Anima Animæ
String quartet 9’
Score available at Universal Edition.
Program Note
Anima Animæ is my most personal piece to date. It explores the growth cycles of human life through music, suggesting the spiritual significance of "anima animæ" or the birth of "a soul of the soul." The piece is divided into two parts, with the second part redefining the musical structure and form of the first.The Charlotte New Music Festival commissioned this work for the Beo String Quartet.
Part I Very fast, from "known" time
Part II Becoming fast, towards "unknown" time, like a lullaby
Angel Annunciation
Cello and Piano 15’ (2016)
Score available at Aldebaran Editions
Denys Lytvynenko - cello; Nataliya Martynova - piano
Program Note
Characterized by its sizeable formal design, Angel Annunciation was inspired by a passage from an essay on Barnett Newman's paintings from Jean-François Lyotard's (1924-1998) essay Newman: The Instant: "... it is an angel. It announces nothing; it is in itself an annunciation." The piece, resembling the unfolding of a spiral, alternates between two contrasting ideas: a contemplative chorale delineated by a lament-like melody, followed by more flowing, rapidly alternating canons that echo the original musical material, creating a sense of mystery. The cello and piano parts complement each other by reinforcing the synergy and building an interchange between those two musical ideas. I dedicated the work in memoriam to my first composition teacher, the Croatian composer Marko Ruždjak (1946-2012). This piece is a reflection of the emotional journey I went through after his passing, and it was a way for me to honor his memory.
repoussé
Brass sextet 10’
air
For violoncello and piano 3’
Score available at Universal Edition.
The Idol and the Ikon
Oboe and vibraphone 8’
Program Note
The Idol and the Ikon takes its title from a chapter of the same name found in the book, God Without Being by the French philosopher and theologian, Jean-Luc Marion. The piece gradually unfolds in two sections, creating mirror images of recursive perspectives that coalesce into a steady intent of listening experience. As Marion puts it, "What characterizes the material idol is precisely that the artist can consign to it the subjugating brilliance of a first visible; on the contrary, what characterizes the icon painted on wood does not come from the hand of a man but from the infinite depth that crosses it—or better, orients it following the intention of a gaze." (God Without Being, p. 21)
Performances
- May 2018 - Dylan Evers, oboe; Paulina Michaels, vibraphone. Duquesne University, Pittsburgh, PA
Carmen Perpetuum
String ensemble (6-2-2-1) 10’
Program Note
Taking its title from the beginning of Ovid's Metamorphoses," Carmen Perpetuum (2015) or "unbroken song," unfolds into two contrasting sections: the first section introduces somewhat meditative character in moderate tempo, gradually increasing in intensity, followed by a fast and unceasing motto perpetuo section. In the beginning, a melodic-harmonic line serves as the underpinning for the entire piece, accumulating the musical energy throughout the first section of the piece, to eventually produce something new and extremely energetic at the end. The musical material employed in the piece was originally featured in the first movement from Two Canons for organ (2007, rev. 2017). What unites the piece musically is a constantly recurring melody, spiral-like canons embracing the cantus firmus that, to quote Gabrielle Starr in her book Feeling Beauty (2013), becomes "a song never ending in its transformation and evolution" (146).
Fall, Leaves, Fall
String quartet 8’
Program Note
A cavatina for string quartet, Fall, Leaves, Fall resonates an inward sentiment suggested by hushed but expressive thematic writing and discrete harmonic language. Evocative in nature, the piece unfolds a series of episodes that build energy and forward movement, while at the same time preserving the intimate mood of melodic gestalt on its elegiac course. The fragile and delicate sense of continuity is contrasted by fragmentary trepidation, framing timeless moments of serene expectation. Fall, Leaves, Fall, was inspired by a poem by Emily Brontë that encapsulates the emotional struggle for a sense of belonging and the nostalgic acceptance of new cultures, places, realities ...
Performances
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September 2018 - Bristol Ensemble. 2018 Royal Music Association Conference, Bristol University, Bristol, United Kingdom
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June 2018 - Roy Meyer, violin; Maya Shiraishi, violin; Sixto Franco, viola; Tom Clowes, cello. Crossing Borders Music Initiative: Honoring Refugee Composers, St. James Cathedral, Chicago, IL
Liquescence
Alto flute, English horn, and bass clarinet 13’
Program Note
Conceived as a series of sonic images, Liquescence is based entirely on a simple harmonic phrase using only five pitches and a fixed durational matrix. Throughout the piece, each phrase is systematically rotated, while additional, contrapuntal lines are gradually superimposed onto the fixed harmonic space. While the static nature of the music becomes apparent, the music unfolds a range of textures and subsidiary melodic figures that are produced by an extensive exploration of the timbral possibilities of the given instrumental ensemble.
