1967 / edited 2023 . . . piano or harp (6:40) In 1967 I was already earnestly composing for piano, trombone (my own instrument), even for orchestra. Living beside the Shiawassee River’s glacial-moraine beginnings in rural Livingston County Michigan, my best pastime was hiking along the creek’s forested banks. I was already going to AnnContinue reading “Arbor Sketches”
Category Archives: chamber music
Viennese Sketches
Twelve Miniatures in Twelve Tones 2023 . . . chamber orch: Fl, Ob, Clar, Bsn, Strings . . . 12 minutes I have long admired and been influenced by the music of early 20th-century Austrian composer Anton Webern. Known historically as a member of the Second Viennese School with Alban Berg and mentor Arnold Schoenberg,Continue reading “Viennese Sketches”
Yin Yang
2022 . . . voice and piano (4:10) A visit to the shores of Michigan’s Leelanau Peninsula inspired me to write a poem: Peninsula upon peninsula upon grand peninsula,Lee upon Leelanau upon Lower.Cove from bay from great lake,Suttons Bay off Grand Traverse Bay off Lake Michigan. Land curves in myriad shore shapes,Reaching out to blueContinue reading “Yin Yang”
Ice Floe
1983 . . . soprano, guitar (7:50 min.) . . . words by Robert Nosow Robert Nosow was a graduate student in musicology at North Texas when the poem was written. David Lynn Kennedy was a grad student in guitar killed by Denton police in a tragic incident in 1983. Soprano Jing Tam was aContinue reading “Ice Floe”
Geography of the Chronosphere
1975 . . . piano (12 minutes) Excerpts: 1. precession of the equinoxes 2. Stonehenge at dawn 3. Heraclitean vortex 4. lunar litany
Amber Atoms in the Fire Gleaming
2022 . . . Gymnopédie (5:00) This musical sketch is titled with a translated line (“Où les atomes d’ambre au feu se miroitant”) of a French poem by de Latour that may have inspired Erik Satie — the poem ends with the word “gymnopaedia.” In keeping with Satie’s radically sparse, (one could even say) minimalistContinue reading “Amber Atoms in the Fire Gleaming”
Mapping the Cosmos – Book II
2022 . . . collection of more advanced etudes for Piano Mapping the Music Universe produced several small etudes to illustrate the compositional potential of musical patterns explained in the ebook. The inspiration to collect them into a series came from many years of fascination with Bartók’s wonderful Mikrokosmos series of 153 piano pieces inContinue reading “Mapping the Cosmos – Book II”
Symphony Dances
2022 . . . string orchestra (19 min.) In a lighthearted cabaret style, each dance adopts tunes from the iconic symphonies of master composers Mozart and Beethoven. Each is set in different key signatures from the quoted theme, as appropriate for these venerated dance forms. Mazurka . . . Zambra . . . Tango .Continue reading “Symphony Dances”
Tango
The middle movement, “Tango,” of my 2021 piece for chamber orchestra, Sinfonia, turned out to be easily transcribed for a number of different quartets. Here’s how it sounded in a version for four saxophones premiered April 15, 2022, at Texas State University: Corvus Quartet performers Nolan Hopkins (soprano sax), Garrett Iler (alto), Ryan Halbert (tenor),Continue reading “Tango”
Webern Elegy
Vienna, 15 September 1945 Oboe, Clarinet, Viola . . . or Clarinet, Piano . . . or Viola, Piano (5 min.) TC-115 (2021) COMPLETE TRIO SCORE COMPLETE SCORE for CLARINET & PIANO COMPLETE SCORE for VIOLA & PIANO I have long admired and been influenced by the music of early 20th-century Austrian composer Anton Webern.Continue reading “Webern Elegy”
Thomas Clark - composer / digital artist 