Lullaby (Auden) for SATB Choir
Valediction for Voice and Orchestra
Ballade for Oboe and Strings
Migrant Rivers Concerto for Oboe and Orchestra
The Kraken (Tennyson) for Voice and Piano
Driving Home Film Score Cue
Sonate (Apollinaire) for Voice and Flute
Sonata for Tuba and Piano
Songs of Parting (Whitman) for Voice and Piano
Lullaby (text: W.H. Auden)
SATB choir (or TTBB choir) (6’15”)
Recording from the first rehearsal of the premiere performance, so the vocalists are still figuring out their parts.
This piece was composed in reaction to the murder of Matthew Shepard and my own personal coming-out experience.
Valediction
voice, orchestra (3’30”)
2.2.2.2 / 2.2.1.0 / timp.perc.hp / strings
This was an interesting commission. The orchestra wanted a piece to honor their retiring conductor. They asked for something with which an audience could easily sing along using only a lead sheet in the program. They didn’t have money for a lyricist, so I did that myself. And to keep it a surprise from the conductor, it would only receive 15 minutes of rehearsal while he was distracted by some board members.
Even with the simplicity required by all these parameters, it was thrilling to hear 2,000 people sing something I wrote.
(To add to the fun, they let me know about it a month before the performance, when I was herding sheep for a couple of weeks with a Bedouin family. So I sketched most of it in my travel notebook while sitting on a rock.)
Ballade
oboe, string orchestra (9’)
First rehearsal, but 20-year-old Dwight Parry sounds great.
Migrant Rivers
Concerto for Oboe & Orchestra
2.2.2.2 / 2.1.0.0 / timp.2 perc.hp / strings (18’40”)
I. El Niño
II. La Llorona
III. Pacific Electric
Migrant Rivers hasn’t yet been publicly performed, but here are scores and the synth karaoke tracks I made to help the soloist prepare.
The Kraken (text: Alfred, Lord Tennyson)
voice, piano (2’45”)
This song has never been performed as a vocal piece, but here’s the piano transcription and vocal score.
Driving Home
film score (25’)
This was from the pianist’s personal recorder during rehearsal (so the piano is louder than it should be).
Sonate (texts: Guillaume Apollinaire)
voice, flute (11’)
I. Prèlude
II. Epousailles
III. La Cueillette
IV. Le Pont Mirabeau
V. L’Adieu
Despite having several performances, this piece has never been recorded. But the score should be easy enough to read.
Sonata for Tuba and Piano
(10’)
I. Playfully
II. Adagio — Allegro
Songs of Parting (texts: Walt Whitman)
voice, piano (6’)
I. Joy, shipmate, joy!
II. The Sobbing of the Bells
III. Now Finalè to the Shore
I think this is an early rehearsal recording, given the sound quality and the fact that John is still working out where best to place some of the lines that cross through his passaggio.