The .mp3 files, with the exception of portrait.mp3, offered for download on this page are licensed under a Creative Commons License.
The .mp3 files, with the exception of portrait.mp3, offered for download on this page are licensed under a Creative Commons License.
Portrait of Christ is the most commercial of the pieces presented here. In the Fall of 2000, I was asked by my friend John Hergenrather to compose background music for a video he was producing for his church. The video features a montage of different icons of Christ from antiquity forward and was created to promote an upcoming series of sermons.
The music divides into three main sections and reflects influences as diverse as electronic dance music and Renaissance counterpoint.
ListenAll of the sounds in this piece were created from a recording of my finger running along the edge of a large trifle bowl. Realized in Digidesign ProTools at the University of Notre Dame, Lux Aeterna uses serial techniques to rotate through a Lydian hexachord based on G. The rotational scheme is drawn from the end word organization of the poetic form known as a Sestina.
The goal of this piece is to create a sense of the sacred that facilitates contemplative prayer and communion with God. My choice of serial technique and sestina form reflect my desire to create a piece in which time seems suspended and the eternal breaks through. It is my hope that Lux Aeterna will one day serve as a meaningful part of many services of worship.
Although the piece is complete as it stands, further plans for Lux Aeterna include a fifteen minute version that more fully explores the implications of serial organization.
ListenThis piece was realized entirely in the analog domain in 1995 as a project for the Introduction to Electronic Music course taught by Dr. Leonard V. Ball at The University of Georgia. I designed a patch for each voice of the fugue on the ARP synthesizers and then separately recorded each voice of the fuge to a Tascam 8 track reel to reel tape recorder. In order to preserve intonation between the voices, I used a Korg digital tuner to tune each synthesizer patch to A440. I also recorded each voice against a click track at half speed and one octave below written pitch in order to keep everything rhythmically precise and at a reasonable tempo for my performance skills. (My primary instrument is trombone.) The final mix was recorded from the Tascam 8 track to a Revox 2 track reel to reel tape recorder at 7.5 ips. When played back on the Revox recorder at 15 ips, the fugue sounded at written pitch and the proper tempo.
In 2003, the fugue was digitally mastered for the web and CD in Digital Performer 3.0.
ListenWritten under Dr.
Roger Vogel at The University of
Georgia, Horsemen! is a five movement work for trombone choir inspired
by St. John's vision of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse in the book
of Revelation. I am incredibly grateful to Dr. Philip
Jameson and The
University of Georgia Trombone Choir who premiered this piece in
1995.
Click a movement below to listen:
Now I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seals; and I heard one of the four living creatures saying with a voice like thunder, "Come and see." And I looked, and behold, a white horse. He who sat on it had a bow; and a crown was given to him, and he went out conquering and to conquer. —Rev. 6:1-2
Click to listen: Conquering and to Conquer
When He opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature saying, "Come and see." Another horse, fiery red, went out. And it was granted to the one who sat on it to take peace from the earth, and that people should kill one another; and there was given to him a great sword. —Rev. 6:3-4
Click to listen: War
When He opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature say, "Come and see." So I looked, and behold, a black horse, and he who sat on it had a pair of scales in his hand. And I heard a voice in the midst of the four living creat ures saying, "A quart of wheat for a denarius, and three quarts of barley for a denarius; and do not harm the oil and the wine." —Rev. 6:5-6
Click to listen: Famine
When He opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature saying, "Come and see." So I looked, and behold, a pale horse. And the name of him who sat on it was Death, and Hades followed with him. And power was given t o them over a fourth of the earth, to kill with sword, with hunger, with death, and by the beasts of the earth. —Rev. 6:7-8
Click to listen: Death
Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. Also there was no more sea. Then I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, "Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God. And God will wipe away every tear from the ir eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away." Then He who sat on the throne said, "Behold, I make all things new." And He said to me, "Write, for these words are true and faithful." And He said to me, "It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. I will give of the fountain of the water of life freely to him who thirsts. He who overcomes shall inherit all things, and I will be his God and he shall be My son. B ut the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death." —Rev. 21:1-8
Click to listen: The New Jerusalem
This song cycle explores an Augustinian model of time
through
a series of seven brief meditative songs that draw their texts from
scripture.
Written under Dr.
William Davis, the cycle was premiered by The
University of
Georgia's Contemporary
Chamber Ensemble with Soprano soloist Anne Rogneby conducted by Dr. Lewis
Nielson. In the spring of 1998, Seven Songs of Now was
performed
the same group at the Region IV meeting of the Society of Composer's
International in Atlanta, GA.
Click a movement below to listen:
I
II
III
IV
V
VI
VII
Monocle consists of three movements: Recesses, Abcesses, and Processes. The first two movements are presented here in their entirety. I am still gathering samples and source material for the third movement.
I wrote this work as an act of catharsis. In June of 2001, I had my left eye surgically removed as the result of complications from a congenital cataract. Needless to say the sugery brought the pain of new wounds and the memories of old ones. The result is Monocle.
Originally written as an Offeratory for Third Presbyterian Church in Richmond, VA, Recesses explores the pain of social isolation. The piece was written for a monaural hall and therefore does not employ any stereo panning. In order to create a sense of space, I placed sounds both far away and close to the listener by varying their amplitude and the amount of reverberation applied to the sounds.
Recesses was joined with Abcesses in 2002 to form Monocle.
ListenWritten under Dr. Paul Johnson at The University of Notre Dame, Abcesses recounts my waking from the surgery to remove my eye and the subsequent drug induced confusion and fear that I faced in the post-surgical twilight. As I came out of the anesthesia, I was in complete darkness because of the bandages. All of my prior eye surgeries, of which there had been many at various points in my life, blended into one, and I literally did not know my own age. At one moment, I was two-years-old, the next ten, and the next twenty-six.
The source material for this movement comes from audio I recovered from an old 3.25 ips reel to reel tape my father recorded in 1978. The voices heard are his and mine.
ListenI am still gathering source material for Processes, a movement which will chronicle the period of recovery after the surgery. Processes will feature the voices of my parents, my wife, my sister, and my surgeon among others.
Steve's Jungle was written as a demo piece for Dr. Steve Tomasula author of Vas: An Opera in Flatland. Dr. Tomasula plans to produce a spoken word disc of portions of his poetry with accompanying music in the near future. Steve's Jungle represents a synthesis of silent movie scores and techno influences—an aesthetic that Dr. Tomasula felt fit his poetry.
Listen