Solitaire

Michael Schelle

Switchblade Stockhausen  (2025)

- for Bb  clarinet, cello and piano

Written for Thomas Piercy 
and the Random Access Music (RAM) 
New Music Festival :  May 15-18, 2025


There are NO direct references to any of Karlheinz Stockhausen's scores or styles, BUT the 
inspiration from his tense, rebellious music is real. The original working title of the trio was 
Switchblade Stockhausen but, as the piece evolved, the implied violence of this nototious 
weapon (illegal / banned in many states across the US and in Europe) was gradually replaced 
by somewhat more innocent and slightly less threatening musical materials, suggesting that the 
title, perhaps, should also be less threatening - such as Switchback Stockhausen (switchback :
sudden twists and turns in highways, trails, railway lines - a musical style often found in many 
of Stockhausen's scores) - but still, with the presence of some 1950's piano figures (the switchblade was THE go-to weapon of the 1950's rebellious American teenage gangs / hoods, full of post-war angst) and the addition of some tense, suspensful, threatening materials, the original title returned. 

So, cue the iconic Griffith Observatory switchblade knife fight scene in "Rebel Without a Cause" 
(1955, dir. Nicholas Ray) - a real switchblade was used in the scene resulting in James Dean's 
ear being cut. The moments of innocence in the piece might reflect the Natalie Wood character,
caught in this web of teen rebellion, angst and violence. This became the foundation of the piece 
(there are NO references to Leonard Rosenman's brilliant score for "Rebel Without a Cause").
n.b.: Rosenman had been James Dean's piano teacher!

Focusing on emotionally confused suburban, middle-class teenagers, "Rebel Without a Cause" 
offers both social commentary and an alternative to previous films depicting delinquents in urban 
slum environments. The film was an attempt to portray the moral decay of disaffected American 
youth, critique parental styles and examine the defiant post-war youth culture. By developing 
numerous conflicting and confrontational musical materials, my piece embraces many of these
sociological complications.

There are also a few very brief references to musical materials deveolped in my 1993 orchestral 
tone poem "The Last Ride of James Dean", premiered by the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra under 
the direction of Maestro Neal Gittleman.
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SWITCHBLADE STOCKHAUSEN

Michael Schelle

Aria, Canon and Fugazi  (2025)

- for two pianos, four hands


Written for Kate Boyd and Miho Sasaki


Urban Dictionary:
 “fugazi” is an acronym along the lines of “fubar,” or 
“f—ed up beyond all recognition.” “Fugazi” reportedly 
stands for “f—ed up, got ambushed, zipped in” (referring 
to getting zipped in a body bag).


 - also: "fugazi" : hypocritical, broken beyond repair :)

website:  schellemusic.com
 

Duration:  ca. 12 minutes 

Aria, Canon and Fugazi

Michael Schelle

THE CASE OF THE SENTIMENTAL PSYCHOPATH  (2025)
-  for chamber orchestra

Program Note:  Inspired by film noir, Perry Mason, Alfred Hitchcock,
Quentin Tarantino and Russ Meyer (Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!), this 
is a piece written for someone you know ... or, perhaps, for yourself ....

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The Case of the Sentimental Psychopath (2025)

Michael Schelle

EXIST (2024)
- for string orchestra, harp and percussion

After decades of writing mostly wild, edgy, eccentric, violent, agressive 'modernist' music (and enjoying every minute of it!) -  for ex. "The End of Al Capone" (opera), wind ensemble pieces such as "Guttersnipe", "When Hell Freezes Over", "Seven Steps from Hell", "The End of the World", "Hangover Hotel", "Bullet Train to Hell"  ...  orchestra pieces such as "Virus", "Trapped Like Rats", "The Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse", "Escape from Xishuangbanna","Extraction on No. 8", "Ear Infection", "Summit at San Quentin", and chamber pieces such as "JUKAI: The Mt. Fuji Suicide Forest", "Kingfish Levinsky", "Cut and Run", "Rosemary's Baby's Accordions", "Bury the Hatchet", "Switchblade Stockhausen" and "The Eisenstein Mummers", I just really wanted to write a simple, engaging - with just a touch of nostalgia and caution - string orchestra piece.  

Although there are brief moments of gentle reflection in many of my pieces, and extended peaceful moments of hope and resolution in "Resilience" (2015, double concerto for viola, cello and orchestra - on the 70th anniversary of the end of WW2, Mvmt. 3: Blast of Silence), and in Mvmt. 3 (After Afterlife) of "The End of the World" (2011), my last completely "nice" piece was "Prayer" (2004), for cello, chamber winds, piano, harp and percussion.

While this is certainly no Barber, Britten or Tchaikovsky string piece (altho Tchaik 6 IS briefly referenced near the end - long story!), for me, this is all quite illuminating, cleansing, resolving 
and affirming - at long last, a piece that doesn't cause fear, anxiety and emotional paralysis :)

"EXIST" was was written for my dear friend - and decades-long champion of my music - Maestro Neal Gittleman (30-year music director of the spectacular Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra) for his 2025/26  "farewell" DPO concert. i.e. EXI(S)T.

Neal has programmed many of my big, aggressive pieces in the past, so this time I wanted to close our decades of collaboration and friendship with music of genuine respect, sincere gratitude, deep affection, cautious optimism, nostalgic reflection, resolution and peace.

n.b.: the "theatre" at the end (m. 196-217) is optional

Duration:  ca. 8 minutes



www.schellemusic.com/1.html

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EXIST (2024)

Critical Mass

Michael Schelle

Swanwhite  (1981)

Dana Zenobi, soprano
Amanda Hopson, piano
Indianapolis - January 2023

Program listing:

Swanwhite (1981)
    Prayer
1. Roses
2. Midsummer Child
3. Beautiful
4. Discipline
5. Peace

"Swanwhite" (1901) is a play written by Swedish playwright August Strindberg (1849-1912)

Written as a vehicle for his new love, the 19-year old Norwegian actress Harriet Bosse, this is Strindberg's only play of love, romance, roses and dreams. "Swanwhite" was Strindberg's gift to Harriet on their wedding day in 1901 (there was a 31 year age difference between them)

The text(s) of the songs herein come from a collection of letters / correspondences between Strindberg and Harriet, written after their parting in 1902. The Prayer is by Strindberg, the remaining texts are from Harriet's letters.

Considered the "father" of Swedish modernism, Strindberg's destructive, schizophrenic, neurotic, paranoid personality - and love / hate relationships with women - took its toll as their marriage feel within weeks to a bitter parting of the ways. Harriet, however, was already expecting their child. 


The photo is Harriet with 3-month old Anna Marie Strindberg.


n.b.:  the majority of these songs are quite intimate in nature - reflective, personal, sometimes violent, sometimes nostalgic, etc. rather than traditionally dramatic - less vibrato the better.

P.S. :  as a B.A. theatre major at Villanova Univeristy (Philadelphia), and long after I was attracted to - and studied - his life and works (plays, fiction, criticisms, paintings, politics, etc.), I discovered we shared birthdays, 22 January, exactly 101 years apart.  This realization gave me chills and I knew destiny would call to write music for him. Swanwhite is the last of my three "Strindberg" pieces, the other two are "Music for the Last Days of Strindberg" (1980) for large chamber ensemble, and "The Red Room" (1979) for solo piano.

www.schellemusic.com

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Solitaire

Timothy P Kiefer

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