Performances
- May 2016 - Kamratōn Ensemble: Sarah Steranka, alto flute; Kayln Shearer, English horn; Emily Cook; bass clarinet. Pittsburgh Festival of New Music: Soundpike, Heymann Theater, the University of Pittsburgh, PA
Kaleidoscope II
Two pianos 9’
Also version for piano, accordion, live electronics
Program Note
Scored as a triptych, Kaleidoscope depicts self-sustaining musical transformations that coalesce into fluid, constantly evolving, mirage-like structures. Recursive patterns of harmonies and emerging melodies, along with the interactive contrapuntal symmetries between the instruments, suggest the refractory patterns of light formed by mirrors containing pieces of colored glass, such as those found in a kaleidoscope. This can be heard where patterns of musical shapes emerge that invite the listener to enter an Escher-like musical space.
Kaleidoscope was commissioned by Elisa Elisa Järvi and Andrea Kiefer.
Performances
- October 2015 - Sung-Eun Park and Shu Ting Chang, pianos. National Association of Composers USA/American Musicological Society Conference. Texas State University, San Marcos, TX
- August 2014 - Elisa Järvi, piano; Andrea Kiefer, accordion; James Andrean, electronics. Changing Perspectives. Helsinki Music Centre, Helsinki, Finland
Epigram Variations
Four cellos 11’
Published by Universal Edition.
Program Note
Largely based on Bach’s Prelude from Cello Suite no. 1 in G major, BWV 1007, and composed in part as an opposition to it, Epigram Variations offers a collage-like re-composition of the basic musical material extrapolated from Bach’s composition. By carefully examining consecutive musical motives and phrases from the original source, the so-called “theme” of the piece becomes gradually revealed in each consecutive variation. Through the systematic transformation of musical material, the composition de-constructs the musical past by offering retrospective instances of the newly composed narrative. As a result, the piece smoothly segues into an extemporaneous fantasy, culminating in visceral, ostinato-driven melodic and rhythmic lines.
Performances
- February 2016 - Michael Lipman, David Premo, Bronwyn Barendt, Adam Liu, cellos (Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra). Duquesne University, Pittsburgh, PA
Enchantments
Four movements for piano trio 15’
Published by MusikFabrik.
Program Note
Composed in 1999 and revised in 2013, Enchantments features four movements: I. Scattered Charms, II. Nocturne, III. Incantation, and IV. Valse Burlesque. These four character pieces offer a playful glimpse into my early works' exploration of chamber writing and musical narrative. The original version of the piece was entitled Piano Trio (1998/99) and was premiered by the Zagreb Piano Trio in 1999. While this initial version of the trio was also comprised of four movements, the present edition replaces the original fourth movement with a violin and piano piece titled Valse Burlesque, composed in 1998 – a fleeting musical postcard and humorous take on a Valse.
The music of Enchantments reflects an imaginary sound world portrayed in colorful harmonies and instrumentation. The given titles further suggest music imagery with percussive, pointillist flourishes, suspended tones, palpable melodic fragments, and decorative dissonances that entwine the transparency of melodic and rhythmic gestures. At times moving and cheerful, restrained and sentimental, and then resounding and rhythmic, the movements of Enchantments offer a great variety in their scoring. While it is suggested that movements two and three are performed consecutively attacca, movements one, three, and four can also be performed individually.
Performances
- January 2012 - Trio Jonió, University of Evora, Portugal
- April 1999 - Zagreb Piano Trio, Croatia
Carried with the Wind
Woodwind quintet 6’
Program Note
A musical postcard written for the time long gone with the wind, the work draws on the quintet’s instruments and their means of sound production by employing various extended performance techniques. The work’s ghostly apparition is highlighted by a transformed quotation of a well-known American patriotic song...
