Deep River with Northwestern University Chapel Choir

Live at the Fondation des Etats-Unis 12/4/16

Après un rêve - Gabriel Fauré

This piece operates as a depiction of my struggles with depression and the various issues that I have had to deal with as a result. The title refers to the phrase “the inner machinations of my mind are an enigma,” which is a quote stated by one of the characters in a popular, light-hearted children’s cartoon. Omitting the key words from this quote creates a vague, unintelligible phrase that represents my inability to complete thoughts while suffering from a depressive episode, as well as my confusion about why I am experiencing such adversity. 

I’ve crafted the sound world of this piece by working with the following programmatic concepts in mind: the static presence of apathy, the fear of mental instability, self-deprecation, an aversion to public interaction, and a slowly developing search for some way to move past these tendencies. The four voices of the quartet shift between working in tandem and working against one another in order to portray these concepts, at times implementing exceedingly abnormal sounds which emphasize the strangeness of my episodes. 

A comprehension of the title’s missing words – revealing the complete phrase to which I have been referring – characterizes my coming to terms with the nature of what I have been experiencing, and my realization that hardship does not prevent progress or growth.

Performed by Kenari Quartet:
Bob Eason - soprano saxophone
Kyle Baldwin - alto saxophone
Corey Dundee - tenor saxophone
Steven Banks - baritone saxophone

the... of my... are an...; for saxophone quartet

RECORDED LIVE at Helzberg Hall, The Kauffman Center in Kansas City.
Northwestern University Symphonic Wind Ensemble—Mallory Thompson, conducting.

Have you also learned that secret from the river; that there is no such thing as time?
That the river is everywhere at the same time, at the source and at the mouth, at the waterfall, at the ferry, at the 
current, in the ocean and in the mountains, everywhere and that the present only exists for it, not the shadow of the 
past nor the shadow of the future?
– Hermann Hesse, Siddhartha


This quotation serves as the inspiration and soul of Joel Puckett’s that secret from the river, which approaches the idea of the river from the abstraction of sound. The composer says of his creative process:
I have a very odd relationship with the past. I am constantly forced to confront past choices I've made in the form of the music I've written which I then experience in the present. When I hear music I've written, 
I am almost always overwhelmed by the feeling that I'm not actually the person who wrote it. And in a very real sense, I'm not; at least, not anymore. But when I hear it, I feel compelled to be grateful that the 
person who did write that music left the very best of himself in those notes and I go about my life trying to live up to them.

In a sense, the metaphor of Hesse’s river is applied to the life of any person. Can any of us exist outside of the perspective of the absolute present, and are we still the same person as we were in the past or will be in the future? 
With art, the common predilection is to observe the creator’s oeuvre through a synchronic lens, assuming all works are created by the same person fixed in time rather than to take into account the evolution not just of the artists’ craft, but also of the artists themselves. In that secret from the river, Puckett deals with this concept in a personally meaningful way through a lengthy study in motivic reference and thick, seemingly mystical harmonies.
The work as a whole is cast in two large sections: first, an exploration of pure harmonies that are made distorted and hazy through glissandi into sound masses, and second, a series of variants on a familiar harmonic motive. For much of the later portions of the piece, sections of the Hesse quotation are printed to accompany the score in a quasi-
programmatic fashion. These fragments, positioned out of order, further lend to the concept of universal existence outside of time presented by the quotation itself.

That secret from the river was commissioned by Northwestern University in celebration of the completion of the Patrick 
G. and Shirley W. Ryan Center for the Musical Arts and is dedicated to Mallory Thompson and the members, past and 
present, of the Symphonic Wind Ensemble.

that secret from the river (LIVE in KC)

Performed by the Baldwin Wallace Big Band
soloists: 
Steve Zeleznik-Alto Saxaphone
Garret Folger-Trumpet
Brad Vogel-Piano

Urban Streets - For Jazz Band

7 Miniatures For Strings

Concerto Mov. 1 Andante-Allegro - Henri Tomasi

Imani Winds
     Julietta Curenton, flute
     Toyin Spellman-Diaz, oboe
     Mark Dover, clarinet
     Monica Ellis, bassoon
     Jeffrey Scott, horn
Kenari Quartet
     Bob Eason, soprano saxophone
     Kyle Baldwin, alto saxophone
     Corey Dundee, tenor saxophone
     Steven Banks, baritone saxophone
Fred Sherry, conductor

Recorded live at Lincoln Performance Hall, Portland State University on July 3, 2018 as part of the Chamber Music Northwest Summer Festival.

I. Apprehensive, yet bold – Più mosso, rushed
II. Carefree, yet uneasy
III. Stretched, restless
IV. Wild, possessed
V. Timeless
VI. Revisitation of a wild and possessed state
VII. Strained, unwinding
VIII. Nervous, yet composed
IX. Frantic – With relentless energy

9x9: Nine Pieces for Nonet was commissioned by Chamber Music Northwest for Imani Winds and the Kenari Quartet. Faced with the challenge of writing for the quirky yet exciting combination of wind quintet and saxophone quartet, I decided to structure the piece in the form of nine short movements to mirror the number of instruments in the ensemble. The movements run attacca into one another, and each movement is thematically akin to at least one of the others. The piece is structured in an arch form, with the first four movements culminating in a more expansive fifth, and the last four movements mirroring the first four in reverse order.

9x9: Nine Pieces For Nonet (2018) - Imani Winds/Kenari Quartet

Live performance at the Music From the Western Reserve.

Christine Fuoco, piano
Steven Banks, saxophone

Milonga del Angel - Astor Piazzolla (Live)

Podcast Intro Music

Jonathan Yanik, alto saxophone. Joel Ayau, piano.

Deep River with Northwestern University Chapel Choir

Steven Banks

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