This is my last track of 2020. I would like to wish you good luck in the coming year if you are reading and listening to my song, left behind what hurts you in life for a new beginning. Big hug may the force be with you!
Adro The Toxic Waste

Joulupukki

​Duo for Flute and Marimba - Music by Robert Paterson
Duration 15'
Performers: Sato Moughalian, flute; Robert Paterson, marimba

Publisher: Bill Holab Music: http://www.billholabmusic.com/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=103_137&products_id=1209

For more information: https://robertpaterson.com/duo-for-flute-and-marimba-six-mallet-version

NOTE: this work is also available as a version for four-mallet marimba:
https://robertpaterson.com/duo-for-flute-and-marimba-four-mallet-version

PROGRAM NOTES
There were two particular goals I had while writing Duo for Flute and Marimba. I wanted to write a piece that was substantially longer than a usual five-minute, one-movement chamber piece, and I also wanted to write a work with a marimba part that uses six mallets for someone other than me. Ingrid, being one of my most courageous friends, offered to learn this difficult technique if I would write a piece for Kesatuan.

This duo is constructed in three contrasting movements. Although the two outer movements have more in common with each other than with the jazzy second movement, shared motives, melodic fragments, textures and rhythmic ideas permeate all three. The flutist has an opportunity to use an alto flute in the last movement, and the marimbist uses six mallets in the first movement and five mallets in the third. My general goal with this duo is to squeeze as much color, contrapuntal interplay and excitement out of this combination of instruments as possible.

The first movement, Allegro Misterioso, is meant to have a somewhat soothing quality, defined by lightly ornamented flute lines and ostinati in the marimba part. The structure of this movement is essentially a simple A, B, A’ form.

The jazz-influenced second movement, Playfully Seductive, is written for a friend I met during the summer of 1998 named Elyse, with whom my wife Victoria and I became good friends. Elyse not only has a beautiful singing voice but also happens to be a flutist. During one discussion, she told me that her father played the role of Tony in the first Broadway production of Leonard Bernstein's West Side Story. A few times, we had fun playing and singing through her West Side Story songbook. During this movement, I refer to West Side Story and also to Elyse, her bass-playing ex-boyfriend (now her husband), Victoria and even myself through thematic leitmotifs. The form of this movement is similar to the first, in that the introductory material is re-introduced near the end of the movement.

The third movement, Vivace, is similar to the first movement in that it also contains ornamented flute lines and marimba ostinati. Themes are borrowed and developed from the first two movements, and both the first and third movements contain flute cadenzas. The end of this movement provides an exciting conclusion to the entire three-movement work.

Six Mallet Marimba

Duo for Flute and Marimba - II. Playfully Seductive

Eating Variations
for Baritone Voice and Chamber Quintet (Baritone Voice,  Flute, B-flat Clarinet, Violin, Cello, Percussion)
Duration: 9' 
Text by Ron Singer
Performers: American Modern Ensemble; Robert Gardner, Baritone
Publisher: Bill Holab Music: http://www.billholabmusic.com/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=1109
Online Perusal Score: https://issuu.com/robertpaterson/docs/eating_variations-fs-bound_perusal
For More Information: https://robertpaterson.com/eating-variations

PROGRAM NOTES
Eating Variations is based on a series of witty poems with the same title by Ron Singer. The work as a whole is essentially a satire on food faddism and depicts different aspects of eating. The way I chose to set these poems is light-hearted, perhaps lighter in spirit than Singer originally intended, but with a serious, dark side.

The first movement, My Body, a Temple, incorporates the sounds of Tibetan Singing Bowls (also called Temple Bowls or Cup Gongs) and is loosely, harmonically inspired by Khöömei, or Tuvan Throat Singing and David Hykes’s Harmonic Choir recordings; both of whom use a style in which the singer produces overtones on top of the fundamental notes. Perhaps mercifully, I do not require the baritone to use this technique, but instead, use the flute to produce false overtones in a couple of spots.

In the second movement, The Hog, the instruments mimic pig sounds with scratchy, grunting noises from the violin and cello and clarinet multiphonics. A round-sounding whole-tone scale is used and there is a Polka-like accompaniment in the percussion.

The third movement, Even the Dyspeptic Must Eat, uses upward and downward runs in the bass clarinet to impart a roller coaster-like sense of Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease, a condition in which there is recurrent return of stomach contents back up the esophagus. This is reinforced with a slow, background groove in the drums.

The cello part in the fourth movement, The Dietary Moralist, is inspired by Dave Eggar, a cellist who can play his instrument like a guitar and sing at the same time. In this movement, I ask the cellist to play in a somewhat folksy style and sing out of tune back-up vocals—to me, reminiscent of a 1960s musical Hippie Sit-in. The main vocalist is backed by the well meaning but out of tune "band." To paraphrase an interesting email exchange with Singer, we agreed that in this context, the vocalist might represent a contemporary version of a certain species of 60's hippie—say, a particularly zealous fair trade coffee purveyor, and that this Malvolio type is singing along with a group of kindred spirits. This movement is not a literal portrayal of the text, which is quite serious in tone, and stretches the meaning more than the other movements. Perhaps my interpretation may instead be viewed more as commentary on the text.

In each passing decade, people are sure of their eating habits, and the carefree, assured, commercial America of the 1950s was no different. In the last movement, The Happy Medium, I envision a father-like doctor figure squarely explaining to a patient how to eat. The perky background music is meant to evoke a 1950s TV commercial, or perhaps a short, black and white educational grade school film.

Winter Songs

Eating Variations - V. The Happy Medium

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

So I'm a big fan of The Mandalorian and I really loved Ming-Na Wen's character 'Fennec Shand', but I noticed that she didn't have her own theme song...so I made one! I took some elements of the official Mandalorian main theme and composed this theme song as a tribute to Fennec's character and the awesome actress Ming-Na Wen as well. Hope you like it!

Fennec Shand Unofficial Theme Song | "Desert Assassin"

STEP OUT THE BOX UKE

#micahthunder #thundertribe #visualizer

Official Single "Here I Am" by Micah Thunder. Produced by @Edgar Wonder 
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Lyrics:
Do not live for tomorrow
Today is gone
Dead and gone
My soul lingers on

Searching for a reason
why the days will pass
good times will not last
life goes by so fast

You got what I need
what I want to see
In this world
Oh no,
We know how this goes
We know how this grows
and How it ends

I’m searching
For purpose
Can’t find my way
Don’t know if I’m worth it

It’s so dark
I’m so tired
Searching for a spark of life


Don’t Worry
You’re Perfect
Coming up so fast
It makes me nervous

Let’s dance
let’s smile
a miracle is worth my time

You got what I need
what I want to see
In this world
Oh no,
We know how this goes
We know how this grows
and How it ends
 
how this grows
how this goes
How it ends

I can be your man
I’ll do all I can
help me understand 
give you all I am
You can be my woman
Help you grow
Show me what lovers know
You won’t walk alone

You got what I need
what I want to see
In this world
Oh no,
We know how this goes
We know how this grows
and How it ends

© 2021, Micah Thunder, All Rights Reserved

HOW IT ENDS - MICAH THUNDER

Wait Until Free Summer Comes

Shadows

The Continuum II Linear Thoughts

Love

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.

Eating Variations - V. The Happy Medium

Robert Paterson Composer