Gloaming in perpetuum (2007)
Wind Quintet
Duration: c. 10 mins.
Written for the Boston-based Arcadian Winds, by whom the work was premiered in 2008, the title of the quintet, Gloaming in perpetuum, is taken from the second line of a seasonal haiku on winter, written by the composer. The work’s completion coincided with the death of the composer’s mother, Alta, to whom it is dedicated. The original intent of the line, expressing the endless quality of twilight experienced in winter, can also be understood as a metaphor for our memories, where lost loved-ones live on in the half-light of remembrance.
The single-movement work is divided into three main sections of a linear, lyrical, quality, interspersed with two interruptions, set in a more angular, disjunct fashion. As the music progresses, silence takes on a more pronounced importance. The work ends on a single, plaintive, note in the oboe’s upper register.
leaden skies threaten gloaming in perpetuum
Summer Mosaics (2004)
Saxophone Quartet
Duration: c. 8 mins.
Summer Mosaics was written for Richard A. Schwartz and the Boston University Tanglewood Institute saxophone ensemble, by whom the work was premiered in 2004. Exploring a post-minimal texture of a driving rhythmic pulse, combined with complex jazz and rock-influenced cross-rhythms and cinematographic cross-cuts, Summer Mosaics develops a series of short motives through statement, disintegration and recombination. The main motivic cell, derived from the first of Schubert’s Sechs Moments Musicaux, consists of the interval of a descending minor third (G–E), set against the same pitches in an ascending statement (E–G). All subsequent contrasting material in the work evolves from this simple motive.Clarinet Trio (2001)
Eb clarinet, A clarinet and bass-clarinet
Duration: c. 5 mins.
Written for and premiered by the Chicago Clarinet Trio on a DePaul School of Music Faculty Recital in 2001, this work explores the sonic possibilities of the combination of an Eb, A and bass clarinet, as well as personal impressions of the musical personalities of the players for which it was written—Julie DeRoche, Larry Combs and John Bruce Yeh. The work opens on a sonority built on the written low E of each of the three transposing instruments, resulting in the pitches C#–D–G. Derived from this trichord, octatonic scales and a twelve-tone set form the basis of the harmonic and melodic structures of the work. Built around brief solo passages for each of the instruments, the work is framed by an expository introduction and short coda, which briefly restates the opening material. The work progresses through a series of metric modulations of increasing speed from beginning to end, concluding in a flurry of boisterous counterpoint.