PROGRAM NOTES

Michael Begay "Nahasdzaan Bikaa'gi Naasha" (I Walk The Earth) for clarinet and piano (2018) (World premiere; clarinet version)
Inspired by Dine (Navajo) language "Naasha" (I walk).

 

Julius Eastman "Buddha" (1984)
"Budhha" was one of the final works for Julius Eastman. The piece is based on a poem by Eastman - a meditation on the life and teachings of Buddha, as well as a reflection on struggles with racism, homophobia, and mental illness. The music can be trance-like and hypnotic, and the open musical score has a single line of music with infinite possibilities for interpretation. The score for Buddha, composed in 1984, is simply a single page of manuscript paper in which notes and motifs are hinted at within an oval boundary. And so the piece is open to a considerable amount of free choice, improvisation and duration. The score to the work entitled "Buddha" by Julius Eastman (1940-1990) is in the form of a egg shape - with three lines bracketed on the left, and 2 on the right - with three on the top, and music notation within the egg shape.
 

Until very recently, the brilliant and tragic life of Julius Eastman and his seminally iconoclastic music, had been almost entirely forgotten after his death in New York at the age of 49. But a surge in performances of his music is now taking place, along with a re-evaluation of the considerable importance of his work.
 

Eastman was an exceptional pianist who studied with the legendary Mieczysław Horszowski, but his interest in experimental music led to him becoming a central figure in the more radical styles of music during the 1960s and 70s. Eastman was also blessed with a fine baritone voice, and in America he became the go-to performer of Peter Maxwell Davies’ Eight Songs for a Mad King, even performing the work when it was conducted by Pierre Boulez at the Lincoln Centre. By the 1980s, Eastman had cut ties with many academic institutions and was unable to secure regular employment. Eastman’s deliberately provocative works tackled political and social issues, centered around the prejudice he experienced being black and gay. Often obsessively repetitive, he combined a minimalist style with a certain flavor of pop and jazz. His music was considered far too extreme for performances in any mainstream venues, and he gradually became isolated and despondent to a point where drug addiction took control of his life. For a period he was homeless, and after a heart attack, he died alone in a New York hospital – it took eight months after his death for any type of modest obituary to appear in print.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julius_Eastman

 

Masatora Goya "Distance" for violin (2013)
Distance was originally written for Carlos Boltes as a solo viola piece, one of the series of compositions conceived during the last years of my father. There is an immeasurable distance between life and death. Yet one cannot keep asking the same question again and again, about the meaning of our fragile existence."
-MG  

https://www.masatoragoya.com/
 

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Daniel Hass “Sanctified” for clarinet, cello, piano (2024) (World premiere)
"This piece uses melodies from the song “Sanctified” by Rick Ross. Besides those melodies, the piece has nothing to do with the song. In that and other ways, it takes part in a certain absurdist aesthetic, leaving questions unanswered for everyone involved: incessant repetition of ideas, confronting the passage of time in the concert hall; a seemingly lofty title, derived from a lewd hip hop song; subtle theatrical occurrences signifying, potentially, nothing. Written for Thomas Piercy and Random Access Music" -DH
https://danielhass.ca/
 

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Zhihua Hu “Exploration” for piano (2004)
"'Exploration' - for Solo Piano hints the potential problem that people may encounter in their explorative paths. Sometimes, we feel easy and comfortable while exploring things, and other times we feel tortured and difficult while doing so. At the beginning of exploration, we may feel complacent once we think we have seen the dawn of success. However, impatience and self-satisfaction may make us taste failure. When we try to explore things again, we draw lessons from our past. Although we often feel exhausted, the explorative path will never end. In terms of compositional techniques, composer Zhihua Hu employed a pair of minor third and diminished fourth as an important Ostinato in this work. These two intervals represent different colors: minor third sounds steady while diminished fourth sounds aggressive. In addition, Ms. Hu employed many polyphonic techniques in this piano work, such as imitative polyphony and contrast polyphony. Also, Ms. Hu employed four staves instead of grand staff to compose this work in order to stimulate pianists’ maximum musical expression. In 2018, “Exploration” was recorded in Zhihua Hu’s debut album “Music of Zhihua Hu”. The album won Silver Metal Outstanding Achievement by Global Music Awards in May 2018." -ZH

https://www.zhihuahu.website/

 

Luigi Antonio Irlandini "Visões de Bashō" (Bashō Visions) for hichiriki and piano (2021) (World Premiere)

L.A.I. EP # 50 Written for and dedicated to Thomas Piercy

"The three interconnected pieces that form Bashō Visions are each based on a haiku of Matsuo Bashō (1644-1694) from his book Oku no Hosomichi (Narror Road to the Interior). The visions provided by each haiku are freely interpreted musically, although compositional freedom is tied to the haiku structural principle of 5, 7 and 5 syllables applied to several levels of temporal and rhythmic organization. The following are the poems in the order in which they are illustrated in the music (I have used Sam Hamill’s English translations – Narrow Road to the Interior published by Shambala, 1991 – for I and II; the translation for III is my own, combining features from existing English translations I have found in several sources. Bashō Visions has a second version for 1.8 shakuhachi and piano." -LAI
https://luigiantonioirlandini.com.br/
 

1. 夏草や
兵どもが
夢の跡

natsu-kusa ya / tsuwamono-domo ga / yume no ato

summer grasses / all that remains of brave warrior's / imperial dreams

 

2. 荒海や
佐渡によこたふ
天河
 

araumi ya / Sado ni yokotau / Amanogawa
high over wild seas / surrounding Sado Island / the River of Heaven

 

3. あらたふ
と青葉若葉
の日の光
ara tooto / aoba wakaba no / hi no hikari
how awesome it is / on green foliage and young foliage / the sun’s blazing light
 

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Noah Magnus "Thicketsounds” for ryuteki (2024) (World Premiere)
"When I told one of my friends about this piece for solo ryuteki (a relatively new instrument for me as a composer), they made an astute observation: “A great way to get to know a new instrument is to write a theme and variations for it.” By then, I had already written the piece, but by sheer coincidence, that is precisely what turned out to be - a tune with a few variations! My initial reasoning was that I wanted something simple and songlike. Additionally, the sound and capabilities of the ryuteki, for me, evoke strong feelings of nature. So, considering all of this, I decided this piece should strive to show how nature is as equally harmonious as it is chaotic. To exhibit that idea with a little bit of imagery, I wanted to encapsulate the quiet and loud noises coming from a thicket. Written for Lish Lindsey" -NM
https://noahmagnusmusic.com/

Beata Moon "Dragonfly" for clarinet, viola, and piano (2010)
I enjoy composing for performers I know. Their personalties and musicality inform and inspire what I write. Dragonfly was written for Jessica Meyer and Ben Fingland of Piaclava, the viola, clarinet, piano trio I performed with for several years.
https://beatamoon.com/


Allen Schulz “Like Dancing About Architecture” for clarinet, violin, and cello (2024) (World premiere)

The title “Like Dancing About Architecture”  is taken from the apocachophal  comment “Writing about music is like dancing about architecture”.  The phrase has been mis-attributed to multiple sources, including Frank Zappa and Thelonious Monk, among others.  My work has dance-like elements—fast, repetitive themes, non-lyrical passages and a strong emphasis on rhythm. Written for Random Access Music" - AS

www.allenschulz.net