New Violin Duo, Piano Quartet Tango and A Trio for 2 Mandolins and Guitar

My YouTube Channel YouTube Channel
SoundCloud - New Electronic Music:
Slow Noise Steppin'
Extended by Weather, Melancholia

has been updated a bit more than I've announced here. Catching up, here are new pieces:

Canons for Kannon for Violin Duo
Canons for Kannon Score and Parts - IMSLP

A demo of a new piece for 2 mandolins and guitar:
A Trio Mirrored in Time for 2 Mandolins and Guitar

And finally, a strange tango written for the ensemble used by Messiaen for his Quartet for the End of Time, clarinet, violin, piano and cello.
Tango Concertante for Piano Quartet

Tango Concertante for Piano Quartet (cl, vln, vc, piano) explores the sound world of the tango in a kinetically diverse manner similar to last year's Piano Quintet. Climaxes result in static formations; counterpoint is used purely as pseudo-rhetorical decoration. The piece continues my surrealistic exploration of the tropes of the sonic momentum formation processes found in classical and romantic music while maintaining the dark ethos of today.

My Eroica Spettrale, possibly the first 'stretched' electronic piece, is being featured by Spotify in their Classical Meets Electronica playlist.

And a quick shoutout to Matthew Whiteside for his wonderfully eclectic and collaborative Spotify new music playlist:

Contemporary Music Collaboration || New Classical Music.

And if you haven't checked out my Spotify artist page, I've been adding a few photos and a new bio.

And finally, because of the ongoing hypocrisy and idiocy regarding my 'not-abstract-enough' approach to new music, I've started adding this request to my YouTube demo pages:

Please, if you have any contact with musicians or composers who are censoring my music because of my seemingly anti-abstract stylistic methods, please have them contact me. Music critics such as Alex Ross and Kyle Gann have publicly expressed interest in my music. Stylistic censorship for any reason against contemporary composers (and by contemporary I mean it sounds and feels of today) is not acceptable and perverse in 2018.'

Let me put this as simply as I can, my music is being censored for personal reasons by undergraduate and graduate professors and new music ensembles, not because of notoriety or enmity, not because of stylistic divergence, but merely to avoid the whole conversation about my uses, both novel and otherwise, of traditional melodic and contrapuntal form, something which modern masters from Penderecki to Philip Glass exploit regularly. And that is just so unbelievably hypocritical today, especially with the extremely disingenuous re-branding that many post-minimalists are employing to use both the post-genre "Music" and the self-rebranding away from Post-Minimalism to "New Classical."

Two New 19ET Pieces - String Trio #8 and String Quartet #10 (rev. 2017)

I've returned to microtonal composition with two new pieces, a crazy dissonant but tonal and melodic string trio and a string quartet which I revised to be played within the 19ET system. Both pieces use the traditional 19ET notation system.

String Trio #8 - Demo
Score and Parts - IMSLP

String Quartet #10 (2015, rev. 2017) - Demo
Score and Parts - IMSLP

New Piano Quintet and Indigo Trails Now Available Through Editions Corvus

My new piano quintet contrasts pseudo-orchestral contrapuntal textures with bleak monody and blues-inspired cacophonies: the use of masses of invertible counterpoint as texture.

From my blog, beepSNORT

"The sonic realms of the music of the past are re-visualized through the lenses of the 21st Century experience. I have little interest in many of the sentiments of the past, it is the momentum-generating processes and gestalt-driven inevitabilities created by mono-thematicism and the sheer splendor of melody-driven immersion that I seek from the past."

Piano Quintet Demo

The score and parts are now available at IMSLP.

Indigo Trails for Mandolin and Guitar has been published by Editions Corvus. Indigo Trails was written for and premiered by mandolinist, Mike Marshall, for a fund-raising concert for New Music Works of Santa Cruz, CA in 2009 and was premiered by Marshall and Gyan Riley (Terry Riley's son).

Purchase Indigo Trails - Score and Parts

Recent Performances, New Pieces

Recent performances:

1. Quartet for Two Flutes, Violin and Contrabass - World Premiere - February 19, 2017, University of San Diego - Score - Demo
2. Duo for Two Flutes - World Premiere - Kelsey Robinson and Andrew Baird, Adelaide, Australia, November 13, 2016 - Score - Demo
3. The Song of R'lyeh for String Octet - Hutchins Consort - Three Performances in Southern California - October, 20,21,23, 2016 - Score - Demo
4. Ox for Solo Cello - World Premiere - J. W. Turner, Sept. 15, 2016, High Point, NC - Score - Demo
5. Erg for Mandolin and Guitar - Duo Ahlert und Scwhab, February 5, 2017 - Hamburg, Germany
Review - Translation: The final part of the first part was "Erg" by American composer Jeffrey Harrington, a piece written after 9/11, more contemporary and exciting than ever before: East and West, the transformation of Arabic sounds into European classical music, the mutation of a blues line in An Arab way. East and West merge, nonviolent, creative. Political music can hardly be more relevant.

Erg has also been newly recorded by the German trio, Ensemble Triologie: Ensemble Triologie - Soundscapes, Vol. 1

New Compositions:

1. Tango for Cello Duo (2017) - Score - Demo
2. Trio #2 for Horn, Violin and Piano (2016) - Score - Demo
3. Violin Sonata #5 (2016) - Score - Demo
4. Sinfonietta Povera (2015) - Score - Demo
5. Sinfonietta No.2 for Horn, Viola and Contrabass (2015) - Score - Demo
6. Clarinet Sonata (2015) - Score - Demo
7. Horn Sonata (2015) - Score - Demo
8. Trio No.2 for Clarinet, Violin and Piano (2015) - Score - Demo
9. Quartet for Two Flutes, Violin and Contrabass (2015) - Score - Demo
10. Sonata for 2 Flutes and Piano (2015) - Score - Demo
11. Trio for Clarinet, Violin and Contrabass (2014) - Score - Demo
12. A Hunderd Blues Later for Two Violins and Viola (2014) - Score - Demo

New Pieces, New Website Coming

Chasse Infernal for Violin and Harpsichord
Refugium for String Quartet
Duo for Cello and Contrabass
B'ar for Solo Contrabass
String Quartet #10

Rutgers Today! Concert Featuring 3 of My Pieces

Castle of the Bishops at Fontaine de Vaucluse

Today at 2PM Rutgers' Helix New Music Ensemble will perform KaleidoPsychoTropos for Flute, Clarinet, Violin, Cello and Piano, Tchoupitoulas Byrd Song for Clarinet and Piano and Tango de Tonnerre (World Premiere) for Viola and Piano. I've been commenting on rehearsal videos and this is going to be really fantastic.

Here's the new music I've written since the last blog entry, as usual, all of the demos are available here:

2013:

For Solomon Eagle for Alto Recorder, Continuo, Bass, a strange hallucinogenic commentary on a Division by Solomon Eccles. Part of Daniel Wolf's New Divison project.

Pastorale for Flute, a short quirky not too difficult piece with interesting cross rhythms and East European melodic influences.

Jeux d'eau et de rochers for piano, a piano piece, full of curlecews and Scarlatti-esque wonder inspired by the waterfalls at Fontaine de Vaucluse.

With Sails Unfurled... for Saxophone Quartet, an exploration of East European melodies in rhythms, with some exciting transitions and climaxes.

Un Voyage a Cythere for 8 Euphoniums, a piece commissioned by euphonist, Robert Benton, for live ensemble or pre-recorded and one soloist. The score will be available after the premiere which looks to be sometime in the fall. It's a quasi-orchestral study in massive washes of sounds and heraldic anthems.

Traversees nocturne pour flute, clarinette, violon, violoncelle et piano. A study in the colors of night. Score available shortly.

2012:
La Perle for Flute Quartet a strange and ecstatic piece, inspired by my electronic piece, Turning the Pearl.

joujou for Toy Piano a short piece exploring an absurd classicism.

Tango #2 for Piano a nocturnal tango.

Tango Milonga III for Clarinet, Cello and Piano, the final movement in my Tango Milonga Suite, fast and furious, but still soulful.

Vistuo de Avignoun for Reed Quintet, a 5 minute piece which explores the sound worlds around our new home, Avignon, France.

Tango-Phantasie for Piano Trio, a full length piano trio tango, full of flair and quiet desparation.

Ox for Solo Cello a slow, almost static cello piece in a single line, inspired by the Bach C minor Sarabande.

And finally, after 22 years of putting it off, I've created a performable version of my Acid Bach Suite for Quarter-tone Tuned Keyboards. It requires 2 full size keyboards.

Here's a new realization:

Karen Bentley Pollick's Stupendous Seattle Performance of My Grand Tango for Violin and Video

Score: Grand Tango for Solo Violin

Please write if you'd like the video.

Five New Pieces and The Hammered Wind Dances I is Published

Rue Pente Rapide, Villeneuve lez Avignon

In the past 3 months, I've written and revised a bunch of new pieces, Tango Ondulado for Solo Flute, Tango de Tonnerre for Viola and Piano, L'appel du large for Harp and Viola, Tango Feroz for Violin and Piano, a Tango for Solo Piano (the first of an intended series), Cello Duet II and a second Tango Milonga for Clarinet, Cello and Piano which will form the 2nd movement of a suite. I've also finally finished and published my massive virtuoso Hammered Wind Dances I for Flute and Piano.

First, my new tango for viola and piano is an extremely dramatic work, with virtuoso parts for both viola and piano. It's got recurring massive chords and dramatic ostinati on the piano which give it gigantic climaxes.

Score and Parts for Tango de Tonnerre for Viola and Piano - IMSLP.org
Tango de Tonnerre for Viola and Piano - Demo Recording

My new solo flute tango is 3 minutes of rhythmic excitement. It's named Tango Ondulado for its undulating manner, florid and eccentric.

Score for Tango Ondulado for Solo Flute - IMSLP.org
Tango Ondulado for Solo Flute - Demo Recording

My Tango Feroz for Violin and Piano is an encore piece, written for a contest that turned out to have more than a passing interest in amateur endeavors. Nonetheless, a composer really can't have too many violin encores! It's 4 minutes of punchy, 12/8 tango/salsa madness with windups and climaxes galore.

Score and Parts for Tango Feroz for Violin and Piano - IMSLP.org
Tango Feroz for Violin and Piano - Demo Recording

My new Tango for Piano #1, is a meditation on the tango, brooding and almost laconic in places. It's intended to be the first in a series, and I'm modelling the pieces after the compositional manner of the Chopin Mazurkas.

Score for Tango for Piano #1 - IMSLP.org
Tango for Piano #1 - Demo Recording

My second big piece for clarinet, cello and piano, is the 2nd movement in an intended Tango Milonga Suite. It's slower, brooding and has some very delicate slow parts throughout the piece.

Score and Parts for Tango Milonga II for Clarinet, Cello and Piano - IMSLP.org
Tango Milonga II for Clarinet, Cello and Piano - Demo Recording

And finally the last new piece, which I finished yesterday, is a new Cello Duet II. It is a ferocious, but stately piece, manic in places and brooding in others.

Score and Parts for Cello Duo II - IMSLP.org
Cello Duo II - Demo Recording

And regarding The Hammered Wind Dances I for Flute and Piano, this was a piece that I wrote back in 2001. I remember listening to a demo of it on the train to the OughtOne Festival in Vermont and then 2 weeks later, 9/11 happened and everything got sidelined. I revised the piece in 2004 and finally have finished the parts and scores. It was intended to be a big piece, like my BlueStrider for Piano, monumental, but with an eccentric funk/jazz approach within its very strict brutal classicism. Both the piano part and the flute part are very difficult, but certainly not more than most modern flute and piano pieces (certainly easier than the Boulez Sonatine?).

Score and Parts for The Hammered Wind Dances I for Flute and Piano - IMSLP.org
The Hammered Wind Dances I for Flute and Piano - Demo Recording

Recent performances, include the premiere of my Duo Oscruro for Bass Clarinet and Vibraphone - Bassoon Version in Seville, Spain and the world premiere of my solo horn piece, Laudem Praeco at Morehead State University, by M. Wyatt Elam. Upcoming performances include the bass version of my Tango del Aquelarre, two or three performances of my Tango Milonga, the premiere of my Tango for Solo Violin by Karen Bentley Pollick and the premiere of my new piece for harp and viola, L'appel du large for Harp and Viola by Duo Esprit.

Three New Pieces, Solo Cello/Viola Tango, Tango for Milonga for Trio, Solo Flute Piece

Le Petit Palais, Avignon, France

I've got a bunch of exciting news and 5 new pieces, of which I'm only talking about three - so 3 new pieces. Two are finished; they're just being kept secret for the time being. The first new piece, which I'm talking about, is the big new solo cello/viola tango - Tango del Aquelarre. It's the sister piece for my Grand Tango for Solo Violin that I wrote for Karen Bentley Pollick. It's in a similar style, but has some new Baroqueisms that put it over the top.

Tango del Aquelarre for Solo Cello/Viola - Synthesized Demo
Tango del Aquelarre for Solo Cello - Score
Tango del Aquelarre for Solo Viola - Score

The second piece, I've recently completed is a short solo flute piece that called à part. It's a meditative piece which uses rhythmic quirks to appear to be 2 voices at once, but without the virtuosity necessary to realize the piece as in my last 3 solo flute pieces.

à part for Solo Flute - Synthesized Demo
à part for Solo Flute - Score

And finally, my big new Tango Milonga for a trio of clarinet, cello and piano. It's a fiery, dramatic tango with a lot of variety in the textures. I've arranged it for clarinet, bass clarinet and piano at a musician's request and I've made an arrangement for piano trio too. All the arrangements are available at my IMSLP page.

Here's a demo recording via YouTube.

Tango Milonga for Clarinet, Cello and Piano - Cello Part
Tango Milonga for Clarinet, Cello and Piano - Clarinet Part
Tango Milonga for Clarinet, Cello and Piano - Piano Part
Tango Milonga for Clarinet, Cello and Piano - Score

And some news, The Hutchins Consort has informed me that they've been in the studio recording my big piece for them, The Song of R'lyeh. I can't wait to hear it, as it's a quasi-orchestral piece with quartertone melodies throughout!

Duo Ahlert und Schwab's new CD of American Mandolin and Guitar Music is out on Naxos. You can hear it on Spotify, iTunes, or order it through Amazon.

Here's a playlist of all my YouTube performances and a few electronic pieces I've put together.

A couple of friends in Paris, violist/composer Nigel Keay and pianist Dora Cantella put together a recording session for my Tango for Viola and Piano and here's the very lively result.

Tango for Viola and Piano - Rehearsal Recording
Tango for Viola and Piano - Score
Tango for Viola and Piano - Viola Part

Four New Pieces, Two New YouTube Videos

The Rhone

Before I get to the new pieces, here's a video of The Twiolins' premiere of my 2 violin piece, Grand Duo. It was performed at Der Alten Synagoge Hirschberg-Leutershause, Germany accompanied by the beautiful Butoh dancer, Damaris Härtl.

And Kateřina Pavlikova's husband, Vit V. Pavlik, has created a video of live painting to accompany my piece, Par-Delà des Eaux Profondes for Baritone Sax and Electronics.

Now on to the four new pieces. I've composed 20 pieces this past year! I wrote a very short piece for flute, viola and contrabass, Ainsi l'aube.... It's full of bird songs and string harmonics.

Ainsi l'aube... for Flute, Viola and Contrabass - Synthesized Demo

And I wrote a very dramatic tango for solo violin for Karen Bentley Pollick. The piece came together almost miraculously and Karen already has it under her fingers. It'll be premiered early 2012 and it's already sounding unbelievably good.

Grand Tango for Solo Violin - Score
Grand Tango for Solo Violin - Synthesized Demo

Four World Premieres in the next 30 Days, New Tango for String Quartet and Vol for Solo Flute

The Rhone

My swirling Bach-ish solo flute piece, En un Clin d'Oeil, will be premiered in London by the superb, Camilla Hoitenga, October 30 at the Flute School. It's 1:00PM at The Hall School, Swiss Cottage, London NW3 4NU. She'll be playing it with Sciarrino's transcription of Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D Minor, which was the piece that inspired me to write it! Also, my monumental guitar and mandolin piece, Bidon Cinque, will be premiered in Bottrop, Germany, November 11 by Duo Ahlert und Schwab. The next week, my Lovecraftian string octet, written for the The Hutchins Consort, will be premiered in La Jolla and Newport Beach on the 18th and 20th respectively. And I've been told my Grand Duo for 2 Violins will be premiered in the next couple of weeks in Mannheim. Also, the Cross Island Ensemble will be performing my Nocturne for Cello and Piano November 1 for their CD release concert: November 1, 8:00 PM: Classical Concert Series, Saint Peter's Church, 619 Lexington Avenue, New York, NY!

I've also finished my 7th String Quartet - a monstrous and dramatic tango! It's about 11 minutes of static drama, flourishes and big climaxes.

Tango for String Quartet (String Quartet #7) - Realization

Tango for String Quartet - Score
Tango for String Quartet - Violin I Part
Tango for String Quartet - Violin II Part
Tango for String Quartet - Viola Part
Tango for String Quartet - Cello Part

And I've also just finished a dramatic and very free solo flute piece, entitled Vol. It's 4 minutes of bird song, Cameroon-inspired funk, and Bach-ish counterpoint.

