Lyrics:

There’s someone calling me
Somewhere down the line
And they telling me
It will all be fine

So I have to go on
Running down this road
And I have to find her
It’s like she’s calling me home

She told me
You should take your time
You’ll find me
Somewhere down the line

There’s no need
To hurry to get here
I’ll be waiting
You do not have to fear

There’s someone calling me
From somewhere far behind
She says she wants to see me 
Somewhere down the line
So I’ll wait right here
I’ll let her take her time
It’s a long hard road
But I know that she’ll be fine

Calling Me

Bubbles

The Book of Goddesses
For Flute, Harp, Percussion, and Optional Choreography
Commissioned by MAYA with funding from the  New York State Council on the Arts
Duration: 36'

Publisher: Bill Holab Music: http://www.billholabmusic.com/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=1011

For More Information: https://robertpaterson.com/the-book-of-goddesses

PROGRAM NOTES
My initial inspiration for The Book of Goddesses, and the source of the title, is the beautiful, lavishly illustrated book of the same name by Kris Waldherr, a Brooklyn based author, illustrator, designer and cellist. Waldherr’s book contains descriptions and images of hundreds of female deities from around the world, some featured more prominently than others. Rather than focus on goddesses in one particular culture, I highlight a few that seem to evoke something musical, dance-related or sensual. The cultures, countries and continents I draw on for musical material and styles are India, China, Greece, Ireland, North America, Nigeria and Cuba.

The flute and harp parts in each movement are often inspired by similar instruments found in each culture. For example, the harp part in Xi Wang Mu is inspired by the Konghou, and ancient Chinese harp, and the solo bass flute movement, Estanatlehi, is inspired by the sound of a Native American flute. Percussion instruments provide an earthiness, at least with regard to timbre, and each of the trio movements uses instruments that are not common in Western music, including an Indian Gatam, a Middle-Eastern Dumbek, an Afro-Cuban Cajón and the Udu drum, an instrument traditionally played by Nigerian women.

In order to achieve the right feel for each movement, I use non-Western scales, rhythms and other elements, and I occasionally appropriate patterns and other material from pre-existing music. My goal is to merge some of the qualities of traditional music with my own sensibility, and then filter it through flute, harp and percussion.

Many goddesses are associated with dance, certain colors or creativity in general, and with that in mind, I imagine The Book of Goddesses being performed live with choreographed dance. It may be presented in its entirety, although subsets—such as all of the movements for flute and harp—or single movements may also be extracted and performed.

The Book of Goddesses was commissioned by MAYA with funding provided by the New York State Council on The Arts.

The Book of Goddesses

The Book Of Goddesses - VIII. Yemaya (for Alto Flute and Cajón)

Whispers of Tomorrow (Gm Flute)

Unsettled Minds is a sweeping collection of orchestral adaptations that transform Beethoven’s Appassionata themes and beyond into symphonic meditations for restless souls. Each movement embraces turbulence and tenderness: brooding strings hover on the edge of silence, woodwinds whisper with searching fragility, and brass resound with fateful grandeur. Expanding Beethoven’s architecture into Rachmaninoff-like romantic musings of lush textures and cinematic dramas that capture the beauty and unease of an unsettled mind — where moments of stillness are broken by storms of emotion, and melodies carry both torment and transcendence. 

Performed in the imagined voice of Europe’s greatest orchestras, this album is an invitation into a dream state where longing, unrest, and fragile nobility collide.

4. Beethoven Beginnings

Through her glass chest I saw her glass heart. Glass blood was flowing to her glass brain. Her glass eyes reflecting a truth I haven't known. Her glass words were soft and they were sharp.

Glass Love

https://yorkcalling.co.uk/2020/09/21/discovery-almost-sex/
"Knockoff is a beautiful little ditty, with the soft vocal style mixing together in lovely fashion with the dual guitar melodies that provide most of the music here. It’s catchy, but it never sounds too commercialised, and it’s one of those tracks that you’ll have to listen to a few times before you fully hear everything – it sounds simple at first, but there’s a lot more going on in the background than you realise at first." - By Jane Howkins

Knockoff

Duration: 13'
Instrumentation: for trumpet, violin, cello, piano, marimba (six-mallets), percussion, harp and banjo
For more information: https://robertpaterson.com/journey-into-courage-film-score/suite

PROGRAM NOTES
Journey into Courage is a documentary directed by Bess O'Brien about domestic violence in rural Vermont. It was originally a touring stage production with a cast of women from rural Vermont who were victims of domestic violence. The documentary is largely made up of footage shot during the tour as well as interviews of the women in the stage production.

Journey into Courage Suite is derived from the soundtrack for the documentary and is intended to be performed on stage as a suite for eight musicians. The performing ensemble can choose which versions (if there are multiple ones) of each piece it will perform. The short version, e.g. without repeats, may be performed if a shorter suite is desired.

Journey into Courage - 3. Jenny's Dance

Journey into Courage - 1. Introduction

Wind Quintet
Duration: 18'
Commissioned by Quintet of the Americas; Underwritten by the American Composers Forum with funds provided by the Jerome Foundation
Publisher: Bill Holab Music: http://www.billholabmusic.com/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=103_137&products_id=909

PROGRAM NOTES
All of the movements of this wind quintet are connected and inspired in some way by American icons, surrealism, collage, post-1950s imagery and suburbia.

The first movement, Andante, begins with the ending and ends at the beginning. Some instruments mimic others and just when you think an idea might go in one direction, it goes in another. I gleaned many of my ideas from studying cinematic character development and the unusual forms used in many modern films such as the 1994 film Pulp Fiction by Quentin Tarantino.

The second movement, Suburban waltz-fantasy, contains quotes from 1960s-70s TV show themes: The Jetsons, All in the Family, Green Acres, The Dick Van Dyke Show, The Brady Bunch and Leave It To Beaver. The movement begins with a waltz-like feel and two of the players mimicking “suburban chicken lady housewives cackle-gossiping across a backyard fence.” An obnoxious stray dog interjects with loud barking and then the movement takes off in a different direction. Some of the quotes are re-composed to sound like bird songs, others are textural and a few are so subtle that they are not easy to discern. Some of the parts even sound like they are mocking each other. This movement is a strange, surrealist collage.

The most immediate and obvious reference in the title of the third movement, Melting Clocks, is to Salvador Dali’s famous 1931 painting The Persistence of Memory in which there are images of melting or limp watches. I imagine a room full of clocks all ticking away, yet slightly inaccurately, the “baby clocks” a little faster than the “old grandfather clocks.” The middle section contains a few brief quotes form the first movement, and the “slightly melted” end of the movement brings back the cuckoo, but this time it melts as if it is in a house consumed by fire.

The fourth movement, Klezmeshugeh, derives its title from my combining the words ‘klezmer’—which is a combination of the two Hebrew words, kley and zemer, meaning ‘instrument of song’—and meshugeh, which is a Yiddish word meaning ‘crazy’. Essentially, this made-up title means “crazy instrument song.” In this movement, there are a few “wrong notes” that allude to the players pretending to sight-read. The end also concludes with a few thematic fragments from the second movement.

Wind Quintet was commissioned by Quintet of the Americas and underwritten by the American Composers Forum with funds provided by the Jerome Foundation.

Wind Quintet - I. Andante

A few tweaks to the original to give it even more bite for inclusion in my album.

Charles Hardin

Sleep is the Brother of Death (Album Mix)

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.

Journey into Courage - 1. Introduction

Robert Paterson Composer