In 1992 I was introduced to music from the centuries leading up to Bach and company, and it was love at first sound, a period of intense discovery and exploration. As a neophyte in early music, I was deeply impressed by its volume and diversity; the spiritual and humanistic emotional range; the particular national styles; the striking examples of "before their time" dissonance and rhythmic complexity; the strangeness, beauty and charm in works by composers such as Machaut, Busnois, Janequin, Solage, Couperin, Landini, Frescobaldi, Kapsberger, Gesualdo, Monteverdi, Cacinni, Strozzi, Tye, Dowland, Purcell, Lawes, Sweelinck, Biber, Schein, Buxtehude, and Weiss. The results of this immersion were twelve experiments of my own in which I set to music early poems in French, Italian, English and German on the themes of Nature, Death, and Love. I did not attempt to copy any single composer's style, but rather tried to place myself in the country and historical period of the poem, seeking through creative exploration a better understanding both of the texts and their musical milieu.

Blow Northern Wind (anon. 16th Century) is given a late Medieval, early Renaissance treatment, with a suggestion of canonic imitation, and modal harmony. The present arrangement was presented at St. Mark's Church in Manhattan in June, 2006. soprano (Jolle Greenleaf), viol consort (Marie Dalby, Jay Elfenbein, Motomi Igarashi, John Mark Rozendaal), theorbo (Dan Swenberg)
Morte, perche m'ai fatta si gran guerra? (excerpt) ('Death, why have you waged so great a war against me?') by Giacomino Pugliese (active 1230-50) concerns a bereft knight. I was drawn to the complex drama of the narration, alternating as it does between a bitter rebuke against God and personified Death for taking away the speaker's beloved, and tender memories of the gracious lady. I sought in the music to match these clashing moods. soprano (Jolle Greenleaf), viol consort (Parthenia)
Morte, perche m'ai fatta si gran guerra? (conclusion) ('Death, why have you waged so great a war against me?')
Menschliches Elende (Human Misery) is a memento mori or vanitas poem by Andreas Gryphius (1616-1664). The sonnet takes the form of questions and answers, reflecting on the fleeting and transient nature of human existence. In my German motet-like setting, I sought to capture the austerity of the poem, while mirroring its tightly formal and elegant design. sopranos (Jolle Greenleaf, Amaranta Viera), viol consort (MD, JE, MI, JMR)
A Chicken's Dream of Flight (1999) takes its name from a dance-theater work by Ariane Anthony, first performed at the Joyce SoHo. The majority of the score suggests klezmer music, while a dreamlike sequence (sample) is meant to recall adagios from the Baroque Italian concerto literature. Scored originally for lute and viol, the arrangement heard here is for four bass viols and theorbo. 4 Bass viols (MD, JE, MI, JMR), theorbo (DS) or solo viol and lute/theorbo