This play list does not include Enlightened City, Suite for String Orchestra or A New Eaarth for Orchestra, Chorus and Narrator. These will be added soon.

Video for A New Eaarth: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZlzCkWUfwI

Full perusal scores: http://robertpaterson.com/orchestra/

Publisher: Bill Holab Music: http://www.billholabmusic.com/composers/robert-paterson/robert-paterson-works/

Contact: http://robertpaterson.com/contact/

Selected Orchestral Works

Duration: ca. 7'
World Premiere: Mostly Modern Orchestra, Mostly Modern Festival, Peter Bay, Conductor, Skidmore College, Arthur Zankel Music Center, Helen Filene Ladd Concert Hall, Saratoga Springs, NY, June 12, 2022.
Publisher - Bill Holab Music: https://www.billholabmusic.com/composers/robert-paterson/robert-paterson-works/
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PZTC5McqtQk

PROGRAM NOTE
Overtures often come before operas or other large works. In this case, Slightly Comic Overture is a stand-alone piece—in the spirit of an overture—but more a free agent and not attached to anything else. It is my first orchestral work, and was inspired by the music of Leonard Bernstein and animated film composers such as Carl Stalling, and to a lesser extent, music by Aaron Copland, Béla Bartók, and Alfred Schnittke. Since I composed it when I was fairly young, I decided to revise it, with the hope that anything that I updated would only enhance or clarify everything and not change the nature of what I originally composed, or cause it to lose its youthful spirit. In this sense, Slightly Comic Overture is really a sort of hybrid: an intermingling of youthful exuberance with maturity, and a few colorful, more serious moments with others that are more humorous and playful. Slightly Comic Overture is dedicated to Peter Bay and the Mostly Modern Festival.

Slightly Comic Overture (for Orchestra)

Written: 2012
Duration: 38'
Instrumentation: orchestra, SATB chorus and narrator
Performed by the American Modern Orchestra and Albany Pro Musica, Mostly Modern Festival, Kent Tritle, conductor, Larry Pine, Narrator. Special thanks to Jose Daniel Flores Caraballo for preparing the choir for this performance.
Publisher: Bill Holab Music: http://www.billholabmusic.com/composers/robert-paterson/

Also Available: Choral Suite from A New Eaarth consisting of the choral movements from the orchestral work re-scored for SATB choir and piano. The choral suite may be performed as a stand-alone work.
For more information on this work: http://robertpaterson.com/a-new-eaarth. http://robertpaterson.com/choral-suite-from-a-new-eaarth

A New Eaarth for Orchestra, Chorus and Narrator

Written: 2015-16
Duration: ca. 24'
Instrumentation: soprano and baritone soloists, chorus and orchestra: 3 flutes (flute 3 doubling piccolo), 2 oboes, 3 B-flat clarinets (clarinet 3 doubling B-flat bass clarinet), 2 bassoons, 4 F horns, 3 B-flat trumpets, 2 trombones, bass trombone, tuba, timpani (4: 23”, 26”, 29” 32”), 3 percussionists (tubular chimes, xylophone, vibraphone, crotales [high and low], crash cymbals, 5 temple blocks, castanets, medium triangle, small triangle, orchestra bells, snare drum, crash cymbals, tambourine, medium suspended cymbal, medium wood block, small triangle, concert bass drum, large tam tam, medium triangle, Mark Tree), harp, strings

Performed by American Modern Orchestraand Albany Pro Musica, Kent Tritle, conductor, Larry Pine, narrator, José Daniel Flores-Caraballo, Albany Pro Music Artistic Director, Mostly Modern Festival, Arthur Zankel Music Center, Filene Concert Hall, Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, NY, June 15, 2018.

Publisher: Bill Holab Music: http://www.billholabmusic.com/store/index.php?main_page=advanced_search_result&search_in_description=1&keyword=whitman%27s+america

For More Information: http://robertpaterson.com/whitmans-america

View Score Online: https://issuu.com/robertpaterson/docs/paterson_whitman_s_america__score-p

Formerly titled Walt's America for world premiere.

NOTE: Instrumentation is designed to be identical to the Brahms Requiem, but with additional percussion.

PROGRAM NOTE
I have always been very fond of Walt Whitman and his poetry, not only for the inherent beauty and sense of optimism he illustrates in many of his works, but also for his intimacy, directness, colorful descriptions, and the way in which he sings the praises of nature and our role in it as individuals.

