WORKS FOR SMALL CHAMBER ENSEMBLES
This page includes works of mine for 2–5 players, including several that were written originally for dance.
Escapades, for clarinet, cello, and piano (2023)
Kindly commissioned by the Charles and Joan Gross Family Foundation, Escapades was the last piece I composed for Periapsis Music and Dance, and the organization closed before a full premiere with dance was possible. Choreographer Evita Zacharioglou proposed a scene that featured a clown double-act, to include both the playful stage antics and a more vicious behind-the-scenes relationship, so the music strongly evokes tropes like the tango and the waltz, bookended by more ominous material. The piece is quite fun to play, and somehow (I think) ultimately comes across as a serious piece despite much of its run time working against this impression. About 10.5 minutes long.
Unbeknownst, for viola and piano (2022)
Originally written for dance, Unbeknownst is also a concert duo on a scale of a single-movement sonata (16 minutes). It’s characterized by big, emotional builds that almost mask the labyrinthine structure, with a genuine passacaglia towards the end. At climactic moments, the piano sound becomes a tidal wave and overwhelms the viola, but there are quietly spooky and even tender sections as well. A considerable challenge for both players.
Supported by a commissioning grant from the O’Donnell-Green Music and Dance Foundation and a project grant from New Music USA.
You were of that light, for violin (or viola or cello) and piano (2022)
Commissioned by family and friends of Georgia Marriott to commemmorate the 20th anniversary of her passing (at age 21, while studying violin at Indiana University), this work begins in a lyrical vein, gets more playful when recalling memories of Georgia, and eventually is subsumed into an entirely different type of music. The work was commissioned to have versions for violin, viola, and cello, and the piano part is identical in all three. The title comes from a passage from Krishnamurti’s Notebook. About 8 minutes, difficult but not as challenging as many of my other works.
Berceuse, for violin and piano (2021)
It is a berceuse, as the title offers, but perhaps only at times. When the “lullaby theme” arrives, first about a minute in and a few times thereafter, it serves perhaps to discharge the energy and forgive the emotions that had been building up. The work requires considerable virtuosity from both performers, and the sort of lyricism and careful ear for harmony that is usually applied to older repertoire. About 9 minutes long.
Commissioned by violinist Emily Popham Gillins.
Fugue, for violin, viola, and piano (2020)
Commissioned by the Renard Trio right before they disbanded, for me this piece was both a compositional exploration and perhaps a reflection of early pandemic uncertainty. A double fugue, about 6.5 minutes long.
Crescive Waltzes, for piano duet (2018)
It’s a rare opportunity to be commissioned by two of your mentors, and I’m tremendously grateful to Ursula Oppens and Jerome Lowenthal for making this piece happen. The first idea I presented to them was a passacaglia on CARTER-CORTOT, referencing musicians who were mentors to each of them. They liked that but also were interested in a light dance suite for four hands, along the lines of Barber’s Souvenirs. That seemed a bit out of my wheelhouse, but I’m good at waltzes, so I wrote a suite of five movements from which waltzes emerge in different ways during each one. The original passacaglia idea became the fourth movement. Challenging ensemble playing, but it gets easier as it goes along. About 12 minutes total.
Epoch, for clarinet, viola, and piano (2018)
An admittedly strangely structured piece, but it comes out of the plan for the choreography in its original incarnation with Periapsis Music and Dance. Overall, it is set up as an introduction, theme, variations, and coda, but the theme and first few variations are for solo piano, some of the other variations are for two of the three instruments, and the whole ensemble plays together only rarely. One variation references Schubert’s E-flat-major piano trio because I happened to notice a parallel, and another is a nearly minimalistic meditation on a short motive. A very virtuosic piano part and challenging chamber music generally. Just under a half hour.
Supported by a commissioning grant from the O’Donnell-Green Music and Dance Foundation.
String Quartet (2017)
My first string quartet was a commission from choreographer Sarah Berges, but aside from talking with her about some general ideas, I basically treated it as a concert work. Thornier than much of my work but very tightly constructed, it requires an experienced ensemble to sustain the sense of line through challenging textures, detailed rhythmic relationships, and virtuosic writing. Two movements over about 16–17 minutes, the second movement gradually builds to a fiery allegro before melting away.
