MUSIC FOR DANCE
This page focuses on the choreographer collaborations for each work; see the pages for chamber music, solo, vocal, etc, for more info about the musical writing. Please note that even though these works were written for dance, new performances with choreography will still require a grand rights license.
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. By the end, one of the clowns is left downstage and the other wanders, Petrouchka-like, as a ghost, so the closing music is tender but distant.
Split Suite, for solo cello (2022)
This was originally a score for a dance work with choreographer PeiJu Chien-Pott, for cellist Jeffrey Zeigler. PeiJu called her dance SPLIT, so I called the music Split Suite, even though it’s not a suite in the sense of being excerpts from a larger work. The process was a bit disjointed, as many of the rehearsals conflicted with my guest spot with New York City Ballet, so I missed more of the process than usual and had to create music to catch up with the choreography—somehow, it all came together and worked surprisingly well. PeiJu’s concept for the two dance characters used Pac-Man as an image, in the sense that they constantly consume as they move. I didn’t really have this image until after the fact, so I operated more from her unique, stylized movement vocabulary.
The Subject, for solo piano (2022)
Written for Periapsis Music and Dance and choreographer Evita Zacharioglou, The Subject follows the journey of a creepy and mechanical character who seems to have been created in a lab. In the full dance work, which runs about 11 minutes, my piano score begins several minutes into the piece, following an electronic score by a different composer, and is absorbed into the electronic sound a bit before the end. Evita created an eerie mood throughout, using her penchant for creating not-quite-human characters and distorted versions of commonplace actions, like a German Expressionist film.
Unbeknownst, for viola and piano (2022)
My second collaboration with choreographer Gabrielle Lamb, Unbeknownst is characterized by big, emotional builds that almost mask the labyrinthine structure. It was inspired by Ben Loory’s short story “The Rope and the Sea,” which conjures images of water, death, doppelgangers, and circular time. Gabrielle and I had to devise a formal design that would keep both the music and movement straight as we created the piece more or less simultaneously. The resultant work is intricate and expressive, with a dark, overwhelming climax.
Supported by a commissioning grant from the O’Donnell-Green Music and Dance Foundation and a project grant from New Music USA.
Façade, for solo flute (2021)
A 4-minute character study, Façade was originally written for dancing flutist and was choreographed by Zara Lawler. It could conceivably be reworked for the flutist and dancer as different people, likely requiring new choreography.
Link to purchase score: hard copy
To Take You There, for soprano, cello, and singing dancer (2021)
A setting of Andrea Cohen’s long(ish) poem Live Girls, this work for soprano and cello can be tailored for different performance situations. In its full realization it is a stage work to include a dancer who (occasionally and optionally) sings as well, with both soprano and dancer choreographed in the space. However, it is easily adapted to smaller spaces and has a few general blocking indications in the score. It was first realized by choreographer Alia Kache with Periapsis Music and Dance and was intended to support a range of choreographic settings. The soprano serves as the poetic speaker but also embodies the character of the famous poet described in the poem. This poet is attempting to give a lecture on important subjects (like death) but is constantly interrupted by sounds from the figure drawing studio upstairs, where students shuffle their desks around the live model (embodied by the dancer). The scene appears almost farcical at times, but as both soprano and dancer shift between different characters and images, the narrative unfolds into a tender realization.
Ipseities, for solo piano (2020–2021)
The 24 Ipseities were an early pandemic-era exercise in connection. Each work represents a collaboration with a different choreographer, most of whom I had not worked with before. Some took the shape of dance films (as a feasible method of sharing work during the shutdown), some made their way to the stage, and some collaborations were never publicly realized. The pieces vary wildly in style and mood as I made the attempt with each one to meet the choreographer where they were artistically and emotionally at that particular moment in time. Eighteen of them were written in 2020 and the remaining six in 2021, and they range from about 3 to about 9 minutes in length, with the full set around two hours of music.
Elle ne m'aime pas, for piano and singing dancer (2019)
An over-the-top theatrical scene with the singing dancer as a self-absorbed, alcoholic cabaret singer and the pianist as her long-suffering partner. The first section is the “performance,” a slinky tango with French and Italian texts from famous operas (though with my tunes), which in Hannah Weber’s choreography includes such absurdities as the pianist pouring a glass of wine into the dancer’s mouth with one hand while continuing to play with the other. After a silent pantomime section, we have a more introverted domestic scene, where we get into the characters’ inner lives. After a wrenching climax, they reconnect at the piano for a tender reconciliation.
Encaged, for solo piano (2018)
Encaged is a 7- to 8-minute character study with choreography by Erin Dillon (who also originated the role). It maintains a meticulous but unsettled quality throughout, which eventually overflows into an emotional display before an austere coda.
Epoch, for clarinet, viola, and piano (2018)
An large-scale piece that follows a group of friends over a period of time, Epoch, with choreography by Erin Dillon, was the most extended exploration of dancer/musician interaction we had done in Periapsis Music and Dance to date. The dancers are usually broken into pairs, sometimes with one or more of the musicians moving with them around the stage, often while playing. While there are numerous passages of detailed movement and/or music, the work also allows space and time to experience images and relationships in the moment. About 27 minutes total, structured as a set of variations.