Whitman’s America is a setting of six poems from Whitman’s final version of Leaves of Grass, often called the Death Bed Edition, since he compiled this version the year he died. My work is constructed in an arch form as a sort of quasi-fantasia. I view each connected movement or section as a scene or vision, perhaps from an imagined Whitman as he lay on his deathbed. My goal was to capture and highlight a variety of themes that permeate Whitman’s poems, and in particular, themes that have to do with his love of America and the American people.

The work begins with Gliding o’er all, a poem in which Whitman portrays a positive attitude toward death; he is prepared for it and ready to embrace it. He presents a tone of acceptance through the irony of singing of many deaths, for the positive act of singing, in the way he imagines, does not typically correlate with death. Next is I Dream’d in a Dream, sung by a solo baritone, a poem that describes a utopic vision of peace and harmony. Following that is I Hear America Singing, about American pride and having pride in one’s work. Next is America, describing the destiny of America as a nation, his love of the masses, his devotion to Democracy and America fulfilling the spiritual needs of its people. Second to last is A Prairie Sunset, sung by a solo soprano, a poem that captures the beauty of the American prairie, an aspect of the American landscape that Whitman was very passionate about. Finally, I end with After the Dazzle of Day, a beautiful poem describing the starry night sky, an evening filled with music and his own internal symphony during the silence that follows.

Whitman’s America was commissioned by the Gulf Coast Symphony (Fort Myers, FL) as part of their 2020 Commissioning Project, Andrew M. Kurtz, Music Director and Conductor.

Movement Titles:
I. Gliding o'er all
II. I Dream’d in a Dream
III. I Hear America Singing
IV. America
V. A Prairie Sunset
VI. After the Dazzle of Day

Whitman's America for Orchestra and Chorus

Suite for String Orchestra
Duration: 15'
For More Information: https://robertpaterson.com/suite-for-string-orchestra
Publisher: Bill Holab Music: http://www.billholabmusic.com/composers/robert-paterson/
Purchase Sheet Music: http://billholabmusic.com/store/index.php?main_page=advanced_search_result&search_in_description=1&keyword=%22suite+for+string+orchestra%22

PROGRAM NOTE
Unlike some of my previous works, Suite for String Orchestra is not inspired by an over-arching programmatic theme. Although there are some technical and motivic relationships between some of the movements—particularly the first and fifth—the movements are generally unrelated and are meant to be noticeably distinct. It is in five short movements and is intentionally written in an “old-fashioned,” somewhat archaic style. I initially played around with the idea of titling this work Old-fashioned Suite or Old Time Suite, but there seems to be a sufficient sprinkling of “new fangled ideas” in this work to make these alternative titles seem inadequate.

The first movement, Allegro vivace, is written in a “mid-20th century American” style. My model for a few of the sections in this movement is the evocative, German phrase Sturm und Drang, which literally translated means “storm and stress.”

In the second movement, Trapped waltz, I imagine an ethereal, yet cognizant waltz floating above the stratosphere, looking for a place to rest, but hobbled and shackled by a pounding rock and roll drumset. I see this as a metaphor for the various dances throughout history that have come and gone but are continually vying for attention in contemporary culture. The movement fades out at the end, as if the waltz is eternally looking for a place to settle down. Admittedly, I was somewhat inspired by the collage works of Charles Ives.

The third movement, Nocturne, begins slowly and sadly, and I imagine the pulse in the beginning as similar to the gentle breathing of someone who is asleep. The middle of the movement is much more intense and violent, and the end is as soft and calm as the beginning. The first chair violin and the first chair violoncello have brief solos in this movement.

Although material from the middle of the fourth movement, Balinese scherzo, is derived from a Balinese scale, the beginning is somewhat chromatic and the ending is essentially based on the E-major scale. This movement is distinctive in that the orchestra is asked to play pizzicato almost the entire time.

The fifth movement, Finale: allegro moderato, is the movement that is most reminiscent of the first movement. The ending combines material from the beginning of both the first and fifth movements.

Suite For String Orchestra - V. Finale: allegro moderato

Suite For String Orchestra - IV. Balinese scherzo

Suite For String Orchestra - III. Nocturne

Suite For String Orchestra - II. Trapped waltz

Suite For String Orchestra - I. Allegro vivace

Duration: ca. 11'
Instrumentation: string orchestra and recording
World Premiere: American Modern Ensemble, Del Sol String Quartet, JACK Quartet and PubliQuartet, Delta David Gier, conductor, SubCulture, New York, NY, January 15, 2015

View Score: https://issuu.com/robertpaterson/docs/paterson_i_see_you__string_orch._ve

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3B4565EIa_U&feature=emb_logo

Buy Sheet Music: http://www.billholabmusic.com/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=103_137&products_id=2435

Note: versions for string quartet and string quintet also available.

