My Composing

1974-1981: I’m an active composer, writing (among other things) four operas, all successfully produced.

1981-2016: I put composing on a shelf, emerging now and then with a performance of my work, and then pulling back.

2016: I reemerge as a composer, this time for good, with a triumphant concert of my work.

I’ve put video of the concert online. You can watch the complete show (two hours and 12 minutes), including my hosting and commentary.


Or you can pick individual pieces (without my commentary) from the program below.

And here you can download the program book, with texts, bios, and other info.

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Here’s the program:

“Hang there, my verse”  (2:54)

Arioso from my opera in progress, As You Like It (with my own libretto, adapted from Shakespeare)

Peter Scott Drackley, tenor
Marvin Mills, piano

text

score

“Ich bin, du Ängstlicher”  (3:26)

Song for soprano and piano, text from a poem by Rilke

Marlissa Hudson, soprano
Marvin Mills, piano

text and translation

score

“Do you hear, forester?”  (10:01)

Scene from As You Like It

Peter Scott Drackley, tenor
Marlissa Hudson, soprano
Marvin Mills, piano

text

score

Quartet for Anne  (5:34)

String quartet written as a surprise birthday present for my wife

Entcho Todorov, violin 1
Hiroko Taguchi, violin 2
Jonathan Dinklage, viola
Peter Sachon, cello

score

Short Talks  (12:06)

Eight piano pieces, to poetry by Anne Carson

Jenny Lin, piano and drum

movement titles and texts

score

Ground  (8:42)

Peter Sachon, electric cello

score

Weegee photos  (8:57)

Eight piano pieces, based on photos by Weegee, who took pictures in film noir style for New York tabloids in the 1940s

Jenny Lin, piano

movement titles and photos

score (This was craziiy difficult music. I’ve revised the score — especially the final piece —  to make it less difficult, and to make the notation clearer. So what you hear in this performance won’t fully match what you see in the score.)

Mahler Variations (27:11)

22 variations — most of them tributes to music, films, or literature that I love — on the theme of the last movement of Mahler’s Third Symphony

Entcho Todorov, violin 1
Hiroko Taguchi, violin 2
Jonathan Dinklage, viola
Peter Sachon, cello

list of variations, with text for Variation 19

score

Encores

“How do I love thee?”  (4:17)

Song for soprano and piano, written when I was in high school. Text is a poem by Elizabeth Barrett Browning.

Marlissa Hudson, soprano
Martin Mills, piano

text

score

Finale, from The Richest Girl in the World Finds Happiness  (4:27)

The Richest Girl is a one-act comic opera, in a Broadway style, a setting of a play by Robert Patrick. Originally written for four voices, adapted here for two.

Marlissa Hudson, soprano
Peter Scott Drackley, tenor
Martin Mills, piano

text

score