Vol for Solo Flute - Realization
Vol for Solo Flute - Score

Two New Slow Pieces and a New Spotify Album

The Rhone River

This month, I've been working on a few slow pieces, a cello and piano piece, Ballade #2 and a duo for 2 cellos. Both pieces are easier to play than my music normally is and are finished and available.

The Ballade is an 8 minute brooding meditation with a few quirky surprises.

Ballade #2 for Cello and Piano - Score
Ballade #2 for Cello and Piano - Cello Part
Ballade #2 for Cello and Piano - Synthesized Realization

The Duo is a phase-shifting slow expansive piece of 6 minutes with dramatic textural variety.

Duo for 2 Cellos - Score
Duo for 2 Cellos - Cello I Part
Duo for 2 Cellos - Cello II Part
Duo for 2 Cellos - Synthesized Realization

A new album of studio recordings, live instrumental performances, electronic pieces and improvisations, Collections Insolites includes Ranae performed by the Calefax Reed Quintet, Par-Dela des Eaux Profondes for Baritone Sax and Digital Media as performed by Katerina Pavlikova, new recordings of my 19ET piano pieces from 2004 and more.

In other news, Duo Ahlert und Schwab will be premiering my big guitar and mandolin piece, Bidon Cinque, November 11th in Bottrop, Germany. And November 18th and 20th, the Hutchins Consort will be premiering, my octet, The Song of R'lyeh in a concert called most Lovecraftianly, The Four Seasons Meet the Old Gods. Concerts will be Saturday, November 19, 7:30 pm, Neurosciences Institute, La Jolla and Sunday, November 20, 3:00 pm, St. Mark Presbyterian Church, Newport Beach. And JW Turner, who performed my Quarter Dollar Tones for Solo Cello last Thursday night is headed into the studio to record it. It'll be on his new album coming out next year.

New Tango-Phantasmagoria for Piano Four Hands, IMSLP Site, and Spotify News

La Place du Palais des Papes, Avignon

Last month, I picked back up a piece I'd abandoned back in March for piano four hands and transformed it literally into an extravaganza of clusters and crazy scales - my new Tango-Phantasmagoria for Piano Four Hands:

Tango-Phantasmagoria for Piano Four Hands

Tango-Phantasmagoria for Piano Four Hands - Score
Tango-Phantasmagoria for Piano Four Hands - Primo Part
Tango-Phantasmagoria for Piano Four Hands - Secondo Part

The score to my Tantrum for Toy Piano is now up:

Tantrum for Toy Piano - Score
Tantrum for Toy Piano - Synthesized Realization

I now have all of my scores and parts (almost all to be exact) up on a page at the gigantic music score archive IMSLP.org. There are 100 scores and all of their associated parts. It's organized in a way that makes it a lot easy to access than the very basic directory of pdf's I host here at parnasse.com.

Jeffrey Harrington IMSLP Score Page

For example, here's the category-walker that lets you peruse my scores through instrumentation, title, or work types:

IMSLP Harrington Category Walker

I'm very happy to have my album Espace (with added Acid Bach and a few other tracks) on Spotify!

This makes 16 tracks I have on Spotify, including my piece, Erg for Mandolin and Guitar from the Nowhere Left to Go album by Duo Ahlert und Schwab.

In other news, I've been creating arrangements of my crazy Tango for Woodwind Quintet for saxophone quintet and reed quintet (ala Calefax Reed Quintet). Here are the parts and scores and a new realization.

Tango for Saxophone Quintet
Tango for Saxophone Quintet Parts and Score at IMSLP.org
Tango for Reed Quintet Parts and Score at IMSLP.org

Coming up this month, is a new performance by JW Turner of my piece Quarter Dollar Tones for Solo Cello and the premiere of my trumpet, vibes and double bass trio, Trio Diverses in Chicago.

Also, the score for my short Blues Intermezzo for Piano is now up:

Blues Intermezzo for Piano Score
Blues Intermezzo - Synthesized Realization

New Tango for WW5, Tantrum for Toy Piano and Finished Nocturnes for Piano

I've just finished a dense, swirling Tango for Woodwind Quintet. It's 6 minutes of kaleidoscopic tango funk and is a breakthrough for me in my search for a way to use masses of swirling sound within my usual rhythmic and melodic contexts.

Tango for Woodwind Quintet- Synthesized Realization

Tango for Woodwind Quintet - Score
Tango for Woodwind Quintet - Bassoon Part
Tango for Woodwind Quintet - Clarinet Part
Tango for Woodwind Quintet - Flute Part
Tango for Woodwind Quintet - Horn Part
Tango for Woodwind Quintet - Oboe Part

In related news, the Imani Winds Chamber Festival will be showcasing the reed quintet that was premiered in December by the Calefax Reed Quintet at Pan in Amsterdam Ranae for Reed Quintet at a concert during the festival at Juilliard, August 3rd at 7 PM. For more info, look down below for the mention.

I've finally gotten the patience and time together to finish proofing and finalizing the score to my massive 7 piano nocturnes, Oceana. The score(s) are available both as a set and individually:

Oceana - Seven Nocturnes for Piano
Nocturne #1 for Piano - The Song of the Waves on the Shells
Nocturne #2 for Piano - Stars Reflected in the Pitch Black Sea
Nocturne #3 for Piano - Night Rain Sparkles on the Ocean's Skin
Nocturne #4 for Piano - The Moonlit Clouds of a Storm Appear
Nocturne #5 for Piano - Rain Falls on the Still Moonlit Ocean
Nocturne #6 for Piano - A Summer Storm Begins to Rag
Nocturne #7 for Piano - Lament of the Blackened Sea

I've also just finished a piece for toy piano entitled, Tantrum. It was an interesting project for me as I had to reduce my gestures to the simplest shapes in order to make it work. As somebody who's been getting more extravagant in his writing, this was a challenge and the result is a piece, more violent and more belligerent than I've written in years. It's 4 minutes of pounding toy piano mayhem, with the material driven by minor 2nds.

Tantrum for Toy Piano - Synthesized Realization

I'll release the score shortly!

New Grand Duo for 2 Violins, and Passages Rituels for String Quartet and Digital Media

Pont d'Avignon

I've finished one of my most intense pieces for 2 instruments that I've ever written, with my new Grand Duo for Two Violins. It's 6 minutes of buzzing, spectral intensity with dramatic and strange quiet moments throughout.

Grand Duo for Two Violins - Synthesized Realization
Grand Duo for Two Violins - Score
Grand Duo for Two Violins - Violin I Part
Grand Duo for Two Violins - Violin II Part

The piece I wrote for a call for scores back in December for string quartet and electronics is now available for listening and download. It's called Passages Rituels for String Quartet and Digital Media and is 8 minutes of melancholy strangeness, full of electronic glissandi and quartertones, erupting in ecstatic climaxes. The electronic part is available for download below and does not require a click track.

Passage Rituels for String Quartet and Digital Media - Synthesized Realization

Passage Rituels for String Quartet and Digital Media - Score
Passage Rituels for String Quartet and Digital Media - Violin I Part
Passage Rituels for String Quartet and Digital Media - Violin II Part
Passage Rituels for String Quartet and Digital Media - Viola Part
Passage Rituels for String Quartet and Digital Media - Cello Part
Passage Rituels for String Quartet and Digital Media - Digital Media Part

I'm currently finishing the editing for my 7 nocturnes for piano that I wrote in 2009-2010. Also, I've been told that two more of my pieces will be going into the studio for commercial recording, my Quarter Dollar Tones for Solo Cello will be recorded by JW Turner and my Nocturne for Cello and Piano will be recorded by the Cross Island Ensemble.

Also, I've switched over to the Yahoo Media Player as you'll notice with the cleaner look here. When you press Play on one of my MP3's you'll notice, at the bottom of the page, a player with a complete playlist. This playlist includes every MP3 on this page which is now over 300 MP3's!

Calefax Reed Quintet Studio Recording of Ranae!

Calefax Reed Quintet

Just got the recording that the Calefax Reed Quintet made of my piece, Ranae for Reed Quintet. It's a little bit less than 4 minutes of odd motion, Dixieland layering and almost orchestral grandiosity thanks to the group's phenomenal way of blending their sounds.

Ranae for Reed Quintet - Studio Recording by the Calefax Reed Quintet

Ranae for Reed Quintet - Alto Sax Part
Ranae for Reed Quintet - Bass Clarinet Part
Ranae for Reed Quintet - Bassoon Part
Ranae for Reed Quintet - Clarinet Part
Ranae for Reed Quintet - Oboe Part
Ranae for Reed Quintet - Score

Premiere of Quarter Dollar Tones for Solo Cello, 3 New Pieces

JW Turner premiered my quartertone-filled solo cello piece, Quarter Dollar Tones, last Friday night. Here's a YouTube of his exciting performance.

I've just written a duo for bass clarinet and vibraphone, Duo Oscuro. It's in the general style of pieces like Gnomos and Tchoupitoulas Byrd Song, a relaxed atmospheric funk.

Duo Oscuro for Bass Clarinet and Vibraphone
Duo Oscuro for Bass Clarinet and Vibraphone - Score
Duo Oscuro for Bass Clarinet and Vibraphone - Clarinet Part
Duo Oscuro for Bass Clarinet and Vibraphone - Vibraphone Part

I've also finished two new pieces, a Nocturne for Piano Four Hands:

Nocturne for Piano Four Hands
Nocturne for Piano Four Hands - Primo Score
Nocturne for Piano Four Hands - Secondo Score

And a one minute swirling, spectral Nocturne for Violin Duo:

Nocturne for Violin Duo
Nocturne for Violin Duo - Score
Nocturne for Violin Duo - Violin I
Nocturne for Violin Duo - Violin II

The Calefax Quintet wrote me that their studio recording of my piece Ranae should be sent to me any minute now. In the works, more 19ET pieces, more tangos and a series of 2 violin pieces!

Two New Pieces, A Violin Octet, and a Trio for Vibes, Trumpet and Bass

The Hutchins Consort

Joe McNalley, artistic director for The Hutchins Consort contacted me last month and asked if I'd like to write a piece for their incredible octet of violins of all sizes. Here's a brief history of the ensemble from a recent profile in the New York Times:

'The ensemble was assembled to play the so-called new violin family designed and built by Carleen Hutchins, a luthier who during the 1950s sought to enable a putative musical revolution from her home workshop in Montclair, N.J.

Mrs. Hutchins, who died in August, was spurred by a request from the avant-garde composer Henry Brant. He wanted a range of instruments that would share the specific tonal qualities of a violin instead of the varying sounds produced by the modern viola, cello and double bass. A decade of experimentation resulted in a set of eight violins ranging in size from the 11-inch treble to the 7-foot contrabass, each pitched half an octave apart.

I was eager to work with this type of sonically experimental ensemble and quickly got to work. The result is The Song of R'lyeh for Violin Octet. It's 8 minutes of almost orchestral textures, featuring quartertone-enhanced melodies. The title comes from H.P. Lovecraft, and is a other-worldly graveyard in the middle of the Pacific Ocean where sleeps unspeakable monsters. The piece is both monstrous, otherworldly, and ecstatic. They'll be starting rehearsals shortly I'm told in both the San Diego and the New York City sister consort.

The Song of R'lyeh for Violin Octet - Realization

Bassist Matt Gold asked me to write a piece for his new trio, comprised of trumpet, vibraphone and bass and the result was my latest piece, a dark bit of slow walking funkiness, Trio Diverses. It's in the realm of my older pieces such as Gnomos for Bassoon, Flute and Piano, a cassoulet of funk and poignant tunes. I'll be putting up the score and parts sometime next week.

Trio Diverses for Trumpet, Vibraphone and Contrabass - Realization

Fellow composer and Paris-based violist, Nigel Keay, has been working up my new Tango for Viola and Piano and they're looking at getting into a studio to record it sometime in the next couple of months. Nigel has also helped me tweak the viola part so that it's a bit easier to play - the revised score and parts are here:

Tango for Viola and Piano - Score
Tango for Viola and Piano - Viola Part
Tango for Viola and Piano - Realization

Last month I also wrote a Tango for Piano Quintet. It's 6 or so very hot minutes of reflective atmospherics and hot, explosive action. I'll put the score up sometime next month.

Tango for Piano Quintet - Realization

I've got two more solo cello pieces in the works, one with quartertones and not as folky as Quarter Dollar Tones and one quite Bach like in its harmonies, but with a ferocious vibe. And I've started writing a few violin duets. The Cross Island Ensemble has performed my Nocturne for Cello and Piano a few more times and they plan on recording it for their next CD in March.

As always, if you're interested in requesting a piece from me, all I require is that you promise me a good performance and a recording. No money down!

Winner of Calefax Reed Quintet 2010 Composition Contest and 5 New Pieces

Calefax Reed Quintet

The stupendous Calefax Reed Quintet awarded my piece, Ranae for Reed Quintet their 2010 Composer's Competition prize December 28th, which nicely enough was also my birthday.

Harrington Wins Composers Competition 2010

I had the great pleasure of being at the concert virtually through Skype video, giving a small interview and listening to them premiere my piece. There will be a studio recording sometime in the next couple of months. I'll not be putting up a demo in lieu of what I expect to be an amazing studio performance. The piece, Ranae, or frogs in Latin, is 4 minutes of what I've described as the beginning of Le Sacre as seen through the dense funk polyphony found in Dixieland bands (but without the jazz influences).

I've also just finished a big piece, Passages Rituels for String Quartet and Electronics. Passages Rituels is an exploration of the use of string instruments combined with electronic audio which acts as a quasi-orchestral accompaniment and additionally adds quartertone colorings to the piece (without requiring that the quartet perform quartertones). The piece functions as a slow walk, almost a walking meditation, like Kin-Hin, through a ritualistic landscape, fluctuating emotionally between lamentation and fury.

While I'm not putting up demos or the scores for these last two pieces, I do have 3 new pieces I am distributing free to all. First, a new crazy solo cello piece using lots of quartertones, Quarter Dollar Tones for Solo Cello. The piece has an extreme folky intensity and uses quartertones throughout as a kind of wrong note flavoring. A premiere is promised sometime in the spring, probably April, by cellist JW Turner who recently premiered and performed again my solo cello piece The Empty Fist.

Quarter Dollar Tones for Solo Cello
Quarter Dollar Tones for Solo Cello - Score

Last month I started a new nocturne for piano, but it got side-tracked by the bluesiness and off kilter beats which resulted in my new piano piece, Blues Intermezzo for Solo Piano. I'll get the score out shortly.

And I've been writing so fast these days, that I completely forgot about a Tango for Viola and Piano that I wrote just before we moved to Avignon, France. It's got gospel-like material and grooves on top of the tango beats.

Tango for Viola and Piano - Score
Tango for Viola and Piano - Viola Part
Tango for Viola and Piano - Realization

I've almost finished another tango, this one for piano quintet (sq, pno).

And finally here's the MP3 of the hour long Chance Radio interview I did with Bob Shingleton for web and radio play if anybody has yet to hear it.
Chance Radio Interview with Jeff Harrington

And extra-finally, for those that are looking for things, I keep all of my MP3's here:
All Jeff Harrington MP3's

And all of my scores and parts here:
All Jeff Harrington PDF's

Podcast for Interview with On An Overgrown Path Up

The interview I did with Pliable of On An Overgrown Path is online now after being broadcast this afternoon.

Chance Radio Podcast 05 12 10

You can also listen to it here:

On An Overgrown Path Interview Radio Show/Podcast

Pliable and Myself in my Studio

Last week, I had the great pleasure of being interviewed for classical music's most important blog, On An Overgrown Path. It's an hour long conversation with 13 excerpts of my acoustic, microtonal and electronic music. It'll be aired on Future Radio Sunday and then become a podcast. There are excerpts and photos of Pliable's visit to our place in Avignon at the blog.

Is classical music addicted to existential angst?

YouTube of November 14, 2010 Performance of my Cello and Piano Nocturne by Cross Island Ensemble

Last Sunday, the Cross Island Ensemble gave another passionate performance of my Nocturne for Cello and Piano. They've put up a YouTube of the performance, captured by videographer, Fenton Li. Prefacing the performance is mention of the dedicatee, Wilma, the crocodile, a denizen of Sanibel Island for over 25 years.

Nocturne for Cello and Piano - Cello Part
Nocturne for Cello and Piano - Score

World Premiere Performance of my Solo Cello Piece, The Empty Fist and New Music for Cello

JW Turner gave the world premiere performance of my crazy solo cello piece, The Empty Fist, in High Point, NC last Saturday night. Here's a YouTube video of the intense performance:

The Empty Fist - Score

I've also just completed a dark and moody Ballade for Cello and Piano. Here's the draft score and part:

Ballade for Cello and Piano - Score
Ballade for Cello and Piano - Cello Part
Ballade for Cello and Piano - Synthesized Realization

I've also written a short Nocturne for Flute and Piano.

Nocturne for Flute and Piano - Flute Part
Nocturne for Flute and Piano - Score

Duo Ahlert und Schwab have just finished recording my mandolin and guitar piece, Indigo Trails and it'll be on a recording on the Naxos label early next year.