PROGRAM NOTE
I See You is inspired by a week I spent at my father's side in a hospital. Having never spent much time in hospitals, I was unaccustomed to hearing the myriad of sounds, particularly in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU), where my father lay incapacitated, in critical condition. It was incredibly sad: I could see him, but because he was so sedated, he was barely aware I was even in the room with him. Despite this, there was something strangely soothing and almost musical about the constant pattern of beeps and noises emanating from the machines. To pass the time, I would imagine an orchestra playing, with the litany of noises as accompaniment.

I See You consists of three connected sections. The first section entitled Tranquillo is calm and soothing, almost like a lullaby, with long melodic lines. The second, entitled Sturn und drang (“storm and stress”) is more rhythmic and stressful, incorporating a cacophony of ICU sounds. The final section, entitled Return, is more like the first, perhaps a bit darker, but with rays of optimism toward the end. Throughout the entire work, I incorporate sounds one might hear in an ICU, manipulated and mixed with recordings of heartbeats, breathing and the sounds of children playing. The piece ends with the overlapping patterns of my own heartbeat, my father’s heartbeat, and my son’s heartbeat, and even my son's heartbeat when he was in my wife's womb, creating an intimate, multi-generational, rhythmic tapestry.

I See You (String Orchestra and Recording)

Closet Full of Demons - for sinfonietta.
Duration: 7'
Live Performance: American Modern Ensemble, David Alan Miller, Conductor
Publisher: Bill Holab Music: http://www.billholabmusic.com/composers/robert-paterson/robert-paterson-works/
For More Information: https://robertpaterson.com/closet-full-of-demons

PROGRAM NOTES
As a child, I remember being very afraid of my closet at night. I was sure that scary things were hiding in the back corner and that my closet was really a nighttime portal to a world of demons and monsters. A bracing, horrible dream I had one night as an adult reminded me of these childhood fears and hastened my writing this piece.

What kinds of sounds do demons and monsters make? What would they sound like crammed together in a gargantuan, pitch black, closet at night? I envisioned screaming, chaos, and violent infighting between the creatures. Sometimes these hellish monsters fight amongst themselves, as I would imagine they would do in a sort of morbid, eternal "monster hell," but once in a blue moon they burst out of the closet and start flying around the bedroom in a chaotic free-for-all, cackling and laughing and spitting and drooling, banging into walls and furniture like a bunch of loose, demonic bats.

Technically, this work is a vehicle for exploring a variety of exotic sound possibilities within a large chamber group. I imagine monsters of different shapes and sizes, similar to characters you might find in the paintings of Hieronymus Bosch (the right wings of The Hay Wain and the Garden of Delights triptychs would be good examples), but much more abstract, cubist and multi-shaped, such as the images found in the cubist works by Pablo Picasso (i.e. the Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler painting or the Head of a Woman sculpture). If you took Picasso’s cubist people and "morphed" them with Bosch’s un-earthly creatures, or filtered Bosch’s creatures through a cubist filter and airbrushed the final images with hell, then that would be my goal.

Other images in particular provided inspiration, such as the famous painting The Nightmare by the Swiss-English artist Henry Fuseli. In this work, an ugly demon is seated on the dreamer’s chest and a frightening white horse with glowing eyes is in the background. My work is further inspired by the diverse collage works—digital or not—being created by contemporary visual artists.

Closet Full of Demons

Dark Mountains for orchestra
Commissioned by the Vermont Symphony Orchestra, Jaime Laredo, conductor
Publisher: Bill Holab Music: http://www.billholabmusic.com/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=994
For More Information: https://robertpaterson.com/dark-mountains
View Score: https://issuu.com/robertpaterson/docs/dark_mountains_for_orchestra_fs-bou

PROGRAM NOTES
Vermont is famous for its green mountains, but I often find myself taking long drives through the mountains on overcast days or even at night, when the mountains lose color and become gray silhouettes. Many roads in Vermont are so dark, particularly in the Northeast Kingdom, that you need to use headlights, even during the day. Dark Mountains is meant to portray the beauty and grandeur of the mountains and the peacefulness of the open roads, but also the darkness and occasional treacherous passes one may encounter during the evening hours. The piece is in three connected sections. The first section portrays the calmness and austerity of a quiet evening. The second is inspired by a fast drive down winding country roads, with twists and turns, frequent tempo changes and shifting gears. The final section evokes the feeling of looking at the nighttime sky with moonlight shining through the trees and the sounds of nature in the distance.

