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May 2017 Salon previews

Patrick O’Keefe

Morning Stroll, a mostly tonal almost-rondo for saxophone quartet

There is an emphasis on quartal intervals and harmonies, some indeterminate and/or poly-tonality, etc., but common practice has not been left very far behind. All in all, it’s pretty typical of my music.

It’s not really programmatic, but you can picture someone with a very short attention span going for a walk—being distracted by anything and everything seen on the walk.

The work will be performed by the Emerald City Saxophone Quartet: Barbara Hubers-Drake, soprano; Molly Pond, alto; Harold Rosenkrans, tenor; Jim Glass, baritone

A computer generated version of this piece, along with other pieces of mine, are on Soundcloud.

Jeremiah Lawson

Guitar Sonata in A major

In 2015 I composed a set of guitar duets I called the Zombie Sonata Rags, where I transformed my favorite themes from the guitar sonatas of Carulli, Diabelli, Giuliani, Matiegka and Sor into the core of rags. Naturally if sonata themes can be transformed into ragtime why shouldn’t ragtime translate into sonata forms? So I’ve been exploring how ragtime can be explored in terms of the developmental procedures and syntax of sonata forms. My recently finished Guitar Sonata in A major is a tribute to the great ragtime composer Scott Joplin.

John Kammerer and Rebekah Ko

new music for marimba + electronics

The piece has at this point evolved to include some percussion elements as well as marimba. The electronics used are sourced largely from vocal samples that are then chopped, pitched and stretched. It is percussive in nature, emphasizing a back and forth hocket-like relationship between the marimba and the electronics, with each part filling in gaps and creating pointillistic gestures that run throughout. Extended techniques on the marimba imitate and compliment the electronic sounds.

John Teske

ad;sr (vectorscores)

I’ll be presenting ad;sr, a work originally for string quartet that was algorithmically generated and captured as a static score. I’ve recreated the score as a “vectorscore”, intended to be a full realization of the work—a generated score for any ensemble and any number of instruments.

vectorscores is a series of new works to be viewed and performed via a lightweight website. The works are algorithmically generated so that each score and performance is unique and customized while still being shaped by the composition’s parameters.

View ad;sr on vectorscores.org

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Salon - November 9, 2019

Composers' Salon | November 9, 2019 An evening of music and discussion with Seattle composers: Carson Farley Garret Fisher Satchel Henneman Clement Reid Curated by Tom Baker Friday, March 1, 2019, 8 pm Chapel Performance Space 4649 Sunnyside Ave N, 4th Floor $5-15 suggested donation Twitter Website The Seattle Composers’ Salon fosters the development, performance and appreciation of new music by regional composers and performers. At bi-monthly, informal presentations, the Salon features finished works, previews, and works in progress. Composers, performers, and audience members gather in a casual setting that allows for experimentation and discussion.

May 2018 Previews

Jay Hamilton My Muse, & Equal Temperament , cello and pre-recorded dialogue These two pieces are part of a work The End and Then…? presented on June 23rd at Velocity Dance Center Seattle. The show is mostly dance with music/dialogues begins with a funeral ends with a murder….and some of it funny. This is a one person performance (7 parts) I will be dancing during in the other 5 pieces sections. soundand.com/ Gavin Borchert Mazurka , for piano Berceuse , for piano Peter Nelson-King The Magpie’s Shadow , for solo piano The Magpie’s Shadow takes its inspiration from a poem sequence of the same name by Yvor Winters. Inspired by a line by Rimbaud - O saisons, o chateaux! - each poem is a single line of six syllables, a form invented by Winters. 28 poems are arranged in three sections, and my work has 28 aphoristic pieces based on each poem and grouped in the same section plan and same order. The poems depict mysterious, symbolic scenes in nature, possibly a dream

March 2018 Previews

Sarah Bassingthwaighte H20 , for soprano, flute, and guitar My piece is called H2O and will be performed by the Ecco Chamber Ensemble: Sarah Bassingthwaighte, flute; Stacey Mastrian, soprano; Mark Hilliard Wilson, guitar. The piece is written in graphic notation in the shape of a circle and the players rotate the circle as they go through 6 different forms of water: Snow, Droplets, Rain, Storm, Frost, and Ice. There is a lot of guided improvisation used by all of the players. It will be performed on April 21st at SOMA Towers as part of KING-FM’s Resonance Series. sarahbassingthwaighte.com Gavin Borchert Three songs Sagrada noche (4’) Cuando en el sol (4’) Una vez (7’) Gavin Borchert, piano; Michael Monnikendam, baritone Some time ago I discovered the song “Nacht und traume” by Schubert, which is now my favorite of all of his. Researching it I stumbled on a beautiful (anonymous) Spanish translation of Matthaus von Collin’s original German text, which itself seem