Studio Recording of Sax and Electronics Piece and a New Solo Flute Piece

Sanibel Island

Kateřina Pavlíková just sent me her fantastic Czech Radio Studio recording of my piece, Par-Delà des Eaux Profondes for Baritone Sax and Electronics. It's 11 minutes of electronic and quartertone funky oceanic mayhem.

Par-Delà des Eaux Profondes for Baritone Sax and Electronics
Par-Delà des Eaux Profondes for Baritone Sax and Electronics - Sax Part
Par-Delà des Eaux Profondes for Baritone Sax and Electronics - Score
Par-Delà des Eaux Profondes for Baritone Sax and Electronics - Electronic Part

She promises a YouTube of her Prague stage performance soon!

I've also just finished a solo flute piece, En un Clin d'Oeil. It's a dense swirling piece with a spectral rhythmic quality.

En un Clin d'Oeil for Solo Flute - Synthesized Realization
En un Clin d'Oeil for Solo Flute - Flute Part

New Nocturne, New Solo Cello Piece and a New Home

Avignon, France

After the events in the Gulf of Mexico since late April, Elsie and I decided to leave the sub-tropical paradise of Sanibel Island and brave a trans-continental move to France. It's been a dream of ours for years; Elsie has French citizenship, it was mainly a case of coming up with the nerve to risk the costs of the move, the costs of finding an apartment and the nightmare of navigating the different bureaucracies.

We've now parked ourselves in an empty 15th century apartment in Avignon, France with 5 giant rooms, 12 foot ceilings and a view of a winding street from 3 floors up that reminds one of Diagon Alley in the Harry Potter movies. The building we're in used to be the stables of the 15th century King Rene, his castle is around the corner. Avignon is a medieval walled city of incredible beauty and history. It hosts the largest annual festival of theatre and multi-media spectacles in Europe every July and our quarter is surrounded by theatres. We await the cross-oceanic delivery of our furniture, scores, books, cd's and paintings.

Avignon, France

While spending the summer here in Avignon, I did manage to write 2 pieces, a new nocturne for piano and a solo cello scherzo.

Nocturne #7 for Piano - Realization
Nocturne #7

My new solo cello piece is a swirling, ecstatic mass of Middle-Eastern sound.

Scherzo for Solo Cello - Realization
Scherzo for Solo Cello - Draft Score

I'm presently working on a new solo flute piece, a very big new piano piece, and a piece for 2 19ET pianos. More news later!

New 2nd Tango for Cello and Piano, Microfest 2010 Premiere in LA, and Video from Prague

Sanibel Island

I've just finished a 2nd tango for cello and piano and frankly, it's one of my best pieces yet, of any type. It's got a fluidity of motion, which combined with a violent dramatic competition between the two instruments informed by the form of the tango itself, produces something I haven't achieved very often in my music in such a short piece. I've already got a number of cellists interested in performing the piece!

Tango #2 for Cello and Piano - Synthesized Realization
Tango #2 for Cello and Piano - Cello Part
Tango #2 for Cello and Piano - Score

Tonight is the premiere of my 3rd Piano Prelude in 19ET at the Quartertuned concert by experimental pianist Aron Kallay for Microfest 2010 in Los Angeles. Here's an interview with Aron by John Schneider on KPXK where he performs a section of the work and talks about the concert in general. Steve Layton at Sequenza21.com was nice enough to put together a little profile about the concert and my music.

Piano Prelude #3 in 19ET - Synthesized Realization
Piano Prelude #3 in 19ET - Score

Kateřina Pavlíková premiered my piece for baritone sax and electronics Par-Delà des Eaux Profondes last week outside of Prague in a preview concert with video and graphics by her husband, visual artist, Vít Vavřinec Pavlík. Local TV there put together a profile of the preview concert and Pavlik. It's in Czech, but you can hear my piece throughout the video. I could only get it to play on my Vista laptop. Video Profile of Vít Vavřinec Pavlík and Kateřina's performance

Currently in the works is a big piece for 2 pianos in 19ET. My plan is to have it playable either as one performer and a recording (either created earlier or supplied by me) or by 2 performers live. I'm also writing a tango for viola and piano. Also, if you downloaded my new electronic piece, For Erzulie Dantor last week, please do so again. I idiotically put up the wrong file; that was a sketch! Here's a little YouTube video I made of the piece. I'm currently learning various software-based video production systems that I can use to make more than slideshows for my music.

New Tango for Cello and Piano, For Erzulie Dantor, Solo Violin Sonata in the Classic Style

Sanibel Island

In my continuing series of short pieces for strings and winds and piano the latest one is a monstrous tango for cello and piano. I've written it so that it should not be quite as difficult as my more ambitious chamber music, but still very much over the top. And I'm going to be writing several tangos for various instruments and piano.

Tango for Cello and Piano - Synthesized Realization
Tango for Cello and Piano - Score
Tango for Cello and Piano - Cello Part

Last January after the tragedy in Haiti, I contributed a track, For Erzulie Dantor to the New Music Haiti Relief CD. It's been 4 months now, so I'm releasing it for general consumption. It's electronic, and uses material that I later developed in a different manner for my sax and electronics piece, Par-Delà des Eaux Profondes.

It's a strange, hellish kind of dance with quartertones and outrageous retro synth stylings.

For Erzulie Dantor

On that note, the premiere of Par-Delà should be in a couple of months in Prague and I'm beginning development of some new electronic pieces for an album I'll probably release at BandCamp.com.

Way, way back in the past, 1986 to be exact, I was a different composer, a composer obsessed with discovering a way to integrate 18th century harmonies with contemporary practices and rhythm. The last piece I wrote in that style, and probably my most successful was a solo violin sonata in the classical style. It's first movement is in 5/4, and the last movement is hysterically rhythmic in a way that classical music would never be. I've finally gotten around to making recordings of them.

Sonata for Solo Violin in the Classic Style - Allegro con moto
Sonata for Solo Violin in the Classic Style - Allegro con vivo
Sonata for Solo Violin in the Classic Style - Adagio con grande espressione
Sonata for Solo Violin in the Classic Style - Allegro con molto energia

Sonata for Solo Violin in the Classic Style - Allegro con moto - Score
Sonata for Solo Violin in the Classic Style - Allegro con vivo - Score
Sonata for Solo Violin in the Classic Style - Adagio con grande espressione - Score
Sonata for Solo Violin in the Classic Style - Allegro con molto energia - Score

New Pieces for Cello, Septet, Piano

Sanibel Island

I finally finished the septet I've been writing for Alexey Kurkdjian and his group Sphaera in São Paulo, Brazil. It's for flute, clarinet, string quartet and bass and is called Seven Walls. It's a swirling mass of tunes and winds with some harsh barbaric climaxes and dark, empty, bluesy moments throughout.

Seven Walls for Septet - Synthesized Realization
Seven Walls for Septet - Score

I've also been working on piano music here's my latest nocturne from the suite Oceana (as yet untitled). It's my most barbaric nocturne yet, a driving mass of syncopated sound that is like the wind turbulently tearing at the trees in a gale.

Nocturne #6 for Piano

I've been working on the draft scores of my 6 nocturnes and the final scores should be available sometime next week.

And I've started a series of short pieces for various combinations of strings, winds and piano as a project to have a set of pieces that are less difficult and easy to add to chamber music programs. The first in this series is my Nocturne for Cello and Piano. It's a dramatic, but slightly bluesy bit of darkness.

Nocturne for Cello and Piano - Synthesized Realization
Nocturne for Cello and Piano - Cello Part
Nocturne for Cello and Piano - Score

New Piece - Par-Delà des Eaux Profondes for Baritone Sax and Electronics

Sanibel Island

I've just finished a new piece for baritone saxophone and electronics called Par-Delà des Eaux Profondes. It's totally nuts psycho-classicism, quartertones galore and harsh Led Zep/prog-rock climaxes. The piece was written for the Czech sax player, Kateřina Pavlíková and she plans on touring with it in a video/interactive graphics setting created by her visual artist husband. I'm definitely going to be cutting a bit here and there and polishing up the mix but this is pretty much how it's going to sound.

Par-Delà des Eaux Profondes for Baritone Sax and Electronics - Realization

I recently contributed a track and helped promote a great project to help the folks of Haiti in their time of crisis, New Music Haitian Relief. The short electronic piece I created was called For Erzulie Dantor and you can preview it here. It's a great project and we've already raised close to a thousand dollars so please consider picking it up if you like the track(s).

Composer and Pianist Aron Kallay has informed me he'll be premiering my 3rd Piano Prelude in 19-ET at MicroFest 2010 in Los Angeles on April 24th. This will be the first time one of my microtonal compositions has ever been played live!

Piano Prelude #3 in 19-ET
Piano Prelude #3 in 19-ET - Score

I'm currently in the process of writing a big new septet for the Brazilian group, Sphaera and it's conductor, Alexey Kurkdijan. It'll be scored for flute, clarinet, strinq quartet and bass and will likely be premiered at Festival Musica Nova 2010 (New Music Festival 2010) in Sao Paolo!

Also, new piano nocturnes are on their way and I've been proofing the scores of the first 5. I'll be uploading final scores for these works shortly. Duo Ahlert & Schwab are in the process of preparing for the premiere and recording of Bidon Cinque for Mandolin and Guitar. We're looking into the possibility of a CD of all 4 of the pieces I've written for this outstanding ensemble, Erg, Cassotis, Indigo Trails and Bidon Cinque.

Five Piano Nocturnes Finished - More on Their Way

Sanibel Island

I've now completed 5 piano nocturnes which will be released in a set called Oceana. Each one is titled based on inspirations I've found on the island.

My first one, The Song of the Waves on the Shells, is a very static pasacaglia of sorts, kind of a Le Gibet meets Radiohead but with a little Feldman.
Nocturne #1 - The Song of the Waves on the Shells - Recording
Nocturne #1 - The Song of the Waves on the Shells - Draft Score

The second one is based around a quiet repeated note motive and is static and dark.
Nocturne #2 - Stars Reflected in the Pitch Black Sea - Recording
Nocturne #2 - Stars Reflected in the Pitch Black Sea - Draft Score

The third one is very pianistic and ecstatic.
Nocturne #3 - Night Rain Sparkles on the Ocean's Skin - Recording
Nocturne #3 - Night Rain Sparkles on the Ocean's Skin - Draft Score

The fourth one is foreboding, gloomy and constantly switching between major and minor modes.
Nocturne #4 - The Moonlit Clouds of a Storm Appear - Recording
Nocturne #4 - Night Rain Sparkles on the Ocean's Skin - Draft Score

The fifth one is one of my most ecstatic pieces yet. It starts off slow and brooding and develops a Middle Eastern riff which slowly takes over until it becomes Lisztian mystical mayhem.
Nocturne #5 - Untitled - Recording
Nocturne #5 - Untitled - Draft Score

Duo Ahlert und Schwab have informed me that Naxos will be release a new recording of theirs next year which will have a recording of the new piece I wrote for them, Bidon Cinque! This is very important for me, because that piece represented a true breakthrough in my attempt to create a new more melodically romantic style within the framework of my propulsive textures.

New Nocturne for Piano

Sanibel Island

I've written my first in a set of nocturnes for piano. It consists of layers of quiet sounds building up like waves crashing on rocks until it becomes symphonic in scope. It's simultaneously one of the most static and one of the most active pieces I've ever written. Elsie described it as something like Le Gibet plus Radiohead. The score will be available sometime next week.

Nocturne #1 for Piano - Synthesized Realization

Three New Pieces for Cello, Piano, Guitar and Flute

Sanibel Island

This summer was very productive for me; the results being a big piece for cello and piano, a solo guitar piece written for the fabulous Philippe Bertaud, and a piece for flute and guitar.

Undertow, is my new piece for cello and piano. It's got a monstrous bluesy beginning which pushes the piece into alternating hyper-rhythmic sections with impressionistic/romantic sections. The score and parts are finished and available for download.

Undertow for Cello and Piano - Synthesized Realization

Undertow for Cello and Piano - Score
Undertow for Cello and Piano - Cello Part

My new solo guitar piece is probably one of the most harmonically beautiful pieces I've written, using an approach which tries to combine modern chromatic Radiohead-ish harmonies with Baroque and my usual modal harmonies. The score is still being tweaked a bit for playability.

The Minotaur's Dream - Synthesized Realization

My new piece for flute and guitar continues the musical impressionism and harmonic lushness of the previous two pieces. It's called Sombras y Luces de La Selva for Flute and Guitar. The score and parts are finished and available for download.

Sombras y Luces de La Selva for Flute and Guitar

Sombras y Luces de La Selva - Flute Part
Sombras y Luces de La Selva - Guitar Part
Sombras y Luces de La Selva - Score

Currently I'm working on a set of nocturnes for piano. They're going to combine the approaches I've been working with harmonically and impressionistically, while maintaining, at times, my high energy output.

Recording of Paris Premiere of String Quartet #5 Available

Bowman's Beach

Here's the live recording of the Paris premiere of my String Quartet #5 by Quatuor de l'Orchestre 2021. I finally got permission to put it up (thanks to Nigel Keay for the great playing and organizing!). It's a very passionate live performance of high intensity.

String Quartet #5 - Live Premiere Performance in Paris by Quatuor de l'Orchestre 2021
String Quartet #5 - Score
Here's the score if you want to follow along!

String Quartet 5 Score

I'm currently working on a duo for cello and piano. Stay tuned!

New Piece - Fée des Cimes for Solo Flute and Mike Marshall Premieres Indigo Trails Sunday!

Expanding Cloud Over Sanibel

I just finished a solo flute piece, Fée des Cimes and it is 6 minutes of wild flight. Here's a draft score:

Fée des Cimes for Solo Flute - Draft Score

Fée des Cimes - Synthesized Recording

Sunday night, the great poly-stylistic mandolinist Mike Marshall and Gavin Riley (Terry Riley's son) will premiere my new piece Indigo Trails for Mandolin and Guitar. It's a fund raiser for New Music Works and today there's a story in the Silicon Valley newspaper Mercury News about the concert - Something new for New Music Works' garden party.

New Piece - Grigri for Saxophone Quartet

Reddish Egret at Ding Darling

I've finished a piece commissioned by Brian Kauth for his group, the Traverser Saxophone Quartet. It's my most radical piece since I stopped writing complex atonal music back in the 80's, full of incredibly wrong notes that are intended to sound incredibly right. There are quartertones throughout the piece serving both as coloristic and as harmonic devices. The piece, also captures something of the rainy mangrove jungle we live in the middle of down here on Sanibel Island. When we were looking for a title, last night, it's swampiness reminded us of New Orleans and their Haitian voodoo traditions, thus the name, in its intentionally illiterate spelling, Grigri.

Grigri for Saxophone Quartet - Synthesized Realization
Grigri for Saxophone Quartet - Draft Score

New Piece - Two Swords Crossed for Violin and Cello and Paris and Tehran News

Dune Sunflowers at Bowman's Beach

I've finished a new piece for violin and cello, Two Swords Crossed. It's one of my most romantic pieces yet, employing some African/minimalist rhythmic conventions and Middle-Eastern melodic inspirations, within a soaring harmonic framework.

Two Swords Crossed for Violin and Cello - Synthesized Realization

Two Swords Crossed - Draft PDF Score
Two Swords Crossed- Draft Cello Part
Two Swords Crossed- Draft Violin Part

Nigel Keay informs me that the premiere of my String Quartet #5 was a great success and a studio recording should be available shortly. Please email me if you'd like to hear the concert recording.

And the Iranian conductor, Keyvan Yahya, surprisingly wrote me the day after my Paris premiere to tell me that my 2nd Symphony was premiered that Thursday night in Tehran too! That was some Thursday! Maestro Yahya promises me a recording and a video of the performance.

In the works is a new sax quartet I'm writing for Brian Kauth. It's going to have lots of quartertones and be a real maelstrom of funk and crazed wind gestures. Here's a snippet of the beginning:

Sax Quartet Beginning

String Quartet #5 To Be Premiered in Paris

Morning Fogs Drift Out to Sea

April 30 at the Fondation des Etats-Unis, my fifth string quartet will be premiered in Paris by the Quatuor de l'Orchestre 2021.

String Quartet #5 is a transcription/extension of my string trio, Tetra-Mnemosyne VII. I'm told that a studio recording is also in the works and I'll put this up as soon as possible!

Program Notes:
My String Quartet #5 is a transcription and a musical extension of my seventh string trio, written in early 2001. My music, for the few years before that, had been becoming increasingly complex and this piece was an attempt, to write in a simpler and more directly emotional style. I had been seriously listening to the middle string quartets of Beethoven for several months, and that listening informed the composition of the piece harmonically, texturally, and in the approach to the climax. The great 8th string quartet of Shostakovich was also a model in my attempt to have simple materials drive a piece, not in a naive folkloric or utopian way, but in a manner that was new in how it continually digested its materials, reusing them in a single movement. There are continuous disruptive interruptions that cause the listener to rethink the musical materials and these are accomplished not in modernist or ironic modalities but through the innate dramatic possibilities of the musical materials. The materials, were chosen, in fact, to be explodable, and reconfigurable in multiple ways. Many of the materials are influenced by Middle Eastern melodies, and additionally, some themes were directly influenced by recent American heavy metal tunes. These melodic influences are intentionally subtle and chosen for their musical potential and are not intended to promote any type of political or cultural reading.

