CadenzaScore.pdf

CadenzaScoreBooklet.pdf (for printing on 11x17 paper in booklet form)

Nate_Brown_-_Cadenza.mp3

Cadenza for solo cello was influenced heavily by a study of works for solo cello by modern European composers like Penderecki, Lutoslawski, and Xenakis.  I wanted to try to write something virtuosic that would be quite challenging for the performer and I also wanted to include extended techniques.  I decided to make it a violently energetic piece.  Strangely enough, considering the European influence, I also turned it into a sort of a variation on a theme by George Crumb.  I took one of the opening motives from his Ancient Voices of Children and made each note of that motive the prominent note for a section of the piece.  Since two of the notes repeat, there are two sections whose material comes back later.  The other three sections are more unique.  I also wrote my own theme, not all that different from Crumb’s, to serve as an actual musical motive around which the piece is developed.  Nick Toben premiered this piece on my master's recital in 2005.

WhooshingNoiseFull.pdf

17_The_Whooshing_Noise_They_Make_As.mp3

"I love deadlines. I love the whooshing noise they make as they go by." -Douglas Adams (1952-2001), science fiction author

The Whooshing Noise They Make As They Go By was composed over a long span of time, on opposite coasts of the United States, studying with three different composition teachers, using about 5 different computer programs. There was no deadline for the piece, but if there had been, it would have made a tremendous whooshing noise.

The piece itself is an exploration of two very different rhythmic techniques: free, non-metered playing and extreme polytempo; as well as two different electronic music techniques: the "chopper" and the "sample cloud". There are three sections. In the opening section, the saxophonist plays along with a pre-recorded track made up of saxophone sounds, including a percussion track derived from the sounds of key clicks. The first phrase played by the live instrument is recorded by the computer and becomes the basis of the other two sections.

In the middle section, the notes of the recorded phrase become the basis for a "cloud" of many short sounds. This cloud slowly changes to encompass every pitch in the phrase, while the performer improvises along. The original phrase comes back to open the third section, but as it is repeated, it gets "chopped" up in various ways to create new tempos. The performer plays and records short phrases in the various new tempos, and then all the phrases are played back at once while the performer and the percussion track shift from one tempo to another.

Dave Camwell premiered the piece at the 2006 World Saxophone Congress in Ljubljana, Slovenia, and recorded it on his 2008 album Aeterna.

On April 28, 2007, composers Craig Biondi and Alphonse Izzo organized an event for faculty and graduate student composers and performers at the Hartt School.  Each composer was given an instrumentation and one hour to write a piece for it.  Then each composer had an hour to get together with the performer(s), and then the pieces were performed in a concert called "Momentum".  At the appointed time, Craig called me and said, "You're writing for Anna Walker, cello.  Go!"  A couple of hours later, Anna premiered my new piece!  I called it Momentum Piece No. 2, because I wanted to write a different piece later and call it Momentum Piece No. 1.  See that piece under "Chamber Music" for more details.  The piece is somewhat of a companion piece to the Cadenza, particularly in its violent energy.  I envision someday writing a contrasting piece to form a three-movement suite.

After the speed-composing challenge mentioned above, I decided to use the "Momentum" nomenclature for any music I wrote quickly.  This piece was written in about a week and I performed it at Dartmouth College as part of a composer exchange program.  It uses the same "sample cloud" technique as The Whooshing Noise, but in a more pulse-oriented way.