LARGE ENSEMBLE MUSIC (including works with voice)
Iambus (2006) for chamber orchestra [2,2,2,2 / 2,0,0,0 / str]. Premiered by the University of Maine at Farmington Orchestra, 4/28/06. 6 min. Snow Leaf (2005) for Javanese gamelan (slendro and pelog). Premiered at Bates College, Lewiston, ME, 3/4/05. 8 min. Valentine (2005) for Javanese gamelan (slendro and pelog). 12 min. The Lotos-Eaters (2003) for Javanese gamelan (slendro), singers (gerongan) and Western orchestra [2,1+1,2d1,2 / 2,2,0,0 / str]. Text by Tennyson. From Suite Mawar Mekar, written for Gamelan Mawar Mekar at Bates College. Premiered at Bates College, Lewiston, ME, 3/28/03. 8 min. View several score pages Listen to excerpt (MP3 format) Dust as we are (2003) for Javanese gamelan (pelog), singers (gerongan) and Western orchestra [2d1,1+1,1+1,2 / 2,2,0,0 / str]. Text by Wordsworth. From Suite Mawar Mekar, written for Gamelan Mawar Mekar at Bates College. Premiered at Bates College, Lewiston, ME, 3/28/03. 12 min. View several score pages Listen to excerpt (MP3 format) The Garden (2000) for SATB chorus, two pianists, and two percussionists. Settings of texts by Lee Sharkey. Commissioned and premiered by the University of Maine at Farmington Community Chorus. Premiered 5/6/00. 10 min. Echo Piece No. 1 (1998) for double wind quintet, cellos, and basses. Premiered 4/17/98 in Farmington. 4 min. A Dark Pine's Hand (1997) for orchestra [2d1,2,2,1+1 / 4,2,3,1 / timp / 3 perc / str]. Written for the Portland Symphony Orchestra, Toshiyuki Shimada, music director. Premiered 4/2/97. 2 min. View several score pages Night Thoughts (1996) for soprano soloist, SATB chorus, and chamber orchestra [2 horns, harp, violas I and II, cellos I and II, and basses]. Settings of four poems by Wesley McNair and Emily Dickinson. Commissioned by the University of Maine at Farmington Community Chorus, Steven Pane, music director. Premiered April 27 and 28, 1996, Nordica Auditorium, UMF. 18 min. Rowing in Eden (1992) for orchestra [2d1,2d1,2,2 / 4,2,3,1 / timp / 1 perc / str]. Written for the Portland Symphony Orchestra, Toshiyuki Shimada, music director. Premiered October 13, 1992. 11 min. Four Journeys in Maine (1989) for soprano and chamber orchestra. Settings of four poems by Wesley McNair. Commissioned by the University of Maine at Farmington in celebration of its 125th anniversary. 16 min. Modus operandi (1988) for band. Fair Seed-time (1985) for tenor and orchestra. Settings of four selections from Wordsworth's Prelude. 17 min. Inaugural March (1984) for band. Polter te creso (1973) for 14-part chorus with doubling instruments, spatially separated into two 5-part choirs and one 4-part choir.
OTHER VOCAL MUSIC
- Soft Voices (2005) for vocal quintet. (Text by Shelley.) 4 min.
- Songs of Herself (1993), settings of four poems by Emily Dickinson for SATB chorus. Commissioned and premiered by the Occasional Chorale, Waterville, ME. 10 min.
- I Like a Look of Agony
- I'm Nobody
- I Heard a Fly Buzz When I Died
- I Started Early, Took My Dog, and Visited the Sea
- Implications of Melissa (1982), a one-act chamber opera on an original libretto for three singers (soprano, mezzo-soprano, and tenor), cl, vln, vc, and pno. Premiered February 1982 by Brooklyn College Opera Theatre. 15 min.
- Morning Star (1981) for soprano and vibraphone. Settings of five poems by Gary Snyder. 18 min.
- Songs for voice and piano
INSTRUMENTAL CHAMBER MUSIC
- October (2003) for solo piano. Premiered by Melsen Carlsen, Oberlin College Conservatory of Music, 12/12/03. 10 min.
- Far Psalteries of Summer (2003) for violin, cello, marimba, and piano. Premiered at the Ernest Bloch Music Festival Composers Symposium, Newport, OR, 7/2/03. 11 min.
