Woodland Adventures
for solo piano - 5:00 - 2025
Credits
Keith Kirchoff, piano
Program note
Composed in celebration of Concord Conservatory of Music's 20th anniversary, this solo piano piece is intended for an intermediate-level pianist. The pedagogical focuses are on slow arpeggios, quick scales, and rich pedaling.
The piece is inspired by the enchanting worlds of "Redwall" (a series of books by Brian Jacques) and "Everdell" (a tabletop game designed by James Wilson), "Woodland Adventures" paints a lively musical portrait of bustling animal towns – birds swooping through sunlit skies, bunnies darting between trees, and treehouses humming with cheerful activity.
from my seat in the clouds, i thought i could see heaven...
for vibraphone and electronics - 11:00 - 2024
for vibraphone and electronics - 11:00 - 2024
Credits
Live performance by Matt Sharrock
Program note
"from my seat in the clouds, i thought i could see heaven..." is the third in a series of “Canvas” pieces. Not intended to be performed as a cycle, I think of these works as “onstage meditations”: spacious, contemplative, and an invitation for the performer to center themselves, slow down, and engage in deeper listening to the environment. The electronic material for all three pieces is entirely generated from the solo instrument. "from my seat in the clouds, i thought i could see heaven..." was commissioned by Matt Sharrock. When watching Matt perform, I am struck by their deep musical expressivity: whether playing vibraphone or marimba, Matt can make the instrument sing in a way I haven’t heard many percussionists replicate. My intention with this piece was to take advantage of this expressive playing and Matt’s natural sense of musical timing
Cross Polination
for trumpet and live electronics - 7:00 - 2017
for trumpet and live electronics - 7:00 - 2017
Credits
Sam Wells, trumpet
Program note
“If only the trumpet were more like a woodblock!” is a sentiment probably shared by… no one. Regardless, Cross Pollination is an exploration of rhythmic monotimbral qualities of the trumpet. Throughout, both the trumpet and electronics play a single pitch class – B.
Many special thanks to Sam Wells, Dan VanHassel, and Christopher Biggs for their help with this piece.
White Canvas
for piano and live electronics - 10:00 - 2012
for piano and live electronics - 10:00 - 2012
Program note
I woke up one morning after a performance in Connecticut, and I realized that everything I had recently composed was following a similar pattern and, to some degree, was actually just the same piece slightly reimagined. White Canvas was a compositional exercise in which I challenged identify each of these characteristics, and then intentionally do the opposite.
OverDrive
for toy piano, live electronics, and fixed media - 9:40 - 2010-11
for toy piano, live electronics, and fixed media - 9:40 - 2010-11
Program note
As early as high school, I had fallen in love with the toy piano. I resolved to purchase one as soon as possible, and midway through college, I finally purchased my first Schoenhut "concert grand" toy piano. A 37 key wonder, the instrument was a very diminutive grand piano, striking metal rods instead of strings, and reminding everyone who saw it of Schroeder from Peanuts. I quickly immersed myself in the (then) small toy piano repertoire, and composed two pieces myself for toy piano.
Several years later, I commissioned composer Matthew McConnell to write a concerto for toy piano and orchestra - one that would challenge the notion of the toy piano as a cute, quaint, humorous toy. He succeeded with this challenge better than I could have ever hoped, and I have since had the honor of performing this piece twice. The last time was in 2005. Since then, though his concerto has ballooned in popularity thanks to the wonders of YouTube, my toy piano has sat relatively unused in my studio.
Then in 2010 I received an unexpected flurry of toy piano related requests. Three different pianists (in the USA, Canada, and Australia) scheduled performances of my earlier toy piano compositions. Two different pianists (in the USA and Germany) commissioned me to write new toy piano pieces. French pianist Jérémie Honnoré contacted me regarding an article he was writing on toy piano music, and Polish author and multi-instrumentalist Pawel Romanczuk interviewed me for inclusion in his upcoming book chronicling the history of the toy piano. Perhaps there was something in the water, but it became clear the toy piano was on the rise.
With this much attention suddenly on the instrument, I wanted to write something that challenged the notion of what a toy piano could or could not do. By now, nearly everything has been explored on this instrument, including various keyboard and extended techniques. What I felt had been explored very little was the instrument's unique overtone structure and the potential in fusing this with electronics. This piece, then, explores the percussive capabilities of the toy piano and the rich overtones created when the keys are violently struck. Roughly 75% of the electronic material heard is derived directly from the toy piano.
Only Temporary: Seven Sketches for Organ
for solo organ - 12:00 - 2007-08
for solo organ - 12:00 - 2007-08
(for the arrangement for viola and piano, click here)
Credits
Premiered May 2009
Good Shepherd United Methodist Church, Malden, MA
Matthew McConnell, organ
Movements
I. The Sloth Slogs Through the Sluice
II. Stranded in the Capital of Nowhere
III. Slippery When Wet
IV. An Inside Joke
V. The Sky is Falling
VI. The Little Mouse Scurries Through My Kitchen Eating My Food and Soiling My Dishes
VII. Echoes in the Hollow Chamber of Uncertainty
Program note
In 2004, Matthew McConnell – a composer/organist whom I had worked with on several occasions – asked me to write a work for solo organ. Happy to oblige, the commission would prove much more difficult than I expected. I drafted many versions of the piece over the next several years, beginning with a large scale 60+ minute fugue, scaling it down to a 45 minute sonata, and eventually settling on a set of seven short pieces totaling around 15 minutes.
The final version began in December of 2007 when Boston received its first snowfall of the season. A true lover of snow and all things winter, the flurries put me in such a good mood that it stimulated the right creative juices, and I immediately wrote out a short piece for solo organ. Both pleased and surprised by my sudden creativity (I am rarely musically inspired by natural events), I proceeded to write a second piece as well that same afternoon (these would later become the first and third pieces in the cycle).
Realizing I had finally hit upon a workable idea for the organ, I began expanding the cycle shortly after the new year. Each piece was the direct result of some non-musical event in my life, and the intent of each piece was to be kept short and devoid of development: one musical idea was presented, played through, and then the piece was over. Get in and get out, as it were.
Briefly, the influences behind each of the remaining pieces are as follows:
Stranded in the Capital of Nowhere: I travel frequently and have a long tradition of cancelled flights, lost luggage, and general travel nightmares. This piece was written after a string of flight cancellations while stranded in the Denver airport. Originally titled "Stranded in Denver," I decided that sounded desirable, and so altered the title to reflect my downtrodden mood.
Inside Joke: By the time I finally had Matthew's piece under way, he had written me two excellent pieces for piano (he writes at a significantly fast speed than I). An excellent musical theorist, he takes particular pleasure in analyzing various pieces to see how they were put together. Therefore, I chose to derive all of the pitch material for this movement from the two pieces he had written for me: Gestures and Concerto for Toy Piano. This is, of course, a musical reference only he would ever catch.
The Sky is Falling: This movement is an abridged version of my earliest sketch for the organ sonata. It is intended to evoke images of the apocalypse.
The Little Mouse Scurries...: My house at the time had an unfortunate tendency to appeal to mice and carpenter ants. One particular brave mouse ate several loaves of bread, a couple bags of potato chips, cereal, and a sundry of other foods before I finally caught him.
Echos in the Hollow Chamber...: This is the one movement that does not relate to any particular event and contains more than a single musical idea. The last piece I wrote, I was struggling for some time with how to end the cycle, and eventually decided to end it on a slightly softer note.
Upon finishing the cycle, I started to think it would work particularly well for a solo string instrument and piano. My friend Megan Tipton had been asking me for several years for a piece for viola, so I opted to rewrite everything for her. While the basic ideas of each movement remains more-or-less the same as the earlier version, movements four, five, and seven are significantly different.
The Adventures of Norby
for piano and digital audio media - 14:00 - 2007
for piano and digital audio media - 14:00 - 2007
Doodles: Five Variations for Solo Tuba
for solo tuba - 5:30 - 2005-06
for solo tuba - 5:30 - 2005-06
Experiments VII
for violin and digital audio media - 10:00 - 2005
for violin and digital audio media - 10:00 - 2005