March 10, 2013

COMPOSER’S VOICE

15 Composers and their one-minute selections for Anne Golberg

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  Tomorrow

  José Jesus de Azevedo Souza

  José Jesus de Azevedo Souza studied in England at the Purcell School with a scholarship from the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation. Then he studied at the Trinity College of Music and the Univerisity of Sheffield and has since had some of his music performed.

  Inspired by Shakespeare’s Macbeth (Act Five Scene Five) in which the protagonist meditates on Life; a short figure is presented, inverted, developed and broken. Following a brief climax reaching the instrument’s highest note, the meditative mood returns.

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  A Sentimental Reflection

  Sergey Badalov

  Sergey Badalov. I was born in a small town Dyatlovo, in Belarus.In the age of nine I started to take piano lessons. In 2009 I graduated from The Minsk’s State Musical College (musicology), 2009 – 2012 – I was studying composition at The Minsk’s State Academy of Music, prof Galina Gorelova'sclass. 2012+ - The Academy of Music in Bydgoszcz (Poland),prof Zbigniev Bargielski’s class.

  The piece's title says for itself - "A Sentimental Reflection" - one minute of memories, its emotional incarnation... The piece was written especially for Anne Goldberg and the ‘15-Minutes-of-Fame’ project.

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  Introspection

  Julius Bucsis

  Julius Bucsis is a composer, guitarist, music technologist, producer, and educator. He has performed extensively in many styles including jazz, rock, and improvisational music. His compositions cover a broad range of categories. His most recent activity involves performing a set of original compositions for electric guitar and live computer processing.

  I took a journey into my inner self and it inspired the ideas that formed this piece.

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  Samsara

  Jack Horowitz

  Jack Horowitz is an undergrad composer currently studying under George Brunner, but has also studied at La Schola Cantorum with Narcis Bonet. His musical goal is to find commonalities within all musical cultures through his experience in Classical, Acouto-Electric, Hindustani, Rock, Folk and Jazz musical Genres.

  : Samsara is the endless cycle of life, death and suffering of attachment which Buddhists attempt to escape from through meditation. This piece represents the struggle to resist those invasive thoughts.

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  Meditation in Mount Pelion

  George Kontogiorgos

  Renowned composer, with performances of his compositions in many European and North American countries. George Kontogiorgos is an award-winner of several International Composition Competitions, including the 1st Prize of the «Classical Marimba League», USA 2007 and a Honorable Mention from the “In 27 Pieces: The Hilary Hahn Encores” Contest, USA, 2012.

  Pelion mountain is the homeland of the legendary Centaurs. The panoramic view from Pelion to the surrounding forest and to the sea offers an ideal ambiance for meditation. The composition is a pastoral-like melody, based on the pentatonic scale and often reminiscent of the freely playing idiom of bucolic aulos (recording) or gaida (bagpipes).

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  English Horn Meditation

  David Lien

  David Lien was born in Seattle and is now getting his Bachelors in music composition from New England Conservatory of Music. He plays in various ensembles on piano, cello, oboe, clarinet, and saxophone. His compositions have been performed by the Seattle Symphony, Bellevue Youth Symphony and many others.

  When imaging meditation, I see a solitary tree; imagining the English Horn, I hear a woody forest quality. I structured this meditation in the same way one would draw a tree. The beginning starts with a trunk and rises to reveal its leaves. Finally, the quiet winds blows through the tree.

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  Múscailt

  Fiona Linnane

  Fiona Linnane is a composer based in the West of Ireland. She is a member of the Association of Irish Composers and is represented by the Contemporary Music Centre, Dublin.

  Múscailt (pronounced Moo-skulch) is an Irish word meaning awakening. The piece reflects on the moment you open your eyes after meditation when awareness is heightened, calmly noticing your surroundings in great detail but with a sense of calm detachment.

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  Ornament

  Iain Matheson

  Iain Matheson (1956 - ) Iain is Scottish. He graduated BMus from Glasgow University and now lives in Edinburgh. Iain's music typically explores aspects of time and memory. He has been performed throughout Britain, in mainland Europe and New Zealand. Further details of Iain's work can be found at: http://www.iainmatheson.co.uk

  Ornament
  
  A simple melody
  moving mainly in semitones:
  as it proceeds it finds ways
  to extend its range
  and decorate itself
  with grace notes and flourishes.
  
  IGM November 2012

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  Meditation

  Daniel Mihai

  My name is Daniel Mihai and I have studied with the Maestro and teachers like Serban Nichifor, Stefan Gheorghiu and a lot of great teachers of Romanian School of Music (National University of Music in Bucharest)! The first teacher in my life was my father who brings my special love to music and special to my first love- violine! I attended MBA courses in the Faculty of Performing Art, with the objective of improvement and assimilation of all knowledge related to contemporary music.I am teacher of violine in Constanta and also i play with pleasure this kind of music wherever! Also, I want to finish my final thesis soon as possible!

