Chamber Music
A Musing
[1992]
String Quartet
This piece begins with energetic dance music and ends abruptly with an awkward but stately promenade: evidently, the princess is young and pretentious. It was composed for a UO Composition Workshop with members of Continuum (New York) and subsequently performed at an Oregon Composers Forum concert.
A Still Point
[2017]
Violin, Piano
A Still Point takes its title from a passage in the first of T. S. Eliot’s Four Quartets:
At the still point of the turning world. Neither flesh nor fleshless;
Neither from nor towards; at the still point, there the dance is,
But neither arrest nor movement….
… Except for the point, the still point,
There would be no dance, and there is only the dance.
This image takes musical form as a palindrome, more or less, centered around the so-called golden ratio, an irrational yet wondrously simple proportion found in the natural world. The violin traces a ponderous path through an open space, made resonant by the piano’s sympathetic support. Time is paced by periodic “golden” outbursts, such that the piece hovers between “arrest” and “movement,” evoking an afterimage which dances with Eliot’s singular meditation.
A Stubborn Calm
[1990]
Flute, Viola, and Harp
My first composition for a reading by the Debussy Trio in a UO Composition Workshop.
Ask, Seek, Knock (a.k.a. Who is the Leader)
[2025]
(electronically realized) Woodwind Octet and Piano
This is the musical outcome of a collaboration with choreographer Julia Myers, whose Senior dance project (at Belhaven University) explores how dancers and musicians use language differently to describe their creative processes and designs.
The music is scored for pairs of woodwinds and piano but realized electronically so that it is readily available for the dancers to rehearse and perform – and also because I took the liberty of occasionally exceeding the ranges of the physical instruments.
We used an unusual collaborative process following a weekly rhythm. First, I composed 30-60 seconds of music and sent a recorded verbal description of my process to Julia, followed by an audio demo. Julia worked out choreography based only on my verbal description and taught it to her ensemble of four dancers. The dancers then recorded a video of themselves dancing to the audio file. Julia sent me a verbal description of her process along with the video. In response, I composed another segment of the piece and the process repeated.
The music was completed in November 2024, after nine weeks. Julia refined the choreography in January and early February. The finished project, which Julia entitled Who is the Leader?, was performed on February 28 and March 1 in BU’s 2025 Senior Dance Concert.
Bananagram
[1994]
Flute, Viola, and Harp
This piece walks the border between sober gravity and eccentric silliness. This is my third composition for the Debussy Trio, who read it in a UO Composition Workshop.
Beach Spring Sketch
[1999]
Flute, Oboe, Bassoon, and Piano
This is a somewhat adventurous arrangement of the tune from the hymn “Come all Christians, be committed,” first performed in 2000 for a worship service at Blacknall Memorial Presbyterian Church (Durham, NC).
(The Unannounced Appearance of the Princess to) Dancing Paupers
[1991]
Violin, Clarinet, and Piano
This piece begins with energetic dance music and ends abruptly with an awkward but stately promenade: evidently, the princess is young, pretentious, and self-absorbed. It was composed for a UO Composition Workshop with members of Continuum (New York) and subsequently performed at an Oregon Composers Forum concert.
Desert Song
[2024]
6 Violins, 2 Violas, 2 Cellos
Desert Song is a musical journey inspired in part by Jacob Rowan’s artwork, “Desert,” from his series The Tower and the Desert. The Mississippi Music Teachers Association commissioned the piece for its 2024 annual conference.
The music evokes the inner experience of a trek across an arid landscape in search of water. An initial mage of heat and thirst gives way to a curious path through the stark beauty of a sandy wilderness. The way is bathed in light and heat, gathering intensity and hope hand in hand, until the oasis appears. Thirst is satisfied, rest is at hand, peace is restored, and the desert song’s curious strains echo and linger in the mind’s ear.
Regarding his series, Jacob writes the following parable:
There is a desert, and in the midst of that desolation stand ambitious men.
