans can pass. For example, humans can read distorted text presented as a graphic, but current computer programs cannot. To find interesting words and phrases, I spent many tedious hours in front of my computer loading CAPTCHA texts. Actually, what I ended using are reCAPTCHA texts, which are derived from a free version of CAPTCHA that uses combinations of real words from scanned books that need human confirmation and gibberish text.

I initially wrote one song entitled CAPTCHA, but later decided to compose an entire song cycle that incorporates the original song. Each songs uses a few key words (the few that are actually real words and phrases) as a springboard. I attempt to phonetically interpret the other words and phrases that don’t make sense, infusing emotion where none exists. Ultimately, my goal is to create an emotionally moving experience, despite the nonsensical nature of the words.

Winter Songs

CAPTCHA - IV. voix Gustroor

An anthemic Indie Rock track about the lockdown and everything else going on in the world during the crazy year of 2020

Joe Tibbits - Vocals and Guitar
Barry Harman - Bass

Silence And Chaos

Sounds Of The Void

Written: 2016
Duration: 5'
Instrumentation: soprano, baritone and piano
Lyrics by Mark Campbell
Commissioned by the Five Boroughs Music Festival for the Five Borough Songbook, Volume II
World Premiere: Five Boroughs Music Festival, DiMenna Center for Classical Music/Baryshnikov Arts Center, Jerome Robbins Theater, New York, NY, Marnie Breckenridge, Soprano, Sidney Outlaw, baritone, Jocelyn Dueck, piano, February 11, 2017.
Publisher: Bill Holab Music

View Score: https://issuu.com/robertpaterson/docs/paterson_crossing_the_hudson__score

Buy Sheet Music: http://www.billholabmusic.com/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=103_137&products_id=2698

For More Information: https://robertpaterson.com/crossing-the-hudson

PROGRAM NOTES
When setting text to music, it is very fulfilling to have an opportunity to work with living writers, and especially a great writer such as Mark Campbell, one of America’s most celebrated librettists. The mission of the Five Borough Songbook project is to have composers and text writers create short pieces that are about New York City, so we decided to create a song entitled Crossing The Hudson about two people who cross each other on different Staten Island Ferries.

Crossing The Hudson was commissioned by the Five Boroughs Music Festival for the Five Borough Songbook, Volume II.

Crossing The Hudson

Sun Trio for Violin, Cello and Piano
Duration: ca. 35'
Publisher: Bill Holab Music: http://www.billholabmusic.com/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=103_137&products_id=908
For More Info: http://robertpaterson.com/sun-trio

PROGRAM NOTE
Sun Trio originated when I first started the film score for a documentary entitled Journey Into Courage. After writing opening music to the film, director Bess O’Brien and I concluded that it was best to change some parts in order to properly compliment the film. The theme was kept, but some of the other sections were changed and/or edited. I never discarded the original sketches, even though much of it remained on the cutting room floor. Thankfully, it came to good use later in this work.

The first movement, Sun Day, begins with the theme from the Journey Into Courage introduction. This movement is meant to evoke the feelings you get when summer, mid-day sunbeams appear from between the clouds and warm your skin.

Sunset, the second movement, was inspired by Lake Champlain in Burlington, Vermont and my wife Victoria. I envisioned us embraced, doing a Tango–like dance under a multi–colored sunset—at times, to themes from Stravinsky’s L’Histoire du soldat. Victoria is a much better dancer than I, and in this movement, she teaches me the steps. I fumble around and finally get it right, and then the sun sets.

The third movement, Absence of Sun, is connected from beginning to end by one long melodic line. The cello melody is modeled after a classical Indian Sitar raga, specifically the traditional, slow introductory section of a classical Indian composition. The bass piano part supplies the drone while a high-pitched tone row supplies a "starry night" texture. This texture gradually melds into a wind chime accompaniment. The movement peaks in the middle with an intense cello line. At this point, the violin intervallically supports the cello line. Each instrument—and in the case of the piano, each stave—represents a specific, individual texture. This movement intended to sound somewhat improvised.

Sunrise, is meant to evoke the feeling you get when watching the sun rise. There is a "Sun" peak of an octave, a bright yellow ‘E’, symbolizing the first, intense, bright sunbeam peaking over the horizon. In the middle of the movement, a string of rising chords mimics a "fast-forward" of the sun rising in the sky. Later in the movement, the violin and cello play decelerated bird motives. I wrote the bird songs down on the morning of April 17, 1995, while watching the sun rise behind the University of Vermont music building. I use the "mystic chord" by Alexander Skryabin as melodic and chordal material for the anticipation of the rising of the sun. While I was waiting for the sun to rise, I watched the mountains intensely. I finally was about to give up, thinking that the sun tricked me and rose behind some clouds when I wasn’t looking. As soon as I turned around to walk away, I felt an intense heat hit the back of my neck. I turned around and there it was! The sun was there, in all of its glory and splendor, lighting up the mountains. As well as evoking a sunrise, this movement also uses themes from the previous three movements.

The sprightly Sun Dance is a closure movement written to provide a vibrant contrast to the other four. The initial piano motive is taken from Five Movements for string quartet by Anton Webern. The first section introduces the themes, motives and patterns which are then used in subsequent sections. The second and fourth sections are percussive, while the third section is more placid and melodic. The finale is hard and driving, utilizing both snap pizzicati (plucking the string so it bounces against the fingerboard) and loud four-note chords in the strings.

Sun Trio was commissioned by Dennis O’Brien to commemorate the 98th birthday.

Spheres

Sun Trio - I. Sun Day

Sun Trio - Mvt. I. Sun Day

Colomiers

New music coming from the camp!!!BadTown Tino teams up with Brian Supreme and Teknique to give a song titled ElChapo, the song is coming from the EP "Still in The Trenches" which is geared to drop in February.
#nolimtsent

Still In The Trenches

BadTownTino ft Brian Supreme &Tech-ElChapo

County Line

Lately... I've Been Thinkin'

Bringin' It Back

The Likes of This Have Never Been Seen Before ...yet Here We Are Again

Calypso (No Reason to Stay) Pt. 2

Back in 2001 we formed The MK Band with ex-Redhill drummer Jan Beck and pianist Alan “The
Reverend Cookie Baker III” Edwards. The three of us were all working with other musicians but we
decided to spend 5 or 6 months working pretty well full-time in Jan’s studio. The music was all songs I
had already written or was in the process of writing and Jan & Cookie came in and we had a very
memorable summer there recording what was to be our one and only EP. Unfortunately, due to
circumstances beyond any of our control we didn’t quite finish the project as Jan left the area and
the studio folded.
Now, a good few years later we are in contact with each other again and have decided that there
was unfinished business with the MK band and I have, with Jan & Alan started to revisit the old recordings
with a view to finishing the project and releasing it sometime in 2021.
As it turns out technology has moved on at such a pace the we are able to work in realtime with
each other even though there are hundreds if not thousands of miles between us.

Long Lost Weekend

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.

CAPTCHA - IV. voix Gustroor

Robert Paterson Composer