This piece is commissioned by and dedicated to the Vermont Symphony Orchestra and Jaime Laredo, and was originally written for the Made in Vermont Music Festival.

Dark Mountains (for Orchestra)

Electric Lines for Orchestra, music by Robert Paterson
Duration ca. 9'
Winner of the Lousiville Orchestra Composition Competition
Performances by Minnesota Orchestra, American Composers Orchestra
Publisher: Bill Holab Music: http://www.billholabmusic.com/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=932
For More Information: https://robertpaterson.com/electric-lines

PROGRAM NOTES
In past summers I have taken long trips across America from New York to Colorado. Driving along the highways, there are endless fields, infrequently dotted with farms and farm machinery. Contrasting the farmland's somewhat natural splendor, there are thousands of miles of electric lines—ubiquitous and perhaps even unsightly, yet somehow blending in with the scenery.

What I find most dramatic about many of these electric lines—other than their gargantuan size—is the realization that day after day, a dizzying amount of information travels through them and across great distances: billions of pieces of information are packed inside these powerful cables. In Electric Lines, my goal is to take the audience on a sonic roller coaster ride: I want the audience to feel tremendous energy and power and the thrill of instantaneously sending and receiving information at light speed.

Although electric lines inspire this work, there is nothing technically "electrical" about it: there are no synthesizers or electrical instruments used, with the exception of the vibraphone. The electric qualities in many sections are highlighted by tense string trills, long, powerful melodic lines and by giving many of the players energetic, concerto-like parts. I also try to make the melodic lines sound charged and electric by enhancing them with various types of orchestral accents and by pairing different instruments using parallel or almost parallel lines at close intervals.

A few of the sections and transitions in Electric Lines are modeled after the physical characteristics of the cables and power line towers. Many of the musical lines occur in groups of two’s and three’s; some of them dip and swoop like power cables, while others are electric rod straight, but tense and electrified. There are also occasional anvil-accented "power chords" that act as markers to delineate certain sections.

Even though Electric Lines might seem to have industrial underpinnings and allusions to mechanics, I am not trying to align myself with the early twentieth century Italian Futurists: it is more the present than the past that I am thinking of in this work.

Electric Lines (for Orchestra)

Symphony in Three Movements for Orchestra
Duration: 19’
Mostly Modern Festival, American Modern Orchestra, Chris Rountree, 2018 Faculty Conductor
Skidmore College, Arthur Zankel Music Hall, Saratoga Springs, New York (USA), 6/10/2018
Commissioned by the Cayuga Chamber Orchestra for their 25th Anniversary Concert, Kimbo Ishii-Eto, conductor
Publisher: Bill Holab Music: http://www.billholabmusic.com/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=103_137&products_id=1339
For More Information: https://robertpaterson.com/symphony-in-three-movements

PROGRAM NOTES
The first movement, Bright and jubilant, is generally cheerful and upbeat, but occasional clouds of gray cast shadows over the musical surface. I associate this movement with traveling to a lover, and particularly over great distances. The brightness of this movement also subtly reflects the "silver anniversary" occasion for which this work was originally commissioned.

The slow second movement, Serenade, represents the unique intimacy that lovers share. Most string players in a chamber orchestra—even the first stands—never have a chance to play exposed material. This is interesting because although the string sections most often play as homogenous groups, the first stands of the string section are in an arc have an intimate view of each other. In this movement, the first stands of the violins, violas and cellos all have solo material whereas the rest of the strings often play gentle, long trills. My goal in to give all of the string players in the first stands an opportunity to shine.

The third movement, entitled Dancing games, is the most energetic of the three. It is has quirky, dance-like rhythms and a strong sense of pulse. In this movement, I imagine two lovers engaging in a bickering, yet friendly verbal dance match, their playful sentences bantered and volleyed back and forth like some sort of demented game of badminton in fast-forward mode. I suppose this would mean that the kind of dance I am imagining here is not one that you would necessarily move your feet to, but one meant for listening and that makes your insides want to move and shake.

Symphony in Three Movements - I. Bright and Jubilant

Symphony in Three Movements - II. Serenade

Symphony in Three Movements - III. Dancing Games

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.

Selected Orchestral Works

Robert Paterson Composer