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SHEET MUSIC PLUS and J.W. Pepper.

CHORAL MUSIC

WE REMEMBER

SATB with Piano

The Mountainside Master Chorale commissioned me to write a work in the memory and honor of a long standing member of the Chorale from its inception who sang with the group for over 20 years and served all of us with integrity and distinction. I wrote my own lyrics, and thus the text refers specifically to him and his place in the life of the Chorale.

To afford a more universal use of the piece, alternate words are included in italics above and below the text to enable this piece to be used in any memorial situation. This work exists in both choral and solo voice/duet formats.

MY SOUL MAGNIFIES THE LORD

SATB a cappella

After beginning with the traditional third person perspective in Mary’s references to God, I take the liberty of moving the focus to that of an intensely personalized relationship. Whereas in the beginning of the poem she says, “My soul magnifies the Lord,” and later, “He will have mercy throughout all generations,” midway through the middle section I have her speak, “Holy is Your name,” and “You will have mercy throughout all generations.” In the return of the opening she talks directly to God with “My soul magnifies You, Lord, for You have done great things for me,” and continuing, “touched me with Your hand.” In my approach to this prayer I show that Mary, in her acceptance of and compliance with God’s will, has entered into an intense intimacy with her Lord in the depths of her soul.

WHO ARE YOU, MY LITTLE ONE?

SATB with Piano and Optional Oboe

I present the essentials of the Gospel narrative from Mary’s perspective, as though she were talking quietly to her newly born child to whom so much attention has been given by angels, shepherds, and foreign mystics. Each verse begins in the minor, but through a recurring refrain concludes in the relative major, representing Mary’s pensive state as she examines each occurrence on its own, and then gazes in love and wonder at the child in her arms.

DIE SEE STEHT NIMMER STILL

SATB with Piano

Mr. Henry Orloff was moved to write this lovely and stirring poem about the ocean as he contemplated the inexorable ebb and flow of the sea upon the shore. I wished to compose an art song for the poem that would fit equally well with the original German text and a workable English translation, so Henry, his daughter Edith, and I collaborated on the creation of a literal English text that matched the word placement and the syllabic stress of the German as well as the word stress in the resulting sentence structure of the respective languages.

The result is an English text that works exactly as the German does, and thus the music is identical for both languages. The original setting is an art song for soprano and piano premiered by myself and my Musical Partner in OPUS 2, Maria Del Pilar, who also sang it for Mr. Orloff with Edith accompanying for his 95th birthday. Subsequently I was asked by the Director of the Mountainside Master Chorale, Dr. Irene Messoloras, to produce a choral version of the song.

COME TO THE CHILD

SATB, Piano, and Strings

This choral medley is designed to be performed by a standard SATB chorus accompanied by piano and a small string orchestra. There is a vocal score for the choir to use which has a piano reduction of the full instrumental accompaniment. This vocal score could be used with piano alone for a perfectly fine performance when the resources do not allow for a string ensemble.

PIANO MUSIC

OUT OF TIME

Suite for Solo Piano

ANGERS - GLANCES - SECONDS - LONGINGS - VELOCITIES

This work derives its title from the fact that the entire score is notated without time signatures and clearly delineated measures. The goal is to lead the performer away from the tyranny of the bar line and strict rhythmic patterns. Rather, the music exists in longer or shorter groupings of notes which vary a great deal. Accidentals are applied to the notes they affect, and as there are no “measures’ as such, the traditional notation rules of sharps and flats and naturals are superceded by the simple concept of each note is a “natural” unless preceded by an accidental which affects only that particular note (and any note to which it is tied). I have indicated pedaling in places where the pedal should be used due to the fact that many of the coloristic effects of the music are dependent upon adherence to these markings.

OF ROSES

Suite for Solo Piano

ROSES IN THE DAWN – ROSES IN THE RAIN – ROSES IN THE WIND – ROSES IN THE NIGHT

The movements in this suite are all organized within a more traditional metrical, harmonic, and melodic reference, although the sense of tonality, while fairly definite most of the time, is often deliberately ambiguous.

ODYSSEY VIOLIN CONCERTO

FULL SCORE

Solo Violin and String Orchestra

While this three movement work follows a narrative program of sorts, it nonetheless is structured much like a traditional solo concerto vehicle in which the solo instrument is contrasted with tutti sections wherein the full accompanying ensemble carries the important musical argument completely on its own, or with the solo instrument embellishing the sonority of the larger forces with important idiomatic contributions.

The string orchestra plays so often with each section divided that I utilized a two stave format for each of the traditional string sections except the contrabass.

ODYSSEY – SOLO VIOLIN PART

The Solo Violin part is expectedly virtuosic but also very expressive and lyrical. The moments of contrast between the solo instrument's presence in the predominant musical idea and the sections wherein the main musical thought is expressed by the sonority of the accompanying string orchestra provides relief for both the soloist and the audience and keeps the musical experience exciting and full of expectation. This technique is also rooted in the origins of the concerto structure as evidenced by the Baroque Concerto Grosso which relied mainly on the contrast between the larger ensemble and the solo instrument or instruments.

