Compositions

If you want to get a sense of where I’m coming from, here’s some pieces that I’ve written that I like a lot:

    • Second Treatise in Harmony Without Pitches (2024) – for four voices of similar range and one bingo cage (kind of a sequel to I’m at a Blanc)
    • Like a Canyon (2022) – basically an art song
    • Should You Be Dancing? (2021) – for Thee Reps
    • Espadrilles, or Music for the Bringing of Moms Into the House (2021) – for Thee Reps
    • Inauguration of the Appoggiatura (2021) – for spatialized droning wind ensemble
    • Love Song in Linens (2020) – basically an art song
    • I’m Not Actually Partying (2019) – for Thee Reps (violin, guitar, bass, synthesizer, & drums)
    • wine gang (2019) – open instrumentation score for drone wind ensemble (for Florida Lucid Dreaming)
    • You Must Read a Lot of Jung (2014-18) – for thingNY (soprano voice, violin, clarinet, tenor saxophone, cello, and cymbal)
    • The Besht is Yet to Come (2018) – for Thee Reps (violin, guitar, bass, synthesizer, and drums)
    • Music to Watch ’97 Flyers Highlights To (2016) – for guitar, bass, keys, viola, & percussion aka Thee Reps
    • Big Bebek (2016) – for guitar, bass, keys, viola, & drums aka Thee Reps
    • I’m at a Blanc (2015) – for four flexatones
    • The Gentleman Rests (2014) – for five vocalists, trombone, electric organ, viola, and double bass
      a piece written with a Jerome Foundation Commission (via Roulette), depicting the joint session of Congress held 1/6/2001 to certify the 2000 election.
    • untitled (2014) – for open instrumentation drone wind ensemble (for Florida Lucid Dreaming)
    • Every Agricola (2014) – for violin, tenor saxophone, & double bass
      (later became the first section of You Must Read a Lot of Jung, above)
    • To Scale (2012) – co-written with Cough Button, for multiple singers, viola, bass clarinet, and synth & spatialized sound
      Four scenes were premiered as part of Experiments in Opera
    • AGAIN (2011) – for mezzo-soprano and vibraphone
      the       sequel to BACK. this time with text
    • BACK (2010) – for mezzo-soprano and vibraphone,
      written for the BACK Duo (Amirtha Kidambi & Cory Bracken)
    • gabra (2010) – memory piece for one or more reciter/musicians
      Originally made for myself as a solo piece with clarinet for Paul Pinto’s Comformer/Perposer Series. In 2012, this piece was rearranged as a duet and a trio.
    • These Perceiving Guts (2010) for soprano, piano, and drone
      thoughts on being on the radio and how much easier singing unamplified is than trying to magnify your voice over a river valley area. utilizing a drone of two G3s, two F3s, and one B3 which ebb and flow variously.
    • WHY LIE? (2010) – 100 small pieces in diamond clef for open instrumentation, utilizing a wide variety of notational approaches
    • puppies and kitties (2009) – for eight or nine voices and kick drum or drum machine
      composed by overdubbing voices. two segments: one on puppies and kitties, the other on women in distress.
    • And It’s Surely to Their Debit, Parts 2a-2f (2004-8) For three B flat clarinets.
      Cycle of six pieces using six-note mode (starting on six different pitches).
    • Choral Piece (2007) – for any number of singers + optional percussionists
      Basically an all-text structure to get amateur vocalists to make a variety of noises with their mouths. Recorded in Middletown, 5/07, performed at Exapno, 10/11.
    • Mvt. no. 2 for string quartet (2006-7)
      Several “choruses” of a one lengthy chord progression voiced in a variety of ways. Score is completely text; players change notes at the rate at which new instructions are read (with group fermatas placed regularly throughout). Quite long despite the name.
    • On Methods of Expediting Ingestion (2003-7)– for soprano and snare drums
      A variety of slow moving melodic pieces. Originally for soprano and snare drum, but as things progressed, it became more often melodic lines in a certain style. All pieces may be accompanied by snare drums (but when is that not true?), using hand signals from The Eggplant if desired to control rolls.
    • Untuned (2006, rev. 2007)- for 10 untuned guitars
      Ten guitars begin with no strings. Guitars are then strung without regard to specific pitches. Players navigate a series of tunes, chords, a canon, and various tuning actions.  Tuned is another version of this piece, just played in tune.
    • HRSEFCKR (2006) – for two electric guitars and optional kick drum
      repetitive piece focusing on As & Gs
    • Il Settimo-Cervello (Sweep Quarter Trap, Part III) (2004-5) – For two trombones, two strings, two electronic glissando producers, and voice.
      Beginning with the idea of a glissando gamut, 150 glissando events (based on instrumentation & direction) serve as the basis for a freely navigated language. Directions for each player involved in an event range from broad to specific. A set of protocols limit the group behavior and overall length is flexible based preset variables for a given performance.
    • Invisible Quartet (2003) – for oboe, viola, clarinet, cello, and two microphones
      Various tasks for spatially separated quartet, filtered into a performance space by two roving microphone operators. Originally conceived of as a radio piece.
  • (Sh)Raw (2002) – cassette tape piece involving sounds of clinking suspenders & traffic

And here’s a few other little ideas and recordings that’ve come up over time that I didn’t know where else on the site to put: