Chamber
Next Entries »Three Miniatures (Wind Quintet)
Monday, March 15th, 1993Wind Quintet (Flute, Oboe, Clarinet, French Horn, Bassoon), 3 Movements (1993) ca. 8′
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Download a perusal PDF of the score in a new window by clicking here.
Program Note:
Inspired by the poetry of Juan Ramon Jiménez, this piece was premiered by the North Woods Wind Quintet at the Weisman Art Museum in Minneapolis. It has subsequently been performed by the Emerald Winds (as part of an Encore Grant from the American Composers Forum), Imani Winds (usually as part of their music in the schools outreach programs) and Quintet of the Americas.
Do Not Go Gentle
Tuesday, September 15th, 1992Two Pianos, 3 Movements (1993, minor revisions later) ca. 13’
Premiered by Amy & Sara Hamann at the University of Minnesota.
Program Note:
Written as a memorial for my mother, Constance Mary Barrett, who had recently died from lung cancer three months shy of her fiftieth birthday. The sonata takes its title from a poem by Dylan Thomas. Do Not Go Gentle Sonata was premiered by Amy and Sara Hamann on November 15, 1993 at Ferguson Recital Hall in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Winner of an ASCAP Grant to Young Composers in 1994.
Jazz Suite (Clarinet & Piano)
Saturday, February 1st, 1992Bb Clarinet and Piano, 3 movements, (1992) ca. 8′
Premiered by Benjamin Coleman, Clarinet & Kee Poh Lim at Queens College, 1992.
Listen to the 2nd Movement, performed by Jen Gerth and Tracy Bradshaw:
jazzsuiteii.mp3
Purchase a PDF of the score and parts via Paypal for $6:
Program Note:
I wrote this piece for my friends Ben Coleman & Kee Poh Lim while we were students at Queens College, and it’s one of the few pieces from my student days that I’m still proud to have in my catalogue. It has been performed in several U.S. venues, but also in Canada and Europe. I began the piece as part of a jazz composition class that I was taking with the famous saxophonist and composer, Jimmy Heath. I was only a sophomore, and the rest of the class were all graduate students who knew the vocabularly of jazz forwards and backwards. I spent much of the semester playing catch-up, but got the basics down by the end.
Heart! We Will Forget Him!
Tuesday, January 1st, 1991Emily Dickinson, Text.
High Voice and Piano, ca. 2′
Premiered by ToniAnn Notarfrancesco & Kee Poh Lim at Queens College, 1991.Heart! We Will Forget Him!
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Heart! We will forget him!
You and I - tonight!
You may forget the warmth he gave -
I will forget the light!
When you have done, pray tell me
That I my thoughts may dim!
Haste! lest while you’re lagging
I may remember him!
Panta Rei (Saxophone Quartet or Clarinet Quartet)
Tuesday, November 30th, 1999Saxophone Quartet or Clarinet Quartet (1997, rev. 2007) One movement, ca. 8’
Premiered by the Amherst Saxophone Quartet in Buffalo, New York.
“The other premiere was Charles Griffin’s Panta Rei, a pulsing, fast, free-flowing piece of tight, dense textures and few open spaces, save for an island of rather uneasy repose in the middle.” - The Buffalo News (9/19/99)
Purchase a PDF of the score and parts via PayPal for $10:
Here’s a video of Quattro Differente, from their recent performance at Rigas Jaunais Teatris in Riga, Latvia:
Program Note:
Next Entries »Panta Rei is a Greek expression attributed to Heraclitus, a philosopher who lived from 536 to 470 BC. The expression is meant to capture the experience of the flow of time. He argued that “One cannot step into the same stream twice, for other waters and yet others go ever flowing on;” that everything is constantly changing, from the smallest grain of sand to the stars in the sky. This description is also appropriate for a great deal of music, the art form most dependent on the flow of time and our experience of that flow. I came upon this quote and the idea for this piece after reading James Gleick’s “Chaos: Making a New Science.”