Large Ensemble Works
Reflections Through Green and Gold (2018)
Wind Ensemble (2fl, ob, optional bsn, 3cl, bs cl, 2 alto sax, tenor and bari sax, 2trp, 2hn, 2trb, bs trb, euph, tuba, timpani, 3 perc)
Duration: 8:00
Grade Level: 3.5-4
Reflections Through Green and Gold is inspired by my wife Brittany's eyes. Green and hazel, these colors swirl around her iris, mixing with the reflections of the world she sees. This work is a short tone poem that weaves melodic ideas with lush harmonies across the wind ensemble to emulate this effect. “Green” sections will have darker or murkier qualities, and will be contrasted by the brighter Gold sections. Reflections Through Green and Gold was commissioned in 2017 by Dr. Adam Fontana and the Bethel College Wind Ensemble, and I am forever grateful for them for this opportunity.
Premiered February 22, 2018 at the 2018 Kansas Music Educators Association (KMEA) Conference in Wichita, KS by the Bethel College Wind Ensemble and Adam Fontana, Conductor.
Published through Murphy Music Press:
Blue River Breakdown (2017)
Wind Ensemble (pic, 2fl, ob, 2bsn, 3cl, bs cl, satb sax, 3trp, 4hn, 2trb, bs trb, euph, tuba, timpani, 4 perc)
Duration: 3:00
Grade Level: 4
Blue River Breakdown is a fanfare for band that blends two motivic gestures: a typical brass fanfare and a high-energy big band shout chorus. It was written for and is dedicated to the directors of the UMKC Bands Steven Davis and Joseph Parisi for their continuous support of new music by UMKC’s student composers.
Premiered April 25, 2018 at the Folly Theater in downtown Kansas City by the UMKC Wind Ensemble and Eric Scott, Conductor.
Published through Murphy Music Press:
Between Glimpses of Blue (2016-17)
Wind Ensemble (pic, 2fl, ob, 2bsn, 3cl, bs cl, satb sax,3trp, 4hn, 2trb, bs trb, euph, tuba, timpani, 4 perc) and Fixed Media
Duration: 9:30
For many years the incredible colors and shapes that the sky and clouds can create have fascinated me. Between Glimpses of Blue is a collage of memories, impressions of the different types of clouds, and moods one might associate with them. For instance, the calm and atmospheric Stratus, billowing Cumulus, and tremendous and terrifying Nimbocumulus. Three memories of mine also influenced this work considerably: In 2002, flying over the Pacific Ocean at 35,000 feet with the sun chasing our flight, I awoke just before daybreak. Soon after, a 2-hour sunrise began with each color of the light spectrum coming into focus and streaming across the sea of clouds below in a rainbow of colors. It was honestly one of the most awe-inspiring experiences I’ve ever witnessed. Second, in 2011 a storm crossed the summer sky over Pullman, Washington as the sun was setting, creating a fire in a nearby field. Outside the sky was terrifyingly black and red sky to my left, to the right peaceful blue and white, and in the middle was the setting sun. Lastly, while writing this piece in the summer of 2016, my flight into Kansas City at night was detoured around a towering storm. This storm cloud dwarfed our plane considerably, threatening us with ripples of lightning up and down right before our eyes. Between Glimpses of Blue was commissioned in 2016 by a consortium of 15 university and high school wind ensembles headed by the Danh Pham and the Washington State University Symphonic Wind Ensemble. Published through Murphy Music Press Wind Ensemble (pic, 2fl, 2ob, 3cl, bs. cl, satb sax, 2bsn, 3trp, 4hn, 2trb, bs trb, euph, tuba, timp, 4 perc) Duration: 11:00 Grade Level: 5-6 Wanderings on the Divide is a very biographical piece that is tied to a time of my life in which I felt lost as composer and musician. Having moved from the Palouse in eastern Washington State (a region with a population below 100,000 people) to the D.C. metro, I longed for the flowing, expansive hills that I had come to call home for two years. Feeling lost and alone, I turned to my new surroundings. I would walk through the streets of Washington, D.C. with little or no direction, attempting to familiarize myself with the city; and on mountain trails in the Shenandoah Valley and George Washington Forest parks, looking for an escape from the developed world. I soon became fascinated by the extreme differences and similarities of both environments, and came to call these two a “digital” and a “natural” world. Premiered October 3, 2015 by the Hartt School Symphony Band and James Jackson in West Hartford, Connecticut Wind Ensemble (pic, 2fl, 2ob, 3cl, bs. cl, satb sax, 2bsn, 3trp, 4hn, 2trb, bs trb, euph, tuba, timp, 4 perc) Duration: 3:30 Grade Level: 5 Crossroads Fanfare is inspired by the actual crossroads of downtown Kansas City, Missouri; which at its height was one of the main transportation centers in the United States. Flourishing woodwinds, driving low brass, screaming horns, and a variety of musical ideas whiz in and out throughout the piece, emulating traffic moving through an intersection in one direction and another. Crossroads Fanfare was written for Steven Davis and the University of Missouri – Kansas City Wind Symphony in Summer 2014, and premiered October 23. Published through Murphy Music Press: Orchestra (2222, 4221, perc, strings) Duration: 5:00 Based on the stroboscopic effect commonly seen in car commercials in which a wheel's hubcap appears to be moving slower or even backwards which the wheel is moving forward, Blacktop Mirage exists between a fast, repetitive motion and a floating melody. With a middle-eastern flair these two ideas evolve around each other, leading the listener to moments of surprise and joy, but as with mirages they quickly disappear. (5:00) Premiere: January 28, 2012; Washington-Idaho Symphony, Pullman,WA Awards: Winner of the 2012 Washington-Idaho Symphony Young Artist Competition
Wanderings on the Divide (2014)
Soon after, I began to write what is now this piece with these two worlds in mind, but without any idea what it would ultimately become. Wanderings was written on-and-off for the next two years, and the original idea of two separate environments was eventually abandoned as a narrative. However, it is still possible to hear the digital sound - bright active, and highly rhythmic; and the natural – slow, meditative, and pensive. As the direction for the piece changed, I let the material come intuitively rather than systematically, just as in my own wanderings, resulting in sections of the piece that will lead the listener confidently forward, while others will do just the opposite and create confusion.
Ultimately, Wanderings on the Divide recalls much of the natural and man-made surroundings of my time in Washington State and Washington, D.C., and delves in the introspective nature of self-discovery that many share in their young-adulthood. Lastly, during this time I was reading quite a lot of poetry. One line by Walt Whitman particularly resonated with me: “Forever forward, Forever alive.”
Crossroads Fanfare (2014)
Blacktop Mirage (2011)
