A fresh and beneficial inspiration is blowing through Robert's imagination! Cheer!

The song grabs you right from the start and keeps you hooked. I really liked the energy it transmits to listeners.

very dramatic piece of music meticulously performed by a top notch ensemble

Sea Monster

Let's Overcome And Chain Our Tremors

Not a vacation. Not home. But it’s mine.

1. there’s no crying in baseball
2. morning mist
3. fight club
4. angel pine

Extended Stay the movie and EP out now: 

Lyrics and Vocals by Mitchell Bay
Guitar by Michael Harrison
Mixed and Mastered by Jay Remi
Cover art by Eric Bishop


fight club (prod. Michael Harrison)

Take It

the piece  is almost polyrhythmic 
uses as a riff a 7-note rhythmic pattern x-x-xx-x-x-x taken from african drums
this gives 3 bars of 4 which seems assymetric when repeated
deep in the mix there is also the pulse of 4 bars of 3

seven on twelve

Like the Way You Move

Hush Love

Wound Up/Unwind - Wound Up for String Quartet and Cajón
Written: 2025
Total Duration: 10'
for string quartet and percussion (cajón with pedal and handpan—D Kurd 10: D) A, B-flat, C, D, E, F, G, A, C )
Commissioned by FAB5 quintet with support from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs
World Premiere: FAB5, Mostly Modern Festival | The Netherlands, Oostkerk, Middelburg, Middelburg, Zeeland, The Netherlands, May 2, 2025
US Premiere: Mostly Modern Festival. FAB5, Mostly Modern Festival, Arthur Zankel Music Center, Helen Filene Ladd Concert Hall, Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, NY, June 18, 2026
Publisher: Bill Holab Music
For More Information: https://robertpaterson.com/wound-up-unwind
VIdeo: https://youtu.be/RPyXPYx-nuo


PROGRAM NOTE
For many years, my wife Victoria and her FAB5 quintet (string quartet and percussion), have entertained thousands of people at numerous performance spaces and travel hubs in New York City, including Moynihan Train Hall, Oculus World Trade Center, Javits Center, and Chelsea Market. Having seen many of their shows, especially those at travel hubs, there's a certain tension and release you experience watching people wait anxiously for their trains, and then the release they feel when they are finally on their way. I've had these experiences myself, so I wanted to create two pieces that emulate these feelings.

Wound Up/Unwind consists of two contrasting pieces for string quartet and percussion. The first, Wound Up, for string quartet and cajón, imitates the feeling of being worried, anxious, and frustrated, especially while waiting to board a train. The second, Unwind, for string quartet and handpan, is calm and soothing, perhaps emulating the satisfying feeling of relaxing in a quiet seat as the train leaves the station. Both pieces can be performed independently and in any order.

Wound Up/Unwind is written for and commissioned by the FAB5 quintet with support from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs.

Wound Up for String Quartet and Cajón

5 

Five days away
I sense a little tension
I'll bring the bad news into your day

Five days away
I sense a need of intervention
Or someone's getting hurt in some way


Oh, when you come home
And see that look upon my face
I won't need to say why I don't feel so great
It's time to go
And save you from a life of pain
Where the only time we shared was spent in vain


Five months away
You won't shed a tear
If I die there where I lay
Five months away
You'll see me at the station
Once you notice me, you'll turn away


Oh, when you come home
And see that look upon my face
I won't need to say why I don't feel so great
It's time to go
And save you from a life of pain
Where the only time we shared was spent in vain


(Ooh) Five years away
There'll be another one you know
Who won't break your heart and ever let you go

[Chorus]
Oh, when you come home
And see that look upon my face
I won't need to say why I don't feel so great
It's time to go
And save you from a life of pain
Where the only time we shared was spent in vain


Only time
Only time
Where the only time we shared was spent in vain
Only time
Only time
Where the only time we shared was spent in vain

Music and Lyrics by Tom Hall ©️2025

rock instrumental … builds to a "big&deep" guitar sound

rockon2018

a state of grace

BLUES - MOTHER OF SWAMP CITY
Tim Sanders - Guitar 
Ron Snyder - Bass & Drum Arrangement 

Tim Sanders.
https://soundcloud.com/user-486905636


Sanders & Snyder - The Six Foot Rule Blues (Instrumental)

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.

Wound Up for String Quartet and Cajón

Robert Paterson Composer

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