Tetra-Mnemonsyne VII for String Quartet - Score

Tetra-Mnemonsyne VII for String Quartet - Violin I Part
Tetra-Mnemonsyne VII for String Quartet - Violin II Part
Tetra-Mnemonsyne VII for String Quartet - Viola Part
Tetra-Mnemonsyne VII for String Quartet - Cello Part

Here's a live rehearsal recording of the string trio version by Nigel and some friends. It's very loose, but you can get a good feeling about the piece.

Tetra-Mnemosyne - Informal Rehearsal Recording

New Piece - The Empty Fist for Solo Cello and Iran Performance News

I've finished a 7 minute piece for solo cello that I wrote for Jon Silpayamanant called The Empty Fist. It's got almost constant cross rhythms and is still in the process of review by Jon for any changes (hopefully slight). Here's a MP3 of a synthesized realization of the initial version:

The Empty Fist for Solo Cello - Synthesized Realization
The Empty Fist for Solo Cello - Final Score

Also, I got email from Maestro Keyvan Yahya of the Tehran Symphony and rehearsals for my 2nd symphony are going quite well. He says the orchestra loves the piece, which I find very heartening!

New Piece - Bidon Cinque for Mandolin and Guitar

I've finished an ambitious new piece for the outstanding German mandolin and guitar duo, Duo Ahlert und Schwab, which we've named Bidon Cinque. It uses material inspired by Middle Eastern and traditional American folk music and is about 14 minutes long.

Bidon Cinque for Mandolin and Guitar

The title came from my spouse, Elsie, who told me about a mythical (but real) place in the Sahara desert of Algeria. It's on a stretch of road that is so desolate that there's a single oil drum there which is kept full of oil for stranded travellers. Bidon Cinque means Oil Can 5 - here's a picture of it (with a passing camel caravan).

Symphony News, Recent Performances and New Mandolin and Guitar Piece

The Sanibel Lighthouse

I was contacted last last year by the Iranian conductor, Keyvan Yahya about performing my first and second symphonies with the Tehran Symphony, Asia's oldest classical music ensemble, founded in 1938. I've since finally polished the score to my 2nd symphony. He plans on performing and recording both of my symphonies in the next two years!

Symphony #2 for String Orchestra
Symphony #2 for String Orchestra - Parts

Symphony #2 for String Orchestra - Synthesized Recording.

I've just finished a piece for mandolin and guitar which will be premiered at a New Music Works fundraiser - Avant Garden Party. The piece is called, Indigo Trails, and is 5 minutes of relentless, ecstatic riffing. The great bluegrass/classical/jazz mandolinist, Mike Marshall will premiere it! Elsie and I are going to try and attend the premiere in June in Santa Cruz, CA.

Indigo Trails for Mandolin and Guitar - Synthesized Recording

I'm also almost done with a new piece, for Birgit Schwab and Daniel Alhert (Duo Alhert und Schwab) for mandolin and guitar.

Both my pieces Puce for Solo Violin and Tre Pezzi for Violin and Cello have received several recent performances. Puce was taken on the road by virtuoso violinist, Piotr Szewczyk. Performances included, Oct 23, 2008 University of North Florida, Jacksonville, Florida, Oct 29, 2008 Bavarian Academy of Music, Munich, Nov 2, 2008 Museum of Contemporary Art, Nuremberg, Germany Nov 11, 2008 EMMA Lecture Series, Flagler College, St. Augustine, FL. Upcoming performances will be March 8, 2009 University of Northern Kentucky, and April 7, 2009 MAYO Clinic Concert Series (with digital art) Jacksonville, FL. The Cadillac Moon Ensemble performed my Tre Pezzi for Violin and Cello in NYC in October 26.

New Sax and Piano Piece and New Electronic Piece

Sunset after a Storm on Sanibel

I've finished my first microtonal piece using conventional instruments! It's for soprano sax and piano and was commissioned by the brilliant young saxophonist, Brian Kauth. The piano part plays no microtones, but I was astonished to hear it seem to, because of the way the sax's quartertones resonate with the chords. It's called Dans le Délire de l'Inutile; the title is from a poem by the French surrealist poet Robert Desnos.

Dans le Délire de l'Inutile for Soprano Sax and Piano

I'll have draft scores up shortly once I get back some breathing phrases from Brian. If you really want to see it, drop me a line.

And today, I've finished my second in the series of Celestographs, Celestograph II. It's an almost orchestral electronic composition, again, using the Wendy Carlos harmonic tuning. I used Csound for post-processing and shaping of the final version and my Yamaha TG77 for the dry recording. The sounds were inspired by Vangelis' soundtrack to Blade Runner - I think you'll be able to hear the influences.

Celestograph II

Birgit Schwab has helped me revise L'Ecume des Temps for Guitar and Violin, to make it much more playable. (It was practically impossible before.) I've dedicated the piece to her and wish to thank her immensely for her efforts in learning the guitar part and in her editorial suggestions!

L'Ecume des Temps - Guitar Part
L'Ecume des Temps - Violin Part
L'Ecume des Temps - Score
Original MP3 - Synthesized Realization

In Over Her Head - New Music Novel by Elsie Russell - Free Download

In Over Her Head by Elsie Russell
Originally uploaded by jayuhfree

In Over Her Head - Free Download Plus Front Cover

If you like the book, you can buy it at Lulu.com and in about 6 weeks at Amazon. After reading several articles about this new download literature environment, and one in particular by Neil Gaiman we decided to give it away for free, with the front cover and hope people like it enough to buy it. I've read it 10 times now and I couldn't put it down every time I read it. Which is pretty weird. But of course, I'm biased. But not really that much...haha!

Synopsis:
The debut of Penny Bell's's groundbreaking musical composition—featuring the use of mysterious extremely low frequency waves—takes a startling and tragic turn when several concert-goers die in their seats during the performance. The once-bright horizons of Penny's career collapse, and she retreats to a dank Soho basement apartment lit only by the glow of computer monitors and electronic synthesizer displays. There, using herself as a guinea pig, she sets out to unlock the secrets of her beautiful and deadly symphonies. But a series of strange coincidences intrude upon her solitary quest. Her apartment is ransacked. Her neighbor, the ethereal erotic performance artist Ulla Nova, disappears after her studio is broken into. And then Ulla's charming and damaged young choreographer appears, and sweeps Penny off to Europe to search for the diva, plunging Penny into a seedy and unfamiliar world of jet set artists and international intrigue.

And I designed the cover. I'm sure some of you guys recognized my crazy graphics!

Here's a brief bio of the author:

Elsie Russell's bohemian upbringing with artist parents in Europe and the states provided much of the material for this novel. Her mother Andrée, a Beaux Arts Graduate, frequented the postwar Paris avant-garde art scene with her photographer brother Robert Déscharnes where she met Alfred Russell, then a rising star abstract expressionist painter, soon married him and had Elsie. Robert Déscharnes went on to become famous for his art books and life-long friendship and collaboration with Salvador Dalí. From the start she was dragged around with the rolled up canvases until deposited for high school in Rome at St. Stephen's, a prep school warehouse for jet set kids where she got a great education with her disaffected aristocratic classmates. Summers were often in Cadaquès, Spain, with her cousins and Dalí and his colorful entourage. Later, while struggling in New York as a painter, she met her spouse Jeff Harrington, Juilliard trained composer and software architect, exposing her to yet another world of dazzling misfits. For more information about Elsie Russell please visit her websites:

Short Stories of Elsie Russell.
Paintings of Elsie Russell.

NetNewMusic iz Alive!

Sanibel on a sunny day
Originally uploaded by jayuhfree

NetNewMusic

We (that is me and the other inmates) offer the new music world a place to blog, share music and videos, set up their own sub-groups and forums. I'm piping the traffic from the old site directly into the new network, and it's growing extremely fast. Almost a hundred full blown members in the first 24 hours. Check it out when you get a chance!

New Piece - Tamiami Heat for Brass Quintet, Saxes, Piano and Bass

The beach on Sanibel Island where I walk every day.
Originally uploaded by jayuhfree

The title comes from a conversation I had with a semi-pro cyclist who was giving me a ride in his truck a couple of weeks ago to pick up Elsie who'd gotten a flat tire in the middle of the island. He was describing a ride across the Everglades to surprise his wife, who was attending a conference in Miami. He said, once he ran out of water about half way through the ride and had decided to commit to finishing the ride, that it was all a blur, a heat stroke of haziness. When we were looking for a title, that image returned, because of the intense heat wave trills throughout much of the piece. The Tamiami Trail is the famous 2 lane road that goes across the Everglades from Fort Myers (near Sanibel) to Miami, through alligator-infested swamps.

Tamiami Heat for Brass Quintet, Saxes, Piano and Bass

I'm going to send it out to publishers, this and my new brass quintet, so if you'd like a copy, email me and I'll get one out to you for perusal purposes. The score is also for sale at Lulu.com where I'm slowly putting all my scores up (and designing crazy covers for each one) so that people can buy them printed and bound.

Now onto work for Sphaera's septet. I plan to make it a similar type of swirling chaotic funk.

Oh, and that new pic of me up there, is in front of the huge strangler fig tree in our parking lot backyard. Elsie took it a few weeks ago.

New Piece - Brass Quintet and Some Revisions and Arrangements

I've finished my new brass quintet and am proofing the score and parts. It's a piece that's a little bit like my 4th string quartet arrangement for sax quartet, Spirale d'Arco in its breadth and generous emotional spaciousness. I play on strange phasing rhythms like I did in that piece too.

Brass Quintet - Synthesized Realization

The piece for flute and vibraphone I wrote for Due East has undergone a few revisions, some at their suggestion. In particular, the ending is now a huge virtuoso splash! They've played it twice now, I'm hoping for another performance this year.
Valley Spirit and Wind Master Flute Part - Buy OR Free PDF Download
Valley Spirit and Wind Master Vibraphone Part - Buy OR Free PDF Download
Buy Valley Spirit and Wind Master Score - Buy OR Free PDF Download

Valley Spirit and Wind Master for Flute and Vibraphone - Synthesized Realization

I've arranged my piece Irae for Violin, Viola and Contrabass for the same grouping but with clarinet instead of viola at the request of conductor/violinist Alexey Kurkdijan who works out of São Paulo. I've made a new realization and the new score and parts are available too. I really like it; it seems much more disturbed and bizarre than the original arrangement. Rehearsals have started and the premiere of this arrangement should be July 26th in São Paulo!

Irae with Clarinet - Clarinet Part
Irae with Clarinet - Violin Part
Irae with Clarinet - Contrabass Part
Irae with Clarinet - Score
Irae with Clarinet - Synthesized Realization

I'm now working on a new big piece for Alexey in the form of a septet comprised of flute, oboe, clarinet, piano, violin, cello, and contrabass. It's going to be massive!

New Piece - Fanfare for the Frontier Beyond for Large Brass Ensemble

I've written another short brass fanfare for large brass ensemble. It's almost 2 minutes long and is basically a gigantic blast. I'm gearing up to write much more brass and wind music; at the moment I am starting work on a brass quintet. The score and parts for the fanfare are available upon request for now.

Fanfare for the Frontier Beyond - Synthesized Realization

More exciting news - I've been commissioned by Alexey Kurkdjian, conductor of the Sphaera Ensemble, to write a septet for flute, oboe, clarinet, violin, cello, contrabass and piano. They're also working on my nonet at the moment for a possible performance later this year.

Score to Violin Sonata #4 Available and Moving News!

I've finished the score to my fourth violin sonata and have made the score and parts available.

Violin Sonata #4 - Score
Violin Sonata #4 - Violin Part
http://www.jeffreyharrington.org/mp3/Jeff-Harrington-Sonata_for_Violin_and_Piano_4.mp3

I'm currently writing a short fanfare for the Dallas Wind Ensemble call for scores. I'd written a piece last year which wasn't picked. In thinking about why, I realized it really wasn't a fanfare at all. I'd also never uploaded the score and parts so here they are:

Hurricane Party Parts - Zip File
Hurricane Party Score
Hurricane Party for Large Brass Ensemble - Synthesized Realization

Big news! We moved to a tropical desert island off the west coast of Florida in December after I was laid off from my 6 figure computer programming job in January. It's completely bike-centric, ecologically-minded and 75% bird sanctuary/mangrove swamp. The rest is housing for extremely rich people, including a lot of celebrities.

The island is famous for some of the most beautiful beaches and the best sea-shelling in the Western Hemisphere. Over 1500 different types of shells. There are birds everywhere. Loggerhead sea turtles nest on the beach. We have a red-shouldered hawk living in the jungle behind the parking lot. There's an osprey nest in our backyard! We downsized so we can live without working off of our savings over the past 11 years and I can just work on music. I can always do a little freelance work if that doesn't work out. Plus there are plenty of tourist t-shirt shops I could get a cashier's job at! Haha...

We're renting a tiny apartment in the back of a high-end strip mall with a fossil shell parking lot as our front yard and it's fantastic! I ride my bike to a deserted tropical beach every day and walk for about 2 hours and then come back and have lunch and get to work on my music. I'm not that worried about not being in NYC for my career because most of my music performances are outside NY and are web-connected.

Google Map of Sanibel, Florida

Sanibel Island Flickr Photostream

So far I've composed two new pieces, gotten 4 scores polished and have started a new one... so I think it's going to work. Main risk was the $$$ and getting our own health insurance but things are looking pretty good. Got the health insurance going last week. Freakin' nightmare... And we've stopped eating out and got a bread machine to save more $$$.

Anyways... I'd rather live off of absolutely nothing than work another year in a cubicle farm with no natural light in NYC with crazy people!

New Violin Sonata and New Electronic Piece - Celestograph I

I've finished a new violin sonata, my 4th, and have uploaded a realization. It's a bit more poetic, a bit less bombastic than the 3rd but full of energy and harmonies.

Sonata for Violin and Piano #4 - Synthesized Realization

And yesterday I finished my first full length electronic piece in 5 years! It's called Celestograph I and will be part of a series of pieces called hmmm... Celestographs! The piece uses the Wendy Carlos harmonic series tuning and is a celestially inspired processional. The title comes from a photographic series by August Strindberg in which he made photographs directly exposed to the night sky, without a lens. He believed the lens warped the direct expression of the stars.

Here's an article about his work The Celestographs of August Strindberg

Celestograph I

A big big thanks to Kyle Gann for including 4 of my pieces in the new lineup to his ever popular, prize-winning and wondrous radio show, Online Experimental Radio. He's included L'Ecume des Temps for Violin and Guitar, Erg for Mandolin and Guitar, DeltaBandResonator for Piano and my stretched Beethoven 3rd electronic piece, Eroica Spettrale

Also, super violinist Piotr Szewczyk continues to rock the violin world with his series Violin Futura. Here's a recent poster:

He's recently played the entire series (including my piece Puce in Jacksonville, FL (twice), at the Santa Fe New Music Festival, and at University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music! Bravo!!!

We moved recently (more about that at a later date) and we threw away hundreds of books and videos, but not before digitizing some of the videos. Here's a YouTube of an experimental video I made back in 1988 on my Amiga 1000 computer with algorithmically generated ambient music.

Tetra-Mnemosyne V Score and Parts Available and Violin Futura Performances

I've finally got a chance to get the score of my monumental string trio (if there can be such a thing) Tetra-Mnemosyne V. It's my favorite of the 7 pieces and is as dark and soulful as I can get. Can't believe I wrote it 9 years ago! Yikes! I'd better get off my ass with the other ones... still have to do I, II, III and VI. I wrote them at a time when I was really stressed at work (the launch of the dot bomb enhanced video system, HyperTV, barely sleeping for 3 weeks at a time), and decided to focus on one genre over a period of 2 years. It was a very productive time, but a very tiring time too. Most of my piano preludes come from the same period.

Tetra-Mnemosyne V Score
Tetra-Mnemosyne V Violin Part
Tetra-Mnemosyne V Viola Part
Tetra-Mnemosyne V Cello Part

Tetra-Mnemosyne V for String Trio - Superconductor Realization

Piotr Szewczyk has been extremely busy with his Violin Futura project, performing the 16 pieces with a new suite by Lawrence Dillon and at the Santa Fe New Music Festival with computer-generated imagery. Check out the YouTube. My favorite of the pieces is my own Puce, of course... but all of the compositions are electric.

I've put up a recording of the ARTSaha performance of my piece for disklavier, Surge.

Surge for Disklavier - World Premiere Live Recording.

It was a big thrill to be invited to write a piece for the festival which included other disklavier mavericks such as Kyle Gann and Joseph Drew.

World Premiere of Tourbillons for Six Harps, Contrabass and Percussion

Tonight at 9:00 PM at Saint-Cyr-L’École, France (78) Théâtre Gérard Philippe, Rue Gérard Philippe Naccara will give the world premiere of Tourbillons for Six Harps, Contrabass and Percussion. Check out Naccara's web site for more information on this exciting group. They do a whole 'son et lumiere' thing too!

Tourbillons for 6 Harps, Contrabass and Percussion - Synthesized Realization
Tourbillons for 6 Harps, Contrabass and Percussion - Score
Tourbillons for 6 Harps, Contrabass and Percussion - Parts

Elsie's Novel About an Experimental Composer Made it to the Amazon Semi-Finalists!

