Notes on works by DC Meckler in reverse (approximate) chronological order.  Updated/revised December 2007.

b a c k to DC Meckler music index page

Reclamation

piano solo, 2007
unspecified duration (no specified rhythms)

After composing a great deal of music that has rhythm as its primary interest, I decided to compose a piece that had no specified rhythms at all. This is a contemplation of piano voicings and it is also an attempt to reclaim the major triad as a neutral sonority free of functional tonal implications, a quixotic quest. This piece is also a response to Gavin Borchert’s delightfully spare piano piece Bosquejo, and it is dedicated to him.

First performance: Jude Navari, Cañada College, Redwood City, California, 6 October 2007.

Undercurrent

for clarinet, cello, piano and percussion (drum set), 2007
about five minutes in duration

Program note

Undercurrent is a study of repetition, both of regular phrases and irregular fragments of phrases. The undercurrent may be of strangeness or normalcy.

Far too many analytical comments

This is one of my more explicable pieces, as I constructed it through very conscious decisions. Most of my pieces are a bit more mysterious to me.

The piece was sketched out in about two hours, so it came very quickly. I think it is all in response to the pop songwriting class I taught in the spring semester of 2007. I just have certain issues about repetition. There is one extreme, the normal classical to Brian Ferneyhough range, in which repetition is vital but often disguised. At the other end, there is minimalism. In between is pop music. I can't bring myself to write a genuine pop song because of the repetition issue I think.

This is my "instrumental song" solution to the problem. Instead of repeating an idea AAB, I delay repetition, ABB. This is a useful tool that I am using more and more in my music. Also, the two contrasting parts are of vastly different dimensions. The A idea is only three bars of 5/8. The B idea is a full-fledged eight bar phrase, with two sub-phrases. (The opening 19 bars of the piece could be considered ABCBC, if the sections are to be of approximate equal dimension, but that is not how I thought of it.)

After stating this 8-bar phrase twice, I then go to work on the second four bar phrase (“C”), using a fragmentation and repetition technique. First I use 7/16. Then it gets interesting as a way of returning to the dimension of the eight bar phrase. The piece repeats a recent AMAZING discovery of mine that 11+9+7+5 = 32 = 4 X 8, so by repeating the first 11 eighth notes worth of material twice, the next nine twice, and so on, a four bar phrase maps into an eight bar 4/4 phrase or section, although it has a sense of changing meter. The piece concludes with several statements of this technique, and finishes with retrograde statements in canon.

The A idea returns but is not really developed, only transposed and extended through repetition.

I thought it was an interesting mix of materials being transformed through simple rules. The insistent eighth-eighth-dotted quarter-dotted quarter rhythm of the B section keeps it all rather coherent.

I have rarely followed conscious rules of phrase construction, but this piece was a deliberate exercise in that. To construct the main material of the piece, the eight bar B phrase, I started with a simple one measure idea.

The spark behind this idea is probably from the Spanish world music fusion group Ojos de Brujo. Something stimulated my imagination about writing a bass line. So my initial idea is an octave leap followed by a major seventh fall. (A touch of a Spanish Phrygian mode.) This sets up the primary constructive tension for the entire phrase, large intervals versus small, the big intervals of an octave and a seventh, but also the half step between D and Eb. The last note of the measure leaps up a major ninth, to F. The initial idea is repeated with a slight variation, as the F is raised up to a G. The third measure scrambles the materials. The half step is at the beginning (A-Bb), then the leap, then the big fall, a major ninth. The fourth measure is a yet another permutation of these basic elements. We start with a falling octave, than a minor second, and then another minor second. The materials are always changing slightly, but the basic constituent element elements are always the same.

To construct the second four bar phrase, similar ideas are used. The first measure transposes the basic idea up a half a step, to Eb, so on the large-scale of four measures, the harmonic constituents relate very much to the small details of the first measure. The first measure extends the pattern of growth, as the leap up is now a tritone plus an octave, so we've gone from sevenths, octaves, ninths and tenths. For the second measure, the pattern collapses back down to the ninth. The third measure very much parallels the third measure of the first four bar phrase. It starts up a perfect fourth, but instead of falling to the last note, it rises up a minor third. The fourth measure also is a parallel construction, except that the last interval is not a minor second but a minor third.

This minor third becomes a good marker. Ending on G also sets up an interesting parallel when we return to the first note of the entire eight bar phrase, D. That falling perfect fourth is paralleled by the falling perfect fourth at the end of the first four bar phrase connecting to the beginning of the second bar phrase, (Ab-Eb). The two four bar phrases each have a nice shape and the second four bar phrase has a climactic note.

