Chamber

Commissioned by CBC Radio 2 for their concert series in Almonte, Ontario. The concert was called Three Faces of Ebony and featured three different clarinetists; James Campbell, Phil Nimmons and Airat Ichmouratov. I was asked to compose a work called Three faces of Ebony that reflected the styles of these three wonderful players. Jim played the "modern" 1st mvt. though he's also a wonderful jazz player, Phil, an icon of Canadian jazz, played the 2nd, and Airat, an incredible Klezmer player performed the 3rd. The work was scored for Clarinet, String Quartet, Piano and Bass and since been reduced for just piano and clarinet.

Suite from the Sound was commissioned by the Festival of the Sound in Parry Sound, Ontario for James Campbell and the St. Lawrence String Quartet. Prior to this commission, Jim and I had great success with a work called Dreaming of the Masters I. It combines both jazz and concert music, and Jim and I wanted to continue that exploration with this work.

The work is in three movements:

• Movement I is subtitled Parry’s Ground and is built around a ground bass introduced by the cello. This bass line continues through most of the work with the middle section allowing both clarinet and string quartet to improvise.
• Movement II is subtitled Waltz for Mr. Evans and is intended to reflect the compositional style of legendary composer/arranger Gil Evans.
• The last movement is subtitled Flying Fingers and is just that.

The piece was recorded a year after the original commission with a string quartet from Holland called Zapp. This is a true jazz string quartet and they brought the improvisation sections to heights beyond my expectations.

Love’s Red Rose was written for Nora Bumanis and Julia Shaw. I was asked in 2001 by Nora, harpist for the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra, if I would be interested in writing a double harp concerto for her and her duo partner Julia. Her only request was that I incorporate the Robert Burns song My Love is Like a Red Red Rose.

This idea arose because at the time Nora had just performed this piece at a memorial service for Nancy Fairley, a long-time and beloved member of the ESO Board of Governors. At first I thought I would just hint at the tune but as the work grew it became the central material of the slow section and lead me to call the entire Concerto Gaol's Ruadh Rús, which is Gaelic for Love's Red Rose. After the premiere Nora and Julia asked if I could adapt the slow section as a stand-alone duet.

This adaptation begins with some bold chords stated with a rhythm known as the "Scottish Snap" which are followed by a series of arpeggios leading into my setting of My Love is Like a Red Red Rose. The melody is first played in a light and ethereal style, then repeated in a more bold manner. The piece ends with the opening chords.

Score sample

Roots was composed for the Brian Webb Dance Company to celebrate their 20^th Anniversary. Brian originally wanted a 20-minute piece for solo upright bass. I had trouble imagining writing 20 minutes of solo music for upright bass, so I suggested electric bass instead. With the choice of 4, 5 and 6-string basses, as well as fretted and un-fretted, there seemed many more harmonic and melodic possibilities. Once we agreed on electric bass I immediatley suggested Paul Shihadeh as soloist. Paul is an incredible musician and one the finest electric bass players I know.

The work is divided into four sections, each exploiting a different facet of the bass:

• Section I is slow and melodic, showcasing the harmonic possibilties of the 6-string fretted bass.
• Section II is minimalist in texture and uses an effects prossesor to create the illusion that there is more than one bass.
• Section III pays homage to the fretless bass style of Jaco Pastorius. He singlehandedly turned the bass world on its head by expanding the instruments solo and melodic capabilities.
• Section IV is the most aggressive section of the piece, adding distortion to the bass and featuring the technique of the slaping the strings with the fingertips.

Score sample

M’bira was commissioned by Trevor Brandenburg through the Alberta Foundation for the Arts and was first performed in 1999 at the ReSound Festival of Contemporary Music. It was written as both a concert etude and as an educational tool. Trevor is very dedicated to teaching percussion and has developed a concert/clinic that he performs for all levels of schools. He wanted a piece that was concise enough to play at these concerts and would showcase his virtuosity on marimba.

The piece focuses on four-mallet technique, both in melodic lines as well as in rolled and unrolled chords. The first half has a sense of perpetual motion and explores my ongoing interest in minimalism. The middle section is a chorale derived from lines in section one which transitions into a recap of the original material.

Score sample

Four by Four was composed at the request of Hammerhead Consort. My overall intent was to design a form that would both exploit the potential of each player while still keeping an overall sense of cohesion and unity in the ensemble.

The work is in four sections, each reflecting a different texture and the whole piece is connected by melodic and harmonic motifs.

• Section I is a canon consisting of five separate ideas.
• Section II exploits the percussive nature of all the instruments with the two percussionists being featured.
• Section III slows the rhythmic activity and focuses more on harmony. I also experiment with the spatial relationship of the two pianos.
• The last section contains five repeating cells which contain their own unique harmonic and rhythmic material.

The overall texture is minimalist with abrupt changes, keeping the listener off-balance.