Wesley Shen, piano
Przemysław Raczyński, clarinet

March 2022

Photo: "Podlasie" by Filip Klimaszewski

THREE NOVELETTES for clarinet in Bb and piano

"For misfortunes and sorrows,
The songs of the forget-me-not grow,
Every now and then a new flower will spring up,
Like the cerulean eyes of angels."

-Teofil Lenartowicz

Maeve Palmer, soprano
Rachel Miller, mezzo-soprano
Bradley Cherwin, clarinet
Wesley Shen, piano
Bevis Ng, percussion
Andrew Ascenzo, violoncello
Tyler Versluis, conductor 

I. EXORDIUM 
II. CANZONA “ Chmara idzie deszcz będzie… ”
III. PREGHIERA “ Najświętsza Panienko…” 
IV. “Oj żebym ja była u matusi dłużej…” 
V. INTERMEZZO “ Oj chłopcy, dziewczęta!” 
VI. LAMENTO “Chrząszczyk usiadł na gałązce…”
VII. DEPLORATIO “Oj w niedzielny, święty ranek…” 
VIII. ROZALJA’S SONG
IX. SCHERZO “Matka mnie chowają…”
X. MOTETTO “Nie tnij, ojcze, brzózki…” 
XI. CHORALE ULTIMO: “Więcej kwiecia bywa w wiośnie…” 


WIOŚNIANKI "Spring Songs" for 2 soprani and chamber ensemble

Lara Dodds-Eden
&
Alison Yun-Fei Jian

piano 

2017 2025

Walter Hall, University of Toronto / Canadian Music Centre

[Cover art: Laura Makabresku]

Lullabies, Book 1 & II  for solo piano (2017/2023)

Performed March 26th, 2014 by gamUT new music ensemble, directed by Norbert Palej.
In many regards, this Fantasia for large ensemble is an unexplored musical dimension for myself, an attempt to pick up different musical tools than usual. In this case, these tools are antique and faded, torn most unceremoniously out of their original frames and redistributed in a collage of ironic and semi-ironic Baroque pastiche. I wrote this piece for University of Toronto’s new music ensemble, gamUT in February 2014.


II. Fantasia (2014)

Wesley Shen, piano
Przemysław Raczyński, clarinet

March 2022



Photo: "Podlasie" by Filip Klimaszewski

01. In The Heather Thicket [THREE NOVELETTES]

02. Children's March [THREE NOVELETTES]

03. Cradle Song [THREE NOVELETTES]

Emilie Gelinas-Noble, viola
Alanna Ellison, harp
Tyler Versluis, organ

I. ...to turn again...

Sleazy cats and empty schnapps bottles.

Zachary Sheets, flute
Vicente Alexim, clarinet
Maria Hadge, cello, 
Andy Miller, percussion, 
Miki Sawada, piano. 

Recorded in Lorimer Chapel, Colby College, August 1st, 2014 at the Atlantic Music Festival. 

Katzenjammer for chamber ensemble (2014)

Reading by the Ensemble Contemporain Montréal, directed by Véronique Lacroix. 

Under der Linden, miniature for quintet (2014)

"Wiesen... Almglocken... Kirchenglocken.... tiefe Sehnsucht."

Premiered in Walter Hall, University of Toronto Faculty of Music, November 25th, 2014.

Tyler Versluis, direction
David Boutin-Bourque, clarinet 
Amy Spurr, violin
Becci Lim, violin
Miranda Henne, 'cello
Valentina Sadovski, piano
Kevin Mulligan, tubular bells 

Wiesen… (eine Wanderer-fantasie) for chamber ensemble (2014)

Patricia Auchterlonie, Mary Christidis, sopranos
Emily D'Angelo, mezzo soprano
Conor Murphy, tenor
Daniel Robinson, baritone
Alanna Ellison, harp
Michelle Kim, piano
Elain Choi, direction

Grieve, O hearts, for all the nation
assemble sorrow and lamentation.
Do not search for harmony anymore,
for the lyre of Orpheus to rejoice,
but plunge yourself into desolation. (attr. Josquin des Prez)

All those who sow with tears shall reap with joy. (Psalm 126:5)

Grieve, O Hearts (War Lament)for SATB, harp and piano (2014)