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 and had very little to do with the dance. 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)
An eccentric work with choreographer Hannah Weber for Periapsis Music and Dance. A series of vignettes with considerable musician/dancer interaction and vivid images that came from odd dancer relationships, it was a chance to experiment and explore and grow as artists. Less emotive but perhaps more curious than many of my other works. About 22 minutes long.
Imminence, for violin, clarinet, and percussion (2017)
In five movements, for Periapsis Music and Dance and choreographer Erin Dillon on the theme of an unavoidable, looming catastrophe. The original image was that of time appearing to slow down as bodies come closer and closer to a black hole, so the work was structured to arrive at that image at the end, with dancers distracted by their own struggles beforehand. 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. Some sections were choreographed by Erin Dillon and some by Hannah Weber (including different groups of dancers moving simultaneously), and by some miracle the piece came together despite their very different movement styles. As a fragment, it suggests various moods and relationships without having a chance to develop them, but they make for vivid images.
Reflection, for solo piano (2015)
A collaboration with choreographer Kate Skarpetowska as part of The Portrait Project, for Periapsis Music and Dance. It starts with a silent prologue with the dancer and pianist moving together at the bench, as though mirror images of each other exploring the creative process. The music begins with a bang, and the dancer flies to center stage with a shimmering, athletic display that continues through most of the piece. At her moment of exhaustion, she returns to the piano and abruptly cuts off the music by physically tossing the pianist’s arms from the keyboard. From there we enter a slow passacaglia around the piano bench, where the dancer and pianist eventually trade places.
Twine, for solo viola (2015)
A collaboration with choreographer Manuel Vignoulle as part of The Portrait Project, for Periapsis Music and Dance. When I first sat down with Manuel about this project, he immediately wanted to know if the dancer would be able to lift the violist. I didn’t know at the time, but that did end up in the piece, along with numerous other examples of intertwining the two performers and creating a unique (and bizarre) relationship between them. Manuel’s choreography is virtuosic and generous, and the work, though only 6-7 minutes long, is a tour de force.
Escape Velocity, for solo percussion (2015)
A collaboration with choreographer Seán Curran as part of The Portrait Project, for Periapsis Music and Dance. The process of developing Escape Velocity began with astronomical images (similar to what eventually became Imminence) but ended up evoking more of a ritualistic rite of passage. It alternates between slow, gestural sections and fast ostinatos with a lot of movement.
Anima, for cello and piano (2015)
An early collaboration with choreographer Erin Dillon, this work began our experiments with integrating the musicians into the movement, from having the dancers manipulate the cellist’s head to the pianist stepping away from the instrument. It creates a dreamlike scene and has some strong images but in retrospect isn’t quite a finished work.
Too Close for Contact, for violin, clarinet, and percussion (2015)
An early work for Periapsis Music and Dance and choreographer Hannah Weber. The work was a reflection on the fact that, in a big city like New York, we are so constantly in the presence of other people that we often neglect to really see them. A frequent image is that of everybody doing their own thing or relating to one another only mindlessly, though there is a “fantasy sequence” that realizes unexplored connections.
Laid upon the children, for mixed septet (2014)
Written for a dance by Leigh Schanfein that juxtaposed comedy and tragedy by focusing on the masked ball and tomb scenes from Romeo and Juliet, this piece has the feeling of a suite. After some short, Stravinskian introductory scenes, the ball scene is dominated by pretend swing music and pretend swing dancing (interrupted by the emotional whirlwind of the doomed pair meeting one another). It shifts immediately into the tomb, with sparser textures, emotional outbursts, and an extended cello solo that corresponded with the corpse duet in the choreography. Despite the abbreviated story, the intensity of the closing duet strikes a nerve.
Trace, for solo piano (2013)
One of my early works for dance, Trace was a collaboration with choreographer Hee Ra Yoo where I wrote music for existing choreography and we ended up meeting in the middle. The dancer seems to play some sort of doll or robot that comes to life, pushes at the boundaries of its own existence, and eventually reverts back to an inert state. Virtuosic for both performers.
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. The Latin title roughly translates to “it grows as it goes,” and we wanted to begin with extreme slowness, basically a stasis, and gradually build speed through the piece. The work is episodic, and the choreography allowed for each dancer to be featured, while the other dancers often just sit and watch onstage.
Passacaglia, for mixed sextet (2012)
Challenging chamber music with an intricate duet between two dancers, this was my first collaboration with choreographer Erin Dillon.
Crux, for clarinet, percussion, and string sextet (2012)
Crux creates a palpable emotional arc and soloistic parts, with memorable vignettes and a hushed. otherworldly coda. Each instrument (excerpt the percussion) is tied to a particular dancer in Leigh Schanfein’s choreography, so the parts have sharply drawn character profiles. It has been performed multiple times with dance but never fully staged in a dance theater.
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. Choreographer Leigh Schanfein responded by creating movement where the dancers never quite come to life but nevertheless careen around the stage (and each other) in an accident-prone marionette dance.