Walking Backwards Away



A piece written about regret, remorse and moving on. Rich textures in the opening give way to slowly lumbering melodies in a pensive 5/4 meter. Interrupted occasionally by forays into a quicker 6/8 meter, which represents a change of outlook, the 5/4 melodies often return, moving through seemingly random harmonies, as though reflecting on memories and trying to accept the painful necessity of change while simultaneously searching for new understanding.

This recording is one that I commissioned in 2008. The performers are Amanda Hughes, Ashley (White) Baldini, Laura (Pollard) Payne, and David Covert.

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Death of September



Summer days all too quickly pass and leave bittersweet memories. The opening of this piece features a playful, spirited melody and a mingling texture comprised of two overlapping time signatures (9/8 and 4/4). Just as the rhythms are at their most complex, the piece grinds to a halt. September has ended. The piano, alone now, reflects on the passing of that last month of beautiful summer weather. As the violin re-enters the rhythms slowly become more syncopated in an attempt to mimic the opening melody in a new setting as we would reminisce about summer and try to regain those moments.

This is a recording that I commissioned in the summer of 2008. The performers are Michael Cummings, Violin, Matthew Quayle, piano.

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Of Slowly Falling Rain and Autumn Chill



This piece began as a compositional exercise where I would concentrate on a single musical interval, originally major seventh. I derived several melodic ideas from this and eventually went on to incorporate the inversion of this interval, a minor second, as another element of the melody. Further expanding, I included intervals that were seven semitones apart or a fifth. By this time I had the theme for this piece, a slow halting melody in 7/8 time and decided to create a fantasia on that theme. In the contrasting section I focus on minor sevenths and major seconds and eventually expand to the use of minor ninths, an even more haunting interval. The bulk of the composition was written while sitting indoors on a rainy, gloomy autumn afternoon, hence the title, which, by pure happy accident, is seven words long.

This is from a recording that I commissioned in the summer of 2008. The performers are Laura Kaufman, flute, Jon Salter, clarinet in b flat, Jesse Welborn, bass clarinet in b flat, Lisa Gattuso, violin I, Megan Morris, violin II, Christen Blanton, viola, Michael Way, cello.

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