III. PREGHIERA "Najświętsza Panienko..." IV. "“Oj żebym ja była u matusi dłużej…”

I. EXORDIUM II. CANZONA "Chmara idzie, deszcz będzie..."

V. INTERMEZZO “ Oj chłopcy, dziewczęta!”

VI. LAMENTO “Chrząszczyk usiadł na gałązce…” VII. DEPLORATIO “Oj w niedzielny, święty ranek…”

X. MOTETTO “Nie tnij, ojcze, brzózki…”

VIII. ROZALJA’S SONG

XI. CHORALE ULTIMO: “Więcej kwiecia bywa w wiośnie…”

Alison Yun-Fei Jian, piano 

May 2025

Canadian Music Centre

[Cover art: Laura Makabresku]

In anticipation of fatherhood in 2017, I composed Four Lullabies, solo piano pieces which were premiered by Lara Dodds-Eden in Toronto. I decided without prompt or logic to compose four more of these lullabies almost seven years later.

In the endless pursuit of novelty, it seems strange for a contemporary composer to revisit anything, whether it be form, instrumentation or genre. It is equally strange to think that Mendelssohn wrote eight volumes of "songs without words", or that Schubert wrote 36 piano sonatas in 13 years, or that Bach wrote hundreds of fugal passages. To write "in" a format is both a challenge to say something new, but to also wrestle with the expectations, limitations and sensibilities of that format. In this case, how could I again write four pieces of slow music, most of which rises rarely above a mezzo piano? 

Having finished these new lullabies, I can put a marker in the ground, and dwell on how much has changed for me, personally and artistically in these six and three quarter years. To revisit and talk to an old friend with new thoughts and perspectives. The lullaby is lodged in everyone's memory. It is the first music we hear. There is also the strange relationship with death which fascinates me, and occasionally works its way into the folk lullabies of many cultures (in Greek mythology, Thanatos and Hypnos were brothers).

Are these lullabies really for my own children? I have concluded that they are probably not. In fact, they are probably lullabies for myself, an aestheticised respite from a world of harshness.

I. Notturno; quasi senza tempo

II. Molto moderato

III. Dondolando dolcemente

IV. Teneramente

"As I turn the corner,
my shadow overtakes me."

"Embittered Cat" (detail), Aleksandra Waliszewksa

Katzenjammer II for violin, viola and piano

March 29th, 2016

I. quarter note = 60
II. Come un segreto...
III. Affascinante 

Walter Hall, University of Toronto Faculty of Music

Michael Bridge, accordion
Michael Murphy, percussion



3 Unuttered Miracles for accordion and percussion (2016)

Premiered June 5th, 2016 at Gallery 345

Maeve Palmer, soprano
Angela Schwarzkopf, harp
Amahl Arulandalam, Amina Holloway, cello

Text by Lindsay Mason
Supplementary artwork by Timothy Goertzen

Recorded and edited by Nathan Chandler @ Unicyle Audio

IV. Sleeping Alone (Five Poems)

Sung by the Trinity-St. Paul's United Church Choir directed by Brad Ratzlaff at the Cathedral of Our Lady of Chartres, July 2016.

This piece is dedicated to the martyrdom of Fr. Jacques Hamel.

Salut, ô Reine, mère de miséricorde, 
notre vie, notre douceur et notre espérance, salut! 
Enfants d'Ève, exilés, 
nous crions vers vous; 
vers vous nous soupirons, 
gémissant et pleurant dans cette vallée de larmes. 
Ô vous, notre avocate, tournez vers nous votre regard miséricordieux. Et, après cet exil, 
montrez-nous Jésus, le fruit béni de vos entrailles. 
Ô clémente, ô miséricordieuse, 
ô douce Vierge Marie.

Hail, holy Queen, Mother of Mercy,
Our life, our sweetness and our hope.
To you do we cry,
Poor banished children of Eve;
To you do we send up our sighs,
Mourning and weeping in this valley of tears.
Turn then, most gracious advocate,
Your eyes of mercy toward us;
And after this our exile,
Show us the blessed fruit of your womb, Jesus.
O clement, O loving,
O sweet Virgin Mary.

