Sound Samples

All sound samples are excerpts. Complete scores and parts, as well as complete recordings, are available from the composer.

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Preludes for piano | score:

Year composed 2007–09

Duration 7:00

Performer Franklin Gross

Several short piano pieces for the intermediate to advanced player are presented. The work is mostly tonal, while far from being strictly “white notes.” The movements vary greatly in tempo and style.

Preludes
IV. [no verbal tempo indication]

Preludes
VII. Soave, un poco rubato (ma non troppo)

Preludes
VIII. Allegro

Solo for flute | score:

Year composed 2008

Duration 1:30

Performer Joanna Martin

Solo is a brief work for flute, marked “restless” in the score, which displays both the lyrical and agile qualities of the instrument.

Solo

My Earliest Memory for baritone voice and piano | score:

Year composed 2006–07

Duration 4:00

Performers Bryan Bolzenthal (baritone), Shane Lamb (piano)

My Earliest Memory is based on a poem by Ray Gonzalez in which he describes a fond memory of his grandmother and their mutual love for one another. The music attempts to recreate this interaction, but through a veil of dreamlike sounds. The work is dedicated to the memory of Richard G. Brand, who left us far too soon.

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My Earliest Memory

Brass Quintet | score:

Year composed 2005–06

Duration 11:00

Performers Josh Davies and Ian Kivler (trumpets), Anne Marie Cherry (horn), Javier Stuppard (trombone), Blake Cooper (tuba)

The movements are in typical fast-slow-fast form, with the middle movement making up the bulk of the work. The first movement is fast and exciting with alternating meter and sudden rhythmic twists. The middle movement is slow and expressive, reflecting on several themes presented in the first movement. The final movement is very mischievous, with interesting interplay between the instruments.

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Brass Quintet
I. Allegro con brio

Brass Quintet
II. Largo

Brass Quintet
III. Allegro

Landscapes: three moods for solo piano
score:

Year composed 2005

Duration 6:00

Performer Franklin Gross

The three movements are written in a deliberately simplistic style. Sparse in texture and modest in presentation, the work exists only to highlight the sound world of the piano. Each movement wanders from one sound to the next, only hinting at a modest formal structure.

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Landscapes
I. Slow and languid

Landscapes
II. [no verbal tempo indication]

Landscapes
III. Misterioso

Caricature for orchestra | score:

Instrumentation 2222 4221 timp perc(1) strings

Year composed 2003

Duration 4:00

Performers University of Oklahoma Symphony Orchestra

Caricature attempts to display the orchestra in an objective, almost jocose manner. The theme, which begins mischievously, is later transformed into something more sinister and foreboding.

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Caricature

String Quartet | score:

Year composed 2002–03

Duration 9:00

Performers Steven Crichlow and Chrystal Smothers (violins), Jan Matthews (viola), Nick Alvarez (cello)

The work consists of three movements, each of which presents similar motivic material. The movements were composed consecutively over a period of a year-and-a-half from the summer of 2002 to December of 2003, representing a considerable time span of the composer's compositional development.

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String Quartet
I. Allegro con forza

String Quartet
II. Lento

String Quartet
III. Scherzando; leggero ed animato

Three Sketches for one player: alto flute, piccolo, and flute in C | score:

Year composed 2003

Duration 4:30

Performer Lorraine Miller, flutist for the Wichita Symphony Orchestra (Wichita, Kansas)

The work consists of three movements, each of which represents the character of the instrument that plays. The movements are tied together using similar repeating motives. The second and final movements show off the impressive agility of the piccolo and C flute.

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Three Sketches
I. Incantation, for alto flute

Three Sketches
II. Humoresque, for piccolo

Three Sketches
III. Barbaro, for C flute

Bahrah for percussion quartet
score samples/buy:

Year composed 2003

Duration 4:30

Performers Lee Parham, Jennifer Higgins, Sarah Koss, Chris Riggs

Publisher Everett, PA: HoneyRock Publications, 2009.

“Bahrah” (pronounced “bay-ray”) is the transliteration of the Hebrew phrase “to create.” The idea for this composition was to take certain important themes from the Creation in the Bible and turn them into musical motives, and then use these motives to develop musical material.

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Bahrah