For several years now I've been working on pieces of rhythmic complexity, but I have been lacking in clearly motivated tempo changes. Staying in one tempo for the duration of a piece is sort of like staying in the same key. I was very happy to be able to gracefully incorporate a meaningful tempo change in this piece.

If I were to give labels to each section of the piece it would look like this:

Ø the oracle/fanfare (5/8 idea)

Ø the presentation of the eight bar melody.

Ø A repeat presentation of the eight bar melody.

Ø The return of the oracle/fanfare

Ø a development section (the 7/16 idea applied to the second four bar phrase)

Ø Punches

Ø the development section extended

Ø A repeat of the development section now featuring a drum solo, with punches

Ø the return of the oracle/fanfare

Ø Piano solo -- new material in a slower tempo that is soon flipped into double time. In the 7/16 idea.

Ø At the golden mean of the piece, a sort of recapitulation, a statement of the transformed second four bar phrase (mapped into an eight bar phrase by repeating the 1^st 5 eighth notes twice, the next 7 eighth notes twice, etc).

Ø another version of that, this time transposed, and the reverse pattern of fragmentation, 11+9+7+5.

Ø the return of the oracle/fanfare

Ø yet another version of the second four bar phrase mapped into an eight bar phrase (m 126), broken into 11+9+7+5 fragments.

Ø yet another version of the second four bar phrase mapped into an eight bar phrase, retrograde, broken into 5+7+9+11 fragments. (m 134)

Ø a statement in retrograde and in canon.

Yet another set of labels: a b c b c a c’ d c’ c’’ e e’ e’ e’ c’’’ c’’’ a c’’’ c’’’ c’’’

Coming up with the title: "Undercurrent" was my original impulse. I liked it because it suggested that there was something going on beneath the melodic, groovy surface. Then I thought of "Undercurrent Construction" as a way of the reinforcing the notion of a hidden mechanism generating music. I chose to go back to the one-word title just out of simplicity.

Sonata Rocinante

piano solo, 2007
duration about 6 minutes

Program Note

Rocinante is the hero's horse in Cervantes’ Don Quixote. The Sonata Rocinante is in four sections. The first is Rocinante as described by Cervantes: lean (sparse), bony, unpredictable and at times hesitant. The second section is Rocinante as viewed by Don Quixote: muscular, powerful, heroic. The third section returns to the rhythmic trickiness of the opening; it is the game of the writer. The fourth section returns to the sweep of the second as it collects and integrates impressions of what has gone before; it is the view of the reader.

1. The Horse

2. The Rider

3. The Writer

4. The Reader

Performance Note

The second section is marked "very flexible tempo with rubato." I do not think that is redundant. "Flexible tempo" means exactly that, and I use rubato in the traditional sense of freedom in the relationship between the two hands. A suggestion of the effect is already notated with the septuplets (mm. 51, 53 and 55), but I do not intend those to be rhythmically exact. Suppleness and fluidity should rule here. All metronome marks are general suggestions and may be adjusted.

Analytic Notes

The first section is Steve Reich meets Haydn. The rhythmic spacing of the repeated eighth notes follows a pattern of 3-4-5-4-3-2. This pattern is treated flexibly throughout the piece. Within this section, simple canons generate the material. The pitch material comes from the superposition of major and minor triads (producing major seventh chords) which is extended to the superposition of third- related seventh chords in the final section.

The second section draws on a 12-tone row implied by the pitch materials of the first section. The left-hand plays one hexachord and the melody, in octaves, plows through the complementary hexachord. Generally, pitch relationships are casual and flexible.

The third section was created with a technique I call "fragmented polyrhythm." I created a melodic line in 9/8. The line itself has strong implications of a 3/2 polyrhythm.

To accompany the melody, I used a 4+3+5 pattern (at the level of sixteenth notes – itself highly ambiguous).

This source object (the melody plus its repeated accompaniment figure) has its own rhythmic interest, but it is only a starting point, as it serves as the basis for one more layer of rhythmic manipulation. To develop it, the object is repeated several times and then rebarred in 5/8. Each 5/8 bar is repeated once or more. That becomes the foreground of the music. It is sort of a cubist view of the underlying musical object. You never quite get to hear it straight:

The fourth section melds several of the pitch and rhythmic ideas of the first three sections. I have chosen inconsistent notation for one detail. At the very end (in measures 179 and 182) I notate dyads as G-D# and A #-C double sharp; earlier (measures 170 and 171) in a similar situation I notate those pairs as G-Eb and Bb-D. This is obviously eye music only, but I think of the earlier example as two clashing tonalities and the final statement as being resolved into one very bright tonality.