Long ago, Nimrod – a mighty warrior and king of the desert – desired a place as a god. He said to his people, ‘Come, let us make a name for ourselves, and let us build a tower with its top in the heavens lest we be dispersed and forgotten.’ So they began construction on a spire that would prick the heavens.
Then the LORD descended in radiant theophany and twisted their tongues in His displeasure. Men who had once been allies were torn apart by the confusion of their languages and dispersed throughout the wasteland. Thus the place was called Babel, and its ruins still lie on the plains of Shinar, populated only by the owls and hyenas.
Nimrod’s nation was scattered, but his vision lingered on, gnawing at the imaginations of generation after generation. Constantly his children roam, splintering according to language and culture, coalescing, and then fracturing again. They build ceaselessly but leave behind only a trail of crumbling monoliths beneath the cold light of the moon.
After a time, the LORD sent his Son to pave the Way through the desert to the holy city of Zion. He adopted countless descendants of Nimrod and gave them a mighty gift. The very Spirit that had first confused language would now give men one voice and the Word to speak.
Nimrod’s offspring still apply all of their might to building towers of steel and glass. But the children of the Lord live in the sand, making their slow pilgrimage along the Way and singing of Zion. Their chorus is the unified voice of the faithful proclaiming:
No eye has seen and no mind has conceived the full glory of Zion, but in everything are signs and signifiers.”
Jacob Rowan is on the faculty at Belhaven University’s Art & Design department.
Doxa I
[2015]
Brass Quintet
A Fanfare — a doxology, actually — both an introit and a benediction.
Faith and Reason
[1994]
flute, clarinet, violin, viola, piano, and percussion
Faith and Reason is a musical essay on the interrelation of, well, faith and reason. These are represented in the music in various abstract and concrete ways. The piece focuses on quotations from the hymn If Thou but Suffer God to Guide Thee, along with fragments of O Come, O Come, Immanuel and O God Our Help In Ages Past. All of the tonal and non-tonal material in the piece is derived from these sources, sometimes plainly but more often in radical transformation. The piece features several episodes that portray a variety of moods and attitudes. Neither symbolic allegory nor trite moralizing is intended: this is an exploration of attitudes and states of mind, a view of things that fit together despite appearances or (mis)conceptions.
I AM the Resurrection and the Life
[2020]
Cello and Piano
This is a short meditation on John 11:25.
Interesting Times
[2020]
Bb Clarinet, Violin, Viola, and Cello
Interesting Times was composed in June 2020 for the Rapido! Composition Contest. The stated contest guidelines refer to the “extraordinary time” brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic, calling for the piece to “express the impact this has had on you and/or reflect on the different range of human emotions that have been experienced worldwide.” Efforts across the country and around the globe to handle the crisis have been complicated by a variety of things, including outrageous political behavior, economic desperation, and the ever-present tensions around racism, human rights, terrorism, and natural disasters. Beneath this daily buzz is the chronic strain of isolation, social disruption, and fearful uncertainty. That ancient curse, “May you live in interesting times,” is coming true—yet there is hope.
This piece is “interested” in the contour of the so-called “Bach motive,” used by J. S. Bach to spell his name musically. After an initial declamation, the motive becomes the ubiquitous topic of dialogue, ranging from reckless energy to shocked dismay, ponderous tension, and lamentation. Behind the scenes, though, is a Lutheran chorale tune from Bach’s familiar cantata, “Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme,” which subtly guides the opening section and emerges abruptly to bring the work to a hopeful, peaceful, lingering close.
Jeremy’s Buttons
[1991]
Violin and Marimba
This piece has an arbitrary title, inspired by the character of the ponderous opening theme, which sounded (to my youthful ear) like a youth patiently dressing himself. The music undergoes several tempo modulations as the theme varies and develops, ultimately ending as it began. None of my friends at the time were named Jeremy.
Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence
[2024]
2 Cellos and Piano
This meditation ponders an ancient melody. It begins with the melody played in reverse, followed by a handful of variations. It was composed for Stan Wagnon and “The Cello Boys” (Elijah Norman and Bear Vickery). They premiered the piece for the third Sunday of Advent at Redeemer Church in Jackson, MS.
Meditation on a Mystery
[2001]
Woodwind Quintet
This simple piece employs two traditional tunes used for the classic carol Away In a Manger. In the final verse, the two tunes sound together.
Mostly St. Columba
[2003]
Soprano, Flute, and Cello
Commissioned for the (outdoor) dedication of the Thea G. Korver Art Building at Northwestern College of Iowa, in Fall 2003. The soprano begins and ends with a traditional Irish tune, but temporarily shifts to a more strident melody.
Mousetraps
[1994]
Percussion Ensemble
A whimsical etude based on an accompanimental figure from Rachmaninoff’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini. Performed twice by the UO Percussion Ensemble in the 1994-95 academic year.
O Waly Waly
[1998]
Flute (alt. Violin), Oboe, and Piano
This setting was commissioned by Dave Stuntz, music director at Blacknall Memorial Presbyterian Church. It has found its way into worship services, weddings, college chapel services, and even a musical mission trip to Peru.
Sakharoviana
[2012]
Violin, Piano, and Mixed Percussion
Program Notes
Sakharoviana is a reflection on the life and legacy of Soviet physicist and human-rights advocate Andrei Sakharov. The topic was chosen by percussionist Scott Eddlemon, who commissioned the work for performance on the Oak Ridge Symphony Orchestra’s Isotone Concert Series (winter 2013). Isotone presents concerts focused on the intersection of music and physics: thus the present topic.
Though he is noted for his work on developing the hydrogen bomb for the Soviet Union, Sakharov is also remembered for his persistent support of human rights in the face of Soviet persecution and exile. He has been admired for his wisdom, which involved “not just thinking but acting, not just intellect but character.” Such character included unusual integrity, passion, humility in the search for truth, a marked lack of hatred and bitterness, perseverance in his commitments, listening to others without imposing his own views, joy in close relationships, warm hospitality, and enduring hopefulness even amidst dire circumstances. It seems likely that his mother, Eskaterina, an Orthodox believer, had a profound formative influence on her young son’s character, even though he left the church at the age of 13 to follow his father’s example of humanism and atheism.
Sakharov pursued the development of the hydrogen bomb with good intentions, convinced that doing so would preserve the balance of power between the Soviet Union and the United States and thus promote peace. Over time, he began to see a stark difference between the Soviet constitution and the “unwritten ideological rules” imposed by the communist ruling elite (which undoubtedly offended his sense of integrity). He became involved in using his status and influence to promote human rights within the Soviet Union, and was known for compassionately helping anyone who came to him. The Soviet state could not openly condemn him, because of his position and status in the scientific world, but it did subject him to covert persecution and even a period of internal exile. Nevertheless, he continued to further the cause of peace, arguing that “the division of mankind threatens its destruction”. When the dangers of nuclear testing became evident, Sakharov advocated the partial test ban, which was enacted in 1963—incidentally, the year of his mother’s death. Sakharov died peacefully in 1989, suffering a heart attack while resting before the delivery of a speech.
Sakharoviana is cast in five movements, each exploring a dimension of the physicist’s story. The first, Eskaterina, is a meditation on the source of his character, evoked by reference to a Lutheran chorale known in American hymnals as “If Thou but Suffer God to Guide Thee.” This tune figures in the balance of the work in various guises. The second movement, Balance of Power, is a bald evocation of the race to develop the hydrogen bomb, casting opposing figures in an active dialogue marked by mounting anxiety and bewildering detonations. Tokamak follows with a different kind of balance. Its name comes from the geometry of a fusion reactor Sakharov helped design. The musical texture emulates the reactor’s doughnut-shaped electromagnetic field with particles spiraling within it, striving to maintain the precarious balance of containing a restless fusion reaction. The fourth movement takes its title from a phrase Sakharov used repeatedly: “The truth is never simple”. The rhythmic framework incorporates an approximation of pi, the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter—a simple geometric relationship whose numerical value is beyond rational account. The last movement, In Memoriam Eskaterina, revisits and transforms the meditation of the opening, musically pondering God’s gracious gifts of good character to the world.
