In the '70s and early '80s, I had an active composing career. Among other things, I wrote four operas, all successfully performed. In the past year I've started composing actively again, and gradually I'm building this page, where you can learn about my work, see scores, and -- most important -- hear the music.
Here's what's available so far, with more to come. To read these scores, you'll need the free Scorch plugin from Sibelius, the company that makes the music notation software I use.
Operas
Frankenstein (1981; first act orchestrated, 2003; recording, score, libretto)
The Richest Girl in the World Finds Happiness (1975; comedy in a through-composed pop/Broadway style)
recording (20'47")
As You Like It (in progress; adapted pretty faithfully from Shakespeare; two acts finished, the third to come)
vocal score of an excerpt (the end of Act 2, scene 1: the first encounter of Orlando and Rosalind)
synthesizer demo (same excerpt; 9'54". The demo gives an approximate idea of the sound of the full orchestration, which will be for 15 solo strings; the vocal score is a reduction for voices and piano)
Instrumental music
Quartet for Anne (2002; recording, score)
Mahler Variations -- a 27-minute string quartet, a set of variations on the theme of the last movement of MahlerThird Symphony. Most of the variations are tributes to things I love, some musical, some not -- Elvis, Mozart, Bach, Beethoven, Bellini, John Cage, Schoenberg, Berg, Webern, Proust, Antonioni, Eric Rohmer.
score (which can be played back, using your computer's sound capability)
A Frankenstein Overture (1996; orchestral piece, based on the opera)
recording (synthesizer demo: 6'41")
Sonatina for Clarinet and Piano (2002, in progress) -- the first movement is finished. It's a sonata-form movement in the piano, coupled with a scherzo in the clarinet, complete with all the usual repeats. Very tricky to write! The sonata movement has to modulate, while the scherzo stays in one key. The second movement will be "Two Slow Movements" -- again, independent pieces in the two instruments. The third will be "Together At Last." (And yes, the first movement goes very high, but it can be played, or so says Clemens Trautmann, the German clarinet player for whom I'm writing this.)
recording (synthesizer demo: 2'22")
Vocal Music
Three Duets (1971, for soprano and mezzo, unaccompanied; texts are poems by E. E. Cummings). Close to the first adult piece I ever wrote, and the first concert piece of mine that was performed, when I was a student at the Yale School of Music. Later performed in New York by The Western Wind. Due to a glitch, the recording is missing the first few notes.
recording (Penney Kimbell, soprano; Jeannine Dovell, mezzo; Yale School of Music, 1972; 5'58")
Mac users! I've posted my music in Windows Media format, which won't play on your Mac (not even in iTunes), unless you download the Windows Media Player from Microsoft. Why have I done this? Because Windows Media files take up only half the hard drive space -- and take only half as long to download -- as MP3s. MP3 music is still more common than music in Windows Media format, but lots of important sites use Windows Media files, starting (to give just one example) with Naxos Records, which offers almost its entire catalogue, free, for anyone to hear on the web…but only in Windows Media. If you listen to a lot of online music, you need the Windows Media player, even if you've got a Mac.
More is coming. Watch this space!
