SKU: PR.164002390

UPC: 680160038091.

I became interested in the work of Plato through my friend and collaborator, the writer and philosopher Paul Woodruff. Paul's new translation, with Alexander Nehamas, of the Symposium gave me insights into ancient Greek ways of thinking about Love, Beauty, and Wisdom -- and managed to keep the earthy, and often bawdy side of it all in full view. But their new translation of Plato's later dialogue Phaedrus went even further: the beauty of the speeches is breathtaking, and the discourse itself is enough to keep one awake at night. Basically the Great Speech of Socrates in the Phaedrus dialogue has to do with the place of Eros in the world, and with the conflict in the soul between fleshly pleasure and philosophic discovery. I will not attempt to encapsulate this brilliant discourse in a program note: suffice it to say that reading it gave rise to my two-sided work for clarinet, violin, and piano, Phaedrus. The first movement represents the Philosophic life, and is thus subtitled Apollo's Lyre (Invocation and Hymn). It begins with an unaccompanied melody for the clarinet, which (after a pair of harp-like flourishes for the piano, expands into an accompanied canon. The voices in the dialogue (clarinet and violin) follow each other by a prescribed number of beats, but the music is totally devoid of any meter at all. The piano, representing the lyre, accompanies this lyric love-feast with repeated strummed chords. The canon has three large sections, and ends with violin echoing the unaccompanied clarinet invocation as the sound of the lyre fades. The second movement, called Dionysus' Dream-Orgy (Ritual Dance) presents, after a brief introduction, another kind of unmetered music. Rather than long lyric flights of philosophic song, however, this time we hear a unison dance of unbridled energy and sensual transport. The piece soon forms itself into a loose arch form, with contrasting metered dance sections divided by the unison unmetered orgy tune. Midway through the movement, Apollo's melody returns from the first movement, but it is a temporary reminiscence. The orgiastic dance returns, reaches a climax, and ends with a stomping of feet. While Plato asserts that a proper balance between lust and reason is necessary in all men, he (naturally) gives the nod to Philosophy as the better choice in which to live. Not so in my music: the two sides are meant to coexist and to complement each other. No sides are taken. Phaedrus was commissioned of the Verdehr Trio by Michigan State University. It is dedicated to the Vedehr Trio with great affection and admiration.

SKU: PR.114419280

ISBN 9781491132357. UPC: 680160676125.

Inspired by Chinese tradition, this concerto-like dance suite includes: 1. Lion Dance, 2. YangKo, and 3. Muqam. Each movement draws from melodies and rhythms characteristic of various regions of China many centuries ago. CHINESE FOLK DANCE SUITE is available for violin with full orchestra, or as a recital work with piano.
Supported by a major commissioning award from the Serge Koussevitzky Music Foundation in the Library of Congress, Chinese Folk Dance Suite is written for solo violin and orchestra; it was premiered by The Women’s Philharmonic with violin soloist Terrie Baune, conducted by Apo Hsu, on March 10, 2001, at Yerba Buena Center For the Arts Theater in San Francisco.Inspired by various Chinese traditional folk dances, the suite has three movements:I. Lion Dance. Traditionally, people dance with richly decorated hand-made lions, accompanied by percussion ensemble, to celebrate happy occasions and major festivals throughout the country. In this composition, I use Chinese drum and other percussion instruments in the background, to form a dynamic and rhythmic texture responding to the solo part, which imitates the tunes played on the suona (traditional Chinese trumpet). The pitch materials came from the traditional Guangdong tune “Dragon Boat Racing,” and the Chaozhou tune “Lion Playing Ball.”II. YangKo. Originating in northern China, this is a major folk dance form in mass performance popularized in the country. In YangKo performance, people play rhythmic patterns on the drums hung around their waists while singing and dancing. In the second movement, I imagined a warm scene of YangKo dancing in distance. The solo violin plays a sweet and gracious melodic line while all members of the orchestra sing non-pitched syllables in different layers as the soft background, to imitate the percussion sound which produces the ever-going pulse.III. Muqam. This large-scale music and dance form, from the Uygur nationality in Xinjiang province, originated in the 15th century. My third movement use a 7/8 meter and the melodic style of Muqam music. The fiery dancing gesture culminates in the sustained climax section at the end of the work, after a colorful violin cadenza in both improvisational singing style and polyphonic writing with woven lines.

SKU: BA.BA11086

ISBN 9790006564446. 32.5 x 25.5 cm inches.

A suite whose movements always deliver something other than what they seem to promise. But throughout, the two instruments and respectively their players act like two people in very specific situations:

I.: The opening movement is reserved for the piano; the initially earnest, solitary cantilena intensifies creating expectation. Suddenly
II.: the violin sounds. Its moving figures replace the now silent piano, also soloistically.
III. „Passacaglia“: The title is taken literally – the two instruments/persons encounter each other in the street. Two musical characters who meet at a specific point, recognize each other, but move on again, each one by itself.
IV. „Rondo“: The two of them dance together. Before me, I saw people dancing the Sardana – a round dance – in front of the cathedral of Barcelona. Four themes in different time signatures circle ceaselessly between the two instruments.
V. „Fuga“: At last, regardless, panic flight – again the title is taken literally ... Human, only too human …