The Snow Queen, and Opera in Three Acts

Here are the first pages of the prologues to each of the three acts of this opera.

You can read more about The Snow Queen here and listen to an aria from it here. You can also listen to a bit of it here. A Piano Vocal Score and a full score are both available from Subito.

April 2002

Since I wrote this opera as a graduate school project, I also wrote a hundred-page thesis that discusses the musical and literary elements in the opera. You can find it here. The score and parts are published by Subito, and can be found through the links above.

Prologue and Lachrimae for Orchestra

Listen to the Prologue here, and the Lachrimae here. The score and parts are available from Subito.

For Poulenc

I wrote this piece for Julius Baker and sent a draft of it to him shortly before he died on August 8, 2003. It is based on a song that I set to a Frank O'Hara poem that he wrote in memory of Francis Poulenc.

The music is available from Subito.

August 2003

Here's the poem:

My first day in Paris I walked
from Saint Germain to the Point Mirabeau
in soft amber light and leaves
and love was running out

city of light and hearts
city of dusk and dismay
the Seine believed it to be true
that I was unloved and alone

how lonely is that bridge
without your song
the Avenue Mozart, the rue Pergolèse
the tobaccos and the nuns

all Paris is alone for this
brief leafless moment
and snow falls down upon
the streets of our peculiar hearts


You can hear a performance recorded in 2017 by flutist Rebecca Johnson and pianist Cara Chowning here.

Kubla Kahn

May 27, 2004

You can read the text and listen to a computer-generated recording. The music is available here from Subito.

Prelude, Aria, and Burlesque

Here is a computer-generated recording of the Prelude, the Aria, and the Burlesque. The music is available from here from Subito.


September 2003

Good-bye to Vienna for String Quartet

I wrote this piece in memory of Leo Wright who I knew in Vienna in the early 1980s.

You can listen to the piece here. The music is available here from Subito.

Prologue and Lachrimae for String Quartet

July 5, 2002

You can find the score and parts here on the Subito website.

Fanfare for Orchestra

This orchestration of Introit a 4 is scored for full orchestra with two sets of timpani. You can listen to a computer-generated recording of it here. The music is available here (from Subito).

Avez vous des bonbons for 2 clarinets and bassoon

This is a transcription for two clarinets and bassoon of a piece by the same name that I wrote for two violins and cello. You can listen to it here.
The string version is available from Subito. You can find the clarinet and bassoon parts here.

(You could certainly play the piece with two clarinets and cello instead of bassoon.)

Serenade for Oboe and Strings

This Serenade works equally well as a piece for oboe and string quintet and as a piece for oboe and string orchestra. You can hear a performance with John Dee (the dedicatee of the piece) here.
A version of it for oboe and piano is available from Subito Music.

Elnora's Violin

This piece is a reflection on Gene Stratton-Porter's novel A Girl of the Limberlost. You can listen to a recording of this piece here. The solo violin music is available here from Subito.

Sephardic Suite for Solo Cello or Solo Viola

March 2003

You can listen to Shannon Haydn's cello performance of the Veil Dance here.

Both the cello version and the viola version are available from Subito. You can find the cello version here, and you can find the viola version here.

Here is a recording of Molly Gebrian playing the whole piece on viola.



May 2022 UPDATE: You can find violist Paul Cortes's recording through this link.

2024 UPDATE: Diane Chaplin gave a beautiful performance on March 5, 2024 that is archived on YouTube.

Three Pieces for Bassoon and Piano

These pieces are based on lines from Walter de la Mare's "Bunches of Grapes" (that has my name in it). You can listen to a performance by bassoonist Kimberly Kelley and pianist Rachel Jensen: Pomagranantes Pink, Primroses Pale, and Silvery Wings. The music is available from Subito.




October, 2002

Crepuscule, Interlude, and Dance

October 2006

You can listen to this piece here. The music is available from Subito.

Three Longfellow Songs

These are settings of "The Day is Done," "Afternoon in February," and "The Arrow and the Song."



March 8, 2004

The music is available in a version for medium voice and a version for high voice from Subito. You can listen computer-generated recordings here of "The Day is Done," "Afternoon in February," and "The Arrow and the Song."

Sonnet XVIII

This is a setting of Elizabeth Barrett Browning's Sonnet 18 "I never gave a lock of hair away" for women's chorus and piano. You can listen to a 2004 recording by the Eastern Illinois University Women's Chorus here.


September 2003

The music is available here from Subito.

Counting Game

March 15, 2006

You can listen to a computer-generated recording here. The music is available here from Subito.

Ena, mena, mona, my,
Pana lona, bona, stry,
Ee-wee, fowl's neck,
Hallibone, crack-a-bone,
ten and eleven,
O-U-T spells out.

Intery, mintery, cutery corn,
Apple-seed and apple-thorn,
Wire, briar, limber lock,
Five mice in a flock;
Catch him Jack,
Hold him Tom,
Blow the bellows,
Old man out.

The Happy Family

This is about a family of snails (escargot) who live in a burdock forest outside of a manor house. You can read the text here while you listen to a recording of the music.



February 8, 2005

The music is available here from Subito.

Song of the Limberlost

This piece for solo harp was inspired by Gene Stratton-Porter's 1909 novel A Girl of the Limberlost. You can listen to a recording of the piece played by Julia Kay Jamieson: Trees are harps in winter, The very essence of June, Elnora finds a violin, and The song of the Limberlost The music is available here from Subito.

October 20, 2005

Janus

You can listen to this piece here, and the music is available here from Subito.

February, 2002