Each section presents material that could be developed at greater length, but I chose to reflect the brevity of most of the chapters in the novel.

Why “sonata”? This piece has more to do with the simple forms of the Cage Sonatas and Interludes or Scarlatti, rather than Beethoven. It also could be considered as a four-movements-in one-movement sonata (just like Liszt!) -- motific first movement, lyrical second movement, scherzo third movement, hybrid rondo variation form fourth movement. Given the succinct duration, perhaps “sonatina” would be more appropriate.

~~DC Meckler

. . . reading your history should move the melancholy to laughter,
increase the joy of the cheerful, not irritate the simple,
fill the clever with admiration for its invention,
not give the serious reason to scorn it,
and allow the prudent to praise it.
Advice to the "author" from a character in Don Quixote, Edith Grossman translation, page 8.

b a c k to DC Meckler music index page

The Albion Deity Songbook

medium voice and piano, 2006
various durations; not intended to be performed as a complete cycle

Mining Song
c. 4 minutes, notated range D4-A5 (optional F5) (complete score pdf file)

Dust Light
c. 5 minutes, notated range C4-E5

The Dog Song (Fine Leaf Canine Guests)
c. 2 minutes, notated range Db4-E5

Imperative Song
less than a minute; a cappella, small range freely transposable

What Is Force?
c. 2 minutes, notated range D4-Eb5

Findings
c. 2 minutes, notated range B3-G5

Masks
c. 3 minutes, notated range D4-G5

Cake Opinion
c. 2 minutes, notated range C4-F#5

Tin Can Island
c. 2 minutes, notated range C4-E5

The Albion Deity Thing
c. 8 minutes, notated range Db4-E5

(All songs may be transposed. Any individual song may be performed by itself and any selection of songs may be performed in any order.)

I love setting text!  Words have their own rhythmic and timbral life.  They are my friends and I want to play with them.  But to find a text worthy of setting that has space enough to be set, that overlaps enough with my own worldview, that is hard!  Not to mention issues of permission, respecting the poet's intentions, and all that.  So I created a pool of potential song texts by reading German poetry into an English-language speech dictation program. The results have only the vaguest sense of sense, but much of the rhythm, assonance and alliteration of the original is preserved. For example, the program transcribed the spoken word input of "Dichterliebe” as "an actor leaves." Even with this computer-generated text, I become charmed by the near-sense it makes, and I am reluctant to change it too much. I edited the grammar as little as possible, but I did replace some proper nouns and adjust subject and verb agreement, and freely selected and rearranged the more interesting bits.

An example text is "The Dog Song."

THE DOG SONG (FINE LEAF CANINE GUESTS)

Dalton does in the dew, 
the time boasts its own.
The laughs when we see a big lab
hold me engrossed in sod.

Canine today he got Monk's ass,
dust society's knock next mass;
dead as I was signed,
an ultraviolet hide of floss.

In dome by state buildings, gold in them.
Malt cuts in my bins,
and fine leaf canine guests evolve;
fine leaf canine guests.

COMPLETE TEXTS and Additional Comments

Short Program Note
The Albion Deity Songbook sets near nonsense texts that I created with an English-language speech dictation program misinterpreting German poetry. These texts are rich enough to give me musical ideas from their sounds, rhythms and near meanings, and the songs are a playful investigation into relationships between words and musical meanings.

Premiere Performances:

Mining Song
Alexis Lane Jensen and Sara Jobin, piano, First Unitarian Universalist Church, San Francisco, CA, 14 April 2007

Dust Light
Harriet March Page, Goat Hall, San Francisco, CA, June 22 & 24, 2007

The Dog Song
Harriet March Page, Goat Hall, San Francisco, CA, June 22 & 24, 2007

Imperative Song
Meghan Dibble, Goat Hall, San Francisco, CA, June 22 & 24, 2007

What Is Force?
Meghan Dibble, Goat Hall, San Francisco, CA, June 22 & 24, 2007

Tin Can Island
Meghan Dibble, Goat Hall, San Francisco, CA, June 22 & 24, 2007

The Albion Deity Thing
Harriet March Page, Goat Hall, San Francisco, CA, June 22 & 24, 2007

Cake Opinion
Meghan Dibble, Cañada College, Redwood City, California, 6 October 2007

Masks
Meghan Dibble, Cañada College, Redwood City, California, 6 October 2007

b a c k

Scientists Say

theater piece for 4 actors with incidental music; synthesized audio recording; performable by 3 clarinetists (2006)

premiere performances:  directed by Linda Hoy; Cañada College Flexible Theater, Redwood City, California, 23 March - 1 April, 2006 

Elliptical Midnight (Nocturne 2005)

piano solo, 2005, 2 pages
duration about 3 minutes

A moody depiction of a gently restless sleepless night.  A subtle 2 v. 3 pervades the rhythm as the pitches, in particular orders, pass by, although the piece owes more to Thelonius than to Arnold.  (It is a very simple, even naive, 12-tone piece for the most part.) The piece was initially created for a dance production, House: Stability/Fragility, and was intended to depict sleepless hours troubled by the recurring worries of adults, as compared to the nightmares of children.

