Call of the Void - 2d1, 2, 2+bass, 2+contra, 2, 2, 2+bass, timp, 3 perc, strings (2014)

Premiered by the University Symphony Orchestra of the University of Michigan—Ann Arbor | Elim Chan, conductor – Assistant Conductor of the London Symphony

Baguettelle - 2d1, 2, 2+bass, 2, 4, 3, 2+bass, 1, timp, 3 perc, strings (2011)

2nd place winner of Austin Civic Orchestra Composition Competition, 2014

leaf mold - for two soprano soloists, SATB piano, organ and piano (2021)

G3 sequence: a singing meditation - for improvising vocalist (2020)

We The People - SATB choir (Rev. 2020)

Introduction - for three soloists and vocal ensemble of any combination of bass and treble voices; with staging (2019)

mother woke me (wake me) - for voice, trumpet, and fixed electronics; with staging (2018)

Work: “What Choice?” - SATB divisi choir (2017)

Dog on the Median of the Kennedy Expressway, Chicago - SATB choir (2017)

The Invitation - SATB choir (2016)

My Brilliant Image - SATB choir (2015)

On the Clothes Line - SATB divisi with narrators and small chamber ensemble (2012)

The Wisdom of Emily - for soprano, sop saxophone, bass clarinet, French horn, violin, cello, percussion 1 & 2 (2011)

Clear Midnight - for soprano, alto, tenor, baritone, bass 1, bass 2 (2010)

Little Bird - SATB choir and flute (2009)

...nice box! "Oh So Square" - for harp and tenor saxophone (2014)

The Guest House - for flute, percussion, and bass; all with speaking roles (2014)

Blue Satin - for violin, flute, baritone saxophone, harp and contrabass (2013)

I'm Here - game piece for unspecified number of humans (2012)

Why is a Raven Like a Writing Desk? - for percussion ensemble (2012)

The Persistence of Memory - multi-movement work for cello trio (2011)

Thermodynamics - game piece for piano and unspecified mixed ensemble (2010)

To the Right of the Chicken Coop - for saxophone quartet (2010)

Ever Reaching - for string quintet (2010)

Depart, Depart from Solid Earth - for baritone saxophone, soprano saxophone, marimba, and cello (2009)

Sassypants - for jazz piano, clarinet, and cello (Rev. 2009)

Waldteufel - for percussion trio (Rev. 2008)

Anthem - for solo voice and VoceVista real-time spectrogram analysis (2020)

Kinetic - for violin (2014)

No Reservation - for snare drum (2013)

they are passing - for soprano and piano, opt chanting ensemble (2011)

After the Dazzle of Day - for soprano and piano (2010)

Sail - for tenor and piano (2009)

Anthem - for solo voice and VoceVista real-time spectrogram analysis (2020)

Water Rites - music theater work for 3 voice & movement artists (2015)

Still, there is time - contemporary ballet piece with projection, fixed audio and live percussion trio (2015)

Dionysian Sea - contemporary ballet piece with fixed audio and opt live percussion and vocals (2015)

Conch Shell Transportation Devices - sound installation (2014)

Puppet Show Shorts - for solo voice and occasional melodica & viola (2014)

Draggin' Peel - fixed media; video (2014)

alignment - for an improvisatory ensemble of 6-12 musicians and 5-7 dancers (2014)

nineteen days the sun - a music-theater work in nine acts (2013) 

Beethoven's Fifth - a collaborative theater work (2012)

Show Your Face(s): A Masque - main stage theater production, sound engineer/design (2012)

Triumph of America - for solo trumpet and fixed media; video (2011)

No Reservation - for snare drum (2013); Featured in Director Jae Shim’s “Lyndon & Ice”

Said the Devoted to the Skeptical - for solo marimba and dancer (2009)           

About the music

Much of the score was created after the movement elements were already determined. I worked closely with the dancers, watching rehearsals and working with video of their work to solidify the flow of the piece as well as the energy of it. I decided to primarily use my own voice, an electric bass, and percussion as source material, which I manipulated and pieced together using Logic Pro. Chris provided the audio of the orated poem, and I worked with Clocks in Motion to record the dense percussion parts and to work their live performance into the piece. 

Words from Marlene Skog, choreographer

Dionysian Sea finds grace within a world of conflict. The dance suggests a world that invites chaos and conflict, yet falls to order. The score is inspired by a historical percussion score written in 1938 for modern dance practice. The new score musically bridges the past to the present. The dance, a contemporary ballet, weaves ballet foundation with modernist expressionism, bridging two forms that were disparate dance genres in 1938. The music and dance investigation finds its roots in early 20th Century western dance tradition, creating a new artistic expression in contemporary times. This work was made possible by generous support from the Virginia Henry Horne Fund.

