Composer
These four piano pieces are for my nephew, Alexander Jay “A.J.” Parker. I took the first four letters in Alex and used them as inspiration for the modes of each of the movements. Modes are scales that are less commonly used than major or minor. All of these modes use the same key signature (that …
I composed this work in February 2011 as part of the RPM Challenge which requires musicians to compose and record either 10 tracks or 35 minutes of music during the shortest month of the year. My goal was to write a single 35 minute long composition for piano and electronics but something that would be …
In January of 2009 I started writing a chamber piece. As the music unfolded, I kept changing the scoring, changing the instrumentation, etc. and was never happy with the way it was working. Eventually, I realized the piece was a really a piano piece. I wrote on the manuscript paper: THIS IS A PIANO PIECE. …
This is a three movement work for ethnic flute soloist and fixed electronics. Each movement is based on a dream that I remember (I rarely remember dreams). This is a live performance done by Laura Patterson at Electronic Music Midwest in 2010. 1. Spider The first dream I remember was when I was 5 or …
The title of the work refers to the Pioneer 10 satellite launched in the 1970s. Pioneer 10 became the first man-made object to leave our solar system and in 2003 NASA finally lost contact with the satellite. Pioneer 10, as far as we know, is not broken or damaged. Even though the satellite was built …
I have always been moderately baffled by the horn. I’ve known a lot of horn players, too, and that hasn’t really helped me become un-baffled. This work is a short two movement piece (a tiny sonatina) which I think should speak for itself. The first movement is slow and moribund, the second is bouncy and …
Mercurial is a journey that highlights the soloist’s ability to blend into a wide variety of sonic landscapes. The piece begins with low droning flute sounds and once the soloist is comfort- able in that setting, the scene changes abruptly. Noisy beats take over the piece and push the soloist to adapt to the new …