'I know noble accents' (2000/07) draws its title from "Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird", a poem by Wallace Stevens. The text for this section also speaks of "lucid, inescapable rhythms" something I tried to convey with a form that frames a looser, disorderly section within a larger order. The piece was created for Why Imagine Golden Birds?, a dance-theater work by Ariane Anthony. hammer dulcimer, piano, electric guitar or harpsichord, violin, cello
La Kusturica (1999) is so named in honor of the filmmaker Emir Kusturica who employs similar gonzo brass music in his wonderful films (e.g. Underground and Black Cat, White Cat). Two outer, frenetic sections of multiple-metered oom-pah madness frame a central, quieter one that is meant to evoke the awkwardness of a high school marching band. brass ensemble, drum kit
Radiowave (2003), with its strolling basses and electronic hiccups conveys an air of lassitude and lethargic cool. 2 double bass (s/fx)
'Nakazora ni' (1999) is a setting of a poem by Izumi Shikibu (fl. 10th Century). An instrumental version for two viols was featured in A Chicken's Dream of Flight, a dance-theater work by Ariane Anthony & Company that premiered at the Joyce SoHo in 1999. viol da gamba (Motomi Igarashi)
For the outer sections of Honeycomb (1998), I took a piano composition I'd written in 1987 and added a clarinet line (heard at the end of this sample). The new arrangement was made for A Chicken's Dream of Flight. piano, clarinet