Sextet (Contemporary Obsolescence)
[1996]
Flute, Trumpet, Bassoon, Cello, Piano, and Harpsichord
The subtitle, Contemporary Obsolescence, began as an imaginary book from which I would draw dryly droll quotations (usually tautological or contradictory, like the title). Several years later, the Sextet took shape around the idea of an old-sounding notion lost amid modern confusion. The resulting music ponders the increasingly uncertain place of the past in the erratic drift of present-day cultural fragmentation, as well as an underlying sense that reality may have been misplaced.
The piece begins with four themes, all “talking” at once, with a plaintive trumpet melody leading the way. Eventually, the themes develop in sequence, but not without ongoing commentary and dissent from other musical voices. Before long, the harpsichord leads the way into a new, baroque-like soliloquy submerged in the continued fermentation of earlier thematic ideas. This meandering process eventually turns awkwardly suspenseful, occasionally silly, and finally picks up an energetic groove that carries the ensemble into a grandly romantic restatement of the harpsichord’s soliloquy. This falls into an epilogue: an extended sighing figure sounds over the cello’s lowest string (which is retuned down a half-step in mid-stride), setting the stage for a final muted statement of the opening trumpet theme.
Sonata for Tuba and Piano
[1991]
Dude! Tuba and Piano
Imagine a weary, disgruntled circus elephant, patiently poised on a platform, a parasol held aloft in his trunk. Consider his hollow blue lament, when the crowds have gone away, leaving him alone with his hay in a holding pen. Not surprisingly, he might very well charge out of his cage at an unguarded moment to confront his trainer, whose retreat might be futile. The sonata is not really about any of this, but you might hear something along these lines….
Sour Blue Samba
[2015]
Vibraphone, Bass, and Drumset
This was a short and somewhat difficult piece composed for the Vibe Doctors, who disbanded before they got around to it.
String Quartet (#1)
[1993]
This short three-movement work is given to abrupt thematic contrasts and a blend of tonal and post-tonal impulses. This piece won the 1994 University of Oregon Chamber Music Series Competition and was premiered by the Alexander String Quartet in February 1995.
String Quartet #2
[1999]
This three-movement work began as sketches for readings in Stephen Jaffe’s Duke course, “The String Quartet in the Twentieth Century.” Each short draft became a movement (I, II, and IV). Initially, I had plans to make movement III as a collage of the other three movements, but I later discarded the idea.
Transfigurations
[1992]
Wind Sextet
In this piece, instrumentalists are widely-spaced on stage to allow for dancers to move around them. During the piece, the players individually move closer together, causing the dancers to expand their movements outward. Margo van Ummerson provided choreography (see also the piano piece For Margo).
Weaving
[2004]
Saxophone Quartet
This is a concert version of music commissioned by Bob Hubbard at Northwestern College of Iowa as incidental music for T. M. Camp’s fanciful 2003 adaptation of The Odyssey.
World’s Rim
[2005]
Guitar Trio
This short study for the Belhaven University Guitar Ensemble was originally designed as a quintet for four guitars and acoustic bass guitar. The guitarists in the four corners of a recital room, echoing one another while the bass played a slow melody from center stage. The ensemble was reduced to three for practical reasons and performed in four concerts at BU in Fall 2005.
YATS (Yet Another Trio Study)
[1992]
Flute, Viola, and Harp
This is my second etude composed for the Debussy Trio to read in a UO Composition Workshop.