Premiered by Charles River Wind Ensemble on May 15, 2016 at the Scottish Rite Masonic Library and Museum, Lexington, MA. 

The inspiration for Circles Circling comes from my longstanding interest in the music of tenth-century German abbess Hildegard von Bingen. Hildegard’s flowing sense of line and distinctive motivic material are ideal foundations for the texture and atmosphere I want to create in this piece. O Virtus Sapientie, an antiphon on the virtue of wisdom, provides both the conceptual, melodic, and harmonic foundation for the undulating, swirling rhythmic figures central to the form and sound of the piece. Its dominant image is of circles and wings moving between and around heaven and earth, and the text setting of these key phrases is built of repeated dyads. Such motives facilitate a sound world churning with energy and activity that can both enliven prolonged harmonic and melodic ideas and propel them into new musical territory. 

To provide contrast on both conceptual and musical dimensions, I am also using the Sed Diabolus, which describes the Devil mocking and seeking to disrupt creation. This shorter antiphon makes greater use of Hildegard’s signature rising and falling fifth motives and has a heavier, darker sensibility in keeping with its text. 

My concept for Circles Circling will create an immersive sonic experience illustrative of the physical and metaphysical actions in the text of both antiphons. Textural activity and timbral diversity will illustrate the immense creative energy of Hildegard herself, whose body of work touched on nearly every subject studied in the medieval world, as well as the intensity and vivid clarity of the mystical visions which directed her life. 

I will use material from these two antiphons to build contrasting textures and melodic treatments that will be juxtaposed and combined throughout a ten-minute, three-movement piece. The first movement rests on a background of swirling, undulating yet rhythmically energetic and diverse figures. Over this rippling sonic foundation, a contrasted melody in long durations will emerge and eventually dominate. 

Circles Circling, Mvmt. 1

My Christmas carol, Ebeneezer's Carol, sets text from "A Christmas Carol" by charles Dickens. I was commissioned by the Charlestown Community Choir who premiered this work at St. Mary-St. Catherine of Siena Parish in Charlestown, MA on December 3, 2016.

Ebeneezer's Carol

Commissioned by Transient Canvas and written at Avaloch Farm Music Institute, July 2015. Revised in 2017.

Performed by Transient Canvas (Amy Advocat, bass clarinet; Matt Sharrock, marimba) on March 4, 2017 at Third Life Studio, Somerville, MA as part of Equilibrium Concert Series 2016-2017 season

Right now, in a second

Chamber Cartel premieres my piece "Tibicen" on June 17, 2017 in Atlanta. 

Tibicen is old name for the genus that encompasses North American cicadas, an insect whose sound I love and whose long and largely unseen life cycle is fascinating. In this piece, I have used both direct imitation of cicada song as well as deconstructions of their sound that isolate and magnify the specific aspects of its timbre, from its rise and fall in pitch to its raspy pulsations. The rhythmic and structural elements of Tibicen are derived from the 17, 13, and 2 year life cycles of various cicada species. I wrote Tibicen during a summer in which I took many walks accompanied by a soundtrack of cicadas and wind in the trees and have endeavored to evoke the atmosphere of warm and sunny days in late summer.

Tibicen

This miniature electronic fixed media piece was created using both the sound and the data from the cosmic microwave background. Pitch and structure were determined by crests and troughs in the temperature fluctuations. This is a stereo mix. A version with live spatialization was performed at the Music of Reality concert on April 26, 2017 at Arts at the Armory in Somerville, MA.

CMB 52121

Semiosis Quartet performs my string quartet, "This is the light of autumn..." at the Boston Sculptors Gallery on January 14, 2018. I wrote this string quartet, my second, in the winter of 2013-2014.  The title is a line from the fourth section of Louise Gluck’s poem “October.”

"This is the light of autumn..."

a duet for 2 clarinetists, each doubling on bass clarinet. Premiered by Amy Advocat and Kevin Price on Equilibrium's "Four of a Kind" concert, March 9, 2019 at the New Schoo of Music in Cambridge, MA

First you Draw a Line

A three-movement work written for the students at Concord Academy, Concord MA

Murmurations

This is my latest entry for the Bait/Switch project.
Meghan Jacoby, flute; Chuck Furlong, clarinet; Tim Paek, cello, and Stephanie Orvik, piano

Saints And Snakes

a piece for solo guitar, performed by George Little.

StefanieL

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