Lil Mosey x Lil Tecca Type Beat

d. alatas (g), m. garruccio (dr), g. goeb (k), j. goltz (tb), m. mainusch (tr), c. paulssen (b), a. schimpf (sax),

Out of the Trunk

Funky Flav

e9 allstars - Funky Flav

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 - III. youjusto Nicely

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 - I. Saraswati

A sampled violin is distorted and sequenced in Circuit Rhythm, along with microtonal guitar in Carlos Beta tuning and 12tet piano with pitch bending, in two sections--peace to war. Trump Hitler's war on planet Earth. 2025. 

When It Became Violent and Dangerous, as if Hitler Came Back from the Grave

Thursday
for Soprano and Piano
Duration: 12’
Text by Kenny Berkowitz and Bridget Meeds
Performers: American Modern Ensemble; Nancy Allen Lundy, Soprano, Blair McMillen, piano
Publisher: Bill Holab Music: http://www.billholabmusic.com/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=103_137&products_id=889
Online Perusal Score: https://issuu.com/robertpaterson/docs/thursday.fs.all.bound
For More Information: https://robertpaterson.com/thursday

PROGRAM NOTES
The text for Thursday was conceived and written by two close friends, Bridget Meeds and Kenny Berkowitz, both excellent writers who possess an acute and often exquisitely wry sense of humor. Each movement attempts to paint a literary picture of the central character by introducing various people who are related to her. The work has six short movements, each one representing a different character.

Thursday - 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

Shadows

A prog rock track about moving on

LYRICS:

No shelter from the rain
For those who helped her to explain

Too tired now to explore any more
Blew the fires out when we saw we were sure

It’s not that you’re kidding me, it’s just that your mask looks too real
I see what I look for, when I watch you my brain slips a gear
It appears you fit me ideally
But your beautiful heart is already separate and healing

We crawl and we walk and we run and we jump and we’re flying
We call and we talk and we sing about something that’s dying

I’m not such a fool, I just have a rule
Don’t cut your loss ‘til it’s over
If you slice it too soon you’re risking a wound to a lover
So what would you say when the fog melts away
And the warmth comes to rest on your shoulder
Would you look at me then and choose me again
Or still walk away with another

Your Beautiful Heart (Dying)

Interstellar

I Fucked A Duck #Squirt

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.

Thursday - 1. Introduction

Robert Paterson Composer