Program note
An anxious lament for love lost, borrowing musical inspiration from the plainsong, “Dies Irae.” The emotional context is sadness and futility, which transmutes into edgy feelings of anger. The metaphoric realization that came to mind was that moving on would involve something like walking barefoot across a floor covered with sharp wires. – RW
Dream Vapors Suite
Dream Vapors Suite – three movements for orchestra (collated 2018, 22:20)
I. Tracing a Dream
II. Reversing Mirrors in the Quiet
III. Of Time Remembered
Score available through Subito Music Distribution
Video features the 2022 World premiere by the Armenian State Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Elias Brown.
Program note: The three movements of the Dream Vapors Suite are explorations into the impressionistic logic of emotions and dreams. Within this realm there is a fluidity of connections and sequences that is governed by emotional contexts, rather than rational order. With the shifting intangibility of perceptions and memories, unique juxtapositions arise, as in dreams. The “vapors” in the title refers to the residual emotions and imagery that can linger and resurface in life. – RW
Dreaming Through Fog
Score available through Subito Music Distribution
Premiere recording by the Janáček Philharmonic Orchestra Ostrava, Conductor, Stanislav Vavřínek.
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Composed during the time of the global 2020 coronavirus pandemic as a reflection on the seeming warping of time – with a continuous undercurrent of tragedy and uncertainty, mixed with cycles of waiting and moments of hope, the world seemed to blur through a dream fog of emotional responses, creative impulses and indistinguishable days. The music exerts a subtle pull of being drawn further, as through a tunnel, while sounds of the external world filter in as delicately disjointed echoes and reverberating rhythms. – RW
Turning Tides
Virtual World premiere performed by the Portland Youth Conservatory Strings April 10, 2021. Commissioned by the Portland Youth Philharmonic for the Youth Orchestra Commissioning Initiative.
Score and set of Parts are available through Subito Music Distribution.
Program note: In the autumn of 2020, I was feeling the forces of change and this became the emotional inspiration for the music. The feelings brought an image to mind of trying to balance on separate floats riding the currents, which sometimes move independently in different directions – creating a level of uncertainty and adventure, not quite sure of how to achieve a balance or how to maintain a footing while navigating the “turning tides.” – RW
“In my years of teaching general music as an Orff-Schulwerk music specialist for Pre-K through 6th grade elementary classes, I have never found “classical” music to be beyond the emotional range of my students – at any age. I believe that the real experience of music is about discovery and finding a sense of “ownership” of the process (whether as a musician performing or an audience member listening) and emotional identification. It would be so exciting to be able to share my music with youth orchestras. And, especially with regard to performing contemporary classical works, to share the sense of making history with the performance of a premiere!” – RW
My original video intro for the April 10, 2021 Portland Youth Philharmonic Festival virtual premiere of my commissioned piece “Turning Tides“ for the Youth Conservatory Strings.
Within Deep Currents
Recorded by the Janáček Philharmonic Orchestra Ostrava, Conductor, Stanislav Vavřínek for PARMA Recordings.
Score purchase is available through Subito Music Distribution. Purchase original CD release.
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It’s a thrill to receive the recognition of a Global Music Silver Medal for “Within Deep Currents” in the composer/composition category.
“Within Deep Currents” conveys some of the feelings I have had during this epic time of a global pandemic – a sense of immersion within a flow of time and a feeling of being slowly pulled along by underlying currents, as dynamic forces exert their influences through an interplay of diverse energies. – RW
August 2020 Livestream Premiere: Moravian Philharmonic Orchestra, Conductor, Stanislav Vavřínek
Shadows of the Wind
Recorded by Janáček Philharmonic Orchestra | Stanislav Vavřínek, conductor; Ivo Fišer, cello.
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Program note: The inspiration for this work came to me one night while listening to the sounds of a windstorm, as the wind increased and diminished in cycles, the room was filled with the changing patterns cast by the movements of branches and leaves. It seemed to transform the room with a wash of mystery – as if from some higher perspective, with shadows of time moving in waves over a vast landscape below. – RW
Full Circle
Recorded by the Moravian Philharmonic Orchestra, Petr Vronský conductor and Petr Nouzovský cello for PARMA Recordings.
Purchase Score through Subito Music Distribution. Purchase original CD release.
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Program note: Full Circle is a contemplation of cycles of emotion that continually emerge and recede throughout life. The music is written for a subtle interplay between the soloist and the orchestra, rather than the traditional role of the soloist being in the forefront. My intention is a shifting of perceptions in which the soloist emerges from the orchestra, in much the way that intense feelings rise from the unconscious, giving voice to emotional currents, and then recede back into the subliminal. A metaphorical image is of a figure becoming discernible as it emerges from a dense mist, then recedes, blending again into the atmosphere, only to reemerge as a presence again. – RW
In Passages – violin soloist & string orchestra
Score available through Subito Music Distribution. Purchase original CD release.
Album features the recording by the Croatian Chamber Orchestra with Miran Vaupotić, Conductor, and Mojca Ramušćak, violin soloist.
Concert performance video features the Zagreb Philharmonic Orchestra with Miran Vaupotić, Conductor, and Orest Shourgot, violin soloist.
