Songs and shorter chamber works in a tonal, melodic style.

18 MP3 Songs
CLASSICAL: Contemporary, CLASSICAL: Traditional



Details:
The music presented on this CD represents a selection of my songs and chamber pieces, most of which were written within the past seven years, but with a few going back as far as twenty-four. All are recorded here for the first time.

The earliest works recorded here are a group of songs--"Dust of Snow," "My Love Is In A Light Attire," and "The Night Will Never Stay,"--written in 1981, during my student years.

The remaining 7 songs date from 1999 and later. "Spring and Fall" was originally sketched as a piece for treble chorus in 1999, but I revised it a couple of years later as a solo song.

"O You Whom I Often And Silently Come," was written on the afternoon of December 31, 2000, making it my last twentieth-century work. In 2003, the song was the first winner of the Ned Rorem Award for Song Composition.

"I Sing Of A Maiden," and "The Angel's Song" are the first of what I hope will be a series of original Christmas Songs. All the songs are performed by Sarah Stone, mezzo-soprano, and my wife Martha Krasnican, piano.

"Prelude and Bacchanal" for violin, horn, and piano, was commissioned by hornist Brian Kilp, who premiered it during a tour of Bangkok and Singapore. He, Martha, and I have since performed it several times around the US, and the three of us appear on this recording. The title, I think, is self-explanatory.

The three piano pieces were all written for Martha. "Silent Delight" was written in 1992 shortly after we first met. The title comes from the Blake poem âNightâ: âThe moon like a flower/In heavenâs high bower,/With silent delight/Sits and smiles on the night.â "Chorale" and "Scherzino" were both written in 2004.

"Reading Issa" for viola and harp was commissioned by harpist Vanessa Gong, who premiered it with violist Nai-Ying Liao in 2002. The title was suggested by a chance encounter with a website devoted to the haiku of Kobayashi Issa, which I came across after the piece was already under way. After completing each movement, I searched the site for an Issa poem that seemed appropriate, and placed it in the score in lieu of a title heading. I play viola on this recording, and Vanessa Gong plays harp.

"In Silence Under Many A Star" was commissioned by clarinetist John Spicknall, who premiered it in 1998 with his wife Sharilyn on violin and Martha on piano. The title comes from Whitman; it is taken from a stanza of the âDeath Carolâ section of his âWhen Lilacs Last In The Dooryard Bloomâd.â Here, as in many of his poems, Whitman depicts Death as something kind, gentle, and comforting. In my composition, a recurring passage, marked âVery slow, delicate, and caressing,â is identified in the score as a Danse Macabre. I play violin, Martha plays piano, and the clarinettist is Trina Gross.