CMEA Conmposition Festival Concert

2009

ESCALATOR HOLIDAYS

by Erica Bryan

Performed by  Erica Bryan, Vocalist - Derek Cabreba, Bass - Mike Godette, Guitar - Harry Strom, Tenor Saxophone

I wrote this piece around the holiday season, and imagined being in a mall and hearing this tune while going down the escalator. It began as a very “to the time” rhythm changes tune, but soon became a more elaborate composition.

 *****

AROUND THE PIANO

by Orice Jenkins

Performed by Orice Jenkins, Piano

 

"Around the Piano" expresses the power that I feel when I sit down at a piano and perform for other people. My best moment have been spent at pianos all over and the piano is the one place where I feel I am truly home.

 

 

*****

ARISE MY SOUL

by Alfred Tomasso

Performed by the Farmington High School Madrigal Singers

"Arise, My Soul!" is a short choral work drawing on classical and modern influences. Weaving concepts as disparate as

Gregorian chant and contemporary harmonies, this innovatively eccentric piece challenges and inspires. Though the music is often dissonant, the contrasting major cadences are all the more rewarding for those who care to listen. The text is taken from a larger work by Harriet Martineau, an English writer whose spiritual poem celebrates the essential unity and equality among members of the human race, whatever their station on earth. The mystical qualities of the text helped inspire the resultant abstract composition.

 

*****

SABOTAGE OF THE SLEIGH

by Jimmy Morcaldi

Performed by Jimmy Morcaldi, Piano

This was piece was written in hope to depict the sabotage of a sleigh by two young boys on a snowy white hill in midwinter. Playfulness is intended in the telling of this juvenile's unfortunate oncoming accident.

 

*****

THE LIFE OF A SPIDER

by Alexander Torok

Performed by Alexander Torok, Percussion

There are several different theme groups throughout the piece. They depict common and expected events throughout a spider's life, from the hatching of the egg and finding safety, to building the web, defending it and laying its own eggs, until death.

 

*****

THE MOTH'S SERENADE

by Bridget Nixon

Performed by Erica Bryan, Voice - Bridget Nixon, Voice, Jimmy Morcaldi, Piano

I was inspired to write this piece when I first read the poem, "The Moth's Serenade." It was a poem with two different sets of words, meant to be read at the same time by two different people. I decided to have two voices sing the two sets of words. When writing the piano part, I included long passages of notes that moved quickly, suggesting the fluttering of a moth's wings in flight.

 

*****

BOILING POINT (2nd Movement)

by Yoni Avi Battat

Performed by the Western Connecticut State University Ives String Quartet

Boiling Point was inspired by my recent undertaking of the intense study of chamber music. I wanted to write a string quartet that is emotionally provocative, rhythmically interesting and harmonically dense, and I think I achieved all of these things in my first string quartet. As a violist myself, I tried to create a piece that would be interesting and fun for every member of the ensemble as I feel that happy musicians truly allow a piece to last thorough posterity. Luckily, my arts high school, ECA, made it possible for my work to be read and performed by a professional string quartet because of a grant from the ACES foundation. This freedom allowed the piece to come to reach its true potential, giving me the flexibility to worry less about ease of performance. Boiling Point, is named for its progressively climbing intensity, bubbly qualities and dense harmonies. I would like to thank the Haven quartet for approaching my music with an open mind and Tawnie Olson for her constant support and guidance. I've truly enjoyed the process of writing this piece and see this as the beginning of a great deal more chamber music that has yet to come.

*****

SONNET L

by William Pazdziora

Performed by the Rocky Hill Chamber Choir 

Sonnet L was originally written for my independent study on music composition. I was asked to get a poem or text and write a choral piece, because I am primarily a chorus student and vocalist. I chose Shakespeare because I wanted a challenge. I really wanted my music to embody the text, to somehow metaphorically hand people my interpretation of the sonnet. After going through some Shakespeare sonnets I stumbled upon Sonnet L (50) and after reading it I knew it was the one. To me the text is about the struggle between our physical and spiritual self; how even when we grow old and brittle our soul keeps getting wiser and maturing. My piece is set in a minor mode to give a darker mood and plays with a lot of texture, from all four parts singing to one or two. The independence of each line and the dissonance between them really help outline my interpretation of the text.