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Program Note: As with most of my works, the music arises from the emotional experience of life. I think of this as a reflection on the passages of emotion — that ebb and flow of the feelings that continually emerge and recede repeatedly throughout life. The music is written to blend the soloist and the orchestra, rather than the traditional role of the soloist being in the forefront. The soloist should seem to emerge from the orchestra in much the way that intense feelings seem to surface from the unconscious, giving voice to our inner emotional currents, and then recede back into the chorus of the subliminal. – RW
Yet Still Night
Release 2/12/2016: Dream Vapors – selected works for orchestra, Navona Records, Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, Robert Ian Winstin, Conductor
Score available through Subito Music Distribution
(Original Release 2007: Masterworks of the New Era, Volume 11 – ERMMedia-6811 no longer available)
Program note: Recurrent punctuations of an urban soundscape reverberate in the late hours and mix with an emotional insight suffused with sadness and clarity that dreams and conflict will continue, insistent and inconsolable. –RW
Within a Dance
Re-Release 2/12/2016: Dream Vapors – selected works for orchestra, Navona Records, Moravian Philharmonic Orchestra, Petr Vronsky, Conductor
Original release 9/2014: Luminescence, Navona Records, NV5969
Score available through Subito Music Distribution Purchase original CD
Program note: Reflecting on a first invitation to dance, and the continuation of the dance of love. … a tenderness of touch; … a lingering embrace; … dancing a circular space; … a song of two. –RW
Tracing a Dream
Score purchase is available through Subito Music Distribution. Purchase original CD release.
Release 2/2016: Dream Vapors – selected works for orchestra, Navona Records, Russian Philharmonic Orchestra, Ovidiu Marinescu, Conductor
Original Release 4/2011: Light and Shadow, Navona Records, NV5847
Program note: Tracing a Dream taps into the impressionistic logic of emotions and dreams. Within this realm there is a fluidity of connections and sequences that is governed by emotional contexts, rather than rational order. Music has the capacity to heighten and distill emotions through juxtapositions that might otherwise be thought to be unlikely – comparable to dream imagery. – RW
Still Motion
Released 7/8/2016: SPARKS, Navona Records, NV6050 Moravian Philharmonic Orchestra, Petr Vronsky, Conductor
Score available through Subito Music Distribution. Purchase CD.
Program note: The inspiration for Still Motion arose from a combination of sorting through the emotional residue of year’s end and the impatient desire to move ahead with life with a new year’s beginning. It is a mix of edgy energy, reflective sadness and strength of conviction. –RW
Video is an introductory excerpt that I created with the opening of the piece.
Shredding Glass
Score available through Subito Music Distribution.
Re-Release 2016: Dream Vapors – selected works for orchestra, Navona Records
Original Release 2008: Masterworks of the New Era, Volume 12 – ERMMedia, Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, Robert Ian Winstin, Conductor
Program note: Shredding Glass began as an immediate cathartic response to the events and images of September 11, 2001. It is a reverential work of compassion and spiritual healing that was composed in the shadow of 9/11. To me this piece represents the essence of an emotional remembrance – how time and timelessness unfolded while coping with the realization, heartbreak and impact of this catastrophic event. I believe the music is ultimately about transcendence. –RW
Reversing Mirrors in the Quiet
Release 2/12/2016: Dream Vapors – selected works for orchestra, Navona Records, Moravian Philharmonic, Petr Vronsky, conductor.
Program note: The intangibility of perceptions – the quiet subtle shifting of perceptions between reflection, translucence, and transparency. – RW
Of Time Remembered
Re-Release 2/12/2016: Dream Vapors – selected works for orchestra, Navona Records, Moravian Philharmonic, Petr Vronsky, Conductor
Score available through Subito Music Distribution. Purchase original CD release.
Program Note: Tapping into the impressionistic logic of emotions and dreams, moving through an interior space where logic dissolves and language gives way to subconscious rooms and pathways where memories play like shadows cast against a screen of emotion.
Memories of Place
Memories of Place arose from emotional memories of a time traveling and living in Greece, Egypt and Turkey. It is a recollection of that time, not as a literal transcription of melodies, but rather as an emotional memory of aural textures, painted with a broad brush of modal sound. – RW
Long Division
I. Pulses of Distraction
II. Empty Corners
III. Pulling Apart
Chromatic, strong tonal centers, neo-romantic and minimalist influences, atmospheric textures and rhythmic pulses without traditional harmonic development. Traces the stages of the dissolution of a relationship. In Mvt 3, all is irrevocably set in motion.
Fast Through Dark Winds
Released 2/12/2016: Dream Vapors – selected works for orchestra, Navona Records, Moravian Philharmonic, Petr Vronsky, Conductor
Score available through Subito Music Distribution
Program note: Inspired by the emotional intensity of a dream – careening through dense dark night fog on a bike with no brakes, no control and no visibility, accompanied by alternating interludes of fear and transcendent calm.
Some time after composing this, I realized that the dream was a subliminal metaphor for the profound helplessness I was feeling as a caregiver and the need for acceptance in witnessing my mother’s descent into vascular dementia. – RW
Disturbances
I. Running Late
II. Waking From Broken Dreams
III. Yet Still Night
Anxiety segues to a waking insight suffused with sadness and clarity, moving to the inescapable realization that night continues. Recurrent sonic punctuations of city life. Urban soundscape reverberating in the late hours of a night’s existential moment. The final nocturne opens softly with a lullaby motive that becomes insistent and inconsolable
