Chamber Music with Keyboard

This Toccata is a high-energy show piece for violin and piano written for violinist William Scobie, a member of the Dallas Symphony, who gave the first performance of the piece at Loyola University New Orleans. Marked Allegro, the single movement is developed from two themes, the first driving and energetic, the second more pliable and coquettish.   

My viola sonata is a challenging, neo-Romantic work in three movements—highly chromatic, but tonal. The first movement is somewhat like a nocturne, full of tenderness and longing, as if for someone far away. The second movement is a lively dance, full of high spirits, yet the yearning mood of the first movement returns in the central section. The last movement expresses an angry mood, its twisting lines connoting frustration and torment. The performance nearby is by violist Hong-Mei Xiao and pianist Logan Skelton.

1. Molto moderato
2. Allegro molto
3. Energico

These three short pieces for oboe and piano are in an atonal style. I wrote them during my early years on the faculty at Loyola University New Orleans. The first movement is slow and expressive, the second a wild, fantastic dance. The last movement, again slow and expressive, is a cancrizan, that is, a special kind of canon in which the oboe part is the same as the piano part, but played backwards. The performers in the nearby performance are Helen Erb, oboe, and William Horne, piano.

1. Molto adagio
2. Allegretto
3. Arioso

My first violin sonata is a taut, dissonant work in three movements. I wrote the first movement while a graduate student at Yale, and the second and third movements during a summer residency at the Aspen Music Festival. The outer movements are fast, energetic pieces full of angular melodic writing and agitated rhythms. The middle movement, which begins with a long violin solo, is deeply expressive and filled with a spirit of lamentation. The performance nearby is by violinist Valerie Poulette and pianist Logan Skelton.

1. Risoluto
2. Adagio
3. Presto agitato

Sometimes music seeks nothing more than to please the hearer, and that is the case with my Trio for Flute, Alto Saxophone, and Piano. A good friend of mine recently told me that he has this piece set as his wake-up music, to start him off in a good mood. And this is indeed a sunny, unpretentious work. It is the musical equivalent of a day in the park, with its straightforward, playful first movement and long, lyrical slow movement leading to a frolicsome, vivacious finale.

The leisurely pace of the opening movement lends itself to lyrical ideas that flow easily from one to another. In the second movement, the gently mourning saxophone begins alone, but is then joined by the flute and piano in a more optimistic central section. When the opening melody returns it is sung by the flute, supported by rich new harmonies in the saxophone and piano. The movement ends in quiet contemplation. Flute and Saxophone begin the last movement in a sprightly duet that returns throughout the movement in ever new guises. A gently jazzy middle section with syncopated accompaniments provides contrast. Nearby, you can hear a fine performance of this work by flutist Brandon LePage, saxophonist Walter Puyear, and pianist Joonghun Cho.

1. Not too fast, amiably
2. Simply and reflectively
3. Playfully, but not too fast