A reflection on grief so profound and existential that all flow of life essence and time seems to stop, “… I can no longer feel the wind of the future upon my face…” – RW
Soprano, Minkyung Lee beautifully captures the emotional essence of this song in her stunning performance on the Lux Musicae “Soloists” April 4, 2017 concert program at the Palmetto Center for the Arts.
These days – text
At Night
A reflection and questioning of life transitions and loves. At Night-text
SoundCloud track is the world premiere performance by mezzo-soprano Donna Balson.
Video features a recent InterXChange concert performance by Melanie Mitrano, with Gerson Galante on clarinet in São Paulo, Brazil. (A score of this version is available to purchase via the Score link.)
As A Tear Falls
World News – carnival spin
Program note: Commenting on the media carnival spin overlaid onto the news. –RW
2001 Concert performance audio features: Theresa Salomon & Vita Wallace, vlns; Liuh-Wen Ting, vla; Ariane Lallemand, vc; Joseph Kubera, pno.
Traveling Dreams
Program note: Emotional memory of travels through Greece, Egypt and Turkey, painted with a brush of modal sound. (Later expanded to “Memories of Place” scored for chamber orchestra)
Street City
Evocative of the elemental dissonance, repetition and rhythmic pulse of the city street sounds, as well as, the cyclical moods as day transitions to quieter night hours, then picks up rhythmically once again as morning approaches. –RW
1997 Premiere by Synchronia, St. Louis, MO. (Audio is a 1998 NYC concert recording.)
Running Late
Chamber version of the first of a set of three sequential nocturnes for orchestra entitled “Disturbances.“
(Audio is the 2000 premiere at Turtle Bay Music School, NYC)
Resisting Reason
Resistance to the application of logical reasoning to emotional complexities. – RW
(Video features a 2001 NYC concert performance: Jacqueline Leclair, ob; Richard Vrotney, bsn; Theresa Salomon, vln; Liuh-Wen Ting, vla; Ariane Lallemand, vc.)
(Score purchase link is the version for wind quintet.)
Dark Dreams
Dark Dreams was inspired by a painting by Jared FitzGerald, and is dedicated to him. The germinating idea for the piece relates to its 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
Video features the 2001 premiere with Jacqueline Leclair, Eng. hrn; Evan Spritzer, cl; Richard Vrotney, bsn; Joseph Kubera, pno; Vita Wallace & Theresa Salomon, vlns; Liuh-Wen Ting, vla; Ariane Lallemand, vc.
A Song Alone
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
