PROGRAM NOTES:
1. Opposite Extreme of Compassion (work #354)
‘Opposite Extreme of Compassion’ is the companion piece to a drum solo pice I wrote called: ‘Opposite Extreme of Benevolence’ which takes its tittle from Honore Blazac’s novel ‘Cousin Pons’. The phrase jumped out at me as I was reading this great novel and in the process composed a solo drum composition. Both compositions have exactly the same rhythmical material, but for the solo violin piece I assigned notes to the drum set rhythms, though keeping them close to where the drum notation is, for the various instruments a drummer hits. The music takes a rhythm and treats it as a melody. These supposed opposites, in my mind, are interchangeable, a catchy rhythm can hold its own just as well as a good tune. I take this rhythm and play it on all the combinations of timbers that a drum set has to offer, change it, disguise it, augment and diminish it and base this whole composition on it. I chose a rhythm that is deceptive, when it is first introduced so the listeners perception should vary as to where the beat is. Adding more of a melodic context for the violin version of this music does not change the initial idea, the melodies are very simple and repetitive, very drum like.
Certain Degree of Neurosis (work #365)
2. Movement One - 3. Movement Two - 4. Movement Three - 5. Movement Four
A certain degree of neurosis is of inestimable value as a drive, especially to a psychologist.” This quote is by Sigmund Freud, I cam across it while writing my piece ‘Sigmund Says’, a chamber piece with narrator based on quotes of Freud. At the time that I was writing this piece I had already finished my bass clarinet and percussion duo, and was desperately searching for a title. ‘A Certain Degree of Neurosis’ jumped up at me as a perfect title for this music. Neurosis is a mental and emotional disorder that affects only part of the personality. My duo has elements of neurosis. It attempts to combine very individual sounds and make them work as a whole. Sounds that the ear does not expect to work together, but knows individually. -In the first movement I use the African djun-djun drum, which is basically a bass drum and a cow bell . The bass clarinet acts almost like another percussive element, playing a fast rhythmic melody that partners with the djun-djun to make a cohesive groove. In the second movement the percussionist takes another Africa drum called the Djembe and adds rhythm to a flowing bass clarinet melody. Soloing around it, breaking the beat and being all percussive in what seems to be a slow and graceful movement. In the 3rd movement we bring out the roto-toms, which are small tunable drums. Again the bass clarinet and the percussionist unite to make a rhythmical structure with a melody emerging in the bass clarinet and copied by the rotot-toms. In the fourth movement the metal family of percussion's come out and I use both the hi-hat and the suspended cymbal. I start of with color, using a bow on the cymbals and multi phonic on the bass clarinet. But the piece quickly becomes groove oriented and a catchy melody is treated, repeated and grooved on by the Neurotic duo.
6. Essence (work #232)
Essence for piano and drum set develops a 12/8 melody and groove that plays with accents and hits. This melody is transformed in many ways and in the middle section gets converted into a rag time like tune. The next section brings back the accents and hits in 12/8 and continues this melodies development turning into a drum solo (mostly written some improvised) that take us to the Blues finale. The melodic content is still recognizable but now its over a straight ahead blues.
7. Melodies Alone Can Proudly Carry Their Own Death (work #364)
The title of ’Melodies Alone Can Proudly Carry Their Own Death’ for violin and cello comes from a paragraph in Jean-Paul Sartre’s Essay ‘Being and Nothingness:’ “The trees were floating. Thrusting toward the sky? Collapsing rather: at any moment I expected to see the trunks shrivel like weary pricks, curl up and fall to the ground in a soft, black, crumpled heap. They did not want to exist, only they could not help it; that was the point. So they performed all their little functions, quietly, unenthusiastically, the sap rose slowly into the earth. But at every moment they seemed on the verge of dropping everything and obliterating themselves. Tired and old, they went on existing, unwillingly and ungraciously, simply because they were too weak to die, because death could come to them only from the outside: melodies alone can proudly carry their own death within them like an internal necessity; only they don't exist. Every existent is born without reason, prolongs itself out of weakness and dies by chance. I leaned back and I closed my eyes. But pictures, promptly informed, sprang forward and filled my closed eyes with existences: existence is a repletion which man can never abandon." The Music develops a sad melody that plays with the harmonic possibilities of the violin and cello. Lots of double stops that create an atmosphere that reflects the Sartre’s paragraph.
8. Galileo Starry Messenger (work #355)
Galileo Starry Messenger is entirely based on a transcription of one of my guitar solos. I recorded a piece some years back called ‘Born Free’ which is a rock/fusion jam basically. but the guitar solo on that tune has haunted my head for a long time. I decided to transcribe it and create a composition on the material. Galileo Galilei wrote his treaties The Starry Messenger in 1610 using his newly invented "spyglass". In it he described his observations of the sky. I am sure before he was able to amplify his sight of the heavens he stared at them for a long time with his naked eye, trying to see as much as he can, just as I walked around with the melodies from my solo swimming in my head but never really in my possession until I sat down and transcribed them note by note and wrote down what I did in the spur of the moment. After the creation of his "spyglass" Galileo was able to sit down and ‘transcribe’ the sky onto paper in sketches and words, capturing it for posterity.
9. She’s So Chaconne (work #32)
Using the chord progression from the Beatles song “I Want You/She’s so heavy”, over 20 other Beatles songs are played. The solo violinist constantly jumps from one tune to the next while always keeping the Beatles Chaconne going in one way or another. The violinist ends the piece by playing the Chaconne chords pizzicato and stopping abruptly just like the song does on the Abby Roads album. She’s So Chaconne was premiered by Miltiades Papastamou on November 11th 1993, at Manhattan School of Music's Hubbard Hall. Mr. Papastamou continued performing the piece in the following venues:
10. Ineffably Still (work #325)
‘Ineffably Still’ for bass clarinet and electric guitar takes its name and gets musical inspiration from the following paragraph of Marcel Proust, from his novel Swann's Way. “He began, always, with a sustained tremolo from the violin part, which, for several bars, was unaccompanied, and filled all the foreground; until suddenly it seemed to be drawn aside, and... infinitely remote, in colour quite different, velvety with the radiance of some intervening light, the little phrase appeared, dancing, pastoral, interpolated, episodic, belonging to another world. It passed, with simple and immortal movements, scattering on every side the bounties of its grace, smiling ineffably still.
11. In Memory of Dave Gotay (work #528)
‘In Memory of Dave Gotay’ is a solo cello piece dedicated to one of my best friends who passed away at an early age in 2015. Dave was a great cellist, rapper and all around musician, he and I met at Manhattan School of Music in the early ’90’s and became friends and musical collaborators for the next 25 years. The music is based on his name: The notes D, A, rest in place of V, E, G, rests in place of O & T, A, rest in place of Y. This gets develops in various ways, not only in a somber and mourning like sense but also in various musical approaches that try to express the spirit and essence of Dave and his music, attitude and his being. He will be very much missed by me, but always remembered and loved.