Moonlit Mists was originally scored for marimba and piano. This is a version for solo piano.
(Audio is a midi realization)
Forward Motion
Forward Motion is comprised of two movements, that can be performed individually. (see separate works pages)
I. Gathering Steam
II. Catching Up
Tangents – for piano
Released 2008: Moods – Piano Music by American Women Composers, Max Lifchitz, piano, North/South Recordings (Audio is an excerpt)
Tangents derives its name from divergent musical lines that seem to arrive and depart from a musical center, much like fragments of thoughts that tangentially pass through conversations. – RW
Summer Nights
Released 2010: If Only Knowing, CDBaby
Among my first compositions… before I knew how to notate music. Audio is from an early concert of piano pieces that I played from memory and recorded at Charlemagne Palestine’s Tribeca loft, NYC.
Simple Persuasions
Exploring different tactics of persuasion, in three continuous movements – Playful, Enticing, Alluding
(Audio is a home studio recording by percussionist, Jane Boxall)
Sad Laughter (for my father)
Released 2010: If Only Knowing, CDBaby
This was among my first compositions… before I knew how to notate music, and so was performed from memory and recorded in an early concert. It was dedicated to my father, Phillip Jones, an extraordinary man, who at the time, early in his life, was valiantly facing terminal cancer. – RW
Longing
Released 2007: If Only Knowing, CDBaby
Among my first compositions… before I knew how to notate music. Performed from memory and recorded in an early concert.
If Only Knowing
Released 2010: If Only Knowing, CDBaby
Among my first compositions… before I knew how to notate music, and so was performed from memory and recorded in an early concert.
Hourglass
Released 2008: Moods: Piano Music by American Women Composers, Max Lifchitz, piano, North/South Recordings
Video features pianist Nataliya Medvedovskaya stunning performance at Bargemusic.
Hourglass is a musical reflection on the passage of time and the delicacy and variable nature of its passing – as in the shifting phases of sand in a turning hourglass. – RW
Gathering Steam
Inspired by a mental image of watching the passing journey through a train window in route toward a new destination.
(Audio is a studio recording by Jane Boxall, marimba)
Dark Dreams – for piano
Released 2008: Moods: Piano Music by American Women Composers, Max Lifchitz, piano, North/South Recordings
Audio features a concert recording by pianist, Desiree Bonitz at the 2016 Missouri State University Composition Festival
Dark Dreams was inspired by a painting by Jared FitzGerald. The germinating idea for the piece relates to the image of an angel in the moonlight wrestling with a shadowy figure. Dark Dreams extends the metaphor to the struggles with emotional demons confronted in life. – RW
Painting by Jared FitzGerald
Conversation Before the Rain
Released 2010: If Only Knowing, CDBaby
This was one of my first compositions… before I knew how to notate music, and so was performed from memory and recorded in an early concert at Charlemagne Palestine’s loft.
The music takes me emotionally to the feeling of an intimate moment shared within sheltered space, looking out – perhaps to the turbulent sky before an approaching storm. – RW
* Amazon Music * Apple Music *
Catching Up
(Audio is a studio recording by Jane Boxall, marimba)
Bala Marimba
(Audio is a 2018 home studio recording by Jane Boxall, marimba)
BaDaBaDaDa – for solo wind
Recording of the bass clarinet version is from the Vent Nouveau NYC concert, performed by Sam Kaestner, bass clarinet.
Score purchase options include versions for Alto Sax, Bass Clarinet, and Bassoon.
Always Almost
An expression of the profound realization that some of life’s deepest yearnings may remain unfulfilled, seemingly just out of reach – just ‘always almost.’ Yet from this sadness music arose. – RW
This video features a beautiful performance by Max Lifchitz in his “Women of Note” concert at the National Opera Center in New York City, funded in part by a New York Women Composers Seed Money Grant.
Available on: Moods: Piano Music by American Women Composers, North/South Recordings
Afternoon Reflections – for wind or brass
Audio is a home studio recording by Guido Arbonelli, bass clarinet.
Purchase options include versions for Bass Clarinet, Bassoon, or Alto Flute.
Then Again
Points of thought restated. – RW
Audio features cellist, Mira Frisch from the “Dancing on Glass” CD release on Albany Records.
Video features cellist Susanne Friedrich performing at the Rivers School Conservatory Faculty Recital, April 8, 2016.
