Chamber Music

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Spirituals: A Lecture Recital

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Monday evening Ashley and I presented a lecture recital on Spirituals. We discussed and performed Go Down Moses, Deep River, and Wade in the Water.  We talked a bit about the history of the Spiritual, and tried to present the context of what was happening at the time of their development.  We also talked about possible deeper meanings within the works - of course on the surface Spirituals appear to be songs based on biblical stories, but it seems plausible that they also had meaning related to the underground railroad and the Slaves' journey for freedom.

We transcribed the Harry T. Burleigh arrangements (voice & piano) for saxophone and piano and had a great time working on these songs.  There is so much depth and beauty in these works, and so much to consider in terms of the texts, the music, and how they complement each other.  Hopefully I will have a video clip to post soon.  In the meantime, enjoy a recording of your favorite Spiritual today and be appreciative for these wonderful songs!

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First Peek at the 2012 Westminster Chamber Music Workshop!

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As many of you know, last year my wife and I started the Westminster Chamber Music Workshop - a series of free community music events.  We just posted a sneak peek of the 2012 WCMW over at the WCMW blog here.  Be sure to hold the following dates - we have some free events you will NOT WANT TO MISS!

  • Saturday May 5, 2012 - 7:00pm
  • Saturday May 12, 2012 - 7:00pm
  • Saturday May 19, 2012 - 7:00pm
  • Saturday May 26, 2012 - 7:00pm

All events will be held at the First Congregational Church of Westminster, MA.  Save the dates, and join us for the 2012 WCMW! More details coming soon...

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New! Nocturne IV for Sax Quartet and Flute Ensemble

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Tomorrow I'm shipping off a score and parts to the University of Central Florida for "Nocturne IV" scored for saxophone quartet and flute ensemble (6 flutes, 2 altos, 2 basses, 1 piccolo). The work was commissioned by the University of Central Florida, at the request of  saxophone professor George Weremchuk.

The piece builds off of the fourth movement of my solo piano work "Nocturnes."  It was a fun and challenging task to write for this unique instrumentation, and I'm looking forward to hearing the result.  Of course, the challenge when writing for a group like this is to effectively balance the saxophones and flutes - to write in a way that sounds like a unified group of winds rather than a separated group of saxophones and flutes.  And while the piccolo can certainly overpower just about anything, the saxophone quartet could easily swallow up most of the flutes if not carefully scored.  Hopefully I thought enough about these challenges while writing the piece to make the orchestration effective!

I felt like the material in the solo piano version of Nocturne IV lent itself well to winds.  The mysterious and foreboding opening, with it's quiet intensity would score well for low flutes, all by themselves.  Leaving the saxes out in the beginning of the piece gives the alto and bass flutes a time to shine without competing with the sound of the saxophones.  The saxes certainly do provide the low end throughout, and provide a lot of the driving force that comes with the "grooving" fast section.  This is where I really expanded the piece in this new version - the fast section.  The form of the sax/flute work is essentially a two and a half minute slow section, and a two and a half minute barn-burning fast section at q=138(!).  A tiny bit slower would be fine too, but it really grooves around 138.

Nocturne IV for saxophone quartet and flute ensemble will be premiered at the University of Central Florida, at their annual Central Florida SaxFest on March 31, 2012.