Program Notes:

As I wrote this piece I decided to focus on what percussionists do best - rhythm. While most of my pieces have a good amount of syncopation in them, this piece is based entirely on the opening timpani motive, only six notes long but rhythmically charged. The influence of jazz in the piece is easily audible - for example, the second section begins with a walking-bass line in the timpani.

The piece is named “Apex” partly because there are two tempo changes in the piece, with each time getting faster until a barrage of sixteenth notes in the bongos drives the work to its apex at the end.

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Composed in early March 2007, this work captures my feeling of the waning weeks of winter. This familiar in-between season is when the snow falls one day but may melt the next. The clear melody lines and the tranquil harmony that bookend the piece reflect this mood. A brief interlude of activity anticipates the warmer season ahead. I was fortunate to be able to write this piece during a busy period of work; the serene sounds had a wonderful calming effect.

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In Escapade there are two essential motivic elements that generate the musical material. Contained in the opening bar, the first element is the sounding of simultaneous bitonal major chords. The second element is the combination of two melodic intervals, the fourth and the second. It is easy to lose track of these key figures in the dynamic and powerful opening section, in which nearly the full range of the piano is used, but they provide the structural backbone and impetus for the composition of the main body of the piece.

Using influences from the classical solo piano repertory, as well as jazz and popular tidbits allowed me to expand my current musical vocabulary while writing this piece. In this sense the piece is an escapade in the true sense of the word, an escape from traditional confines. However, the music certainly conjures up an escapade as it is commonly perceived, at times embarking on a reckless adventure.

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This brief work was written at the request of the Aspen Music Festival and School, where David Zinman is music director. A gala celebration is planned for his 65th birthday, and I was happy to be asked to contribute this gift to him. It was inspired by a story he told which involved both the Ravel and Mozart K. 503 piano concertos. My short work is thus two variations on “Happy Birthday;” one in the style of Mozart, the other, Ravel.

This work was broadcast nationwide on July 10, 2001, on National Public Radio's “Performance Today.”

Program Notes:

The first section of this wind quintet is jovial and flippant in character. Written in a modified sonata form, the second section features lyrical writing for the horn, followed by a fugato leading into the development section. The development features an augmentation of the first theme in the flute accompanied by lush 9th, 11th and 13th chords in the lower winds. The oboe then plays an augmented version of the bassoon theme from the first section.

As the solo bassoon prepares for the recapitulation, the other woodwinds trade staccato bits and pieces of the theme until the horn enters boisterously, showing those wind players who's boss. Then, as if a bit embarrassed by its overt self-aggrandizing, it provides a muted echo of itself. The recapitulation is not a recapitulation in the traditional sense, in which each theme is stated again - rather, it has all the themes played at once on top of each other! This makes for a brief recap that gathers itself convincingly into a satisfying coda.

Program Notes:

This brief work is imbued with a sense of longing and remorse for a loved one. It was written shortly after my grandfather passed away, and keeping with the elegiac nature of such a work, it conveys both lament and praise for a great man. The opening horn motive is a testament to his nobility. The answering flute motive is more sprightly and gleeful in character, which conveys another side of his personality. After this opening section, the flute leads the work into a restful E-flat major section, where the horn introduces the principal theme, characterized by a lower-neighbor tone and scale-wise descent. This is the “regret” in the piece. These themes are used as the basis of the rest of the piece, finally ending in a quiet, dolorous coda.

Program Notes:

In the summer of 1998 I had the pleasure of hearing my wind works performed by the City Winds woodwind quintet of Hartford. As composer-in-residence of the Evelyn Preston Foundation summer concert series, I enjoyed my involvement with the ensemble and the interaction with the audience. The series was a success. When Elana Hoffman, Artistic Director of City Winds, asked me to write a new work for their 1999 series, I happily obliged.

Six Miniatures is just that, a collection of six short pieces. As I had just finished work on dance music when I started writing the Miniatures, some of the movements have a decidedly dance-like quality about them. In fact, the opening movement is entitled “Dance”. The next three movements, “Musings”, “Intermezzo”, and “Reflections”, are designed as a subset of the entire work. Musically, they are unified through the use of a tone row and its various permutations. The fifth movement, “Pas de deux”, is particularly special to me. It is an arrangement of the duet section of my dance piece, You’re It!, which was premiered at Lincoln Center in January 1999. The final movement, “Rondo-Finale”, recalls the spirit of the first movement with a brisk tempo and a gleeful tune. Imitative counterpoint in the flute, oboe, and clarinet drive the work to its conclusion.