A WOMAN'S LOVE

PART ONE: LOVE IS LIFE

Soprano and Piano

This work owes its inspiration to the superb performance by Maria Del Pilar of what ultimately became the third movement, an art song titled To Know, which I had adapted from a choral piece I had written in response to the passing of my own father when I could not be there when it happened. Hearing her sing it with so much feeling made me realize that it needed to be the concluding section in a multi-movement work, and thus was born the idea to create a libretto out of other poetry by Emily Dickinson to celebrate a meaningful and joyous Love between a Woman and her great Love only to see him march off to war overseas and ultimately meet his end in a far away land.

The first movement is the celebration of this truly beautiful relationship of love.

A WOMAN'S LOVE

PART TWO: OH, GOD...HE WENT AS SOLDIERS

The second movement begins with the call to war and the departure of the Woman's Love to travel overseas to engage in battle. Her worst fears are realized and she ever so sensitively feels her husband's death in her mind and soul as vividly as though she were there witnessing it.

A WOMAN'S LOVE

PART THREE: LOVE THAT MEETS IN ETERNITY

In the third movement the Woman wonders what her Love's last moments of life were like, and eventually experiences peace in the release of him whom she held so dear but with the comforting hope of reunion in Eternity.

WORLD WITHOUT WAR

I. TAKE FROM US OUR HATE

SATB with String Orchestra

This 20 minute three movement work is my answer to the tragic events of 9/11. I had visited Ground Zero in New York City and attended a daily morning Prayer Service in St. Paul's Chapel across the boulevard from the World Trade Center (George Washington had a pew reserved in this church!). It miraculously survived the fallout from the dust and debris that spread everywhere with the collapse of the Twin Towers.

St. Paul's became the center for comfort and counseling for all the volunteer workers who came from around the world to help in the aftermath. During the service I found a pamphlet containing prayers from 12 major world religions which were contributed to an international peace conference held in Assisi, Italy, in 1986. I found that these prayers naturally grouped themselves into three groups of four each by the sharing of a common focus. I homogenized the English for consistency and better flow and went to work creating this fervent appeal for guidance in bringing peace to our troubled world.

WORLD WITHOUT WAR

II. TEACH US TO LOVE

WORLD WITHOUT WAR

iii. grant us peace

ORCHESTRAL MUSIC

OCEAN OF POSSIBILITIES

String Orchestra

The ocean, so full of life, so capable of fury and power as well as tranquility, so beautiful to contemplate––the ocean in its inexorable movement of waves and currents engaged my imagination as a young man and never let go. In this work I strove to capture the ebb and flow of the unceasing yet never the same rhythmic pulse of the sea when it breaks upon the shore. The lyricism that floats above this constant movement of the water represents the potential of the ocean for sustenance, for comfort, for inexorable force and power, for infinite calm and peacefulness.

IN THE MEMORY OF

Chamber Orchestra: Flute, Oboe, Harp, Solo Cello, Strings

This piece is adapted from a choral work titled To Know, which is a setting of a poem by Emily Dickinson in which the First Person Narrator wonders what the last day and hours were for a Loved One who had died far away. The choral version was my response to that very situation with the passing of my father. Later it became an art song and that version became the inspiration for and the third movement of my Theatre Piece for Soprano, A Woman's Love, which addresses the same situation in terms of a Woman who loses her great Love to the destructiveness of war.

In this instrumental form the music serves as a remembrance of the presence that lost Loved Ones had in our lives. This piece was premiered in Lodon at the Royal College of Music by Musique Sur La Mer under the direction of my dear friend Marcy Sudock.

HEART OF DARKNESS

A SYMPHONIC VISION OF THE SHORT NOVEL BY JOSEPH CONRAD

Large Orchestra: 3,3,3,3 / 4,3,3,1 / Timpani / Percussion / Piano / Harp / Strings

This is a 13 minute orchestral tone poem inspired by Joseph Conrad's novella exposing the atrocities being committed in the Belgian Congo at the turn of the 20th century. It generally follows the narrative of the Conrad story.

LORD JIM

A NARRATVE FOR LARGE ORCHESTRA FROM THE NOVEL BY JOSEPH CONRAD

Large Orchestra: Piccolo,2,3,3,3 / 4,3,3,1 / Timpani / Percussion (3 Players) / Piano / Harp / Strings

This symphonic tone poem based on the Joseph Conrad novel is in three movements which correspond to the major event groupings in the story. Lord Jim was my first introduction to the writings of Conrad and the wondrous vision he conjures up of the Far East and the cross over from sail to steam in the commerce of the world in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Conrad himself rose high enough in the British Merchant Marine to obtain his Mate's Certificate. It is worth noting that the author was born in Poland, and English was his fourth language and the one in which he wrote so idiomatically of the sea and those who sailed upon it.

CHRISTMAS FOR CHAMBER ORCHESTRA

CHRISTMAS OVERTURE

Chamber Orchestra: 1,1,1,1 / 2,1,1 / Timpani + Percussion (3 Players total) / Harp / Strings (6,6,4,4,2)

This is one of a series of arrangements for a 34-piece chamber orchestra modeled after the type of "light orchestra" featured by conductors/arrangers in the 1950s and 1960s such as Percy Faith, Mantovani, and George Melachrino. This gives the music the full-bodied tone of a full string section without overpowering wind and brass sections. The resulting balance is very pleasant while allowing for plenty of color and variety and richness. And it is highly economical when budgets are a concern.

silent night

Harp, Solo Violin, and Strings

This setting of the famous traditional Carol is an adaptation of my choral arrangement. The choral lines worked wonderfully well in the sonorities of a string orchestra.