Salut, Ô Reine! for SATB chorus (2016)

Tyler Versluis: DMA Recital of Works
October 30th, 2016
Walter Hall, University of Toronto Faculty of Music

Sophie Dupuis, violin
Amina Holloway, violoncello

The Happy Isle draws inspiration from a 19th century Gaelic Cape Breton song, An Innis Àigh. Surprisingly, the song is not a reference to Cape Breton Island itself, but rather Margaree Island close by. The tale of the "mythical island" is quite common in folklore of the British Isles and Eastern Canada, where stories of mythological paradise mix with homeland nostalgia.

Art: Maxfield Parrish

The Happy Isle for violin and violoncello (2016)

Lara Dodds-Eden, piano

Walter Hall, University of Toronto Faculty of Music
Feb. 2017

I. Molto lento
II. Teneramente
III. Con moto
IV. Lento, tranquillo

Go to sleep, go to sleep little baby… I will entrust you to God and the holiest Virgin so you have your little cot to sleep in…Go to sleep, go to sleep… close your blue eyes… if you close your blue eyes you’ll cuddle up to me…Go to sleep, go to sleep you little falcon… when you grow we’ll go to the field…Do go to sleep for me, go to sleep… or grow for me… you’ll be useful to me, you’ll send the oxen to the field…

Art: © John Olsen - Untitled, 1993, midfired

Four Lullabies (2017) for solo piano

L’homme armé doibt on doubter.
On a fait partout crier
Que chascun se viegne armer
D’un haubregon de fer.
L’homme armé doibt on doubter. (Trad. French)	

(The armed man should be feared.
Everywhere it has been proclaimed
That each man shall arm himself
With a coat of iron mail.
The armed man should be feared.)

VOICES of VIVA! (VIVA! Youth Singers of Toronto)
Carol Woodward-Ratzlaff, conductor

Recorded in Jean Lamon Hall, Toronto, Canada

L'Homme Armé for SATB chorus (2016)

Jonathan Russell MacArthur, tenor

Arrayspace

Caution Tape Sound Collective Concert, October 21st, 2017

TUBA SACRE for tenor, drone and altar bells (2017)

Cecilia String Quartet

January 24th, Walter Hall, University of Toronto Faculty of Music

String Quartet "Bogusławów"

MacMillan Theatre, University of Toronto Faculty of Music
March 24th, 2018

University of Toronto Symphony Orchestra
Uri Mayer, conductor

Rick Harper, audio

LAUDS for symphony orchestra (2017)

Crow's Theatre, Toronto, 2018

Adanya Dunn, soprano
Erika Raum, violin
David Heatherington, violoncello
Gregory Oh, piano
Tyler Versluis, conducting

For Judee Sill

Gesù...
e l'amor divino mi si avvicino,
mi si avvicino come una falce.
Gesù...

Paraphrased from Blessed Angela of Foligno's Memoriale

Graduale for soprano, violin, violoncello, percussion and piano (2018)

Druskininkai, Lithuania
June 2019

Alena Budziňáková-Palus, accordion
Diemante Merkeviciute, Brigita Pažerauskaitė, violin
Gabrielė Zaneuskaitė, viola
Ana Čirkova, cello

Saint Vitus' Dance is an archaic term for the infection now known as Syndenham's chorea. The infection, typically accompanied by rheumatic fever, caused jerky, uncontrollable movement in the sufferer, which resembled a bizarre style of dancing. In early modern Europe, sufferers would pray to Saint Vitus, patron saint of dancers, epileptics and actors for release from the unfortunate symptoms. In other cases, the cause of this "dancing mania" was unknown and unexplainable. In medieval Europe, there are records of entire crowds of people becoming "infected" with an uncontrollable desire to dance with no social explanation. Often the dancing would continue for weeks and sufferers would collapse in exhaustion or ecstasy.

St. Vitus' Dance for accordion and string quartet (2019)

Cynthia Smithers, soprano
Tyler Versluis, organ

Recorded at Saint Matthew's Anglican Church (Islington)on July 27th, 2020 by Pouya Hamidi.

Magnificat in B for solo soprano and organ (2020)

Cynthia Smithers, soprano
Tyler Versluis, organ

Recorded in Saint Matthew's Anglican Church (Islington) on July 27th 2020 by Pouya Hamidi.

Nunc Dimittis in B for solo soprano and organ (2020)

Composer of contemporary classical music. Toronto.

Tyler Versluis

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