06 an evolving romance for flute and piano (2005)

2020. The year the pandemic began. The year George Floyd died and the BLM protests captured national attention. The year we trembled.

Shelter-in-Place was composed while locked down at the beginning of the pandemic. The work takes as its touchstone the following lines from Hamlet: “Oh God, I could be bounded in a nut shell and count myself the king of infinite space, were it not that I have bad dreams.” The single-movement work begins quietly though soon morphs into a needling anxiety. The tightly wound textures rarely break free until finally coalescing into a timeless space, with small gestures and tintinnabulations. The audience is not left there for soon the machine of the ensemble begins to wind itself back up, leading to faster and faster sections. Following the work’s climax, it returns to the opening gestures, as if returning to some mental prison, left to wait.

Shelter In Place

01 Of Fields Unfolding . . . Echoing Depths Of Resonant Light MAS 5Min

“Sie war schon Wurzel“ (excerpt) for Visual Arts Project - please use headphones -
for piano, toy piano, percussions and electronics (© 2018; r.v. 2020)

Sie war schon aufgelöst wie langes Haar
und hingegeben wie gefallner Regen
und ausgeteilt wie hundertfacher Vorrat.

Sie war schon Wurzel.
                            (Rainer Maria Rilke, “Orfeus. Eurydike. Hermes.”)

Comme de longs cheveux elle était dispersée,
comme une pluie tombée elle était allouée,
comme un immense avoir elle était répartie.

Car elle était déjà racine.
                         (trad. fr. Lionel-Édouard Martin)

Come una lunga chioma era già sciolta,
come pioggia caduta era diffusa,
come un raccolto in mille era divisa.

Ormai era radice.
                   (trad. it. Giacomo Cacciapaglia)


photo : Trihn Lo -2017

"Sie war schon Wurzel"

Character study for Ariel, from Shakespeare's The Tempest. Performed by the Cleveland Chamber Collective

Ariel

Premiered by Peabody Wind Ensemble.  A post 9/11 piece

PWE 121211

After Vietnam--after a poem by Jo McDougal

This is the original version with prepared piano

Caliban for flute and prepared piano

Inspired by the poem Ode to a Nightingale. Commissioned by No Exit for their 10th Anniversary.

Darkling I Listen

if the stars align...

I : Shooting Stars
II : La Terra
III : Sirian Highlife
Cadenza for Viola : Blue Companion Star
IV : Digitaria

Performed by the illustrious Brentano String Quartet at Princeton University in Taplin Fine Hall, Feb 2013. This four movement piece with a cadenza, illuminates the viola as a soloist in contrast and in conjunction with the quartet. It encompasses spectral and microtonal elements (i.e. crazy tunings are intentional), as well as polyrhythms inspired by the date 12/12/12 and Ghanaian highlife. 

(Program Note Excerpt) I came to see the Brentano String Quartet play in New Zealand on the invitation of Euan Murdoch, head of Chamber Music NZ. I was delighted to be able to meet the performers after the show, who kindly told me how I was going to love my upcoming time in Princeton for my composition PhD. Misha Amory, the viola player, said to me:
"If the stars align, you will write for us."

if the stars align...

Louisville Courier-Journal music critic Andrew Adler wrote of Ty Alan Emerson’s piano trio Dedications that it “possessed surprising emotional resonance and was quite expertly wrought.”  Cleveland radio personality and music critic Eric Kisch stated, “This is a young man with a great future ahead of him.  I look forward to many musical experiences from his pen.”  

Composer Ty Alan Emerson has been presenting music in Cleveland since 2000.  Following two terms as president of the Cleveland Composers’ Guild, he is currently Director for the Cleveland Chamber Collective. He has been commissioned by the Collective, No Exit, ASSEMB3LY, with other notable performances by Quorum, Gary Louie, and The Peabody Wind Ensemble. His work has been featured at music festivals from Bowling Green, OH to Huddersfield, England.  In addition to his work for the concert hall, Emerson has composed and arranged works for the stage including several shows with The Musical Theater Project in Cleveland, and a season with the Texas Shakespeare Festival. Notable awards include: MTNA/OMTA Composer of the Year, two Individual Excellence Awards from the Ohio Arts Council, and the ASCAP Morton Gould Award. Most recently his Prospero on the Beach was featured on a CD by ASSEMB3LY, available through Albany Records.

Shelter In Place

Ty Alan Emerson

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