Anna Gāgane – clarinet
Latvian National Symphony Orchestra
Guntis Kuzma – conductor
Live 29.01.2022., Riga (premiere)

Long Walks (concerto for clarinet and orchestra, 2020/21)

Hypnos for bass flute or tenor recorder and tape 
Written in 2018 and revised in 2020
Recording from the premiere of version for bass flute: 28.01.2023, Grusomhetens Teater, Oslo, Norway.
Alessandra Rombolá – bass flute, Martyna Kosecka - electronics, Michal Sykora – mix

Hypnos is a dream; Hypnos is a passage through the mosaic of memories and flashes of the closed eye state. It disputes the concepts of time flow, sleepiness, and variable points of focus. The piece is written in the Dastgāh-e Māhur Persian scale and explores certain harmonic states and motivic groups that are the characteristic components of a dream, my Persian dream.

Hypnos(2018, rev. 2020) for bass flute and tape

“Umbrae” was sparked by a glitch of personal memory, seeded by a 1920 poem by Bolesław Leśmian titled “Odjazd” (“Departure”).
I’ve played a perilous game of moving a magnifying glass through my personal latent soundspace. I found it filled with glitches of corroded memories, inaccessible to another human being. A half-forgotten poem escaping translation from the language of my childhood; a disembodied scrap of a musical phrase erroneously preserved by my violinist muscle memory. 
Long dark shadows falling, indefinitely. 
Should one never abandon anything forever?  Is this loss?
 - Ewa Trębacz

UMBRAE (2023, Ambisonic soundscape)

The title spells the Chinese word 呢喃, which means speaking in a low voice, and can be roughly translated to murmur, whisper, mutter. Hidden behind the simple description of the sonic property, the word itself is often associated with a constellation of sentiments - nostalgia, intimacy, tenderness, to name a few. The piece itself is based on a studio recording of bowing the viola near the bridge with the strings damped. The composition draws from its rich expression, resulting from the physical effort implied in producing the sound, as well as the sonic oscillation between noise, tone, and silence, which in the piece are sometimes kept distinct, but other times transform from one to another, generating ambiguity echoing the title.
The source material was generously provided by Melia Watras (https://www.meliawatras.com/)

ní nán (UHJ Reduction)

Afterthought Winding

"Alopopulo" for chamber orchestra, violin and computers (2014)
fl, ob, cl, bsn | tpt, hrn, trbn, tba | 2 perc | acc, el gtr, hrp, pno | solo vln | 2 vln, vl, vc, cb | comp

Performed by: 
Orkiestra Muzyki Nowej, Szymon Bywalec – conductor, Adam Bałdych - violin solo, Paweł Hendrich - computer

Recording, mix, mastering:
Ewa Guziołek-Tubelewicz

The generative system used in this work was created at the Audiovisual Technology Centre (CeTA) by a team headed by Dariusz Jackowski. The scientific consultant was Piotr Posacki from the Wrocław University, with the participation of the composer. 

The software is based on mathematic modeling of several variables (Greek alo-) of population (Latin population). This data is transformed into sound material. Generated in real time, sound sets adapt to the soloist and orchestra, based on the composer’s aesthetic and technical premises. 

The composition follows the art & science trend of combining exact sciences with art. 

The concertante violin part includes some free aleatoric fragments, emphasising the virtuosity of Adam Bałdych. 

Project co-financed by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage of the Republic of Poland within the programme „Collections” – the priority „Composition Commissions” implemented by the Institute of Music and Dance. 
Commissioned by Orkiestra Muzyki Nowej.

Alopopulo (2014)

Tephra 2 was commissioned by the Washington Idaho Symphony in 2015. This recording, made by PARMA Recordings, features the Moravian Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Petr Vronský.

From the U.S. Geological Survey website: “Tephra is a general term for fragments of volcanic rock and lava regardless of size that are blasted into the air by explosions or carried upward by hot gases in eruption columns or lava fountains. Such fragments range in size from less than 2 mm (ash) to more than 1 m in diameter....Tephra includes large dense blocks and bombs, and small light rock debris such as scoria, pumice, reticulite, and ash.”
volcanoes.usgs.gov/Hazards/What/Tephra/tephra.html
(Accessed 01/29/07)

Tephra 1 (2007) was composed for solo percussionist, and was commissioned and premiered by David Jarvis, professor of percussion at Washington State University. I was drawn to the word “tephra” as a title for the prominence and beauty of volcanoes and volcanic activity in the Pacific Northwest, whose striking landscape was born from a geologically violent past, and also as a metaphor for the creative process.

Tephra 2 for orchestra represents a continuation of the series, projected to include several works for diverse ensembles.

Ryan M. Hare: Tephra 2 for Orchestra

Click here to buy now!

Tephra 2 for orchestra (Moravian Philharmonic)

Eidos I for solo violin (1977)

From the premiere performance on Oct. 21, 2018 in Portland, OR: Fred Korman, oboe; Sara Mayo, trombone; Sunnyside Symphony Orchestra, Travis Hatton, conductor.

I. Hesitant
II. Energetic (at 3'59)
III. Introspective (at 7'01)
IV. Vigorous (at 11'00)

This Oboe Concerto is dedicated in friendship and admiration to Fred Korman, who commissioned the work. Fred Korman for much of his career performed as the principal oboist of the Oregon Symphony in Portland, OR. The Oregon Symphony was one of the first full-time professional orchestras I ever heard live and, as a student, the playing of the Oregon Symphony’s double-reed sections made a deep and lasting impression on me. I regard Fred’s playing as the epitome of lyricism and suppleness in tone. Though this concerto is certainly not without its technical challenges, mainly I desired to highlight the incredible sense of line, rich tone, and soaring lyricism that I associate with Fred's playing.

Among the interesting challenges Fred requested in his commission is the inclusion of an obbligato tenor trombone part; in his imagination, he felt it would be an intriguing combination, and I agreed. Together we conceived of the trombone part not as an equal soloist, but as a singular member of the accompanying ensemble that provides a surprising color (for an oboe concerto) and enables a greater depth of communication between the soloist and orchestra. I view this as precedented by the solo trumpet part in Shostakovich’s First Piano Concerto and the snare drum part in Carl Nielsen’s Flute Concerto, among other notable examples.

Oboe Concerto (2018)

SWR Symphonieorchester 
Peter Rundel (conductor) 
World Premiere, 21 October 2018, Donaueschinger Musiktage 2018

"Introspection and questioning of one’s identity lay in the core of my creative work. It involves searching and contradicting as an essential part of the musical process, where I am aiming for music that 'thinks' about its own existence – it finds a strategy or a set of rules to go on, then perhaps finds them questionable and modulates into an altered set of rules... The fragility of a finding becomes an essential element. Thus I explore the structural resources and relationships of certain scales – both octave and non-octave based. The music unfolds in slow time, which, however, is full of tension, rolling with hitches in a stuttering manner. 
The piece is about the struggle caused by an inner or outer force which restrains one from moving on smoothly. There are different pressures of varying degrees and changing states of resistence. As the title indicates, dead wind (Gegenwind) is chosen as the main metaphor here. Only when the resistance surpases the power of the dead wind, the music overcomes the fear of stuttering – it stutters freely, turning into a distorted tune. The piece has a bipartite structure and the music is goal-oriented. The processes of each part lead to an episode of resistance taking over, thus letting the force of distortion go wild."

J.P.

Dead Wind (for large orchestra, 2017/18)

Martyna Kosecka - Enigma I 
Daniel Costello - horn

UMBRAE (2023, Ambisonic soundscape)

Ewa Trębacz

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