  For this composition i reach one of the meaning of the mood in the reason of the word of "meditation"! I compose a special line for the English Horn who is in my perception the most known and intimate instrument in whole world! This composition expresses also all the postmodern sense on this fancy instrument! I hope with this miniature to be a special one, remembering and also connecting the past with the future, only in this PRESENT day! The shorts moments are the best because what you feel in that moments is very exciting. The theme of appears like a remembering in the feelings and the skills of the English Horn tehniques and expressions in only 60 seconds.

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  Event

  Alex Nohai-Seaman

  Alex Nohai-Seaman’s music has recently been performed by professional ensembles throughout the United States, as well as in Israel, Canada, and Taiwan. Alex is currently Assistant Professor of Music at Suffolk County Community College, where he teaches music theory, composition, piano, and directs the contemporary music ensemble.

  Event was composed in December 2012 for Anne. H Goldberg and Vox Novus' Fifteen Minutes of Fame. The music was inspired by the poetry of August Stramm.

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  Mallaal

  Akmal Parwez

  While studying electronics in Tokyo on a Japanese Government scholarship, composer-vocalist Akmal Parwez studied composition with Yasushi Akutagawa and Klaus Pringsheim. After completing his university studies (B.E., M.E.), he felt compelled to devote his life to composing, singing and teaching music. In the U.S. he studied composition with Florence Jolley, Leo Kraft, Samuel Adler(M.A., Queens College; ,Ph.D., Eastman School of Music).

  The title 'Mallaal' means 'sadness' and 'regret'. It is written as a prayerful tribute to the brave 12-year-old Pakistani girl, Mallala Yousafzai, who almost lost her life for raising her voice against ignorance and bigotry. The melody is a meditation based on Raag Anand Bhairon, which depicts peace and serenity.

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  Hinaufziehen

  Richard Pressley

  Richard Pressley lives in Columbia, South Carolina and has enjoyed performances in the U.S. and Europe. He attended Butler University, Cambridge, and the University of Minnesota, with post-doctoral study in Germany. His instructors include Wolfgang Rihm, Sandeep Bhagwati, Dominick Argento, Judith Zaimont, Alex Lubet, Daniel Chua, Michael Schelle.

  Hinaufziehen (to pull up, to move up) is a short meditation that emerges from nothing, blossoms to a focal multiphonic sonority, then dissipates. The title is also a reference to an enigmatic oboe and english horn direction in movement four of Mahler’s Third Symphony where Nietzche’s poem speaks of joy longing for eternity.

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  Sarabande Meditation

  Greg A Steinke

  Dr. Greg A Steinke is retired, former Joseph Naumes Endowed Chair of Music/Art and Associate Dean of Undergraduate Studies, Marylhurst University, Marylhurst, Oregon; Associate Director, Ernest Bloch Music Festival (‘93–97) and Director, Composers Symposium (‘90–97) (Newport, OR); served as the National Chairman of the Society of Composers, Inc. (1988–97); President of NACUSA (2012–). Composer of chamber and symphonic music with published/recorded works and performances across the U. S. and internationally; and oboist specializing in contemporary music.

  A short "meditation" via a dance form sarabande

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  Terzo canto (omaggio a Edgard Varèse)

  Luca Vannesch

  Luca Vanneschi’s music was awarded prizes in more than twenty International competitions and it has been performed by some of the more qualified musicians all over the world. Hans Werner Henze said about his music: “… it is an intelligent, non conformist, elegant and full of grace music.”

  The aural drama isn’t the result of acrobatic and technically amazing multiplications of regular harmonic terms, but of unusual and unforeseeable itineraries. The music delimits itself in sections that follow one another, dissolving each customary form, each grammatical convention, each rigour of time: the sounds seem torn off their hinges, as though all the connections among them had been skipped. It’s a succession of scraps, of melodic and harmonic larvae that separate to give then birth to a new sound “corpus”, in search of further essentials dense of timbric grandeur, gradually taking up gradually the whole range of the instrument

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  Rêverie

  Jean-Pierre Vial

  Jean-Pierre Vial, French, born in 1946, former software designer. At an early age, learned the piano, the organ, and composed several pieces for both instruments. Now creates scores and audio mockups (e.g., two piano concertos) using computer resources. Pleased to be played by real performers.

  Rêverie, which sounds like an impromptu, is meant to help the audience relax, muse, or dream for a short while.