My spouse Elsie Russell's first novel about a brilliant young composer whose experimental music accidentally kills several audience members was selected as one of the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award semi-finalists! It's a farce/thriller/romance...

You can read an excerpt here:

In Over her Head

Elsie Russell Speaks About In Over Her Head - Official ABNA Entrant:
The debut of Penny Bell's musical composition, featuring the use of mysterious extremely low frequency waves takes a tragic turn when several concert-goers die in their seats during the performance. The once-bright horizons of Penny's career collapse, and she retreats to a dank Soho basement apartment lit only by the glow of computer monitors and electronic displays. There, using herself as a guinea pig, she sets out to unlock the secrets of her beautiful and deadly symphonies. A series of strange coincidences intrude upon her solitary quest. Her neighbor, the erotic performance artist Ula Nova, disappears after her studio is broken into. And then Ula's charming and damaged young choreographer appears, and sweeps Penny off to Europe to search for the diva, plunging Penny into a seedy and unfamiliar world of jet set artists and international intrigue where the threads of every encounter always seem to lead back to those ELF waves and their pint-sized progenitor.

If any of you guys want to write a customer review - the winner is also chosen by popularity from customer responses... hint... hint... wink... wink...

Due East Premiere and Upcoming Erg Performances by Buzz Gravelle and Peter Yates

Lots of incredible concerts coming up the first few months of 2008! Due East will premiere Valley Spirit and Wind Master for Flute and Vibraphone at Lawrence University January 14th and 15th and then will give it a repeat performance March 5th at SUNY-Oswego, NY, as part of the Arts Ke-nekt' Performing Arts Series. It's been a real thrill working with 2 such fantastic performers.

Valley Spirit and Wind Master - Flute Part
Valley Spirit and Wind Master - Vibraphone Part
Valley Spirit and Wind Master - Score
Valley Spirit and Wind Master for Flute and Vibraphone - Synthesized Realization

Mandolinist, guitarist and composer Buzz Gravelle informs me that he and a guitarist from Cal Poly Pomona, Prof. Peter Yates, will be taking my mandolin and guitar piece Erg on the road in Southern California next month. So far there's three performances lined up:

Cal Poly Pomona: Friday, February 8th, 8:00 p.m.
UCLA: Saturday, February 16th, 8:00 p.m.
Cal State Dominguez Hills: Thursday, February 28th, 7:00 p.m.

Erg for Mandolin and Guitar - Performed by Duo Ahlert und Schwab

Duo Consensus, a group out of Weimar, Germany has written me telling me that they'll be performing Erg (again?) soon. They performed it in Berlin earlier last year, apparently. The score and parts for Erg are available through Edition Corvus.

And finally the draft score and parts for my 3rd violin sonata are available:
Violin Sonata 3 - Score
Violin Sonata 3 - Violin Part
Sonata for Violin and Piano #3 - Synthesized Realization

New Live Recording of Piano Preludes #6-8

I've uploaded the wonderful recordings of Daniel Beliavsky's performance of my piano preludes 6, 7 and 8 from last November's Sequenza 21 concert.

Piano Prelude #6
Piano Prelude #7
Piano Prelude #8

There's also now available a draft score of my Nonet for Woodwind Quintet and String Quartet.

Nonet for Woodwind Quintet and String Quartet - PDF Draft Score.

And on a non-musical note, Elsie and I have been living under the siege of being smack in the middle of a Coen Brothers film set for their new movie, Burn After Reading. We've had John Malkovich, Brad Pitt and George Clooney acting in our back yard. It's been crazy but very interesting... Here's a Flickr Set of Burn After Reading on State Street Pics.

Two New Pieces and New Live Recording of KaleidoPsychoTropos

My third violin sonata is now finished and it's a doozy. It's kind of a DeltaBandResonator for violin and piano with its folkiness but has even more bombast and a surprising amount of delicacy. Score and parts are underway.

Sonata for Violin and Piano #3 - Synthesized Realization

I've also uploaded the piece for flute and vibraphone that I wrote for Due East, Valley Spirit and Wind Master. It's a very colorful piece relying on big washes of sound and ecstatic flute playing for its big effects.

Valley Spirit and Wind Master for Flute and Vibraphone - Synthesized Realization

There's also now up a live recording of KaleidoPsychoTropos for Quintet (piano, violin, cello, flute, clarinet) from the performance this March by New Music Works in Santa Cruz, California. Check out the amazing last 3 minutes as they rock out. Delicious performance!

KaleidoPsychoTropos for Quintet Performed Live by New Music Works, Santa Cruz California, March 2007

Corrected KaleidoPsychoTropos Acrobat Score
KaleidoPsychoTropos Flute Part
KaleidoPsychoTropos Clarinet Part
KaleidoPsychoTropos Violin Part
KaleidoPsychoTropos Cello Part
KaleidoPsychoTropos Piano Part

World Premiere of Surge for Disklavier at the ARTSaha! Festival Tonight in Omaha

Surge for Disklavier will receive its world premiere at the amazing ARTSaha! Festival tonight in Omaha, Nebraska. It's on a program with a disklavier realization of George Antheil's Ballet Mécanique, pieces by Joseph Drew (of Analog Ensemble, ANAblog fame), Kyle Gann, Nancarrow and Lamonte Young, among others. Big props to Anatoly Larkin for patiently troubleshooting a piece that I wrote away from the Disklavier around a 6 piano concept and making it work. It took me hours of perl scripting and getting feedback from Anatoly while practially destroying several Disklaviers to get to this point. Thanks Anatoly!

Surge for Disklavier - Sampled Realization

I'm presently working on a new Violin Sonata, which will be the third piece for violin and piano I've written in the past few years. It is going to be very intense and lyrical and hopefully as popular as my 2nd violin sonata.

Sonata for Violin and Piano #2 - Realization

New Recording of BlueStrider Live by Pianist Paul Hoffmann

Paul Hoffmann's blistering performance of my BlueStrider for piano at Renee Weiler Concert Hall, Greenwich Village, on May 18 is available now with his gracious permission. A thrilling performance of one of my most popular pieces. Enjoy!

BlueStrider for Piano Performed Live by Pianist Paul Hoffmann

I've finished the piece for Due East Valley Spirit and Wind Master for Flute and Vibraphone. It's a very nature-centered piece for me; the title comes from 'Cultivating the Empty Mind' by Hongzhi a book of Zen short texts. I'm awaiting feedback from the group before I release the score and parts and a synthesized recording.

Puce for Solo Violin Spoleto Festival Performance Video

Piotr Szewczyk has edited and uploaded YouTube video and MP3's of his astounding Violin Futura performance. Each piece has its only video and the MP3's are up too.

Puce for Solo Violin - MP3 - performed by Piotr Szewczyk, Violin at the Spoleto Festival
Puce for Solo Violin - Score

New Recording of Adagio tenebroso for String Quartet by Le Quatuor à cordes de l'APEIM

Nigel Keay has just sent me a new recording of my Adagio tenebroso for String Quartet recorded by April 24, 2007 at Le Cave in Paris. It is a superb performance! They played it live May 7 and hope to recording it soon under studio conditions.

Adagio Tenebroso for String Quartet - Performed by Le Quatuor à cordes de l'APEIM

As always, my parts and scores are available here:

I've slightly revised my Hurricane Party for Large Brass Ensemble, adding a bit more harmonic contrast here and there and shaping the recording better.
Hurricane Party for Large Brass Ensemble

Through a recent discussion of physically modelled virtual instruments Bruno Degazio realized a wonderful performance (he actually performed with a breath controller the clarinet part) of my piece A Hunderd Blues for Clarinet, Violin and Viola
Bruno Degazio Performance - A Hunderd Blues for Clarinet, Violin and Viola

For contrast here's my old synthesized realization.
A Hunderd Blues for Clarinet, Violin and Viola - Synthesized Realization

Harrington Piano Music in Louisiana - 200 Years in New Orleans Program and Hurricane Party for Large Brass Ensemble

I was excited last week to find out that Anthony de Mare and Steven Mayer have selected two piece of mine to be included in their new program Louisiana - 200 Years in New Orleans which is part of their seminal series The American Piano. Steve Mayer will be performing my Piano Prelude #7 and Tony will be performing DeltaBandResonator.

DeltaBandResonator - MP3
DeltaBandResonator Score
Piano Prelude #7 - MP3
Piano Prelude #7 Score

Also, I wrote this weekend a short but gigantic brass ensemble piece, Hurricane Party for Large Brass Ensemble. It's 3 minutes of New Orleans style brass mayhem, with ominous overtones. It's for 6 trumpets, 5 horns, 3 trombones, 2 tubas and bass drum.

Piotr Szewczyk Performs Puce at the Spoleto Festival Tonight!

Puce for Solo Violin will be performed by Piotr Szewczyk at the Spoleto Festival as part of their contemporary music-focussed Music in Time program. Also on the bill, pieces by Mason Bates, David Kellogg and Lawrence Dillon, Mason Bates, Moritz Eggert, Jennifer Wang, Carson Cooman, et al.

The NY premiere of BlueStrider was an astounding success and at the reception Due East asked me to write them a piece for flute and percussion. The piece is well under way. Due East is an incredibly talented duo featuring Erin Lesser and Greg Beyer. They seem to have gigged with practically every major contemporary music ensemble on the planet. It's going to be a very exciting project...

New Piece - Surge for Disklavier

I've finished the Disklavier piece I was writing for the ARTSaha! Festival. It'll be 'premiered' sometime during the festival. September 4 - 10 in Omaha, Nebraska.

It's my densest piece yet and is in truth a virtuoso 6 piano composition of around 7 minutes long. The piece was inspired not only by obvious recent historical events but by the fact that the piece constantly surges though huge densities forcing gospel-inspired riffing to be overwhelmed by massive Arabic-influenced chords.

Surge for Disklavier.

Puce will receive it's premiere May 7, 2007 7:30 p.m., Phillips Recital Hall Haas Fine Arts Center UW-Eau Claire by Piotr Szewczyk. He'll be lecturing on all of the pieces of the Violin Futura concert at the following Master Class. More info at Violin Futura.

And Cassotis for Mandolin and Guitar will receive its Munich premiere sometimes this month (more info later). BlueStrider for Piano's New York premiere is the coming Friday, May 18, 2007, 8PM Renee Weiler Concert Hall, Greenwich House Music School 46 Barrow Street performed by Paul Hoffmann at Joe Pehrson's and Patrick Hardish's series, Composer's Concordance.

Puce for Solo Violin World Premiere and Spoleto Festival Performance

Piotr Szewczyk will premiere my solo violin piece Puce at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, Monday, May 7, 2007 as part of his Violin Futura project with a subsequent master class performance on the 8th.

On June 7, 2007, Puce will be performed at the Spoleto Festival as part of their contemporary music-focussed Music in Time program. I've been featuring the recordings of the other pieces on the program at my new music mp3 aggregator site cacophonous.org. Check out the whole series - it's very exciting to be part of such a high profile project! I hope to have MP3's (and possibly YouTube videos) of the performances up shortly.

I've started a major piece for Disklavier for the ARTSaha Arts Festival in Omaha Nebraska. This will no doubt be one of my densest and most intense pieces yet.

Nadia Shpachenko to Perform BlueStrider April 4,6,7 in Pomona and Las Vegas

More exciting news about my big piano piece BlueStrider - Dr. Nadia Shpachenko will be performing it April 4th in Pomona California, and April 6th and 7th in Las Vegas, Nevada as part of a lecture/recital series And what is good, Phaedrus, and what is not good-- need we ask anyone to tell us these things?" American Composers in the Paperless Era (works by Leo Ornstein, Frederic Rzewski, Mike Garson, Dennis Báthory-Kitsz, Larry Polanski, and Jeffrey Harrington) at Cal Poly Pomona University (Information: www.csupomona.edu), 8 pm

More Info here.

BlueStrider for Piano
BlueStrider Acrobat Score

And I must mention that BlueStrider for Piano will finally receive its New York premiere Friday, May 18, 2007, 8PM Renee Weiler Concert Hall, Greenwich House Music School 46 Barrow Street performed by Paul Hoffmann at Joe Pehrson's and Patrick Hardish's series, Composer's Concordance.

BlueStrider New York Premiere, Adagio Tenebroso in Paris, and New Tourbillons for 6 Harps, Contrabass and Percussion

BlueStrider for Piano will finally receive its New York premiere Friday, May 18, 2007, 8PM Renee Weiler Concert Hall, Greenwich House Music School 46 Barrow Street performed by Paul Hoffmann at Joe Pehrson's and Patrick Hardish's series, Composer's Concordance!

Paris-based composer/violist Nigel Keay informs me that my Adagio Tenebroso for String Quartet will receive another performance at La Cave in Paris by his The APEIM String Quartet May 3rd.

I've finished my piece for the amazing harp sextet Naccara, Tourbillons for 6 Harps, Contrabass and Percussion. It's 5 minutes long, and packed with energy and material inspired by African and Arabic melodies.

Tourbillons for 6 Harps, Contrabass and Percussion - Synthesized Realization
Tourbillons for 6 Harps, Contrabass and Percussion - Score
Tourbillons for 6 Harps, Contrabass and Percussion - Parts

And a reminder that New Music Works will be performing KaleidoPsychoTropos for Flute, Clarinet, Violin, Cello and Piano in Santa Cruz March 23, 2007! This is one of my funkiest and strangest pieces, and has never been performed outside of St. Louis.

French News and Violin Scores Finished

I'm writing a piece for Naccara a French ensemble comprising 6 harps, contrabass and percussion. The group has been around since the late '90's and they incorporate a real sense of the dramatic in their stage presentation. I love writing for the harp and having 6 of them is like a dream come true!

Paris-based New Zealand composer/violist Nigel Keay informs me that my Adagio tenebroso for String Quartet has been picked up by the new members of his quartet and they plan to perform and record it this year. Their recording of it and premiere at 'La Cave' was of my fondest memories ot 2006.

The scores and parts for all of my new violin and piano pieces, the 2nd Sonata and the Sonatina are finished.

Score for Sonata #2 for Violin and Piano
Violin Part for Sonata #2 for Violin and Piano
Sonata for Violin and Piano #2 - Realization

Score for Sonatina for Violin and Piano
Violin Part for Sonatina for Violin and Piano
Sonatina for Violin and Piano - Realization

New Sonatina for Violin and Piano

A young Dutch violinist wrote me a few weeks ago suggesting I write her and her pianist friend a piano piece. I've been in the violin writing mode for the past month so I said sure. I wrote it this weekend, and it incorporates a few new things for me, notably a more chromatic harmonic palette inspired by some experiments I did this summer with Radiohead-like harmonies. The material was rather simple, and frankly, I'd practically forgotten about it! Anyways, I think it's going to be a fun piece and is about 6 1/2 minutes long. It's definitely written for intermediate level violinists and pianists - although my rhythms are admittedly always syncopated and a bit problematic because of that.

Sonatina for Violin and Piano - Realization
Draft Score for Sonatina for Violin and Piano
Draft Violin Part for Sonatina for Violin and Piano

Also, the draft parts and score for my second violin sonata are now available. The score definitely needs resizing.

Draft Score for Sonata #2 for Violin and Piano
Draft Score for Sonata #2 for Violin and Piano

New Sonata for Violin and Piano #2

After writing the short solo violin piece for Piotr I was left with a bit of material and this piece just miraculously came together. It's folky and barbaric and full of contrasts - and probably one of my best pieces from this year. I finished it yesterday, so this will be the last piece of 2006.

Sonata for Violin and Piano #2 - Realization

Score and parts are close to being ready; I'll have them up shortly.

New Solo Violin Piece for ViolinFutura

I've written a 3 minute solo violin piece for brilliant composer/violinist Piotr Szewczyk's project, ViolinFutura. The project aims to promote contemporary music through exciting and innovative short solo violin pieces.

My piece is Puce for Solo Violin, an eccentric jumpy (Puce means 'flea' in Fre3nch) mashup of divergent soloist impulses. Piotr plans to put up video and audio of his repeat performances of this series. Should be an extremely exciting project and I'm honored to be included with the big names already participating.

Puce for Solo Violin - PDF Score

Scores to Piano Preludes 15 and 19 Available

Piano preludes 15 and 19 are now available as Acrobat scores. Number 15 is a pounding almost rock-like piece, exploring just how dissonant an almost white-note composition can be:

Piano Prelude 15 - Acrobat Score
Piano Prelude 15 - New Recording

Prelude 19 is more New Orleans-flavored, with a funky flair without being pounding.

Piano Prelude 19 - Acrobat Score
Piano Prelude 19 - New Recording

Three Concerts and Piano Preludes 10, 11, 13 Scores Available

This week I had the honor of receiving 5 performances of my music in a 36 hour period - all in different parts of the world. Duo 46 premiered L'Ecume des Temps in Cincinatti the same night that Daniel Beliavsky gave the New York premiere of Piano Preludes 6, 7 and 8 at the Sequenza21 Concert to rousing applause. Duo Ahlert und Schwab performed Cassotis for Mandolin and Guitar the night before. So it's been an exciting week!

