Music Plain and Simple

Mostly because I love this slick MP3 player my friend Steve turned me on to and assisted in installing on my blog, I've decided to post a few more examples of my music from the days of undergrad. If you search by category (to the right ===>) you can skip back to two other more recent works I have posted by clicking on "music" articles and having a listen.

This piece is one of the oldest in my library and goes back to I think my sophomore year in undergad (scary that is seems so long ago; 1999-2000). It is the second movement of my first string quartet as read and performed by the Cuarteto Latinoamericano. I really like what I did with this piece even looking back on it today. It is definitely ripe with the qualities of a "student" work, but I think it contributed a great deal to my exploring tonality and sonority and shaped what is becoming my current musical vocabulary.



This next piece is my second string quartet, written the following year and selected as the winner of the Harry Archer Memorial Scholarship (a commission of $1,000 granted to the most virtuous string quartet). This recording is of the world premiere played by the Cuarteto. It gained me my first write up in the Pittsburgh Post Gazette (that links to the actual article!) and was a very intimidating premiere as my piece was nestled between George Crumb's "Black Angels" and a passionate string quartet written by then head of the school Alan Fletcher. I think this piece exhibits a real development in my style, have a listen.



This last example is the full recording of the premiere of my orchestra piece, a requirement of all CMU composition students and a very exciting opportunity! In the end, I didn't spend nearly enough time writing it (I woke up the day it was due and arranged all my notes and sketches form beginning to end in about 8 hours) and what you hear here is nothing more than a large chamber piece played by too many instruments. To anyone wondering, that does not make it an "orchestra piece" as my disappointment is rooted in my neglecting to take advantage of all the possibilities available to me in writing for orchestra. Lucky for me, CMU decided to take me back, so I will have a second chance... in the end I think this is an okay piece with some very nice moments, though my aesthetic has changed considerably since this piece rolled off my printer. This recording is very quiet for some reason, so you'll have to pump the volume or put on some headphones...



Leave some comments and let me know what you think!