Chamber Music

Blues was composed in August of 1993 and was first performed in Arcosanti, AZ that same month. Cast in a single movement, Blues freely invokes the jazz idiom. However, these materials are submitted to classical formal treatment. The piece opens with the violin playing a generic Twentieth-Century motive, a stack of fourths. Against this, the piano introduces a dominant seventh chord, saying in effect “forget this, let’s play!”. The violin quickly complies, introducing the first of three melodies. This melody is answered by the piano, while the violin plays figuration. The second melody is introduced in the piano and answered by the violin in multiple-stops. The third melody is likewise introduced by the piano, and, during the violin’s answer, the piano introduces increasingly active figuration that brings back the accompaniment to the first melody, albeit in a transformed, virtuosic form. Against this, the violin restates the first melody, but, before it can conclude, it is abruptly cut off by a walking bass line. This marks the beginning of the second section of the piece, which is essentially a passacaglia (a piece based on a repeating bass line). Over this bass line, the piano plays an improvisatory (though not improvised) solo. When the violin enters, its solo begins to allude to the materials from the first section of the piece. The piano then repeats its solo in dialogue with the violin, bringing the section to a close. The third section brings back the materials from the first section, but in a new context. It begins with a fugue based on the third melody. This fugue contains many of the traditional fugal devices, including inversion, canon, and stretto. At the end of the fugue, the walking bass returns. This time, however, the musical device of quod libet is used, as each of the three main themes is simultaneously recapitulated above it. This climactic juxtaposition of the four main materials from the piece brings the third section to a close and launches into a restatement of the opening and into a virtuosic coda.

Fantasy for viola and piano, composed between April and July, 2004, in Pasadena, CA, explores the lyrical and folklike nature of the viola. It was commissioned by the Michigan Music Teachers Association and is dedicated to the Stern/Schoenhals Duo–Eva Stern and Joel Schoenhals–who gave the first performance on October 16, 2004.

Rhythm Changes was composed in 2002 for Cologne-based duo lirico, who gave the premiere of the work in January 2003. My preceding works, Dialogues for viola and piano and LINES/ANGLES for orchestra, had been growing in harmonic and melodic complexity. Rhythm Changes represented a shift to a more lighthearted affect and an embrace of my American musical heritage. As the title suggests, it pays homage to Gershwin and to the jazz tradition of building new works on the harmonic progression (“changes”) from “I Got Rhythm”, though highly sublimated. Unable to resist the musical pun, the work is also an exploration of constantly shifting rhythms.

Dialogues was composed in between December 2000 and March 2001. As the title suggests, each of the three movements explores a different dialogic relationship between the two instruments. The outer movements are each based on dramatic dialogues from plays: Harold Pinter’s The Birthday Party serves as the source material for the first movement, while the third movement is drawn from Tom Stoppard’s Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead. The middle movement explores the mythical dialogue of Echo and Narcissus.

Piano Trio No. 1 was composed between March, 1998, and June, 1999, in Charlottesville, VA. It was commissioned by the Guild Trio and the Southwest Chamber Music Society. The first performance was given by the Guild Trio in Hamilton, NY, on April 2, 2000. The first movement begins slowly and quietly with the piano alone, answered by the strings in octaves. The opening melody contains the germ from which every idea in the movement evolves. The three instruments gradually build to a climax and then subside, closing off the introduction. The main body of the piece begins in a moderate tempo with the strings alone, playing a variation of the opening melody. The piano joins in and builds to a climax where it takes the main theme. As this subsides, the piano introduces a new theme, which is answered by the cello (accompanied by the violin playing an inverted version of the theme). As this reaches a climax, the piano introduces a third theme: a dramatic series of chords. This is answered in the strings and gradually dissolves into string cascades, leading to a cadenza for the cello alone. As the ‘cello winds down with inverted fragments of the opening theme, the violin enters in answer. This motive is elaborated, becoming an accompanimental figure against which the strings recall a theme from the introduction. This theme is then extensively developed and transformed, building to a triumphant return of the main theme. This leads directly into the third theme which, as it subsides, leads into a reminisce of the second theme in the strings alone. A hint of the introduction brings the first movement to a close. The second (and final) movement begins with an aggressive and brilliant unison statement of its jazzy main theme. A lyrical theme follows in the cello, followed in turn by a playful theme in the piano. The strings take up the playful theme pizzicato then offer a sultry variation on it. This variation is interrupted by aggressive interjections that eventually take over. The piano introduces a new variant, which the strings answer in imitation, building to a return of the main theme. The lyrical theme returns, but this time the violin comments on it with fragments of the sultry theme. These jointly wind down, leading to a brilliant fugal coda based on the main theme.