Because of recent interest in my piano music, I spent most of the Thanksgiving vacation polishing the scores to my piano preludes. I'd written many of them at a time when my job required a lot of late nights and rather than slow down the compositional process I decided to postpone the output of the scores. Preludes 10, 11 and 13 are now available and I made new realizations of them to boot.

Number 10 and 11 are invention like preludes and were intended to be part of a suite of pieces for less than virtuoso performers.
Piano Prelude 10 - Acrobat Score
Piano Prelude 10 - New Recording

Piano Prelude 11 - Acrobat Score
Piano Prelude 11 - New Recording

Number 13 is a crazy virtuoistic piece, stopping and starting and using Caribbean rhythms ecstatictally throughout. It's also one of the longer preludes and harkens forward to the ambitious 16, 17 and 18.

Piano Prelude 13 - Acrobat Score
Piano Prelude 13 - New Recording

Also, Daniel Beliavsky found a few mistakes in the score to Piano Prelude 7 and those have now been corrected. The tempi indication were straight quarter notes instead of dotted quarter notes. Although the tempi were accurate, they were misleading.

Piano Prelude 7 - Corrected Acrobat Score

And at the suggestion of composer/pianist Bruce Stark I've made a new recording of my Piano Sonata #3 which is slowed down and possibly not quite so intimidatingly impossible in sound.

Piano Sonata 3 - New Recording
Piano Sonata 3 - Acrobat Score

Premiere of Kali Yuga and Finished Piano Scores

My 1 minute 60x60 contribution, Kali Yuga for 19ET Synthesizer was premiered last night at Brooklyn College as part of the New York Minute concert. It's 60 seconds of blistering orchestral microtonal hysteria, almost sci-fi in its atmosphere.

Kali Yuga for 19ET Synthesizer

Also, I've cleaned up my Piano Prelude #18 and DeltaBandResonator and the scores are now available:

Piano Prelude #18 Acrobat Score
Piano Prelude #18 MP3

DeltaBandResonator for Piano Acrobat Score
DeltaBandResonator for Piano - Realized by Steve Layton

Draft Score of Piano Sonata #3 Up and Performance News

My new big piano piece, Piano Sonata #3 now has a very polished draft score available:

Acrobat Score - Piano Sonata #3
Piano Sonata #3

Also, I'm thilled to announce New Music Works has chosen KaleidoPsychoTropos for Flute, Clarinet, Violin, Cello and Piano for a performance in Santa Cruz March 23, 2007! This is one of my funkiest and strangest pieces, and has never been peformed outside of St. Louis.

KaleidoPsychoTropos for Flute, Clarinet, Violin, Cello and Piano
KaleidoPsychoTropos Acrobat Score
KaleidoPsychoTropos Flute Part
KaleidoPsychoTropos Clarinet Part
KaleidoPsychoTropos Violin Part
KaleidoPsychoTropos Cello Part
KaleidoPsychoTropos Piano Part

And I'm told BlueStrider, my first big piano piece, and one of my most popular piece will receive its New York Premiere next May. More details as they come in.

BlueStrider for Piano - Realized by Steve Layton
BlueStrider Acrobat Score

A reminder, see below, that Daniel Beliavsky will give the New York premiere of my Piano Preludes #6,7,8 and Duo46 will finally give the world premiere of L'Ecume des Temps November 20.

Also, in seemingly unrelated news - I've received my 2nd patent! It's a very broad patent about pre-fetching multi-media content.

Enhanced video programming system and method utilizing a web page staging area.

No, I'm not going to be rich anytime soon. My previous employer, ACTV, Inc. owns the rights. Alas...

New Realization of Piano Sonata #3

I've made a brand new realization of my new piano sonata, and it's really pretty incredibly lifelike (if I do say so myself). I used an 80MB Steinway piano soundfont and wrote a custom perl script to slightly randomize the velocities of the file. The results are one of the best simulations of piano playing I've produced.

Piano Sonata #3 - New Realization

New Piece - Piano Sonata #3

I've finished my first big piano piece since DeltaBandResonator! It's a real monster of a piece, employing new Lisztian effects, chromatic scales and lots of dissonances which seemingly create a microtonal musical environment similar to Marteau-Pilon. It also shares many of the huge pounding effects and primitivist inclinations of that last piece.

While I'm still searching for a title for it, I decided not to delay putting the piece up for lack of a creative title and instead lump BlueStrider, DeltaBandResonator and this piece together as Sonatas - meaning large piano pieces.

The score should be up shortly...

Piano Sonata #3 - Synthesized Realization

Daniel Wolf Article, Premiere of L'Ecume des Temps and More

Frankfurt-based Californian composer/experimentalist Daniel Wolf has written an incredibly nice article about my music and philosophy of music distribution at his blog Renewable Music yesterday. He makes specific mention of one of my favorite recent pieces, my Horn Trio.

Trio for Horn, Violin and Piano
Trio for Horn, Violin and Piano Score
Trio for Horn, Violin and Piano - Horn Part
Trio for Horn, Violin and Piano - Violin Part
Trio for Horn, Violin and Piano - Piano Part

The super guitar and violin duo, Duo46 will finally be premiering my piece L'Ecume des Temp at Cincinnati, Ohio - Madison House Concert Series : Nov 16. I've also recently transcribed the piece for Duo Ahlert und Schwab for Mandolin and Guitar. They've been performing Cassotis all summer long and it will be a part of their new program, "Nowhere Left to Go."

L'Ecume des Temps for Guitar and Violin - New Realization - MP3
L'Ecume des Temps for Guitar and Violin - Study Score
L'Ecume des Temps for Guitar and Violin - Guitar Part
L'Ecume des Temps for Guitar and Violin - Violin Part

Three piano preludes of mine, #6, #7, and #8 will receive their New York premiere November 20 by the superb pianist, Daniel Beliavsky at the Sequenza21 Concert.

Prelude 6 Acrobat Score
Prelude 7 Acrobat Score
Prelude 8 Acrobat Score
Piano Prelude 6
Piano Prelude 7
Piano Prelude 8

An electronic piece of 60 seconds duration of mine, 'Kali Yuga' has been selected by Vox Novus for performance at their New York concert this year, New York Minutes. More info as it's available... I can't put 'Kali Yuga' online until after the premiere, but here are two 60 second electronic pieces I made but didn't submit. They're both a little poppier than is usual for me, but some interesting transformations and timbres are involved. Gouttes is drops of liquids bouncing off of a shiny surface. Syrinx is named after a bird's voice box and uses formant shifting synthesis to create a crunchy bird-like percussive track to accompany the ambient slow tunes.

Gouttes
Syrinx

I'm finishing up a piano piece, which seemingly came out of the blue from materials left over from my recent Piano and Amplified Harpsichord (or electronic harpsichord), Marteau-pilon Épouvantable-Implacable. I'll probably finish it this weekend. My first big piano piece since DeltaBandResonator.

New Piece - Marteau-pilon Épouvantable-Implacable for Piano and Amplified Harpsichord

I've just finished a new piece which came together very quickly for piano and amplified harpsichord. The grouping worked very well for me, as is obvious, by how quickly I wrote the piece, and frankly, how exciting the piece became in the process. It's one of my most visceral and belligerent pieces yet, something like my Acid Bach on steroids, or BlueStrider, but with more timbral color and even more oomph. The piece is extremely barbaric, with evocations of late 80's and early 90's industrial music and recent death metal in its rhythms and use of pounding bass. It's also inspired to a certain degree by the Russian Futurists, Mossolov in particular but with a very new approach to this type of primitivism/barbarism. By the constant use of chromatic clusters, I also approach the bizarre tonalities of my microtonal music.

Marteau-pilon Épouvantable-Implacable for Piano and Amplified Harpsichord - Synthesized Realization

Marteau-pilon Épouvantable-Implacable for Piano and Amplified Harpsichord - Acrobat Score
Marteau-pilon Épouvantable-Implacable for Piano and Amplified Harpsichord - Harpsichord Part
Marteau-pilon Épouvantable-Implacable for Piano and Amplified Harpsichord - Piano Part

The title was inspired by Henri Michaux - from the poem, L'avenir

Le bruit exquis des rivières qui coulent se changeant en forêts de perroquets et de marteaux-pilons.
Quand l'Épouvantable-Implacable se débondant enfin...

Cassotis for Mandolin and Guitar to be Premiered Sunday and Paris and NY Premiere News

The amazing mandolin and guitar duo, Duo Ahlert und Schwab will premiere a piece commissioned by them, Cassotis, Sunday 11th June, 8 p.m. in Borkum, Germany. The piece is a much more grandiose exploration of the realms explored in my piece Erg which was also written for this fantastic group of musicians.

Cassotis for Mandolin and Guitar - Synthesized MP3

We've just got back from a 2 week working vacation in Paris last Monday night. What a trip! The Rémy/Janaillac/Keay/Lagorce String Quartet premiered my string quartet composition, Adagio tenebroso (see below for pre-premiere MP3 and PDF's), and I also had the opportunity to attend rehearsals of that piece and a workshop of my string trio, Tetra-Mnemonsyne VII. I've been asked to arrange Tetra-Mnemonsyne VII for string quartet and the parts and score of that transcription are now available:

Tetra-Mnemonsyne VII for String Quartet - Score

Tetra-Mnemonsyne VII for String Quartet - Violin I Part
Tetra-Mnemonsyne VII for String Quartet - Violin II Part
Tetra-Mnemonsyne VII for String Quartet - Viola Part
Tetra-Mnemonsyne VII for String Quartet - Cello Part

While I was in Paris, violinist Erik Carlson and cellist Claire Bryant of the New York Miniaturist Ensemble premiered a set of 3 pieces at the Juillaird School, May 15th, Tre composizioni di cento note per il violino ed il violoncello. I'm told the premiere was a great success. This July and August we should see a repeat of that performance and the premiere of a set of solo violin pieces, Cinque composizioni di cento note per il violino solo.

Tre composizioni di cento note per il violino ed il violoncello - Score
Tre composizioni di cento note per il violino ed il violoncello - Cello Part
Tre composizioni di cento note per il violino ed il violoncello - Violin Part

Cinque composizioni di cento note per il violino solo - Score.

Currently on my composing plate:

1. Beginning work on a new piece for string orchestra.
2. Continuing work for a new string quartet. (And I have no idea what number it is now, so I'll probably call it #5).
3. More pieces for the New York Miniaturist Ensemble. Possibly a few pieces for string quartet.
4. Finishing up the score and parts for my nonet and starting to shop it around for a performance.
5. Solo pieces for guitar and mandolin for Duo Ahlert und Schwab, probably a suite for each instrument, my recent experience with composing miniatures has revived my interest in short pieces.
5. Beginning work on a new piano trio.

Nonet for Woodwind Quintet and String Quartet Finished

I've finished the most ambitious piece I've written in years, my new nonet. It's also probably the densest and richest in material composition I've ever written. Basically a piece for 9 soloists, it could be called a Chamber Concerto because of its consistent soloist flair. Full of minimalist conventions (so I'm told - it's actually more of a Ravellian flavor, but the minimalist folks will dig it) and Brucknerian climaxes, the piece flows through a territory partially explored in my Anamorphosis for String Quartet in how the strings often play cross rhythms which produce their own melodies. I'll probably be tweaking the piece here and there and am considering adding a brief pause before the blow up at the end.

Nonet for Woodwind Quintet and String Quartet - Synthesized Realization

Alex Ross of The New Yorker Blogs About Spirale d'Arco

Thanks to Prent Rodgers' Microtonal Podcast music critic Alex Ross, of The New Yorker heard and blogged this week about my saxophone quartet Spirale d'Arco. Thanks Alex and Prent!

L'Ecume des Temps for Guitar and Violin to be Premiered in Cleveland and Other News

Exciting news! Duo 46 will be premiering L'Ecume des Temps for Guitar and Violin for a Cleveland premiere during the 2007-08 season. This is one of my most important premieres, and it's also one of my most popular and favorite pieces.

L'Ecume des Temps for Guitar and Violin - Study Score
L'Ecume des Temps for Guitar and Violin - Guitar Part
L'Ecume des Temps for Guitar and Violin - Violin Part

L'Ecume des Temps for Guitar and Violin - New Realization - MP3

Also, the New York premiere of Espace des Cloches, my electronic gong drone piece will be Thursday May 4th downtown as part of the New York Miniaturist Ensemble's concert, Electronic Miniatures. It'll be at 8 PM at 125 Maiden Lane in lower Manhattan. As always, the entire album, Espace can be downloaded in ultra super high CD quality format.

Final score and parts are available for my new horn trio and my new clarinet trio:
Trio for Horn, Violin and Piano Score
Trio for Horn, Violin and Piano - Horn Part
Trio for Horn, Violin and Piano - Piano Part
Trio for Horn, Violin and Piano - Violin Part
Trio for Horn, Violin and Piano MP3

Trio for Clarinet, Violin and Piano Score
Trio for Clarinet, Violin and Piano - Clarinet Part
Trio for Clarinet, Violin and Piano - Piano Part
Trio for Clarinet, Violin and Piano - Violin Part
Trio for Clarinet, Violin and Piano MP3

My new transcription of my 4th String Quartet for Saxophone Quartet is being featured this month at Microtonal Podcast and it's not even microtonal! Prent Rodgers, the microtonal Csound guru himself, liked it so much that he couldn't resist. I'm honored!

Also, next month, besides the premiere of Espace, I'll be having 2 other premieres. A new 100 note micro-composition, A Hunderd Blues for clarinet, violin and viola will be premiered at Galapagos, May 31 by the New York Miniaturist Ensemble and my Adagio Tenebroso for String Quartet will be given a private soiree/premiere in Paris May 23. I'll put up the score for A Hunderd Blues after the premiere.

Adagio Tenebroso for String Quartet - MP3 - Recorded by The Rémy/Janaillac/Keay/Lagorce String Quartet

Betwyxt for Flute and Two Violins Score Available

Betwyxt for Flute and 2 Violins, my 100 note miniature, written and premiered last night by The New York Miniaturist Ensemble is available for downoad now as a PDF score. It was exciting to meet the ensemble, hear all the pieces, and be a part of this thought-provoking experiment in new music concertizing. The pieces ranged from the Kurtag-esque violent atonal, to Feldmanish meditations and minimalist pieces that obviously used extended definitions of what a 'note' was (as the ensemble allows).

I'll have more miniatures performed in their upcoming concerts. It's just a lot of fun to see what can be done in such a small place and a good way to cannibalize all the thousands of measures I have of material that ends up going into the bit bucket. Thanks to Erik Carlson et al, for a fantastic evening and opportunity to hear music.

Betwyxt for Flute and 2 Violins - Score
Betwyxt for Flute and 2 Violins - Flute Part
Betwyxt for Flute and 2 Violins - Violin 1 Part
Betwyxt for Flute and 2 Violins - Violin 2 Part

Betwyxt for Flute and 2 Violins - Synthesized Realization

New Recording of Adagio Tenebroso for String Quartet by The Rémy/Janaillac/Keay/Lagorce String Quartet

The Rémy/Janaillac/Keay/Lagorce String Quartet has made a fantastic recording of the adagio from my first string quartet while in preparations for its premiere sometime this year. This canon was written in memory of the victims of the invasion of Kuwait. One of my darker and more reflective pieces.

Adagio Tenebroso for String Quartet - MP3 - Recorded by The Rémy/Janaillac/Keay/Lagorce String Quartet
Adagio Tenebroso for String Quartet - Study Score
Adagio Tenebroso for String Quartet - Violin 1 Part
Adagio Tenebroso for String Quartet - Violin 2 Part
Adagio Tenebroso for String Quartet - Viola Part
Adagio Tenebroso for String Quartet - Cello Part

New Spirale d'Arco Arranged for Saxophone Quartet and Premiere of Betwyxt for Flute and 2 Violins

While in the middle of composing a saxophone quartet, I spent a little time listening to how some of my chamber music sounded through the lens of a sax quartet and became very intrigued and then obsessed with how my 4th String Quartet, Spirale d'Arco sounded as one. As a result, in the past 48 hours I've dedicated myself to an arrangement of that piece for that ensemble and I think the results are fantastic. The tunes and fiddling of the piece, have become transposed into a funky and wonderful type of saxophone energy.

Minor Positioning Edits - March 18, 2006 - New Score and Parts Available

Score and Parts are available in Draft Form:

Spirale d'Arco for Saxophone Quartet - Synthesized Realization
Spirale d'Arco for Saxophone Quartet - Scoret
Spirale d'Arco for Saxophone Quartet - Soprano Part
Spirale d'Arco for Saxophone Quartet - Alto Part
Spirale d'Arco for Saxophone Quartet - Tenor Part
Spirale d'Arco for Saxophone Quartet - Baritone Part

Also, I'll be having a performance of a new piece for Flute and 2 violins, Betwyxt, by the New York Miniaturist Ensemble, Monday, March 27th at 8:30 PM on Frank Oteri's 21st Centrury Schizoid Music series at the Cornelia St. Cafe - (Directions). It's a very Feldmanesque 100 note composition, as is the group's wont. I'll put the score and parts up, after the premiere.