- Holly and Ivy (1998) for eight players [fl (dbl picc), cl, hn, perc, vln, vla, vc, db]. A two-act ballet based on The Story of Holly and Ivy by Rumer Goden, adapted and choreographed by Andrei Bossov. Commissioned and premiered by Bossov Ballet Theatre, 11/23/98, Oakland, ME. 70 min.
- Landscape with Ladyslipper (1997) for seven players [fl (dbl picc), ob (dbl Ehn), cl (dbl bcl), vln, vla, vc, db]. Commissioned by the Sebago-Long Lake Chamber Music Festival in celebration of its 25th anniversary. Premiered 8/5/97 at Deertrees Theatre, Harrison, ME, and 8/6/97 at Nordica Auditorium, UMF. 14 min.
- Maine Traveler's Advisory (1997) for seven players [fl, cl, bsn, tbn, mar, vln, db]. Commissioned by the National Symphony Orchestra and Kennedy Center in connection with the orchestra's residency in Maine. Premiered at the Kennedy Center Millennium Stage, 11/17/00. 13 min.
- Polka Folks (1991) for solo accordion. Premiered by Guy Klucevsek, St. Louis, January 1992. 5 min.
- Three Etudes (1991) for solo tuba. 5 min.
- Evening's Sabres (1990) for marimba quartet. Commissioned by the American Composers Alliance and Town Hall. Premiered 3/6/90 by the Manhattan Marimba Quartet at Town Hall, NYC. 11 min.
- Echoes of a Shadow (1990) for solo piano. 5 min.
- The Elusive Blues (1990) for solo piano. 2 min.
- Nocturne (1988) for three trumpets and three flutes. 7 min.
- Penumbra (1987) for violin, clarinet, and piano. 11 min.
- Soliloquy (1986) for solo viola. 5 min.
- String quartet No. 2 (1981). 12 min.
- Skykomish River Music (1979) for three recorders. 5 min.
- Tendril (1979) for clarinet, violin, vibraphone, and voice. Commissioned by the Pilobolus Dance Theatre.
- Nimbus (1978) for three percussionists (marimba, vibraphone, and 4 auxiliary instruments). 12 min.
- Because it is there (1974) for 54 trombones. Written in collaboration with Alan Dorsey.
- Totem (1972) for cello and percussion. 10 min.
Back to Phil's homepageMy dad taught music and conducted both choral and instrumental groups, and my mom was a church organist and piano teacher. From an early age, my siblings and I were encouraged to explore music. Our piano improvisations as pre-schoolers may have sounded like noise to some people (including my grandparents whenever they came to visit!), but my parents believed we should be free to play whatever we wanted. Before I was eight, I had written several short piano pieces, and then, in high school, after the excitement and revelation of my first encounters with Bartok's 4th Quartet and Harris's 3rd Symphony, I started writing a string quartet of my own and decided to try pursuing a career as a composer. My quartet won first prize in a competition sponsored by the Seattle Music and Art Foundation, confirming for me that I was headed in the right direction.
In addition to the Bartok and Harris, there have been many pieces along the way that have been touchstones for me: Ives's Symphony No. 4, Cage's Music for Marcel Duchamp, Berio's Sinfonia, Stravinsky's Symphonies of Wind Instruments, Partch's And on the Seventh Day Petals Fell on Petaluma, Jehan Alain's Litanies, Berg's Wozzeck, Reich's Music for 18 Musicians, Penderecki's De natura sonoris, Messiaen's Chronochromie, Carter's and Lutoslawski's Concertos for Orchestra, Takemitsu's Coral Island--well, it's a varied list. Influences have come from other directions, too: John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Charles Mingus, Dave Brubeck, John McLaughlin, Frank Zappa, Sly and the Family Stone, Japanese gagaku, Javanese gamelan, etc. My study of non-Western music as an undergraduate at the University of Washington helped me think in new ways about the passage of time, sonority, and texture. Heterophony, for example, a basic feature of Southeast Asian ensemble music, has always been important in my work. I have designed and built several instruments, inspired by Harry Partch. I wrote my dissertation on the player piano music of Conlon Nancarrow. His ideas about rhythm and counterpoint have certainly had an effect on my work. And, of course, there were my teachers. The most important for me were Robert Suderburg and Jacob Druckman. I also learned a great deal from study with Stuart Dempster, William Bergsma, Charles Dodge, and Mario Davidovsky.