First performance: Ann Yi, Cañada College, Redwood City, California, 6 October 2007

b a c k

Speed No Motion

 for medium voice and piano, 2005 
(written vocal range C3-G4; may be transposed)
duration about 5 minutes

Shakespeare's Sonnet 51

Thus can my love excuse the slow offense
Of my dull bearer, when from thee I speed ––
From where thou art, why should I haste me thence?
Till I return, of posting is no need.
O what excuse will my poor beast then find,
When swift extremity can seem but slow?
Then should I spur, though mounted on the wind ––
In winged speed no motion shall I know.
Then can no horse with my desire keep pace;
Therefore desire, a perfect'st love being made,
Shall neigh, no dull flesh in his fiery race,
But love, for love, thus shall excuse my jade ––
Since from thee going he went wilful slow,
Towards thee I'll run, and give him leave to go.

Program note for Speed No Motion

Speed No Motion is a setting of Shakespeare's Sonnet 51. The poem concerns the infinitely fast desire of a lover riding a horse with finite speed. This is particularly evident in the line, “In winged speed no motion shall I know.” Musically, this idea is translated into somewhat static harmony (limited, except at the very end, to six pitches that allow C minor, Eb minor and Gb major triads, and there is a frequently present Bb pedal) and a constantly shifting sense of meter. The piano part serves as a somewhat uncooperative steed to the vocal line. The vocal part is generally in familiar meters such as 4/4 or 6/8, but the piano part consists of fragments of unusual polyrhythms. At the end, when the lover gives his horse “leave to go,” the piano part is dismissed as well.

b a c k

unnamed dance

percussion (3) and piano, 2005
duration: between 3-4 minutes

Percussion 1: damped cowbell, suspended cymbal, bass drum (kick drum)

Percussion 2: high woodblock or clavé

Percussion 3: Vibraphone

The manuscript was discovered in an imaginary tunnel connecting Cuba and the Balkans. The first section is in 5+5+4; the short beat becomes the long beat in the next section, which is in 4+4+3. The idea repeats, reaching 3+ 3+2 in the middle section. The process reverses and the piece ends back in 5+5+4. Sort of a Gary-Burton-like tune. It is an essay in metric, not tempo, modulation, and it is very cute and groovy.

First performance: Adesso (Luanne Warner, Rick Kvistad, and John Burgardt, percussion, Josephine Gandolfi, piano), Old First Church, San Francisco, CA, 17 Feb 2006

b a c k

HOUSE: Stability/Fragility

audio recording on CD; performable by percussion (2) and piano (2), 2005
duration: about 19 minutes

Music for HOUSE: Stability/Fragility was composed by DC Meckler in close collaboration with choreographer Diana Evans Cushway.  The overall work is a non-narrative dance theater piece that includes texts written by Skyline College students working with poet Katherine Harer.  

Premiere performances:  The Skyline College Dance Ensemble's 2005 Spring Dance Concert, 5-6 May.    

b a c k

Two Republics
SHINE, PERISHING REPUBLIC  
            SHINE, REPUBLIC

tenor voice and piano, 2005
texts by Robinson Jeffers
Duration: each piece about 6 minutes; about 12 minutes total.
May be performed as independent pieces.
Vocal ranges (sounding): Shine, Perishing Republic, D3 - B4;
Shine, Republic, C3 - B4 (B4 including falsetto; A4 full voice)
Shine, Republic may be transposed to suit the performer’s interpretation.

The texts are from The Collected Poetry of Robinson Jeffers, edited by Tim Hunt, copyright © 1938, renewed 1966 by Donnan Jeffers and Garth Jeffers, and are used with the permission of Stanford University Press, www.sup.org.

