Classical

CLASSICAL - RE

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

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

Free Download

𝕿𝖗𝖆𝖎𝖓𝖘𝖕𝖔𝖙𝖙𝖎𝖓𝖌 2

Written: 2016
Duration: 6'
Instrumentation: solo five-octave marimba (four mallets)
Commissioned by Micheal Barnes
Performed by Michael Barnes
Performance: Temple University Klein Recital Hall
North 13th Street, Philadelphia, PA, April, 224
Publisher: Bill Holab Music: 
For More Info: https://robertpaterson.com/binary-hearts
Buy Sheet Music: http://www.billholabmusic.com/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=103_137&products_id=1343

PROGRAM NOTE
Couples who are in love often share the same interests, finish each other sentences, and laugh at the same jokes. In fact, Scientists at the University of California, Davis discovered that a couple’s breathing patterns and heart rates match up if they sit close to each other or look into each other’s eyes. They don’t even have to hold hands or talk for this to happen. However, a similar effect apparently does not occur among strangers, only couples in love. Coupled with this idea, I have always been fascinated by binary stars, which are two stars that rotate together, on the same axis. Binary Hearts for solo marimba is inspired by these phenomena. In this piece, I use heartbeat-like motives and ostinati, fast moto-perpetuo rhythmic sections and choral-like episodes, creating a joyous, gently shifting tapestry that is meant to reflect how two people feel when they are in love. Binary Hearts was commissioned by Micheal Barnes in honor of his marriage to Carly Prince.

Binary Hearts for Solo Marimba

Imaginary

ft. Freya Hall on violin https://on.soundcloud.com/jLHyn

Sonata for a Felled Tree

Soar for C Trumpet and Piano (2022)
Duration: ca. 9'
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IcZNDWBRidI
For more information: https://robertpaterson.com/soar
To Purchase Sheet Music: https://billholabmusic.com/product/soar/

Recording: David Puchkoff, trumpet; Geoffrey Burleson, piano
Recording Producer/Engineer, Silas Brown
Additional Audio Editing: Ian Striedter

Commissioned by Lexie Signor
World Premiere:  Mostly Modern Festival, Lexie Signor, trumpet; Geoffrey Burleson, piano; Helen Filene Ladd Concert Hall, Arthur Zankel Performing Arts Center, Saratoga Springs, NY, June 2023
Publisher: Bill Holab Music: https://billholabmusic.com/composers/robert-paterson/
For more information: https://robertpaterson.com/soar
Buy Sheet Music: https://billholabmusic.com/product/soar/

PROGRAM NOTE
Many composers associate orchestral instruments with animals to great effect, such as Prokofiev with Peter and the Wolf, Rimsky-Korsakov with Flight of the Bumblebee, Saint-Saëns with Carnival of the Animals, and perhaps most obsessively, Messiaen with birds from all over the world. In Soar, I associate the trumpet with an eagle, a bird that can fly as high as ten thousand feet and as fast as two hundred miles per hour. Like an eagle soaring above mountains, Soar requires the trumpet player to play fast and high, and both the trumpet and piano parts are, at times, quite virtuosic. In this sense, Soar is really meant as a show-off piece for expert trumpet players.

Soar for Trumpet and Piano

From the theater piece "Small Town in a Snuff Box" based on a story of V. Odoevsky

YouTube

Broken Organ

A. Vivaldi - Nisi Dominus, RV 608 - IV. Cum dederit dilectis suis - Jakub Burzyński

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

A two-part story set in a circus. Animal Free Circus.

Painting by Martinopitture

No Animal Circus

No Animal Circus - Part 1

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

These two preludes were written specially for Maryam Ilyasova in 2006 and were performed in the spring of the same year in  the State Conservatory of Uzbekistan at the Composition Union Award by Maryam.

https://soundcloud.com/maryam-ilyasova

Composer: Igor Iofe

Two Preludes For Piano

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.

Suite For String Orchestra - IV. Balinese scherzo

Robert Paterson Composer