Noesis, for viola, cello, and piano (2017)
I’ve forgotten the meaning of the title in the context of the original choreography with Periapsis Music and Dance. But what remains in the music is a structure that allowed for the musicians to interact with the dancers, including occasional moments where the placement on the piano keys connects to movement at the piano bench or around the instrument. This may be one of my more puzzling works, and I honestly don’t know how it would come across as a concert piece, but as a chamber score for dance it was a chance to experiment and explore. About 22 minutes long in several movements.
Imminence, for violin, clarinet, and percussion (2017)
In five movements, originally for Periapsis Music and Dance on the theme of an unavoidable, looming catastrophe, this is a very challenging work that attemps to evoke a larger ensemble. Longer passages of driving rhythms than in most of my music. Virtuoso writing for all instruments, intricate chamber music, and some tricky balance issues. About 16 minutes long.
Latency Fragment, for violin, clarinet, and piano (2016)
This was intended as an opening scene in an evening-length dance work that ultimately never happened, but it was performed by Periapsis Music and Dance as a work-in-progress in 2016. As it stands, it works fairly well as a short trio (7.5 minutes), with a tentative opening, a tender middle section, and an aggressive finish. In fact, it will probably be more successful as a concert work, where the ensemble difficulties are less pronounced.
Anima, for cello and piano (2015)
One of my earlier works for Periapsis Music and Dance, it was experimental (for me) in terms of coordinating the creative process with the choreographer, and doesn’t quite feel finished. Some of the episodes work, but the piece as a whole doesn’t quite cohere. It may be a candidate for future revision and the creation of a concert version, but the piece as it stands is about 17 minutes long.
Too Close for Contact, for violin, clarinet, and percussion (2015)
An early work for Periapsis Music and Dance and (I think) more successful than my later work for the same trio, Imminence. This one is lighter and nimbler, in three movements of slow-fast-slow (about 10.5 minutes total). Some beautiful moments in the slow movement, but consistent virtuosity required in the outer movements, with tricky metric modulations.
Crescit eundo, for piano quartet (2012)
This was my first work for Periapsis Music and Dance, though the dancers who performed it were actually from choreographer Sarah Mettin’s company. It is also an effective and compact piano quartet in one movement (about 12 minutes) that begins in near stasis and gradually gains velocity through a series of metric modulations. The viola part is the most virtuosic (with a cadenza!), but the piece as a whole is challenging chamber music. One of my few works to end with a bang.
Marionettenfädendurcheinanderwalzer, for flute, oboe, violin, cello, and piano (2011)
This was my very first work for dance, and I ran with the idea of jumbled, quasi-Viennese waltzes as though the puppeteers controlling the marionettes were a bit drunk on the job. It’s short (6 minutes), fun, and not too challenging, though it does require flexible ensemble playing. Note that this is technically “version 2” of this piece, which was first for sextet (with guitar and mandolin in place of the piano) and later for piano 4- and 2-hands. This version is the most successful.
I came up with the ridiculous German title with some help from legendary tenor Robert White, amazing-if-not-quite-legendary tenor Chris Lysack, and Arnold Greissle-Schönberg, grandson of you-know-who.
Fantasy, for flute and bass (2011)
This 10-minute duo was a student work and an (intentional) exercise in incompatibility between the two instruments as characters. It was premiered at the time, but I now see it as monstrously over-written, requiring some revision and rethinking. However, it does show some coordination between theatrical/emotional arc and harmonic language that I was able to use to better effect in other pieces.
Romance on D and A, for flute and piano (2011)
A few months after I moved to NYC from Chicago, I went back to Chicago for a weekend for the wedding of my friends Amy and David. That was the occasion for writing this piece, which besides working their initials into the structure also became an experiment in tetrachords. On the surface, however, the piece is a lovely and playful nocture and suited its purpose as a wedding present. About 3.5 minutes long, with a couple tricky spots but generally not so rough.
Three Sketches on Paintings by Regina Guerrero, for flute, clarinet, violin, cello, and piano (2010)
In 2010, I was still at the point where I would write pieces for composition competitions, a practice that is thankfully less common today. In the case of my song cycle Talking of Michelangelo, I won the competition. In this case of this piece, I did not. But the work, in three short movements (about 7 minutes total) ended up being performed by a few different ensembles. True to the title, each movement is based on a different painting by my friend Regina, with details of movement or color represented in the structure of the music. Very effective as chamber music, but deceptively challenging (a conductor helps a lot).