The two settings are rather different in personality. The first, Shine, Perishing Republic, is consistently organized with a melodic motive, but is rather rhapsodic and episodic in its continuity. Shine, Republic is a single texture with smaller details of text painting confined to the vocal line. Both settings set off their last lines by a change in texture; the texture of the second piece is suggested by the closing texture of the first piece, tying the two works together.  The poetry of Robinson Jeffers is not known for its optimism, but “Shine, Republic” is a slightly more hopeful poem than its predecessor, “Shine, Perishing Republic.” The earlier poem ends with a reference to “the trap that catches [the] noblest spirits,” and so in the setting of the second poem, the singer soars above a rhythmic cage in the accompaniment, evading, maybe even transcending, the trap. The rhythmic cage consists of repeated fragments from a large polyrhythmic structure. It has touches of both barbarism and civilization, neither a good thing in Jeffers’ cosmos.

Technical comment on the rhythmic process for Shine, Republic
I first created a polyrhythmic structure of seven against four (seven 16th notes against four 16th notes). The seven pattern is a minor triad in second version, and this pitch material never changes. The four pattern is a single note in the bass line. Putting this pattern in 5/4 meter, I then simply applied a descending scale pattern to the bass note. This structure was then fragmented by taking the first 10 eighth notes of duration and repeating it, the next nine eighth notes of duration and then repeating it twice, the next eight three times, etc. I then ran the process in reverse, from two up to 12 eighth notes. This structure then was rebarred in 4/4, and the melody projects that meter.

First performance:  21 May 2006, Alec Jeong, tenor, Keisuke Nakagoshi, piano; Fresh Voices VI Festival, Goat Hall Productions, Thick House, San Francisco.

b a c k

LOUD MUSIC

two pianos, 2004
in six movements; duration about 14 minutes
movements 3 (duration about three minutes) and 5 (duration about two minutes) can be played as independent pieces 

LOUD MUSIC is the inverse of a Baroque suite –– instead of six movements in contrasting meters and in the same key, the six movements of LOUD MUSIC are all in the same meter (7/4) and are harmonically quite free. The initial impulse behind composing LOUD MUSIC was to create some background music for myself while I puttered around the house –– I wanted the pulse of rock, but with a few more twists, turns and formal surprises. The occasional appearance of a straight quarter-note pulse is certainly an idea lifted from Balinese gamelan gong kebyar.  (I enjoy LOUD MUSIC, but my studio is no more tidier, so while LOUD MUSIC energizes my puttering, I cannot claim that it boosts house-cleaning effectiveness.)

b a c k

Natural Music

(two versions)
SA chorus, two horns, harp, piano, 2004
SATB chorus, two horns, harp, piano, 2004
duration: c. 11 min. 
text by Robinson Jeffers

In most of his poetry, Robinson Jeffers manifests a clear preference for nature over humanity. The irony or paradox of his poem "Natural Music" is that if one listens through humanity's noise to the voice of nature, the voice one hears is one described in human terms. The irony is reflected on several levels of my setting of this poem. The opening texture, a polluted green-black harmony, accompanies a simple diatonic melody. A key line of the poem, "divisions of desire and terror," might refer to the churning polyrhythms or chromatic intervals, those chosen divisions of the octave––these divisions desired by the composer, and one hopes not a terror to the performer. 

The instrumentation was suggested by the Brahms piece for women's chorus, horns and harp. I performed one of the horn parts for that piece in the 1980s, so the combination was long in my mind. Also on my list of compositional desires was to write a piece for the fine voice of my wife. This poem was a natural for these musical desires. Using the untempered harmonic series on the horn certainly seems to be a representation of the "natural." The harp too seems somehow natural next to that black beast of 19th-century technology, the piano. This piece contains "artificial" atonal structures, the natural, unmediated harmonic series (physics singing itself!), and that cultured middleground, the (tempered) diatonic scale. Much like the poem itself, this piece is a two-eyed look at humanity––hunger-smitten cities, yes, but also individuals that love. I wrote this piece without a commission or any immediate hope for performance. I wrote it to reflect on some of the emotional extremes of the day, from the news of our violent political worlds to the much happier and much more private world of delight in my marriage. That phrase, "divisions of desire," seems to resonate with the mood of today. We have divisions that we desire (choices of intervals and rhythms) and we are divided by our different desires, the driving engines of political conflict that lead to terror.

"I will open my dark saying on the harp." Psalms 49:4. 

Short program note: Natural Music represents various kinds of natural and human music through contrasts of instruments and voices, and atonal and modal music. Within the instruments, raw nature might be represented by the natural harmonic series on the horns, a pastoral, humanized nature might be associated with the harp, and the piano could represent civilization and its complexities. 

