Category Archives: Uncategorized

This week, I had the pleasure of listening to Eleanor Alberga’s “Shining Gate of Morpheus.” This is a really stunning work written just eight years ago, in 2012. The piece manages to create a strong sense of story and a wide variety of textures with only a string ensemble with an additional horn. After listeningContinue reading “Listening Post: Alberga”

This week, I am giving my thoughts on Tania Leon’s “entre nos.” Like last week’s piece, this one is cast as a chamber work for a percussion keyboard instrument and woodwinds (in this case, for piano, bassoon, and clarinet). Also like in previous weeks, piece uses a range of extended techniques for all instruments involved.Continue reading “Listening Response: Leon”

This week I had the pleasure of listening to Arabesques for Flute and Percussion, a five-movement chamber work by Adolphus Hailstork. I find the overall musical language quite comparable to Chin’s Advice from a Caterpillar, especially the manner of notation and the kinds of woodwind extended techniques. Both works, when they present a solo woodwindContinue reading “Listening Response #4: Hailstork”

Over the last couple weeks, my classmates and I each wrote a solo composition for our primary instruments (or voices), and last Tuesday, we presented a small concert in which everyone shared their piece. With many different areas of expertise, this was a truly eclectic concert—with a Chopinesque walz for solo piano, a Bach-inspired workContinue reading “Reflections on Solo Composition Project”

This week, I listened to (and watched) a video recording of a performance of “Advice from a Caterpillar” by Unsuk Chin. The piece is scored for solo clarinet and appears in an interlude in the opera “Alice in Wonderland.” I found the piece very much unlike the music I have reviewed in previous weeks. JustContinue reading “Listening Response #3: Chin”

This week, I listened to the contemporary solo piano work “In My Own Skin” by Alvin Singleton, as it was performed by Blair McMillen in a recent virtual performance by the Locrian Chamber Players. The Locrian Chamber Players are a group of musicians who perform only contemporary “classical” music, abiding strictly to the rule that noContinue reading “Listening Response: Alvin Singleton (10/19)”

This week, I enjoyed the opportunity to hear an album of works by contemporary composer Errollyn Wallen. With the exception of “I Wouldn’t Normally Say,” the works are each short pieces scored for voice and piano accompaniment. While it is easy to sense that the same voice could have conceived of each of these pieces,Continue reading “Listening Response #1: Wallen”

This week, I listened to Plastic Anniversary, a 2019 album my Matmos. The album is quite different from anything I’ve listened to previously. No natural sounds seem to inhabit the sound spaces which the composer creates. Instead, the composer specifically focuses on using entirely contrived materials. This is true of the sounds which the composerContinue reading “Listening Response: Plastic Anniversary”

Hello all! Today, I have a short video update which includes the etudes I arranged with the sounds I presented in my post last week. I hope you enjoy. To view the video, follow the link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1YkQDUDmrDQFUd1tXPkio9_r2kX8_A7jQ/view?usp=sharing I plan to post again this Thursday with another listening response.

This week, I enjoyed the opportunity to listen to Helena Gough’s album Mikroklimata, and to dive more deeply into my own composition project. Later in this post, I will share some sounds I have gathered which I intend to use in my piece. When listening to Mikroklimata, one of the most striking overall features thatContinue reading “Sharing Sounds and Listening Response (4/18)”