Marlene Skog is a Choreographer and Assistant Professor of Dance.  Skog worked in Sweden where she was awarded The People’s University Cultural Prize, Gosta Knutsson Award, and Nordbanken’s Cultural Award; and choreographed for International Arts Festival Norway, Scandinavian Cultural Conference, International Women’s Convention Uppsala University, official cultural events, historical theater, and folk opera. Skog has directed an international dance company and collaborated with Swedish choreographer Birgit Cullberg. Skog founded Uppsala Dansakademi Sweden, which serves as a major dance center today. She received the Creative Achievement Award from the University of Arizona; is first recipient of the Green Valley Concert Association Fellowship Award; had work performed at King’s Palace Edinburgh Scotland, Uppsala Palace Sweden, American College Dance Festivals, Madison Ballet, World Dance Alliance Vancouver B.C., and RAD Festival Kalamazoo MI. The core of Skog’s work addresses the enduring question of what it means to be human and is purposeful in its strong synthesis of movement, music, and message.

Performance History 

World Dance Alliance-Americas, Kennedy Theatre, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu, HI, July 28, 2015

Midwest Dance Festival Concert, Reardon Auditorium, Anderson University, IN, February 21, 2015

BREATH, Wisconsin Union Theater, University of Wisconsin-Madison, February 6-7, 2015

Performance History

Student Composer/Conductor Orchestra Concert, Hill Auditorium, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, February 9, 2014

Conducted by Elim Chan, the first female winner of the Donatella Flick LSO Conducting Competition, December 2014.

Chris Walker's Still, there is time was featured on the UW-Madison Dance Department's Annual Faculty Concert, "BREATH", in 2015. The works that evening were described as lush, urgent, bodily explorations that address power, violence, conflict, strength, compassion, hope and healing and focus mindfully and heavily on female embodiment. Associate Professor Chris Walker, who co-coordinated the concert said, “We are in a time in America where our behavior toward each other is too often in conflict with the values we intend to project globally. I think these works call your attention to many of the subtle and accepted injustices which have become cultural norms.” Walker's work confronts the subject of sexual assault through video, text, contemporized African Caribbean movement, and my original music.

Performance History

BREATH, Wisconsin Union Theater, University of Wisconsin-Madison, February 6-7, 2015

Performed by UW-Madison Dance Department students and members of Clocks in Motion, UW-Madison's resident percussion quartet.

About the music

Funded by the Virginia Henry Horne Fund, Marlene Skog commissioned me to write a twelve minute work for contemporary dance. The music came first, so it needed to be fairly fixed for rehearsal purposes, though live musical elements were also requested. I decided to create the score as a composer-performer, utilizing my voice, sometimes through a funnel, and an unusual auxiliary percussion set-up featuring bowed singing bowl on a snare drum. These live sounds were recorded and manipulated in Logic Pro, and were mixed in with computer generated sounds from Reason. I performed select voice and percussion elements from the fixed score during the premiere performances of the work, and also added a live structured introduction and ending to the work, which is now included in the fixed track.

View Score.

The title, Call of the Void, is an imperfect translation of the French phrase, l'appel du vide, which more accurately is described as the urge to leap off of a steep cliff and soar into the void.  If taken literally, it is quite a strange phenomenon, as we humans have a strong instinct for survival, directly combatting the instinct to jump.  But that doesn't stop sky divers, does it?

These combatant elements of the phrase, the translational struggle, and the internal struggle that the phenomenon generates, informed several elements of the work, including rhythmic dissonances and bombastic interruptions.  Even the melody, expansive and slow-moving, often progresses in spits and sputters.  

For me, l'appel du vide is about the urge to break free of inhibitions, to fully absorb and release in each moment. Call of the Void tells this story.

Commissioned by the Admiral Launch Duo, Jennifer Ellis (harp) and Jonathan Hulting Cohen (saxophone), this piece explores the expressive qualities of various ex-tended techniques for     both instruments.

View Score.

Performance History

Text

From Renderings of Hafiz, by Daniel Ladinsky

One day the sun admitted,
I am just a shadow.
I wish I could show you
The Infinite Incandescence
That has cast my brilliant image!

I wish I could show you,
When you are lonely or in darkness,
The astonishing Light
Of your own Being!

Performance History

Lutheran Church of the Living Christ, Madison, WI, December 20, 2015

First Congregational United Church of Christ, Madison, WI, December 18, 2015

Performed by the Madison Choral Project.

View Score.

Performance History

Lyndon & Ice: Post-Traumatic Growth, independent film by Jae Shim, November 2015

Britton Recital Hall, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, March 11, 2013

Performed by percussionist Evan Laybourn.

View Score.

Program Notes

there are no reluctances worth cherishing

hesitation is dull and misguided

the only sane way to go about life is to live with no reservation

As multi-movement works sometimes go, the second movement was written first. For Galatea, I utilized several of the great composer Messaien's compositional techniques. For example, at the start of the movement, one of the cellos rearticulates every three beats, while the others change notes every four. The faster moving cello part then soars out of the texture as a soloist playing a symmetrical rhythmic pattern. For the soloist, each measure, in fact, has the same rhythm backwards and forwards. There are also additive and diminutive properties within the movement.

The title of the work and its movements are borrowed titles from artist Salvador Dali, whose works loosely inspired their musical counterparts (The Persistence of Memory, Rosa Meditativa, Galatea, and Elefantes).

View Score.

Performance History

Harper Hall, Lawrence University, Appleton, WI, January 14, 2012

Searcy Hall, Brevard Music Center, Brevard, NC, August 4, 2011