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  • Symphony No. 3
    August-December 2006
    This symphony bears the dedication: For Michel Edward, friend and teacher, without whose support I would not have found the courage to write this work. It is in five moments and clocks in at about 25 minutes. I use classical forms, but with a twist. For example, the 1st movement is in a traditional sonata form, but the repeats of themes are variations on them. In the exposition section development has already started.

    The other movements are: 2. Scherzo; 3. Fugue; 4. Passacaglia. Despite the forms, they are very contemporary in style. It was as if I had to get it all off my chest. I now feel ready to move onto forms of my own making.
  • The S. S. Newfoundland: 1914
    August-September 2006
    A tone poem, in memory of the 78 men and children who lost their lives when they were abandoned by their captain during a North Atlantic winter storm in March, 1914.

    The music opens with an introduction to the scene: fog shrouding a large ice field where herds of Harp and Hood seals are gathered. The steam-driven schooners move in and begin unloading hundreds of men and boys armed with gaffs with which to cull the seals.

    One ship, the S. S. Newfoundland, is trapped by the ice, miles from the killing fields. The captain sends a crew of about 150 to scramble over the twisted dangerous landscape. Thirty-four return to their mother ship; the rest of the crew boards the S. S. Stephano where they are fed, then ordered to return to their own ship. The men set out in late afternoon, only to be trapped on the open ice by a blizzard that raged for more than two days. Fathers and sons were found frozen in each other's arms.
    Music is an intimate part of the human experience. Fascination with rhythms and varying pitches is as much a defining element as is speech and abstract reasoning. I don't know if intelligent beings from elsewhere in our universe would have a music but I suspect they would, as music seems be an essential part of the basic framework of intelligence.
  • Symphony No. 2 ("Searching")
    March - August 2006
    It is so difficult for me to tell you what a symphony is "about." It is a creation unto itself. In this one I recognize elements that pull the listener forward while reflecting on the past. Hence, the subtitle. Each of us brings our own experience with us when we listen to a soundscape. For me to talk about technical details like the forms, the harmonies, the rhythms, the scales, and instruments would add nothing to your understanding of the glimpse of the world I inhabit.
  • Memories of the Outaouais
    September - November 2005
    The Outaouais is the region of Western Quebec surrounding the Gatineau River where it empties into the Ottawa River. It is the reminants of a very old mountain system that was worn away before the Rockies formed. The composer lived there for about 20 years.
    The work is organized into twelve segments, each representing a two-hour period of the day beginning at 2:00 am, ending at midnight. For small orchestra.
  • Symphony No. 1 (The Beginning)
    Summer-Fall 2005
    I have no patience with people who divide music into broad categories, such as "tonal" versus "atonal," and then make judgement calls reminiscent of George Orwell's Animal Farm ("Four legs good; two legs bad"). Sometimes they go so far as to claim "pre-1900 good; post-1900 bad."

    Where does my music fit into this imaginary dichotomy? It is from within me, a man who has grown up during the latter half of the 20th century. I could write in the style of a pre-1900 master; or in the style of some of the experimenters of the early 20th century, but such music does not grow out of my experience and it would be as artificial as a composition homework assignment.

    This symphony grew in a world where leaders use primitive thinking processes to turn the world into a comic book. It grew from the restless and uneasy search to find footholds and from the hope that there is loving intelligence—somewhere.
  • Duet for Harp and Violin
    Part 1: August 2005; part 2: June 2006
    This work is still growing. I wrote the first movement in one evening sitting in 2005. Comments from the on-line composers' world were so enthusiastic in their response that I felt compelled to continue it. The 2nd movement took almost a year to write. Nickie Fønshauge recorded both movements and has agreed to record more movements as they come.
  • A Winter Sonata: for violoncello and piano
    Winter 2003 - 2004
    Winter has so many faces. Grey and damp. Driving wind and snow with stunning cold. A crystal clarity. Children sliding and tumbling down soft hills. Every day a new and different day.