Performances
- April 2020 - N.E.O. Winds. Akron New Music Festival, the University of Akron, Arkon, OH
- March 2020 - N.E.O. Winds. Akron Public Library, Arkon, OH
- April 2013 - Triano Quintet. PNC Recital Hall, Duquesne University, Pittsburgh, PA
Angel Annunciation
Cello and Piano 15’
Published by Aldebaran Editions
Denys Lytvynenko - cello; Nataliya Martynova - piano
Program Note
Characterized by its large formal design, Angel Annunciation was inspired by a passage from an essay on Barnett Newman’s paintings from Jean-François Lyotard’s (1924-1998) essay, Newman: The Instant: “... it is an angel. It announces nothing; it is in itself an annunciation.” Resembling the unfolding of a spiral, the piece alternates between two contrasting ideas: a contemplative chorale delineated by a lament-like melody, followed by more flowing, rapidly alternating canons that echo the original musical material, creating a sense of mystery. The cello and piano parts complement each other by reinforcing the synergy found in the reciprocity of those two musical ideas. The work was dedicated in memoriam to the composer’s first composition teacher, the Croatian composer Marko Ruždjak (1946-2012).
Performances
- July 2012 - David Russell, cello; Geoffrey Burleson, piano. Composers Recording Institute. Cleveland State University, Cleveland, OH
Ayres
Two movements for trumpet and string quartet 10’
Come away, come, sweet Love, the golden morning breakes:
All the earth, all the ayre, of love and pleasure speakes.
Teach thine arms then to embrace,
And sweet
Rosy
Lips to kiss,
And mix our souls in mutual bliss.
Eyes were made for beauty’s grace,
Viewing,
Rueing
Love’s long pain,
Procured by beauty’s rude disdain.
Come away, come, sweet Love! The golden morning wastes,
While the sun from his sphere his fiery arrows casts,
Making all the shadows fly,
Playing,
StayingIn the grove,
To entertain the stealth of love.
Thither, sweet Love, let us hie,
Flying,Dying
In desire,
Winged with sweet hopes and heavenly fire.
Anonymous, attributed to John Dowland (1562-1626)
The Oxford Book of Sixteenth Century Verse, E. K. Chambers, comp. Oxford University Press (1932)
Performances
- November 2011 - Mark O’Keefe, trumpet; Amy Cardigan and Alastair Savage, violins; Andrew Berridge, viola; Anne Brincourt, cello (BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra). BBC/Abedeen Composition Prize Concert, the University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, United Kingdom
intimate stream[s]
String quartet 10’
Program Note
intimate stream[s] was inspired by ideas from Gestalt psychology and the psychoacoustical model of auditory streams, especially by the work of psychologist Albert Bregman. In theory, the study of auditory stream segregation deals with principles of organization of sound into perceptually coherent structures. In my composition, the idea portrays a single harmonic stream comprised of multiple melodic lines whose individual parts move from harmonicity to inharmonicity, resulting in the harmonic motion between tonal stability and instability.
This conceptual process enhances the musical flux and controls the varied statements of a single harmonic object. In turn, timbral variations not only enhance the melodic/harmonic contour of consonance and dissonance, but they also form an impression of evolving harmonic envelopes whose dynamic curves accompany time-varying contrapuntal arabesques. The harmonic language in the piece reflects the beginning of my research in a personal harmonic grammar inspired by cognitive attributes of sound as a metaphor for musical syntax.
This string quartet also belongs to a group of my works in which I explore the interaction and reciprocity of consonance and dissonance and the uniformity and uniqueness of musical design as a direct narrative tool for portraying the musically sublime, best defined as simultaneity of tension and repose, and structural circularity and irresolvability, respectively.
Performances
- March 2008 - The JACK Quartet. Pick-Steiger Concert Hall, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL
Performativities
String quartet 5’
Program Note
Five miniatures for string quartet.
1. Flamboyant
2. Statuesque
3. Airy
4. Disquited
5. Glassy
Passage of an Icy Dream
Violin, violoncello, clarinet and piano 7’
Program Note
A work for four instruments, Passage of an Icy Dream, is a result of my continuing study and exploration of harmony and resonance in which I envisaged a timbral field with constantly evolving instrumental textures. The structure of the work is everything but fixed: like in a dream – as we finally emerge into some virtual reality with events and objects in constant flux, we wake up keeping only a distant memory. The piece unfolds like a ritual of the inner awaking and meditation.
Performances
- March 2006 - Richard Zili, cl; Zara Zaharieva, vln; Fabiana Aiko Mino, vlc; Mabel Kwan, pno. (world premiere) Northwestern New Music Ensemble Concert, Lutkin Hall at Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois