Chamber Music

Bloom

Bloom

Bloom is a theme and variations. The main theme is a habanera-esque melody in full sun. The framing variations shrink and stretch both by melodic interval and rhythm.

Carnival of the Macabre

	I. Pursuit
	II. Lost in the Ease
	III. Signs of Hitch

Carnival of the Macabre is written in an experimental style that incorporates elements of popular and traditional music. The form is most directly derived from popular song format, with its linked verses and repeated refrains. The harmonic language is based on a scale comprised mostly of alternating whole and half steps, with a step and a half between the fifth and six degrees, which produces a distinct tonal flavor. Each section contains only three chords in this scalar pattern. A tonic movement of a fifth links the movements.

It's Not a Sonata

It's Not a Sonata

This duet, with the composer in absentia on the CD, is the result of further exploration of the electro-acoustic medium. The piece capitalizes on the technical in interpretive advantages and limitations of acoustic and electronic instruments.

The Butterfly Disaster

	I. Milkweed
	II. St. Valentine's Day
	III. Canopy

Each year millions of monarch butterflies migrate from Canada to take sanctuary in the deep forests of Mexico, just in time for the Day of the Dead. In early 2002 a severe frost coupled with the effects of illegal logging resulted in the death of at least 270 million butterflies.

The Butterfly Disaster explores the conflict and resolution of man and nature. Man-made instruments (electric bass and metals) blend with and confront natural materials (wood and reed). The synthetic patterns of popular music interact with a naturally evolving minimalist structure based on the Fibonachi series.

The first movement confers the importance of the milkweed bush, a poisonous plant to all species except the butterflies who lay their eggs on shrub. The second movement remarks on the carnage of the butterflies, which in some places lay more than a foot deep for miles. The last movement realizes the slow rebuilding of the forest canopy by both natural and artificial means.

The Velvet Handcuffs

The Velvet Handcuffs

There are three main motives in The Velvet Handcuffs. They encircle each other, transform and meld together in this free-form quasi-latin minimalist piece.