Premiere performances:
14, 15 & 22 May 2005, in Oakland, San Francisco and Berkeley.  Voci Women's Vocal Ensemble; Heather Heise, piano; Erin Vang & Beth Milne, horns; Dan Levitan, harp; Jude Navari, cond.  Performances supported in part through Subito, the quick advancement grant program of the San Francisco Bay Area Chapter of the American Composers Forum.

b a c k

Natural Duet

2 soprano voices & piano; no text; 2004
duration:  about 3 1/2 minutes
could also be performed by any combination of flute, oboe, or clarinet (clarinet & oboe, 2 flutes, etc.)

This piece develops the diatonic melody later used in Natural Music.  It is a study in imitative counterpoint and in balancing atonal and diatonic pitch material.

b a c k

Wind & Stone

SA chorus, piano, 2004
duration: c. 5 min.  

Written for Jude Navari and the Voci women's chorus

While this piece does not use the text from the poem, it was inspired by the frequently anthologized Robinson Jeffers poem, "To the Stone-cutters." Although poet Robinson Jeffers has a generally bleak view of humanity's fate in the world, he does take minor solace in some small acts of human culture. In terms of the age of the universe, both before and after humanity's existence, we humans have not been around for long, nor will we be, yet "stones have stood for a thousand years." Our ultimate impermanence is not of immediate concern, especially when we realize that "immediate" can be defined in terms of centuries. This is not paradox; it just reflects Jeffers' unusually long historical perspective. My own bit of ephemeral stonecutting is to etch various pitches in time. The poem refers to the solace that comes from old poems; I certainly enjoy the solace to be found in "To the Stone-cutters." However, since many of the lines have such a strong music of their own ("eat cynical wages") I would have difficulty choosing a setting for them. In Wind & Stone, I chose to set not the words but one of the ideas of the poem, that of the elements of nature weathering and wearing away our words and works. Aleatoric effects are mixed with precise rhythms; the meter consistently alternates between 9/8 and 3/4, to suggest the expanding and contracting of the stone in response to heating and cooling by days, nights, and seasons.

Short program note: Rather than setting the text of the Robinson Jeffers poem "To the Stone-cutters," Wind & Stone elaborates on one of the images in the poem––the elements weathering away carved stone.

Premiere performances:
14, 15 & 22 May 2005, in Oakland, San Francisco and Berkeley.  Voci Women's Vocal Ensemble; Heather Heise, piano; Jude Navari, cond.  Performances supported in part through Subito, the quick advancement grant program of the San Francisco Bay Area Chapter of the American Composers Forum.

b a c k

Two Pieces After a Poem

solo piano, 2004

Stonecutter
Old Poems 

duration: each piece, c. 4 min. 

These pieces are a musical response to the frequently anthologized Robinson Jeffers poem, "To the Stone-cutters." Some of the response is general–– Stonecutter etches pitches in time; some of it can be interpreted as rather specific. It would not be too much of a stretch to connect the group of dark pounding chords with the thought that the sun will "die blind and blacken to the heart." Both Stonecutter and Old Poems use a consistently alternating 9/8 - 3/4 meter. Old Poems is an interesting combination of polyrhythm with that 9/8 - 3/4 expanding and contracting meter. The pieces may be played separately.

b a c k

Piano Trio

for vioin, cello, piano, 2003, 42 pages.  
2 movements, about 21 min.

I. A Hazardous Similar Harmony 
II. Dust & Desire

Analytical background notes for performers

Meter
The meter is a consistent 12/8 grouped in a 3 + 2 + 3 + 2 + 2 throughout both movements. (The opening 42 bars of the second movement has been re-barred in a regular 3/4 as a sanity-preserving tactic, but the underlying music follows the 3 + 2 + 3 + 2 + 2 pattern.) This large measure is sometimes felt as 5/8 + 7/8; alternatively, it is sometimes grouped as 8/8 + 2/4.

Pitch
The harmonic environment for the piece is generated by E major, C major and F minor triads. These do not function in a given order, with an implied progression in one horizontal dimension (a.k.a. "time"). Instead, these three triads are associated with particular registers: F minor (low register), C major or minor (middle register) and E major (high register). This approach is loosely based on three ideas. [1] Arab music, as it modulates from mode to mode does not just change pitch and interval content; register is an implied part of the Arab modal system. [2] A very loose interpretation of the idea of "spectral" music, music that uses compositional materials and methods based on on extremely detailed studies of acoustics and interactions in the harmonic series. The stack of F minor (low register), C major (middle register) and E major (high register) forms a synthetic or altered harmonic series. Somewhat related to this pseudo-spectral approach is the notion of [3] prolongation. Having long resisted the Schenkerian interpretation of tonal music, I have to admit that I am beginning to hear some pieces, particularly Brahms & Chopin, in this way. Or at least some pieces seem to explore the registral resonances of some grand fundamental vibration, some deep Ur-Klang unique to each piece. I have not been a slave to this E/C/F system, only generally following the general nature of it. These ideas served as some of the input to the piece; the outcome may of course be quite differently perceived by a listener.

