Large Ensemble Works
Out of Psalm 63
[2017]
String Orchestra
Melodic echoes and harmonic color adorn this (mostly) quiet reflection. The texture of this piece grows out of a chant-like melody. It is not a setting of the text, but rather is voiced out of a meditative response to the psalm’s content. I composed it as a short etude for the Belhaven University Orchestra.
Psalm 29
[2010]
Choir and Orchestra
I adapted this from my previous setting of Psalm 29 at the request of Stephen Sachs and Christopher Shelt, who premiered it in a joint concert by the Belhaven University Concert Choir and Orchestra.
The Landing
[2009]
String Orchestra
This is the transcription of a vocal quartet (setting a poem by C. S. Lewis) which I had originally composed during the 1996 Oregon Bach Festival Composers Symposium. The BU String Orchestra premiered it under the direction of Song Xie. Then students and I took it on a musical trip to Tokyo. The following year it was included in a concert by the Mississippi Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Crafton Beck.
A Resurrection Series: Nine Movements After Images by Randall Speck.
[2001]
15-Piece Chamber Orchestra
This work involves not only Oregon artist Randall Speck’s fabulous colored-pencil drawings but also melodies and fragments drawn from 25 Christian hymns, chorales, and songs.
If Rain Falls
[1995]
Flute (solo), Wind Ensemble
I. Sound and Fury
II. Variations on Steel Blue
III. The Passing Hour
I composed this as my master’s thesis at the University of Oregon. When flutist Kristen Halay, a fellow student, was lamenting that she had run out of new repertoire, I suggested that she ask the composition students to write pieces for her — whereupon she promptly commissioned me. She wanted it to commemorate her father, John R. Halay, who had recently passed. After further conversation with Kristen, I chose topics for each of the three movements: her father’s temperament and love of sailing, a meditation on grief, and the blending of a hymn tune with a musical theme borrowed from her favorite episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation. A gifted performer, Kristen performed it beautifully with UO’s Oregon Wind Ensemble.
Etude for Orchestra
[1992]
Orchestra, of course
This is the third of my orchestral projects completed while studying at the University of Oregon.
Iconifer
[1991]
Complement
This is my second orchestral project, completed during my studies at the University of Oregon.
Recessive Dance
[1991]
Orchestra
This is an early student work, my first project for Orchestral Composition class at the University of Oregon.