Malleable Tissue

Composed during my bachelors in 2013, this is the second song in a five song cycle. The text set in this piece is an excerpt from Edgar Allan Poe's, "The Tell Tale Heart." It's depicts the narrator's calm demeanor while describing how he stocked and murdered and elderly man with an "evil eye." The narrator is trying to appeal to sympathy of the listener which is mirrored in the romantic nature of the music. As the piece progresses, the harmony becomes more dissonant as the listener becomes more aware of the narrator's insanity. This recording was from a performance in Denver, Colorado at the Metropolitan State University of Denver. Performers: Solomon Chapman, piano & Neil Chan, Baritone.

Raven

String Quartet no. 1 tells the story of a young woman as she comes to terms with her ineludible death. The quartet was primarily composed using a Phrygian dominate scale commonly associated with Klezmer music of Eastern Europe. The first movement, Verzagen depicts the disheartened existence of the woman’s imprisonment within herself. The fugue representing her thoughts mulling over and over inside her head with little change. The second movement, Verzweifelt is the woman desperately trying to escape her immediate demise. Her heart races as she is unable to elude her fate. The third movement, Zeitlose as time stands still the final moments leading to her death. Thoughts pass timelessly as she slowly parishes. The final movement, Trauer is the bittersweet mourning of a lost life finally set free from her tragic suffering. 

Sofia, ich werde dich nie vergessen.

Performers:

Isaac Kay: Violin I
Isaac Walton: Violin II
Valerie Reives: Viola
Will Spengler: Cello

Lamont Composers Concert Series

String Quartet no. 1 "Sofia Quartet"

Cosmos is a tone poem of orchestral color. The piece moves from dark to light, dense to sparse, dissonant to consonant, and from slow to fast. Cosmos is a journey through space and time contrasting moments of uncertainty with others of clarity. The music should flow like ones breathing, with a constant and natural rise and fall of the diaphragm, organic and primitive, simple yet complex. Recorded on April 25, 2018 by the Lamont Symphony Orchestra after a 30min rehearsal. Conducted by Hisham Groover

LSO w. Hisham Groover

Cosmos

This piece was written for my friend Banri Hoshi after he enquired, “how is that new bassoon piece going?” As any composer would tell you, whenever a performer asks you to write them a piece of music, you say yes and worry about writing it later. This scenario was no different. I sat down later that night and began to write. 

I was inspired by Arabic scales (Maqam) and complex rhythmic patterns commonly used in Indian music. I was also driven by a performance by a jazz alto saxophone player I had seen many months back. With these elements, I crafted this technically challenging, upon Banri’s request, bassoon solo that begins with a lyrical melody high in the register of the instrument before the abrupt change to the driving rhythmic section. This section contains three musical objects, a repeated rhythmic pattern sustaining a single pitch, fast scaler runs up and down the full range of the bassoon, and a melodic groove that keeps the interplay between the first two objects fresh. It concludes with a somber melody employing quarter tones which come directly from the Maqam of the Middle East.

Banri

This is the first of seven dark poems for violin and piano inspired by all things ominous. 

Andrew Horak-Violin
James Wehe-Piano.

LCCS

Poèmes du noir no. 1

Still (432) was inspired by the paintings abstract expressionist painter Clyfford Still. The composition is less of a reaction to the paintings but rather, a representation of them in sound. Clyfford Still utilizes many themes in his paintings including the concepts of life and death which I represent in the music. This composition is focused on the instrumental colors of the combination of five instruments and not focused on melody or other traditional musical idioms. This piece is meant to challenge the listener just as the paintings of Still challenge the viewer by creating “environments” to envelop the viewer.
 
Performers: 

Catherine Flinchum-Flute/Piccolo
Chris Leech-Oboe
Kevin Sakai-Clarinet in B-flat
Edwin Savelson-Horn in F
Banri Hoshi-Bassoon

Still (432)

Der Amper is an orchestral tone-poem depicting the sunset over the Amper river outside of Dachau, Germany. The orchestration in a prolongation of a D major 6/9 chord that shimmers like the sunlight
glistening off the rivers surface. With a continuous obstinate in the high winds, flourishing arpeggios in the harp, and pulsating accompaniment in the strings, Der Amper is meant to create an atmosphere that depicts both the light and dark sides of the river. Reading by the Lamont Symphony Orchestra on 6 May 2019; conducted by Renee Noel Gilliland.

Spencer Lyons's Album

Der Amper

Contiguity was composed for piano, violin, and cello. The noun contiguity means to boarder or to be in direct contact with something. In psychology, contiguity refers to the sequential occurrence or proximity of stimulus and response, causing their association in the mind. As an urban hiker for the past eight years, the association of civilization and nature has become increasingly intertwined in my mind. As I regularly encounter both day-to-day, I find my perception of juxtapositions less stark, even in music. Something that was once a foreign sound or musical language has slowly become associated with musical language that is more comfortable or familiar. This was the guiding light behind the concept of Contiguity; create an atmosphere that is unfamiliar and transform it into something less alien over time, or vice versa. This piece contains many motives that represent the familiar (nature) and the foreign (civilization). One example is the harmonic language associated with nature and civilization. I choose to use a pentatonic scale to represent something familiar (nature) and the octatonic scale to represent the alien (civilization). These become associated over time and become less jarring as the piece unfurls.  

Andrew Horak-Violin
Angelique Montes-Cello
James Wehe-Piano

Contiguity

Born in 1988 in Greeley, Colorado, Spence deLéon has an inquisitive attitude towards the human condition which manifests as emotional intensity in his musical compositions. From an early age, he remembers music having a profound impact on his life and for being therapeutic, helping him through his toughest times. Because music has made such an impact on him throughout his life, he made the decision to pursue music full heartedly so that he may pass along that experience to others. With a background in yogic teaching and meditation, his works often have an ethereal quality providing a sound scape in which the listener explores a world of texture that slowly progresses. With his background in yoga being a vital part of his life, second only to music, Spence deLéon often incorporates breathing into his music whether literally or representatively. 

Spence deLéon received his B.A. in music composition from the Metropolitan State University of Denver. There he studied with Fred Hess, Leanna Kirchoff, and Cherise Leiter and immediately following his graduation, studied in Germany with Ofer-Ben Amots and Jan Jirasek during the summers of 2014, 2015, and 2016. After living in Munich, Germany he returned home to Denver where he is currently pursuing a M.M. in composition from the University of Denver studying with Bill Hill.

SpencedeLéon

Popular tracks