Program Notes:

This non-programmatic, contemplative work was written in the first months of 2000. After the cello quietly opens the work with haunting harmonics, the other players join in presenting the first sonic portrait of the introduction. This opening portrait, concluding with the cello plucking the open strings, serves to elucidate the central tone row of the first large section. The row’s most recognizable characteristic is the alternation of perfect fifths and ascending chromatic steps. The open fifths of the row were useful in writing idiomatically for the strings.

After a foreshadowing of the slow second section, the introduction concludes with a trill in the violin and harmonics in the viola. The rest of this section is a brisk allegro as the writing begins to take on an agitated character. This agitated frustration results in a climax with stratospheric writing for all the instruments. This material attempts to reassert itself following the climax, but it is finally subdued as the meditative second section ensues. This section, recalling material from the introduction, is designed to portray wistfulness and reflection through the open, sonorous harmonies and drone techniques.

The only truly tonal moment in the piece comes after an intense, passionate harmonic progression leading to a plaintive yet restful cadence in G major. The cello harmonics which began the work are superimposed on this G major chord. The chord finally dies away, as the mysterious, serial introduction is recapitulated in the coda. The eerie end to this abstract work is nevertheless dramatic, exhibiting a sense of longing, or even loss.

Program Notes:

Every composer's music is influenced by the time and place in which he or she lives, whether the composer is aware of that influence or not. Three Sketches in America is no different. In this case I decided to consciously draw on those influences when “sketching” this work. The “American” quality of this piece is reflected in every movement. Even though each movement is different than the next, they are all still linked together by a common spirit - much the same way as the people of America are all different, yet we are all American. Each movement is musically unified through the recurrence of the principal motive.

The first movement, “Portrayal”, is so named because it portrays many different characteristics in a relatively brief span of time. The opening “horn call” statement heralds the piece, after which the work's principal motive (upwards-leading tone followed by descending fourths) is stated by the first trumpet. After two lively syncopated sections, an expansive lyrical section with wide-open harmonies provides a welcome contrast. Both the syncopated and the lyrical sections are representative of America. Although there is no specific program, an appropriate metaphor would be, for instance, the liveliness of the great cities and the expansiveness of the plains.

The “Chorale” is just that - a homophonic setting of a folk-like tune, pastoral and gentle in feeling. The climax of the movement occurs at the statement of the principal motive from the first movement.

The final movement, “Dance and Finale”, opens with that same principal motive, only this time it is bounced around, twisted, and transformed into dance-like, highly syncopated figures. One can just imagine dancing (albeit somewhat spastically) to these high-energy rhythms. The work closes with a triumphant chorale, noble horn solo and a return to the dance, recalling the principal motive that unifies the work.

Program Notes:

This piece is a commission from the Renée B. Fisher Foundation for the 2000 Piano Competition. With 2000 being the one-hundredth anniversary of the birth of composer Aaron Copland, I found it appropriate to write a tribute to him with this piano composition. The form of the piece is ABA, slow-fast-slow, a form that Copland favored when writing many of his works. There are no direct quotes from Copland, but the outer sections of Tribute and Fantasy certainly pay homage to the American prairie-sounds that Copland invented and used so expertly. The fast part of the composition is a rollicking section with syncopation and rhythmic by-play as the themes and motives work their way through the fabric. The unifying motive of a unison expanding to a third (particularly at the pitch level of E) is principally featured in the structure of the composition.

Program Notes:

Doug Smith commissioned me to write this piece for his unique talent: extraordinary marimba playing and gifted singing ability -- performed simultaneously. While we are accustomed to commonly seeing this in the pop world, usually with piano or guitar, in the concert world it is somewhat of a novelty, especially with marimba. But I was up for the challenge and knew that Doug was very intent on the success of this piece.

After deciding on using haiku as text, I settled on twelve traditional poems (translated into English from Japanese). I arranged them seasonally, so that the piece more or less follows a yearly cycle, from winter to spring, summer, fall and winter again.

A note about the third movement, “New Year’s Day”: At the time the poem was composed, the Japanese New Year followed the same lunar calendar as the Chinese, i.e., the new year marked the beginning of spring. In modern times the new year is celebrated on January 1.

Program Notes:

This piece is a collaboration with choreographer Kimberly Craigie. It afforded me the unique and special opportunity to draw inspiration from an art form that is not only visual, but also kinetic and dramatic.

Immediately upon seeing some of Kimberly’s early phrases, I set to work trying to capture the essence of her ideas in music. The piece is about childhood, and as our work evolved we focused on four sections. The first section is what may be best termed a “recess” scene: children with boundless energy, skipping, playing freely. As most of the children are playing, there is one rather lonely boy who feels left out of the games. As everyone else skips away, he is left alone, confused. In this section the other children are more independent. Our lonely boy, sensing the loneliness of a nearby girl, gingerly approaches her. They become friends, portrayed by a lovely and touching pas de deux. As the other children join in the fun, the piece ends with a happy finale.