Works on the Web:
African Fanfare: A Call to Celebrate Music
for Brass and Percussion
As yet unknown . . . 
for Flute, Bassoon, and Piano with Djembe and Ankle Bells
Be Still My Soul
for Soprano, Alto, Trumpet, and Trombone
dREAMSCAPES
for SATB Choir
Fantasy for Flute
for Flute and Piano
Highland Prayer
Battle of Bannockburn
for Bassoon and Piano
The Land of Nod
for High Voice and Piano
Nightingale
for Mezzo-Soprano, Baritone, Piano, and Percussion
Reconstructing Music
for Musicians
Sacred Beauty, 
Human Being
for Piano
Seventh Sun
for solo Bass Clarinet
African Fanfare: A Call to Celebrate Music
 
Keith Geiman, trumpet
James Lantz, trumpet
Ben Frock, trumpet		  Martin Cumminskey, euphonium
Carl Kolan, trombone
Alex Muehleisen, tuba		  Kristen Sweirzbinski, percussion
Paul Pegas, djembe
Craig Sparks, ashiko
Kennis Rolle, Jr., conductor

Click here to view an excerpt from the score!
(requires Adobe Acrobat Reader)

African Fanfare:
  is the first work I've premiered which utilizes my growing fascination with African music and aesthetics.  African aesthetics treat music more as a medium for interpersonal relationships than solely as a means for entertainment.  This idea permeates this piece, both in its aesthetic considerations and in the compositional techniques employed.  On a compositional level, I composed small chunks of music called cells.  These cells get repeated in such a way that the change in the relationship between cells creates interest.  And it is an interest in relationships and what music can add to them about which I am most passionate. 
The structure of the piece:
 The piece begins with a traditional sounding fanfare that is pompous and brazen.  Then the Ashiko, a West African hand drum, comes in to change the tone of the entire piece.  From there on out, the piece follows the following form: 
  • Statement of the melody
  • Exploration of materials
  • Statement of the melody supported by new materials from the exploration
The piece unfolds and expands itself several times throughout the course of piece, building to a climactic presentation of all the disperate elements as a unified whole in the end.
The concept of cellular composition:
 Cellular composition is based on the composition of small, motivic musical fragments.  These cells are then manipulated in order to form a more coherent piece.  In "African Fanfare," I created cellular rhythmic figures each with a unique character.  Some feel like they should be in a two pattern going against the three pattern of the 6/8.  Some are slightly shorter or longer than a full 6/8 measure.  These patterns are repeated.  So what creates the interest?  Well, with the patterns that feel in two, it is the contrast between the melody in a feeling of three, and the cells in a figure of two that gives a sense of them rhythmically shifting apart from one another and then back together.  The same thing occurs when patterns that are slightly shorter or longer than a 6/8 measure are played with figures that are exactly a measure long.  The slight difference slowly alters how the two figures relate to one another.  The idea of interest being generated from the relationships between parts is integral to the concept of community so central to the piece.
African Fanfare was one of four pieces composed for the TU Symphonic Band by student composers during 1998-99.
Click here to learn more about this project.

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