 

*****

ILLOGIC

by ZIQIANG GUAN

Perfomed by Kaila Collins, Violin - Yoni Avi Battat, Violin - Ziqiang Guan, Piano

Illogic is the product of my experience with scales other than major and minor. I decided to choose chromatic and whole tone scales because I was inspired by Rimsky-Korsakov's Flight of the Bumble Bee. I really liked the mysteriousness of the whole tone scale.

 

*****

PRELUDE IN D

by Adam Strawbridge

Performed by Adam Strawbridge

The piece is an experimental combination of impressionism and later classical styles, inspired by the piano works of Debussy, Mozart, and Brahms. The piece explores a simple melody, a contrasting and angst-filled development, and ends with soft vanishing tones.

 

*****

FROM DARK THE KYJ

by Eric Icaza

Performed by Eric Icaza

My piece reminds me of a young man I meet. His heart was plagued with darkness and evil, and he never let a single person take a look under his iron curtain. Intimidation was part of his nature, as well as his evil strength. I saw him for three weeks and pondered upon how someone could be so dark. His name was Kyj (pronounced Key), and was anyone's worst nightmare. Yet, because of where i met this young man I knew he had potential, potential to destroy his evilness, and pursue a good life. I know he will become greater. From the shadows that consume his soul, a model citizen shall form. From the darkness that consumes him, a great man will shine. From Dark the Kyj.

*****

STRING QUARTET NO. 1

by Kiernan Majerus-Collins

Performed by the Western Connecticut Ives String Quartet

This is my second published piece. I was influenced heavily by Irish tunes that I've heard. While writing this piece was a joy, perfecting it took hard work. It is much more complex than its minute and a half would suggest. It relies heavily on the first violin player. The tempo changes help show subtle changes in the overall mood. Enjoy! (Oh, and don't clap until you're sure it's over!)

 

*****

THE MEADOWS

by James Baker

Performed by James Baker, Bass - Brent Yarnell. Guitar - Tim O'Leary, Guitar - Annie Munger, Vocals - Innocent Tswamuno, Percussion

When I wrote this song, I was trying to create something that resembled an Irish Waltz, but it ended up sounding like something else entirely. I tried to keep the song very simple, with a repetitive melody that moved from a major tonal center to minor. The words were somewhat a product of the image of Ireland in my mind, but again, they moved to something entirely separate from what I had originally intended. I wanted the song to tell a story that was both fantastic and conceivable such that the listener would be able to picture the story as a movie or a cartoon. One of the guitar parts was designed to create a feeling of 4/4 time on top of the waltz as the other guitar maintains a steady 3/4 rhythm. This produced a strong effect that helped disguise the simplicity of the composition itself and build a much richer sound.

 

*****

PIZZICATO #9

by Garrett Sullivan

Performed by the Western Connecticut State Unversity Ives String Quartet

 Pizzicato #9 was my first piece written for a quartet of strings. I attempted to incorporate interlocking rhythmic patterns and chord voicings that both compliment and disagree with each other.

 

*****

 7

by Byron Perpetua

Performed by the Western Connecticut State Unversity Ives String Quartet with Miles Massicotte, Piano

"7" began as an exercise in forcing different rhythms to intermesh. Its title refers both to the number of instruments in the unconventional ensemble it is written for and to its time signature, 7/8. But 7/8 doesn't quite describe it: while the piano provides the harmonic foundation in 7, the wood block plays an repeated pattern in 4; later, a xylophone joins in 3, accompanied by a quiet flute in 5. Eventually the clashing rhythms sync up in a fortissimo 3/4 section that seems all the more intense for its relative rhythmic normality. The middle section switches back to 7, but in a faraway key and with a new emphasis on tuneful melodies. Finally, the 3/4 section is repeated, followed by a fiery 7/8 coda.