Premiered by Illinois Modern Ensemble, Nov. 3 2017

Crazy Weather (2017)

Moon

"Trachte geliebt und nicht-bewundert zu werden." for solo violin and tape cassette player (2018-19)

11.12.19, DePaul University

"There was the Door to which I found no Key; 
There was the Veil through which I might not see: 
Some little talk awhile of Me and Thee 
There was--and then no more of Thee and Me."
-- The Rubaiyat of Omar Khyyám 

Molly Wilson - violin
Kelly Bartek - viola
John Rogler - cello
Ryan Senger - piano

the Veil through which I could not see (2019, world premiere)

five images
for Ensemble Dal Niente
World Premiere, 7.11.2020, DePaul University

i. 0:00
ii. 1:15
iii. 2:38
iv. 3:38
v. 7:57

Ensemble Dal Niente
Katie Schoepflin Jimoh - clarinets
Ben Melsky - harp
Kyle Flens - percussion
Theo Ramsey - violin, viola
Hannah A Barnes - conductor

five images (2020) is a set of compact canonic miniatures. Double, crab, prolation, and inversion canons are employed across the work to create a large-scale arch form that engages the quartet in a variety of different ways. While the canons are rigorous in their execution, they are not all intended to be heard as such, with variance in the timbre, register, and temporality of the material affecting the perceptibility and autonomy of the canonic voices. The odd-numbered movements (i, iii, v) use the full ensemble, with iii acting as the axis and breaking point in the large-scale structure. Movements ii and iv, both crab canons, employ duos different than those used in the double canons of the outer movements, and occupy a noisier and more distant landscape. Each pair of movement across this axis (v with i, and iv with ii) are created as derivations from their counterparts, as if an image is reflected through a broken mirror to create a simulacrum of its pair. However, it is impossible to determine which way the axis imposes its changes, and thus which image is the original and which is the reflection.
This work was created as a canonic sketchbook for my large ensemble work, Triskelion, for DePaul University’s Ensemble 20+, and directly confronts the issues presented by working both with miniature forms and composing with canons in the hopes of using an old technique to make something new.
five images was composed for Ensemble Dal Niente and premiered to an empty hall on July 11, 2020.
— HAB

five images (2020, world premiere)

Neue Klänge für sehr alte Instrumente – Wien Modern und vier österreichische Musikuniversitäten luden einen Abend lang zu einem frischen Blick auf Orgeln von 1642 ff. Für ein breites künstlerisches Spektrum sorgte ein Call for Scores, der mit mehr als 40 internationalen Einreichungen sowohl von renommierten Komponist*innen wie auch aus dem Nachwuchsbereich ein sehr erfreuliches Echo hatte.

Nach eingehender Auseinandersetzung mit den anonymisierten Partituren und nach ausführlicher Beratung hat die sechsköpfige Fachjury eine Auswahl getroffen: Zwölf sehr unterschiedliche Werke von drei Komponistinnen und acht Komponisten aus Wien, Klosterneuburg, Graz, Linz, Berlin, Madrid, Amsterdam und Novara werden am 07.11.2020 ab 19:00 Uhr in drei Wiener Kirchen zur Uraufführung gebracht.

Jury: Carola Bauckholt, Bernhard Günther, Martin Haselböck, Wolfgang Kogert, Klaus Lang, Roman Summereder | Für die Einstudierung der Interpretationen in Wien, Graz und Salzburg danken wir herzlich den Studierenden sowie den Lehrenden
Johannes Ebenbauer, Martin Haselböck, Jeremy Joseph, Wolfgang Kogert, Hannfried Lucke, Pier Damiano Peretti, Gunther Rost, Roman Summereder und Ulrich Walther | Herzlichen Dank an Manuel Schuen (Michaelerkirche), Johannes Ebenbauer (Franziskanerkirche und St. Ursula) und die sonstigen Beteiligten seitens der drei Kirchen | Produktion Wien Modern | Kooperation mdw – Universität für Musik
und darstellende Kunst Wien, Anton Bruckner Privatuniversität Linz, Universität Mozarteum Salzburg, Kunstuniversität Graz

Alireza Shahabolmolkfard: Cries and Whispers  (2020 UA) Wien Modern | Klaus Waltritsch

A robust and planned set of "improvisations" on guitar.

Thanks to Alaric Plett for the cover art.
     https://www.alaricplett.com/

williampearson@depauw.edu
https://www.willpearsonmusic.com