One practical consequence of this harmonic environment is the structural opposition between the pitch classes of G and G#, as well as the alternative spellings of G# and Ab.

The proto-origins of the piece may not have made it far enough into the piece that they would be apparent to the listener, but they do inform some of my pitch choices. My first consideration about a piano trio is that to the instruments, violin and cello, can play to the perfectly in tune, while the piano, with its equal-temperament, has this forever compromised tuning. (I would think that in a piano quintet, this ought to be less of a problem, because the four string instruments probably have enough vibrato going on to provide a sufficiently deep bath of micro-tuning.) Some just-tuning advocates claim that the equal-tempered piano sounds awful to them. I do not feel that way, but since listening to lots of world music, I do hear equal-temperament as arbitrary; lovely, yes, but arbitrary, a grand compromise between Culture and Nature. So I began thinking of the two sources of materials for the piece being perfect fifths from natural harmonics and the fifths of the strings of the violin and cello, and those approximate major thirds of the piano, exemplified by one of the more ugly sounds in music, the augmented triad. Choosing the highest string of the higher instrument, the violin's E string, and the lowest string of the lower instrument, the cello's C string, accounts for the high-register and mid-register triads as well as the C-E-G# augmented triad. To bring the system together, the pseudo-fundamental, F, is supplied a fifth below by the piano. The unadorned origins of the piece are on display in the interlude in the middle of the first movement, and further discussion is in the interlude in the second movement.

Form
The form in both movements is basically ABCABC. In more detail, it is A-B-C-interlude-A'-B'-C', in which the theme group returns are developed, condensed or expanded, and the interludes of both movements are similar material. The variation/alteration is much more pronounced in the second movement.

10/24 June 2003

Premiere performances of the first movement:

The Picasso Ensemble:  Susan Brown, violin, Karen Andrie, cello, Josephine Gandolfi, piano 

Sunday, April 25, 2004, Sesnon House at Cabrillo College 
Saturday, May 1,  Palo Alto Arts Center  

b a c k

Quintet

for viola, cello, piano, 2 perc, 2003, 26 pages.

4 movements, about 23 min.

Chocolate Prelude audio demo 3.2 MB wma  This synthesized demo substitutes an organ sound for the viola and cello parts. (I dislike most string samples!)

I. Chocolate Prelude c. 4 min
II. The Permanence of Gardens c. 5 min
III. Compost-modernism c. 8 min
IV. Balances Upon The Leaves  c. 6 min

This Quintet starts off with groovy feel-good harmony (Chocolate Prelude) and concludes with a quiet but intense meditation that dissolves the metric and pitch systems of the piece (Balances Upon the Leaves). Each movement has a moment of quiet or at least stillness, and these culminate in the fourth movement. Those moments of stillness are framed throughout the piece by a consistent metrical pattern in 14/8. Any meter is of course a rickety bridge or structure trying to span but only floating on time. And that constructedness is fundamentally what the piece is about. The second movement is entitled The Permanence of Gardens. Of course, gardens are anything but permanent. Their forms may persist, but they require tending and active human engagement. Perhaps the rhythmic form and pitch-space structure of this piece are the permanent (humanly constructed, so not so permanent) aspects of this garden, and it is the duty of the violist to tend to the sound quality of each note . . . the listener's attention is also needed for the piece to be fully realized. The third movement, Compost-modernism, is intended as a humorous scherzo, but bringing different styles and musical textures into close proximity is also a way of pointing out the contingency of those ideas. In Balances Upon the Leaves, the rhythm patterns are stretched out past the meter, and it collapses; the strings are de-tuned but play natural harmonics, so the intervallic content is contingent on physics and not so much on culture.

b a c k

Solstice Carol

for SATB chorus, piano 4-hands, 2002, 17 pages.

also available for SATB chorus with string orchestra

text by the composer

about 5 min.

