Orchestra / Chamber Orchestra

Chanteys, a celebration of ships and the sea, was inspired by the 1976 gathering of tall windships from around the world in honor of the U.S. bicentennial. Supported by a grant from the NEA.

The piece consists of two movements. The first is a fantasy on the beautiful capstan chantey Lowlands, while the second introduces four short-drag chanteys, develops them independently, and then combines them in a quodlibet finale.

Instrumentation: Piccolo (doubling flute), 2 flutes, 2 oboes, english horn, 2 clarinets, bass clarinet, 2 bassoons, contrabassoon, 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, percussion (three players), celesta, harp, accordion, strings

NOTE: Parts available on rental. Study score for sale.

The White Whale is a musical projection of Ahab's madness as revealed in fragments of soliloquy and dialogue from nine different chapters of Moby Dick. The four movements do not attempt to mirror Melville's continous narrative. Instead, they reflect some of the novel's greatest discontinuities by juxtaposing paradoxical aspects of Ahab's character — aspects which are revealed one by one in non-successive chapters strung out like beads on a chain throughout the book — in a radically compressed time frame. The compression heightens awareness of the depth and complexity of Ahab's personality and of his relationship to the whale while creating a particular dramatic tension of its own.

Instrumentation: Baritone, flute (doubling piccolo), oboe, 2 clarinets (2nd doubling bass clarinet), bassoon, contrabassoon, horn, trumpet, trombone, harp, piano (doubling celesta), percussion (two players), strings

Movements:

1.  The Prisoner
2.  In Nomine Diaboli
3.  The Symphony
4.  A Hump Like a Snow-Hill

Commissioned for ALEA III and the Empire Brass Quintet, Chamber Concerto does not follow the traditional three-movement Baroque concerto form, but is instead a set of six variations. It pays homage to the Baroque and Classical styles in its concern for symmetry, traditional chord structures, felt meters, uncluttered textures, and solo instrumental writing that demands virtuosity without recourse to the non-traditional playing techniques and special effects prevalent in much contemporary music.

Instrumentation: Solo brass quintet, 2 flutes (2nd doubling piccolo), oboe, 2 clarinets (2nd doubling bass clarinet), bassoon, horn, trumpet, bass trombone, percussion (2 players), piano

The music that begins and ends Music for Flute and Orchestra is marked "very rhythmic;dancing" in the score, and it presents a shifting array of sharply etched melodic motives in rapidly changing meter. That edgy, jazzy music encloses a central core of calmer music, roughly twice as slow (or half as fast), which enlarges upon the same melodic ideas.

Instrumentation: 2 flutes (2nd doubling piccolo), 2 oboes, 2 clarinets (2nd doubling bass clarinet), 2 bassoons, 2 horns, 2 trumpets, 2 trombones, tuba, timpani, 2 percussion, harp, piano, solo flute, strings

Three Pieces for Orchestra with Audience Participation
The Saints is based on When the Saints Go Marching In, a Dixieland classic that tradition holds was played at funerals in New Orleans around 1900 — slowly on the way to the cemetary and quickly coming back.

Each of the three pieces in The Saints is designed to explore and illustrate a musical idea. The opening piece, Choirs, shows off the musical families of the orchestra. The second, Joyful Noise, presents many extended instrumental sounds and special effects. The third, Marching In evokes the slow march to the cemetary and the jazzed-up procession home.

This work was commissioned by the 92nd Street Y in New York City for its Sidney A. Wolff School Music Series.

Instrumentation: 2 flutes (2nd doubling piccolo), 2 oboes, 2 clarinets (2nd doubling soprano saxophone), alto saxophone, tenor saxophone, 2 bassoons, 2 horns, 2 trumpets, 2 trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion (one player), optional banjo, piano, strings, tape playback system (cassette)

Movements:

1. Choirs
2. Joyful Noise
3. Marching In

Five songs on poems of Emily Dickinson. Arrangement of the 1972 songs for medium voice and piano (ECS Publishing #161). The poems included are New Feet Within My Garden Go, South Winds Jostle Them, I Know a Place, To Make a Prairie, and The One That Could Repeat the Summer Day.

This arrangement was commissioned by the Cleveland Chamber Symphony.

Voice: Mezzo-soprano

Instrumentation: Harp, piano (doubling celesta), percussion (one player), and strings