Nonet News and Draft Parts Available for the Horn Trio

Trying to get all my recent trio's parts available as soon as possible, here's the Horn Trio's parts in draft form:

Parts and Score Updated 2/16/06

Trio for Horn, Violin and Piano - Horn Part
Trio for Horn, Violin and Piano - Piano Part
Trio for Horn, Violin and Piano - Violin Part

Trio for Horn, Violin and Piano MP3
Trio for Horn, Violin and Piano Draft Score

Also, my new nonet for WW5 and SQ is coming along nicely. While I had been improving my contrapuntal expert system (in hopes of producing more results) I'm focussing now on the more coloristic materials for this piece. Much of the material will harken back to the complex, polyrhythmic impressionisms of Anamorphosis, my 3rd String Quartet.

Anamorphosis for String Quartet

Draft Parts Available for the Clarinet Trio

I've been working on a nonet for woodwind quintet and string quartet combined (ala Chawswizzler) and this has got me into tweaking my expert system. In the meantime, I've finally got the parts to my new Clarinet Trio in reasonable form for perusal. I hope to get the final parts done this week.

(New Draft Parts and Score Up - February 11, 2006).

Trio for Clarinet, Violin and Piano - Clarinet Part
Trio for Clarinet, Violin and Piano - Piano Part
Trio for Clarinet, Violin and Piano - Violin Part

Trio for Clarinet, Violin and Piano MP3
Trio for Clarinet, Violin and Piano Draft Score

I'm Only Popular on the Internet

Seen in on the streets of Glasgow...

Original Link

Looking at 2006

This year could be a really interesting musical year for me. Highlights (in no particular order) are the premiere and recording and several performances of Cassotis for Mandolin and Guitar by Duo Ahlert and Schwab, a premiere and possible recording of my horn trio, the finished recording of TetraMnemosyne VII, and the premiere (finally!) of my woodwind quintet, Morph-Fantasia, at a new music festival in Mississippi. I'm writing a big piece for chamber orchestra ala Chawswizzler for WW5 and SQ, a new solo cello piece (requested by a prominent cellist) and a few electronic music pieces ala Espace. And I've got some interest in Chawswizzler also, who knows? On the programming web front, Cacophonous.org continues to grow and my blog, beepSNORT has more information about the thoughts behind it. Maybe all these years of hard work will pay off!

The draft score to my clarinet trio has been updated. Parts are available to interested parties.

Trio for Clarinet, Violin and Piano MP3
Trio for Clarinet, Violin and Piano Draft Score

New Live Rehearsal Recording of TetraMnemosyne VII for String Trio

A Paris-based string trio consisting of violinist Matthieu Coeffe, violist Nigel Keay, and cellist Stephan Lagorce are preparing TetraMnemosyne VII for a premiere in Paris sometime in 2006.

Tetra-Mnemosyne VII for String Trio - Acrobat Study Score
Tetra-Mnemosyne VII - Violin Part
Tetra-Mnemosyne VII - Viola Part
Tetra-Mnemosyne VII - Cello Part

The finished recording should be available sometime in 2006.

New Piece - Trio for Clarinet, Violin and Piano Available

The draft score and a synthetic realization are now available for my new trio for clarinet, violin and piano. This piece, the first piece I've written since the whole Katrina nightmare, reflects a more sombre and grotesque style of expression with lots of glissandi and morbid pianisms. Thirteen minutes in length, it continues the series of pieces begun with the violin sonata which attempts to create an orchestral effect with microscopic forces.

Trio for Clarinet, Violin and Piano MP3mp3_classical_contemporary
Trio for Clarinet, Violin and Piano Draft Score

New Live Recording of Tetra-Mnemosyne VII On its Way

Nigel Keay informs me today that his string trio's recording of Tetra-Mnemosyne VII is almost ready and should be available shortly. Premiere performance should be sometime early in 2006 in Paris. I expect to have an MP3 sometime very soon of their interpretation.

Tetra-Mnemosyne VII for String Trio - Acrobat Study Score
Tetra-Mnemosyne VII for String Trio - Superconductor Realization

Also, I've just about finished a new piece for Clarinet, Violin and Piano. A synthesized version should be up this weekend. It's a bold new step for me, lots of glissandi and a very disturbing tone in general; less beliggerent, more color. My first piece since Katrina and an homage of sorts to the horrors that recently hit New Orleans.

Mr. Webjay and all around new web media guru Lucas Gonze also proclaimed it to be Jeff Harrington Day. Thanks Lucas!

Lengthy Article by Newberry About Yours Truly

Stirling Newberry, composer, political writer and classical music commentator, has written a lengthy and (ahem) fascinating (if a bit dark) article about my music, my contributions to net culture and to the formation of an online classical music scene at his political blog:

Jeff Harrington, The Unwritten Chapter

Espace Reviewed at Free Albums Galore

A MP3 blog, Free Albums Galore is currently featuring my electronic album, Espace.   I've recieved hundreds of downloads from the feature (and no doubt its buzz).  Free music works!  From the review,  ...I was particularily impressed by Espace, a lush, ancient and modern ambient album that employs granular resynthesis and time warping of timbres; with a variety of strange acoustic and electronic instruments.

Transcension EP Available as Torrent

By using the Prodigem Bit Torrent seeding/hosting service I've made available one of my most popular albums, the 4 song EP, Transcension.

Transcension Torrent

BitTorrents can allow artists to distribute extremely, large files through a form of file-based multi-casting. I'll be getting all of my albums up as torrents shortly as part of this experiment.

Draft Score of Trio for Horn, Violin and Piano Available

This is a very close to final draft of the score to my new Horn Trio:

Trio for Horn, Violin and Piano Draft Score

Trio for Horn, Violin and Piano

This score and my last piece, the Violin Sonata represent to me a big breakthrough in my approach to drama, especially with regards to the use of inherent instrumental techniques as driving forces. The Horn Trio has a symphonic quality I haven't attempted since my symphonies.

Trio for Horn, Violin and Piano Final Available

Score is being proofed and a draft should be up shortly. Here's the final MP3 realization:

Trio for Horn, Violin and Piano

Revelations in Tuning

I spent most of the morning, coding up a little program in Java to write SYSEX tuning files to my old Yamaha TG77. It was a bit of a pain, because it involved a lot of 'bit-twiddling' which Java programmers just don't do that much of these days, thankfully. Here's the source if anybody wants it, it's not commented and is a bit rough but it works. It takes a text file with 128 values and spits out a MIDI Sysex file which can then be transmitted to your Yamaha TG77, SY77 or SY99. Feel free to take, steal, not give me credit... whatever. It doesn't use the Javax MIDI classes, cuz I just couldn't get them to do the arbitrary data I needed for a tuning dump.

TG77Tune.java

The good news after all that pain, is that I can now realize Michael Harrison's Revelation tuning. A microtonally modified Just Intonation tuning that uses the black keys to produce beats by using them as 'comma' tones. Tones, almost in tune with the note below them, but in tune in a Just way to the other black notes.

Here's a little improv I did this afternoon on my TG77 using that tuning. It produces heavenly beats and pulses. I'll probably write a few piano pieces with it next.

Piano Improvisation with Michael Harrison's Revelation Tuning

Draft Score of The Hammered Wind Dances I Available

My big flute and piano piece, The Hammered Wind Dances I (and my favorite of the three) is available as a draft score. It's actually further along than DeltaBandResonator.

The Hammered Wind Dances I for Flute and Piano - Draft Score
The Hammered Wind Dances I for Flute and Piano - Download MP3 Stream/Listen

Draft Score of DeltaBandResonator Available

The score to my big big piano piece from 2003 is almost finished and I've made a draft available:

Draft Score to DeltaBandResonator
DeltaBandResonator for Piano - MP3 - Realized by Steve Layton

There are a few spacing issues, but 99% of the articulations, note-spellings and layout is final. Take a look if you're curious. As always, comments about playability are welcome.

BlueStrider Featured on Kyle Gann's PostClassic Radio

My big piano piece, BlueStrider has been chosen by Village Voice critic Kyle Gann to be featured on his popular online radio show PostClassic Radio.

BlueStrider for Piano
BlueStrider Acrobat Score

I've also been featured prominently in his article on PostMinimalism at the Sequenza21 Wiki.

Score and Part for Violin Sonata Available

The score and violin part to my new violin sonata (and one of my best pieces yet) is now available for download:

Sonata for Violin and Piano - Score
Sonata for Violin and Piano - Part

You'll notice I'm now putting a Version Date on each score so that tiny revisions can be maintained. Latest version is 06/26/05.

New Recording:
Sonata for Violin and Piano - Realization

A word about the lack of a cool title. We searched and searched for something enigmatic and varied in its meaning that could resonate with this piece, but failed. There was just something about the way in which the music seems to forever not adopt a manner which was conducive to the discovery of a name. Thus the ridiculously old-fashioned moniker, Sonata. There will probably be more. What I've discovered in the last few pieces, Cassotis and this one, is a way to extend my formal scale and this has produced an un-cool-nameable music.

Parts for Tetra-Mnemosyne VII Available

I've finished the parts for my string trio, Tetra-Mnemosyne VII and they're now available for study/performance.

Tetra-Mnemosyne VII - Violin Part
Tetra-Mnemosyne VII - Viola Part
Tetra-Mnemosyne VII - Cello Part

Also, a draft version of the score for my new Violin Sonata is available. I'm in the process of tweaking a few note-spellings, but the score is fundamentally done. The violin part should be up in a week. I've revised the score a few notes, so the MP3 is not entirely accurate at this point (mainly in the beginning).

Violin Sonata - Score

Underway, a new Violin Sonata, and a new piece for Flute, Viola and Harp.

As always, all of my scores are available here.

Studio Recording of Oneiromancer for Flute, Viola, and Harp Available

A remarkably vibrant and exciting recording of my piece Oneiromancer for Flute, Viola, and Harp (written in 1996) is available for download. The recording was made in Paris by New Zealand composer/violist Nigel Keay, flutist Eric Kohenoff and Harpist Alix Couillaud last month. Oneiromancer (which means 'someone who divines through the interpretation of dreams') uses African-American inspired material to create an atmosphere suggestive of a ritual dance. The very syncopated and rhythmically driving material is interpreted through the piece in a series of dream-like dance collages and canons, becoming an Oneiromancer itself in the process.

Oneiromancer for Flute, Viola and Harp - Studio Recording MP3

Oneiromancer for Flute, Viola and Harp - PDF Score
Oneiromancer for Flute, Viola and Harp - PDF Flute Part
Oneiromancer for Flute, Viola and Harp - PDF Viola Part
Oneiromancer for Flute, Viola and Harp MIDI File

New Sonata for Violin and Piano Available

I've just finished a new violin sonata of 15:30 minutes length. It's a more direct, emotionally driven piece with a more poetic use of the piano than is usual for me. Tunes are inspired by middle eastern and African American influences. Its dramatically abstract nature made me go for an unusually traditional title .

Sonata for Violin and Piano - Realization

Score should be up shortly, although scores for DeltaBandResonator and The Hammered Wind Dances I are almost done, momentum is with this project.

Oneiromancer for Flute, Viola and Harp to be Premiered in Paris

Composer/Violist Nigel Keay and company will present the world premiere of Oneiromancer for Flute, Viola and Harp April 10 in Paris. More details as they are available.

Oneiromancer for Flute, Viola and Harp - PDF Score
Oneiromancer for Flute, Viola and Harp - PDF Flute Part
Oneiromancer for Flute, Viola and Harp - PDF Viola Part
Oneiromancer for Flute, Viola and Harp MIDI File

New Flash Player and Update

I've been busy working on the scores to DeltaBandResonator and The Hammered Wind Dances I and both pieces are almost done. In the meantime, here's a new Flash Player with a pre-loaded playlist of my music to enjoy until there's something new! Thanks to Fabricio Zuardi for his XSPF Web Music Player.

Click the play button to listen. You'll need Flash 7, too... Also, a few interesting options on right mouse button click are available. Like a song? Download it right from the player.

Erg for Mandolin and Guitar Published by Corvus Editions

Erg for Mandolin and Guitar is now being published by Edition Corvus. I've removed the old free PDF's. All interested parties seeking performance materials should contact them for more information.

Erg for Mandolin and Guitar - Performed by Duo Ahlert und Schwab

Steve Layton: Different Light, Same Window

Steve Layton performs/realizes DeltaBandResonator for Piano

"Different Light, Same Window" is a collection of work by the Seattle composer Steve Layton, all of it realized in 2004. In addition to his own compositions, Layton has included a performance of the 2003 Beethoven-meets-Bayou piano epic "DeltaBandresonator" by Brooklyn composer Jeff Harrington (b.1955).

The music is unafraid of unsual forms and biting harmony, yet there is always a strong connection with all that's gone before; a sense of that the dead never really die, but are just us (and we them) displaced by a few years.

Every part of the performances and recording are all realized directly by Layton himself, using a technique that makes score, performance and recording a single entity.

Steve Layton (ASCAP) was born in 1956 in Pasco, Washington. Long working out of Seattle, his music is played and listened to worldwide, and has often been used in film, video and dance.

Prelude #4 for 19ET Piano

A short piece based on a blues progression and packed full of African influences.

Prelude 4 for 19ET Piano - MP3
Prelude 4 for 19ET Piano - Score

Pyrogen for Piano Trio Score and Parts Available

My piano trio, Pyrogen, is now available in study score format and parts.

Pyrogen for Piano Trio - Study Score
Pyrogen for Piano Trio - Violin Part
Pyrogen for Piano Trio - Cello Part
Pyrogen for Piano Trio - Piano Part
Pyrogen for Piano Trio - MP3

Complete Album - Espace - Available for Download

Espace, my 2nd complete electronic album, has been released gratis and online. A collection of slow, sometimes brooding works, often employing granular resynthesis and time warping of timbres. Espace features orchestra time-warping (Eroica Spettrale, Kin Hin) and Wendy Carlos glass harmonica organs (Lamentation Siderales and Lachrimae Crystallinum). The popular piece, Espace des Cloches, for Csound, uses a rapturous DX7-derived gong that resonates into deep space. AgnusDeiWave uses formant synthesis/resynthesis of gregorian chant to create a choral space of lament. High Noon uses a physically modelled shakuhachi in deep resonant space to explore virtuosic gestures.

Stream All Tracks - 256 Bitrate - Broadband Only!

Complete Tracks:

Complete Tracks:
Espace des Cloches - 3:30
Eroica Spettrale - 7:38
Kin Hin - 4:10
Arctogæal - 3:10
Echoi - 2:21
AgnusDeiWave - 9:10
Lamentation Sidérales - 17:43
Lachrimae Crystallinum - 4:53
High Noon - 5:13

Complete Album - Transcension - Available for Download

Four song EP from 2003. Transcension uses subtle beats over a funk bass with a gothic chorus. A Moist Mirage in Desert Eyes, a protest song against the Iraq war, mixes dub rhythms with constantly shifting artificial vocalisms. Arddha Jangala explores orchestral electronic spaces where the timbres constantly morph. Yes or No is a big beat song with bizarre choruses chanting Yes, No... All songs experimental and bizarre but using a completely original approach to sound, melody and beats.

Transcension, an electronic EP from 2003, has been released gratis and online. Transcension is a suite of 4 works exploring artificial vocalisms and morphing timbres. To some degree, Transcension represents work in the more vernacular electronic vein, as there is ample percussion, and rhythmic tension in each of the pieces.

Stream All Tracks - 256 Bitrate - Broadband Only!

Complete Tracks:

Transcension - 4:21
A Moist Mirage in Desert Eyes - 7:38
Arddha Jangala - 2:38
Yes or No - 3:47

Complete Album - Obliterature - Available for Download

Obliterature, the complete album and cover is now available for download. I'll also be selling real CDR's through CafePress sometime in the near future for those who can't stomach downloading 100MB. Selling it through MP3RIA.com was not appropriate for this type of experimental music; the number of Preview Listens I was receiving demonstrated that. If you were one of the few people to buy it through MP3RIA.com please write me and I'll refund you the $3.00.

The complete set of ecstatic improvisations from 1992-1993, Obliterature is an exploration of realtime extravagant sonic spaces with eccentric tunings, both microtonal and just, textures and orchestral climaxes

The album was completely drawn, in realtime with 2 layers for each piece on an Amiga 1000 using MidiLyr, a piece of software that created a large repeating drawable, MIDI surface. No edits, no revisions; the improvisations were selected from hundreds of takes and have been newly remastered with contemporary hi-resolution effects added.

Stream All Tracks - 256 Bitrate - Broadband Only!

Complete Tracks:

Bright and Boundless - 3:05
Turning the Pearl - 4:28
The Conduct of the Moon and Clouds - 3:56
Quarks - 4:02
Abandom - 5:17
Splash - 4:03
Cascade - 3:21
Turning the Pearl II - 5:10
Vols des Fees - 4:05
Vols des Fees II - 3:54
The Obnubilator - 3:30
Obliterature - 10:47

New Realizations of 19ET Piano Preludes

With a lot of help from the MakeMicroMusic crew at Yahoo Groups, I've successfully learned how to use the powerful, but hopelessly ill-documented software audio compiler, Timidity with high quality piano soundfonts.