When I was a child, every three months or so my father would begin conversation at the dinner table with the question, "Davey, what day it is today?" The right answer (rarely given) would have been, "It's the Solstice" or, "It's the Equinox." Definitions and explanations would follow. Solstice Carol pays homage to that family memory as well as the geophysical reason for the seasons. The piece also alludes to somewhat older cultural patterns that are the origins of today's carol traditions.  The text for the carol is here.  I will also arrange a brass accompaniment one of these seasons . . . 

b a c k

Pieces In Asymmetrical Meters

After spending years composing Apollo 14, I felt a great sense of relief when I connected all the dots and had a continuous piece of music. To celebrate, I decided I would compose a completely irresponsible piece of music, one that had no obligations of harmonic or melodic consistency or even stylistic coherence, and one that I could knock out in a few hours. Conversation Piece was the result. I did decide that the one move toward consistency or coherence would be to use a 9/8 3+2+2+2 meter throughout. I found this to be a lot of fun as I veered from style to style, and I began to wonder why Brahms and other 19th century composers (or even Bach!) did not use asymmetrical meters. Thus began a series of short studies in meter with wide-ranging approaches to style. It occurred to me that in the years of composing Apollo 14 material, I never thought to write in 14/8. I suppose I rejected that as being inaudible numerology. Several pieces in 14/8 soon followed:

My Bundled Dances, in 2+2+3+2+3+2, is playable as it stands, but it would be a promising candidate for an arrangement for piano 4-hands. The tempo of the fast sections in this synthesized demo (3.8 MB, wma) is several clicks faster than any human ever need play the piece.

AABA, in 3+2+2+2+3+2, is a brief study in this wonderful and therefore common form, juxtaposing and repeating several small ideas. A detailed view of the form would be abcd abcd eeee abcd (synthesized demo, 2 MB, wma). The repeats are often exact, but there are some small variations in some details. This is somewhat inspired by common Native American approaches to repetition and micro-variation in music.

Quintet, described elsewhere on this webpage, is again in 14/8, and all four movements are 3+2+3+2+2+2.  An audio demo (3.2 MB, wma) of the first movement is available.

I have continued working with asymmetrical meters in my Piano Trio (12/8 consistently divided into 3+2+3+2+2 in both movements) and Two Pieces After a Poem. The first of the Two Pieces After a Poem, Stonecutter, begins with a 6/8 introduction but soon establishes a 15/8 3+3+3+2+2+2 (synthesized demo, 3.6 MB, wma). The second piece in the set, Old Poems, is also in 15/8, but with a 2+2+2+3+3+3 pattern. (The poem referred to by the title is "To the Stonecutters" by Robinson Jeffers.)

b a c k

Black Cat

for SATB chorus, alto flute, percussion (marimba, Vibraphone), piano, 2002, 17 pages.
text by Lordes Sian

about 6 min.

Black Cat was created through the Poetry and Music at Skyline Project. This project selected three professional composers to set poetry written by Skyline College students. The program was organized by the Creative Writing Program and the Creative Arts and Social Sciences Department. Conductor Patricia Hennings conceived the idea and got it started, in cooperation with Katherine Harer of the Skyline College English Department.

The process started for me when I received a pound and a half of poetry in the mail. After reading through the pile, I selected about 10 poems for my short list, but almost immediately I settled on "black cat," based on its mood and musical qualities. The poet, Lordes Sian, is also a member of the Skyline College Choir. Commissioned by Skyline College with support from the Lane Family Charitable Trust, the Skyline College Partnership for Excellence, and the Skyline College President's Innovation Fund.

First Performance:

4 May 2002, Skyline College Theater, San Bruno, CA. Skyline College Choir, Jim Yowell, director, Dawn Walker, flute, Ward Spangler, percussion, Richard Rogers, piano.

Program note

Many of the ideas in the piece Black Cat come from the poem "black cat" by Lourdes Sian. A primary image is that of a melodic line that 'wends' from section to section of the chorus. Anything that wends suggests chromatic movement to me, and since it is a black cat, I think dark, complex harmony is called for. A good way to manage highly chromatic complex harmony is to use a now antique system of composition from the 20th-century, serialism. The choral parts are in general not ordered by any 12-tone row, since cats are not known for following rules. The dodecaphonic material is mostly in the accompanying parts. This is my second serial piece, and the first to use the gamut of serial tricks: symmetrical hexachords, M5 mappings, rotations, etc. Another musical resource that is found in the accompaniment is a musical gesture that rises and falls (or falls and rises) according to the contour and rhythm of a motive from Bach's Magnifi-cat. (The Skyline College Choir performed the Magnificat in their previous concert.) This musical idea switches back on itself or forms a gully, depending on its orientation. The key sonority for the piece comes from the "bell ringer" melody and the harmony that sets up that melody.

“black cat” is a very fine poem that has great attention to the sounds of the words, creating a coherent and consistent sound-world with the words in the poem. It also suggests movement. "You wend your way" suggests a downward motion; "you're the bell ringer" rises; "you are immersed" falls; and "you reach" again rises.

The poem:

black cat

you wend your way

through purple irises

and red-lipped montebellos

through switchbacks

found in a new made gully