Large Ensemble

Night Incantation was composed in 1998 while I was living in Charlottesville, VA. It is a work about stillness. It explores thick, static sonorities that move glacially, like slow breaths, only gradually building to climaxes and subsiding.

Virvatuli was composed between February and July, 1997, while I was a Fulbright Fellow in Finland. The title is the Finnish word for “will-o’-the-wisp”, the phosphorescence of methane gas in swamps. It also means a delusive and illusory hope, goal, or aim. I tried to capture the eeriness and otherworldliness of the first aspect of the title, while at the same time realizing the second aspect structurally. The opening insect calls represent reality; the orchestra, hope and idealism. A battle ensues in which hope emerges triumphant, yet before a final resolution can be achieved, it reveals its illusory nature and disintegrates, leaving only the insects… and emptiness. Cynical? Possibly, but it is only in those moments of idealism that we can approach beauty, and that in itself is a kind of truth.

Virvatuli received First Prize in the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra New Music Competition and Second Prize in the International Witold Lutoslawski Composers Competition.

Sinfonietta was composed in 1996 while I was living in Finland on a Fulbright Fellowship. The work is cast in two contrasting movements. The first is an extended “Sonata-Allegro” form. The principal theme is presented in the trumpet and strings. The second theme is presented in the oboe with a delicate woodwind accompaniment. A brief closing section introduces a chordal motif. The remainder of the movement elaborates these themes, building to a climactic return of the principal theme. The movement concludes with a fugal coda. The second movement telescopes the remaining three movements of a traditional symphony. It begins with a slow section that juxtaposes eerie polychords with descending string lines. The material is taken over by the woodwinds, then elaborated by the lower strings, building to a graceful dancelike section that serves as the “scherzo”. These two ideas are finally brought together in a triumphant climax, leading to a quicksilver coda. Sinfonietta was first performed by the Omaha Symphony Orchestra as a result of their new music competition.

Infernal Whispers was composed for Jerry Junkin and the University of Texas Wind Ensemble in 1996. It is based on my Two Pieces for Chamber Ensemble, which was composed for the University of Texas New Music Ensemble that year. The work is cast in two movements. The evocative first movement is a passacaglia framed by an explosive introduction and coda. During the passacaglia, the repetitions of the theme continually speed up and later begin to overlap, creating a series of mensuration canons. The second movement is a kinetic release of the energy built up during the moody first movement.

Vortex was originally composed in 1995 for Pierrot ensemble plus percussion and was later arranged for string orchestra. It is a short, energetic piece that begins with a burst of energy. A mysterious passage ensues, punctuated by occasional outbursts, and builds gradually until the opening intensity is regained. At that point, the opening outburst is juxtaposed with two contrasting ideas–a disjunct triplet motive and a restless, hovering motive–in rapid succession. The opening outburst returns to close off the section, leading into a dreamlike passage that features the strings in triple-octaves, accompanied by the marimba and piano. As this intensifies, the cello takes the lead in its lowest octave, ushering in a return of the opening outburst. This subsides into the triplet idea, which becomes an ostinato in the piano. From here the intensity builds to the end of the piece, with all of the main ideas returning in varied form. The concluding peroration is the final embodiment of the opening outburst.