"serious" music page

Then Came a Sound
A piece for four trumpets spatially separated in the church. Two downstairs on either side of the church and two standing together in the balcony. The trick with writing this, of course, was there was no guarantee they would be together at any one time. It was written so they would be roughly together but taking into account a certain amount of play. But the two players in the balcony could play certain parts together since they were close to each other.

Maranatha
This is the last movement(or possibly second to last movement) of a work in progress that I'm working on with Bill Stock that has some eschatological themes from the book of Revelation and other parts of the Bible.
We did it as part of our Advent concert this year(08). Even though we had been working on it for a couple of months it turned out to be much harder than I thought it would be. It'll be tighter next year and hopefully we'll have one or two more pieces in the suite by then.

Alleluia for 4-part choir When we moved to Cincinnati I was playing a wedding and the guy who played the trumpet was also a choir director. We started talking and he turned out to be the director of the Cincinnati Camerata, Chris Miller. He told me they were having a competition for composers and the piece was to only have the word Alleluia so he invited me to do something and submit it. Anyways, it ended up winning. I was so shocked because I never win anything.
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I went to New York last summer(2010) for the first time. I went with Shamus and we searched out old places where our ancestors lived. One place I had to visit though, was Bartok's apartment when he lived in New York, on the Bowrey. He lived there in the 1940's. When I had studied big band arranging with Al Bachulus in Montreal in the early 80's I remember him telling us a story about a guy he knew who told him about the time he lived in New York and he lived next door to this weird guy by the name of Bartok, who would play the most god aweful music at all hours of the night! Ever since that time I had it in my mind to see this place.

Parting the Veil 1(When the World Feels Heavy) 2(From Here Nor There) 3(City of Goodbyes) 4(Dawn Rises Full White) (4 movements) for clarinet and piano I wrote this for Ross Edwards while living in St. Joseph, Missouri. I think this is my best piece. I wrote it in memory of my older brother Karl. This was played in Ottawa and broadcast by CBC on Canada Day.

Three Organ Pieces(Into the Flame, Modern Pastoral, Improvisation) I like these pieces, especially Modern Pastoral. That was inspired by the dilapitated factories along the Lachine canal in Montreal. I was into the theme of Purgatory at the time so that’s where Into the Flame comes from.

HighWire for small orchestra   My thesis composition which I’ve never heard actually performed.

Kyrie and Gloria for organ and 4 part choir   I did this for the choir at St. Patricks. I remember Monsingior Breen asking me before Mass one time,”Are you going to be doing that Kyrie again?” but his facial expression was more like,”Do you really HAVE to do that Kyrie again?” At that point it was too late to change it so we had to do it. It was written in a kind of Stravinskian style. After Mass I walked passed him and he was with one of the wardens and she came over to me and said,”What was the Kyrie you did? I LOVED it.” When she turned away I took the opportunity to give Fr. Breen a short jab to the stomach and went,”AHHH”. He of course, burst out laughing. no recording.

Under the Northern Cross for trumpet and trombone   I wrote this for David Martin and a friend of his, Larry Larson. I was kind of happy with this piece. For only two instruments it seems pretty rich.

The Spirit Moves Softly on the Souls of Gentle Creatures for 4 trumpets spacially separated    I wrote this for the rededication of St. Patrick’s Basilica after the several year restoration. Two trumpets were in the front of the church on either side and two in the first balcony on either side, so basically the four corners of the church. The music was intended to be loose but semi-coordinated. We did this by using flags but one player got the signals mixed up so it didn’t come off perfectly but it wasn’t too bad. Maybe a little longer than it should have been. The recording is poor.

Lines Bearing North for trio: piano, clarinet, cello. For Ross and Julian, a concert in Ottawa at the Museum of Nature.

Lines and points on a Lonely Plain: for solo piano   I like this piece quite a bit but it’s never been performed(except by me for the recording). I was really into the repeated note thing so maybe that’s what has scared pianists away from it. I don’t know.

Storm Window trio for clarinet, Trombone and contrabass    A wierd and difficult piece. Not sure what the point was. Some nice harmony though. Can't find the recording of it.

August 1945 for trombone and piano I wrote this for Dave Martin. When I was living in St. Joseph, Missouri I got a phone call from somebody at a university in Virginia who was playing it and asked me to send him a recording. I was really surprised because he said it was getting played all over the place.

Three Pieces on Paintings of Van Gogh for large orchestra
(Sun Flowers, The Harvest, Crows on the Cornfields)   I did this for the end of my Bachelors degree at McGill. The school orchestra played it after much cajoling by Donald Steven. I remember spending a lot of time looking looking closely at Dallapicola’s Variation’s for Orchestra when I was doing this. It was a fantastic experience to hear it played a couple of times in concert.

Rain Flower for solo clarinet   A solo clarinet piece written for Ross Edwards. I seem to have lost the recording.

Fanfare for Two Trumpets   I used this the first Christmas I was directing the music at St. Patrick’s Basilica(not a Basilica yet though).

Fanfare for the Papal Visit When the pope visited Monteal in ‘84 I wrote this and did it at St. Patrick’s.

Missa Deo Gratias The Petit Chanteurs du Mont Royal did the first and last movement of this during a Mass at St. Joseph’s Oratory. It was very much influenced by Durufle. I incorporated chants from several different Gregorian Masses. poor recording.

String Quartet in classical style   This was for tonal composition class at McGill but I liked how it sounded.

Galliard for Two Pianos I wrote this for Tony Carlone and myself. He also wrote one for the both of us and we did them at Vanier a couple of times.

Tony’s Piece The piece that tony wrote.

Clarinet quartet   I wrote this at Vanier for a group of 4 clarinet players. I guess this must be my first written piece.

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