Prelude 1 for 19ET Piano
Prelude 2 for 19ET Piano
Prelude 3 for 19ET Piano

I've also documented the process with a new blog on microtonal music production, Making Microtonal Music with Software

Complete String Trios - Available for Download Again

My series of string trios, the Tetra-Mnemosyne series is once again available for download. This 7 pieces all explore intense dramas produced by their exploration of folksong and counterpoint. Mnemosyne is the Greek Muse of memory. The title implies four muse-memories, the past, present, future and a memory beyond time.

TetraMnemosyne I for String Trio
TetraMnemosyne II for String Trio
TetraMnemosyne III for String Trio
TetraMnemosyne IV for String Trio
TetraMnemosyne V for String Trio
TetraMnemosyne VI for String Trio
TetraMnemosyne VII for String Trio

Complete Piano Preludes - Available for Download Again

Since the demise of MP3.COM I've had to take a signifcant amount of my previously available music offline. Yesterday I got an account purely for housing MP3's. Harrington MP3's and have been furiously uploading since then. For the first time in 3 years, my complete piano preludes are available. These 22 pieces combine my contrapuntal style with blues, boogie and rock influences.

Favorites:
Piano Prelude 6 - Massive, contrapuntal, with blues chords - premiered outside of Moscow in 1993 by Svetlana Kalinnikova in Noginsk.
Piano Prelude 7 - A 2 1/2 minute blues meets Scarlatti extragaganza. Premiere Performance by Katie Hug, October 28, Pro Football Hall of Fame Auditorium, Canton Ohio.
Piano Prelude 8 - A 2 1/2 minute exercise in piano brutalism. Jerry Lee Lewis meets Galina Ustvolskaya!
Piano Prelude 16 - Explosive non-stop pounding with a Beethoveny twist. Big big Ragtime mayhem.
Piano Prelude 17
Piano Prelude 18
Piano Prelude 19
Piano Prelude 4 - 3 Part canon with melodic augmentation built-in to the cantus. Used as a contrapuntal exercise study in a Siberian music school.

Piano Prelude 1
Piano Prelude 2
Piano Prelude 3
Piano Prelude 5
Piano Prelude 9
Piano Prelude 10
Piano Prelude 11
Piano Prelude 12
Piano Prelude 13
Piano Prelude 14
Piano Prelude 15
Piano Prelude 20
Piano Prelude 21
Piano Prelude 22

Prelude #3 for 19ET Piano

A dramatically atmospheric piece which alternately become barbaric and pounding. Plenty of blues influences, but a more Debussyean approach than #2.

Prelude 3 for 19ET Piano - MP3
Prelude 3 for 19ET Piano - Score

Play this one also really really loud!!!

Duo Ahlert und Schwab - Nowhere Left to Go Available in the US

The brilliant new CD by Birgit Schwab and Daniel Ahlert, Nowhere Left to Go which features a wonderfully spiritual recording of my piece Erg for Mandolin and Guitar is now available through Amazon US:

Nowhere Left to Go - Duo Ahlert und Schwab Amazon US

Prelude #2 for 19ET Piano

Another short piece for piano tuned with 19 equal-temperament; 3 minutes of pounding and Acid Bach like twirls. There's a little bit of counterpoint in this one, too.

Prelude 2 for 19ET Piano - MP3
Prelude 2 for 19ET Piano - Score

Play it really really loud!!!

Prelude #1 for 19ET Piano

My first piece resulting from my recent explorations of the 19 equal-tempered tuning has been finished, a short prelude. It's basically a floating piece with minimal drama, but it does explore the incredibly in tune chords and resonances that this tuning allows. Written in standard notation, assuming a MIDI sampled piano (or other keyboard) for the score.

Prelude 1 for 19 ET Piano
Prelude 1 for 19ET Piano Score PDF

L'Ecume des Temps for Guitar and Violin Revised

I've finished the score to my African/Arabic-inspired piece for guitar and violin, L'Ecume des Temps and both score and parts are now available. I'm particularly pleased by the violin writing in this piece, which is particularly free and melodic. The guitar part soars and provides funky rhythmic incongruities.

L'Ecume des Temps for Guitar and Violin - Study Score
L'Ecume des Temps for Guitar and Violin - Guitar Part
L'Ecume des Temps for Guitar and Violin - Violin Part

L'Ecume des Temps for Guitar and Violin - New Realization - MP3

The title was inspired by the Greek myth of the origins of the goddess, Venus, and how the foam of the seas in particular, gave her birth.

Pyrogen for Piano Trio Completed

I've rearranged and re-composed Pyrogen, the piece I had originally wrote for a trio of piano, guitar and violin, for piano trio, substituting the cello for the guitar part. The new instrumental configuration allowed for a much greater dynamic range and therefore a composition that is much more dramatic.

Pyrogen for Piano Trio - Synthesized Realization

The score should be available shortly, as it had been finished for the other ensemble.

Cassotis for Mandolin and Guitar

I've just finished a new piece, written especially for Daniel Alhert and Birgit Schwab, Cassotis for Mandolin and Guitar. Inspired by seeing them live in NYC in March, the piece combines my usual diverse world influences, but with a new denser and more complex textural approach. It clocks in at 14:30 minutes now, once its been humanized, I'm sure it'll approach 15 minutes or more.

Cassotis for Mandolin and Guitar - Synthesized Realization

The title, Cassotis, is from the spring at the Temple of Delphi that the priests drank from before beginning their rituals of divination. It was supposed to bless the priest with 'mantic' powers. It's also the name of the wood nymph that lived there.

Duo Ahlert and Schwab's CD, Nowhere left to go is available now for pre-order from Amazon.de. It features an absolutely brilliant recording of Erg for Mandolin and Guitar.

Croche et Tient to be Premiered June 7 at Feedback Studio, Cologne

Michael Manion, composer, performer and Stockhausen assistant will premiere Croche et Tient for MalletKAT and K5000 synthesizer June 7 at the Feedback Studio in Cologne, Germany.

Commissioned by Michael Manion. Using MAX or KeyKit MIDI echoing processes and a quartertone-tuned synthesizer, the piece explores territory charted in my Acid Bach series but with a more dramatic and longer tension-building form. Periodically, in the slower sections, the percussionist lets quartertone clusters sustain, creating a night-like atmosphere. The title, Croche et Tient, (Crush and Hold in english) is from a post card we received from Elsie's cousin who's in the French special forces (now stationed in the Coite d'Ivoire).

Croche et Tient MP3
Croche et Tient Performance Score PDF

Complete Album - Obliterature - Available Through MP3ria.com

I've decided to release my Ambient/Abstract/Dark Ambient album, Obliterature, recorded in 1992-1993 on MP3ria.com, a side project of BitPass.com - Jeff Harrington. These are completely remastered with 5 never before released tracks.

The complete set of ecstatic improvisations from 1992-1993, Obliterature is an exploration of realtime extravagant sonic spaces with eccentric tunings, both microtonal and just, textures and orchestral climaxes

The album was completely drawn, in realtime with 2 layers for each piece on an Amiga 1000 using MidiLyr, a piece of software that created a large repeating drawable, MIDI surface. No edits, no revisions; the improvisations were selected from hundreds of takes and have been newly remastered with contemporary hi-resolution effects added.

Obliterature

The individual tracks are available for download at $.50 a piece or the whole album, 12 tracks for $3.00.

One of my favorite tracks on the album - Turning the Pearl II - is available for a free download. Turning the Pearl II

New Realizations of KaleidoPsychoTropos, Anamorphosis, Spirale d'Arco Available

I've used Superconductor to whip up some new realizations of 3 pieces I've recently released scores for, KaleidoPsychoTropos (score was repaired and parts made available - see the listing for the piece in Chamber Music for parts) Anamorphosis (String Quartet #3, score finally finished) and Spirale d'Arco.

KaleidoPsychoTropos is one of my funkier pieces, written for a Synchronia call for scores and premiered and performed several times by them.
KaleidoPsychoTropos for Flute, Clarinet, Violin, Cello and Piano
Corrected KaleidoPsychoTropos Acrobat Score

Anamorphosis for String Quartet - Superconductor Realization - MP3
Anamorphosis for String Quartet - Acrobat Study Score

Spirale d'Arco for String Quartet - Download MP3
Spirale d'Arco for String Quartet - Study Score

Adagio Tenebroso for String Quartet (1992) Score and Parts Available

The adagio from my first string quartet, this canon was written in memory of the victims of the invasion of Kuwait. One of my darker and more reflective pieces and available now as a separate score. It is approximately 6 minutes long.

Adagio Tenebroso for String Quartet - MP3 - Recorded by The Rémy/Janaillac/Keay/Lagorce String Quartet
Adagio Tenebroso for String Quartet - Study Score
Adagio Tenebroso for String Quartet - Violin 1 Part
Adagio Tenebroso for String Quartet - Violin 2 Part
Adagio Tenebroso for String Quartet - Viola Part
Adagio Tenebroso for String Quartet - Cello Part

Steve Layton: The Composer Plays III: Works for Imaginary Piano Available

Continuing his exploration of composition and performance with "virtual" piano, Seattle-based composer Steve Layton (b. 1956) offers the third in his series of "The Composer Plays" CDs. For the first time in the series, in addition to his own works Layton here performs compositions by two other excellent composers: New Yorker Jeff Harrington (b. 1955), and the late master Iannis Xenakis (1922-2001).

Harrington's "BlueStrider" is a pounding monster of a piece, with the drama and contrapuntal skill of Beethoven and Stravinsky married with Harrington's own New Orleans barrel-house-blues roots. Obsessive riffs weave their way through both iron-clad logic and exuberance.

More information and purchase:
Steve Layton: The Composer Plays III: Works for Imaginary Piano

New Realization of DeltaBandResonator for Piano by Steve Layton

Steve Layton has done it again! A wondrous recording of my big new piano piece, DeltaBandResonator. I'll be releasing the score now as soon as possible. Steve Layton will also be shortly releasing his recording of my piano piece BlueStrider through CDBaby. Stay tuned!
DeltaBandResonator for Piano - Performed/Realized by Steve Layton MP3

Scores for Anamorphosis, Spirale d'Arco and Tetra-Mnemosyne IV Complete

After years of delay I've finally finished the final scoring for my two last string quartets, Anamorphosis (SQ #3) and Spirale d'Arco (SQ #4) and my 4th String Trio Tetra-Mnemosyne IV. Study scores for all 3 chamber pieces are now available for download. Parts for Spirale d'Arco, Tetra-Mnemosyne IV, and Anamophosis are available in the Chamber Music section.
Spirale d'Arco for String Quartet - Download MP3
Spirale d'Arco for String Quartet - Study Score
Anamorphosis for String Quartet - Download MP3
Anamorphosis for String Quartet - Study Score
Tetra-Mnemosyne IV for String Trio - Download MP3
Tetra-Mnemosyne IV for String Trio - Study Score

New Duo Ahlert & Schwab CD Featuring Erg for Mandolin and Guitar

The German Mandolin and Guitar group, Duo Ahlert & Schwab have almost completed recording work for their new CD. The CD will contain a fantastic new recording of Erg; very spiritual and subtle.
Here's their studio recording from last year:
Erg MP3 - Live Studio Recording

The Hammered Wind Dances for Flute and Piano Revised and Newly Rendered

Now that I've got those 2 quartets and the 4th trio almost finished with parts, I've turned my attention to two pieces for flute and piano I composed back in 2000, The Hammered Wind Dances. I've been revising the first one and I've realized it afresh. Those scores will be the next ones I finish... These two pieces have some of the same barbarism and contrasting textures as found in BlueStrider and DeltaBandResonator.

Both pieces are finished, and the new realizations updated 2/08/04.
The Hammered Wind Dances I for Flute and Piano - Download MP3
The Hammered Wind Dances II for Flute and Piano - Download MP3

DeltaBandResonator for Piano

My second large scale work for piano, DeltaBandResonator for Piano is an eccentric mix of Americana folk elements contrasting with blues, and boogie-woogie influences, and a clustery barbarism inspired by recent electronic music. Duration is around 12 1/2 minutes long. Score available shortly!

DeltaBandResonator for Piano - MP3

New Recording of BlueStrider for Piano by Steve Layton

Steve Layton has done me an incredible service in recording for the second time my big piano piece, BlueStrider. Honestly, the most exciting performance/realization I've heard of this piece.

BlueStrider - Performed/Realized by Steve Layton MP3
BlueStrider Acrobat Score

Recording of Morph-Fantasia for Woodwind Quintet Available

One of my best pieces, a woodwind quintet that is funky, quirky and Mozartean, Morph-Fantasia is available as an MP3, score and parts. A 13 minute composition with lots of crazy contrasts and transformations.
Morph-Fantasia MP3 - SuperConductor Realization
Acrobat PDF Score for Morph-Fantasia for Woodwind Quintet
Acrobat PDF Score for Morph-Fantasia - Flute part
Acrobat PDF Score for Morph-Fantasia - Clarinet Part
Acrobat PDF Score for Morph-Fantasia - Oboe Part
Acrobat PDF Score for Morph-Fantasia - Horn Part
Acrobat PDF Score for Morph-Fantasia - Bassoon Part

MIDI File for Morph-Fantasia

Biography

Jeffrey Harrington was born in Forest, Mississippi, Dec. 28, 1955, and spent his formative high school years in New Orleans, Louisiana, where he became personally familiar with many great blues and funk artists with his work at the New Orleans Jazz Festival. While he has studied with several important composers at Juilliard and Tulane, including Elliott Carter and Roger Sessions, he attributes his musical education largely to self-study.

Jeffrey Harrington's music is characterized by New Orleans-influenced rhythms, and intense counterpoint and climaxes. A noted microtonalist and electronic experimentalist, he was also one of the first musicians to adopt the Internet for music distribution and promotion, starting in 1986 with RelayNet emails and BBS downloads. He is also likely the inventor of the free music distribution model, employing pre-web computer systems to distribute his music (both scores and recordings) to musicians and listeners around the world free of charge garnering worldwide performances and attention. He continues to do so to this day at his site: http://jeffharrington.org. In November 2011, Harrington had 4 world premieres across the globe in 20 days, two in Germany by Duo Ahlert und Schwab and The Twiolins, one in London, by Camilla Hoitenga, and one in Southern California by The Hutchins Consort.

==================OLD BIO=================

Jeffrey Harrington was born in 1955 in Forest, Mississippi. His mother and father were amateur musicians who played the popular music of the 40's and 50's for fun. In high school he taught himself blues and boogie-woogie piano and built a synthesizer from parts. He began composing when he was 17 and won a composition contest for a serial composition using an isorhythm derived from a Billy Cobham song bass line. During that same time, he and his friend Barney Kilpatrick began working at the New Orleans Jazz Festival where he was a stage hand. During these times he received impromptu guidance and some informal lessons from piano greats Professor Longhair and Roosevelt Sykes. He also got to set up stage and meet many other blues greats, (Bukka White, Snooks Eaglin, B.B. King, et al) and this experience formed a powerful musical and personal confirmation that the blues and New Orleans funk music were to remain a driving influence throughout his life. He also helped organize high school dances where they arranged for one of the worlds greatest funk bands, The Meters to play at both the Junior and Senior Proms.

Harrington continued his composition studies at LSU and at the Juilliard School where he studied in the Master's program with Elliott Carter and Roger Sessions. He has also studied or workshopped with James Drew (private study), Barbara Jazwinski (Tulane), Deborah Drattell (Tulane), Morton Subotnick (Atlantic Center for the Arts), Jacob Druckman (master class), Joan LaBarbara (Atlantic Center for the Arts), Steina and Woody Vasulka (Atlantic Center for the Arts).

In 1981 he began a series of compositions using the harmonic idiom of the 18th century with rhythms from jazz and African-American music. In 1987 he returned to a more chromatic style of composition while retaining his interest in melody and counterpoint and the dramatic/developmental processes of the music of Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven. In 1990 he retracted all but a few of his compositions written to date (approximately 100).

In 1991 he programmed an expert system in C (inspired by a book by Taniiev - Convertible Counterpoint) which assists him in his discovery of the contrapuntal possibilities inherent in his melodies. The system takes up to 6 tracks of music and determines (using a pre-selected harmonic rulebase) the points at which the melodies mesh to produce effective counterpoint. The system produces music files ready to audition in realtime, so he can simultaneously be developing a transition while he produces the next section of counterpoint.

Harrington currently supports himself as a Java programmer for eSchool Online, a division of Classroom Connect. He's also worked at Children's Television Workshop where he wrote a suite of prize-winning educational, yet silly, Sesame Street Java games, which were the first online games for Sesame Street and a prize-winning Castanet channel.. He has also been a counselor/computer programmer for Choice in Dying: The National Council for the Right to Die (now defunct) and he set up the first web site for the American Music Center. Harrington's vision for the American Music Center of a complete portal to new music with scores and MP3's has since been realized with their NewMusicJukeBox. He's also worked in the offshore oil fields of Louisiana as a galley hand, in music libraries at Tulane and Loyola University, and at several record stores including the world's first record store, Liberty Music (Madison Ave. behind Saks), where he met Frank Sinatra and learned how to sneak into Carnegie Hall. (Practice, practice, practice).

Harrington's 3D visual creations have been featured in the prominent design magazine, I.D. and throughout the 3D web world.

Harrington's music has been performed around the world (from Siberia to St. Louis).