Carmen³ [2022] Havanaise "L'amour est un oiseau rebelle" feat. Federica Cassati

Premiered March 25, 2023 @CNMAT, Berkeley, CA 
Recorded March 26, 2023 @CNMAT, Berkeley, CA

Performed by Hinge Quartet 
https://hingequartet.com/

Sometimes people take goodbyes too lightly - for Tenor Sax, E.Guitar , Percussion and Piano

Performed live at the 2014 Lutheran Summer Music "Fresh Ink" Recital. 
Lyida Wilkens-Reed, cello; Jason Abraham, clarinet; Austin Theriot, piano

Contemplations on the Absolute (2014)

Performed by Dr. Benjamin Coy.  
For more information visit http://www.tenorposaune.com. 

Serenata Notturna For Solo Trombone (2015)

"LUNE - in memoriam Simon Chernack" for violin and electronics, performed by Lilit Hartunian.

In writing "LUNE," I was inspired by the nocturnal sound world of Lake Dunmore in Leicester, VT, where, of a summer evening, the air is filled with long, wailing loon calls that echo across the lake. The pitch content of these loon calls provides the harmonic fabric of the piece, in which the violin and electronics slowly converge from individualized parts into a mass sound depicting a flock of loons passing overhead. The type of loon call heard here is specified amongst other loon vocalizations as a “wail,” which is used to locate other loons. I wrote LUNE for violinist  and longtime friend Lilit Hartunian. It is dedicated to her and to the memory of our childhood friend Simon Chernack, who passed away while I was writing the piece. This tombeau for him, like the loon calls, consistently wonders: “Where are you?”

LUNE

Commissioned and performed by Andrea Voulgaris and Lisa Keeney, alto saxophones.  Recorded and edited by Nelson Gast.

Program note:
The title Urban Development is a play on words. As composers, we are always taught to fully develop our ideas in order to create a cohesive piece. I tried to take a short four-note motive and develop it to its maximum capacity to serve as the basis for the entire piece. We also tend to associate the sound of saxophones with big city life, so I tried to capture the fast-paced bustle and energy of a city in this Urban Development. My sincere thanks to Lisa Keeney and Andrea Voulgaris for commissioning this piece.

Official video recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=shI0rtP4UBo

Urban Development

Landing, for string quartet. Composed June-October, 2018. Premiered at CNMAT by Quatuor Tana, November 11, 2018.

Dedicated to Livi Spencer, Olivia Lerwick, and Madeleine Lyon, and to all my friends who inspire my music and enrich my life.

Landing

Interprété par l'ensemble « Avanti! », dir. József Hárs

Musique pour cinéma muet (2019)pour orchestre de chambre

Maison de la Radio, Paris 
Sound diffusion: Joachim Haas/SWR Experimental Studio

Luigi Nono, ...Sofferte Onde Serene...

Recorded from Taproot New Music Festival 2020. Performed by Quince Ensemble.

Text by Sawako Nakayasu, from collection Texture Notes 2003:

The weak texture of the air changing as a train pulls away from its
station and a hollow develops, a delayed breeze takes hold, and the
uneven bonds of the neighborhood shimmy into place.

A stronger texture of reason, or texture of the reason why I didn’t get
on that train, or texture of a frame-by-frame rendering of the thought
process leading to the decision to not get on the train, coupled with a
late, too late, arrival, large bags in tow or some such excuse. What heaps
up against both sides of the closing train doors.


This poem by Japanese American Sawako Nakayasu expresses heaviness with lightness. There is a dramatic event that lead to a decision to not respond, “to not get on that train.” Yet it’s expressed with delicacy of a breeze creating a hollow, an emptiness (or is it relief) when the opportunity has been passed. Writing for the Quince Ensemble, I think it’s also given that there needs to be virtuosity, and drama as well as humour involved in the same package. I approached these from the perspective of different textures, timbre as well as spatial movement and depth that come from the placement and movement of the singers on stage. Although the piece is fully written, I wanted to weave into it the immediate and spontaneous, sometimes also surprising.

2020-01-30: Taproot Festival, Quince

Texture Notes: weak/strong

Sarah Grace Graves is a singer and composer of experimental music externalizing an internal sensory landscape through wordless sounds and charged silence.

Landing

Sarah Grace Graves

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