Suite For Solo Cello

16 Ideas is a guided interactive improvisation for bassist (or other instrumentalist) and a fixed media piece, specifically, my Electronic Composition No. 1.
Electronic Composition No. 1 is created entirely with sounds from analog synthesizers recorded onto magnetic tape.   When used as a part of 16 Ideas, its seven moments (with the exception of the first and last) are not played in any particular order.  This adds spontaneity to the interaction between a live performer and a piece of electronic music.
The instrumental part of 16 Ideas consists of 16 cells, which the performer freely moves through over the course of the piece.  These cells include: fully notated material, pitch content, modal progressions, graphic notation, text instructions and various combinations of these elements.  In effect, each cell simply provides parameters for the performer to interact with the electronic music within.


16 Ideas For Solo Bass And Electronics

Sketches In Five Colors

Sonata for Horn, Cello and Banjo is built on my arrangements of three traditional gospel songs, all of which I learned from my grandfather.  The first two songs are by know composers: John Whitfield Vaughn and William S. Pitts, respectively.  That said, both of them have been adapted and integrated into the traditional American repertoire, to the point that they have certainly become folk songs.  For this piece I am drawing on the aural tradition of singing and playing them, rather than referencing any notated version.  The composer of “The Old Country Church” is not know, though it is likely the most widely performed of these songs.  I have arranged these songs for this unusual instrumentation, placed them in a concert hall setting, and structured the performance like a classical work not in an attempt to alter them to my tastes, but rather to change the way the are listened to. 

This piece is a part of an ongoing project in which I draw upon my familial heritage of traditional American music making to teach performers highly personalized renditions of folk songs which highlight both the skills and passions of the performer and the beauty of the original melodies and poetry.  I provide them with printed lyrics, but all of the musical material is transmitted entirely by ear during one on one sessions.  While this is a labor and time intensive process, it allows for a great deal of interpretational freedom while remaining true to the aural tradition of this music. 


Sonata For Horn, Cello And Banjo

Performed by Joseph Sferra (clarinet) and Wil Dannenberg (horn)

Folk Duet No. 1

Performed by Mark Menzies 
Note: This is a reading and is less than optimal audio quality

The Stranger

Electronic Composition No.2

Three Sides to a Folk Song an attempt to capture the collaborative nature of Traditional American music while simultaneously exploring folk music’s long relationship with electronic transmission (via the radio, LPs and now the internet).  The two movements demonstrate this transmission process. In the first, the performer is brought into the world of folk music via the melody.  In the second, the performer reflects on the poetry and shapes the music through their interaction with it.  I originally intended to compose a third “side” to this piece, but after hear Robin play the first two I realized the piece was already complete.  In the end the three sides to this folk song are melody, poetry and collaboration.

Three Sides To A Folksong

Graphic Composition No. 1

17 Images for Jazz Duo, Mixed Quartet and Percussion

New Setting for an Old Song

Mr. Brown

Duet for Two Performers from Different Backgrounds

Performed by Wil Dannenberg and the Stony Brook Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Susan Deaver.

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