Christopher Dunn-Rankin

His 5th Symphony is really good. Much more in line with his operas than with his other stuff, with some great text painting.

Thanks for the comments! The thought with the accent in bar 318 isn't to rectify the stress patterns on the word - it's more sort of an "articulation crescendo" - rather than increasing the dynamic, each syllable increases in weight; so you have (I'm going to try to approximate with font size): "flashes the frost tonight" We'll see how it works out in live performance; I may just need to go back and normalize the speech accent patterns with the music, though I'm hoping that the singers will be able to negotiate the difference and make it an effective gesture.

it might also work to split up the two dichords into four single notes - you'd avoid some hand-cramping that way - though of course it would generate a different sound, and still be at least a LITTLE difficult to play.

It sounds a bit like you're describing flautando - but you might have to back that marking up with some fun dynamics and specific articulations.

For soprano, tenor, flute, soprano saxophone (or Bb clarinet), and double bass.A setting of Carl Sandburg's collection of 11 short poems by the same name (found in his volume "Chicago Poems"). Each poem forms a meditation on a trichord.This will be performed in the summer of next year as part of a concert of settings of Carl Sandburg poems.NOTE: Please follow along with the score, as there are some score events that do not play back as they are written. Handfuls

Because a lot of people on this website use Finale rather than Sibelius, it's generally a good idea to post a score in .pdf format. Most computers have a built-in PDF printer these days, but if yours doesn't, there are several free downloads that will allow you to do so.

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is fantastic. The faculty is really solid, and their program's very cool. On the higher end, there's University of Chicago and DePaul - I've worked with graduates and faculty at both, and they're very knowledgeable. For more commercial-type composition, look to USC (though they do have good people to train art music, too). The San Francisco Conservatory has a composition teacher for just about everything. SUNY Buffalo, weirdly enough, has a few fantastic people, including soprano/composer/conductor/doing-everything-person Tony Arnold.

An old professor of mine took his free-improvisatory combo and played for rush-hour traffic on a freeway once - he said they appreciated it. Maybe it's just a question of finding the right situation: a bully pulpit, or a captive audience. I must admit that I'm guilty of the former; when I play church services as a guest artist (meaning that I'm basically unregulated), I tend to stick in a few pieces of contemporary art music. Most recently, it was Schoenberg's Kleine Klavierstücke (not truly contemporary, I know), but I've also done some Cage, Crumb, Webern, Rouse, Rakowski, and the like. I think not being able to escape makes people like things a little bit more, because the choice is "listen or don't listen," instead of "listen or do something while not listening." Maybe a drive-thru would be a good place to set up an ensemble.

It's my understanding that in general, opus numbers are applied to published works. Of course, if you're publishing your own works, then you have to figure out some way of numbering them.

I've also seen the circle notation used in reference to artificial harmonics too - generally if the composer gets lazy and doesn't want to figure out what harmonic to use ahead of time.

I understand now - that makes some good sense, scoring each opera for a basic progression of vocal maturation. Does this mean you are writing all seven operas simultaneously, filling in pieces like puzzles? I'm very familiar with The Little Prince - it's a wonderful work with some great parts for children's voices - as well as some roles which are wonderfully flexible, taking into account a range of developmental progress. (My music degree's focus was in composition, and within that major, I chose to focus on opera and vocal music.)

Without a visible score or a specific dramatic moment to relate to, I can't say too much about this excerpt in a dramatic sense. I can comment in terms of its technical aspects however. First, if this is an opera for children's voices, the orchestra is oddly large. In addition, the orchestration is oddly dense. Even the best-trained child vocalists will have a hard time projecting above such density without straining and risking injury. I would look to many of Britten's theatrical works for reference in how developing voices are treated in solo (particularly "Turn of the Screw"). Must get started on dinner - more to come!

This is truly beautiful music. It's very well constructed, and has good momentum throughout. Your "organ-stration" is commendable. However, I think you might call this a piece for soprano, rather than mezzo. While this singer clearly does alright with such a high tessitura, your standard mezzo repertoire sits a good third lower than this. A dramatic soprano, on the other hand, would sing this with little to no trouble at all. Also - check some of her pitches - they're occasionally slightly off. Great job with the piece!

Very nice! I like the parallel structures through the three repetitions of the verse. One thing I might explore in future projects is working a little closer with the voices as orchestration - considering the different weights and textures of divisi, soli, and other subdivisions thereof to generate a little more textural interest.

"It's a small world after all, It's a small world after all, It's a small world after all, It's a small, small world..."