Faculty composition recordings and related pieces from the Sunderman Conservatory of Music at Gettysburg College.
-
Rafael Petitón Guzmán: A Dominican Musical Treasure on the World Stage
Rafael Petitón Guzmán, John Bimbiras, Paul Austerlitz, and Porfino Piña
Reconstructed from Maestro Petitón’s original musical manuscripts by CUNY DSI Research Associate John Bimbiras with the use of the Sibelius music-writing software, the professionally recorded and mixed production presents new interpretations of Petitón’s original compositions, including well-known genres such as the merengue and bolero as well as less prominent musical types such as the criolla and paso-doble. It features an orchestra, directed by Mr. Bimbiras and Ray “Chino” Díaz, which is comprised of New York’s finest Latin musicians, ensembled especially for this project. The album also features four brilliant Dominican singers: Pavel Nuñez, Manny Cruz, Luis Armando Rivera, and Luis López, who came together to bring Maestro Petitón’s lyrics to life. The meticulous process of reconstructing and recording this music has forged a product worthy of Maestro Petitón’s creative excellence, and is sure to enchant listeners, almost a half of a century after Maestro Petitón’s glorious years. (Description from CUNY Dominican Studies Institute)
-
The Music of Brian Balmages, Volume 1
Russell G. McCutcheon
Brian Balmages is an award-winning composer whose music has been performed throughout the world with commissions ranging from elementary schools to professional orchestras. The Sunderman Conservatory Wind Symphony, led by conductor Russell McCutcheon, presents The Music of Brian Balmages Vol. 1 on the Mark Masters label. This recording features eight of Balmages works for wind band. Trumpet soloist Steven Marx joins McCutcheon and the Sunderman Conservatory Wind Symphony for the recording premiere of the beautiful Trust in Angels. The ensemble moves through contemporary styles in Metal, Industrial Loops and Primal Dances; honors protestors and revolutionaries old and new in Within the Castle Walls (Songs of Welsh Revolution) and Shrine of the Fallen (Kiev, 2014); and showcases Balmages compositional lyricism and creativity in Rippling Watercolors and Spontaneous Beings.
-
Double Concerto (2019)
Avner Dorman
Composer note:
When I was first approached by Pinchas Zukerman and Amanda Forsyth to write a double concerto for them, I was ecstatic. I grew up admiring Zukerman's playing, hearing him at the Israel Philharmonic as often as I could. Hearing the two of them play together years later was completely enchanting. I wanted to write a piece the explored the relationship between the two soloists — not only their instruments. How do they interact with one another? What is the interplay between the soloists and the orchestra? How does a modern-day concerto reflect both a long musical tradition and our present time?
The piece is neoclassical in some aspects. It follows a general fast-slow-fast three-movement structure, and there are contrasting themes in each movement. Each movement develops these themes throughout the form. The soloists begin the piece almost wistfully, with a certain sense of nostalgia for older concertos. Against that longing for the past, the orchestra pushes for modern rhythms, harmonies, and orchestral colors.
In the first movement, the soloists oscillate between fighting against the orchestra and joining its exciting harmonies and rhythms. While the orchestra adopts some of the older materials that the soloists present, it ultimately engulfs them with its drive. At the outset of the second movement the soloists try again to return to the past. They play a sweet melody in octaves accompanied by a simple Alberti bass, and for a period of time this seems to work. Yet this time, it is the cello who strays away from the original theme. The soloists no longer appear as a unified group; their conflict leads to an intimate duet. At the conclusion of the movement the conflict subsides, and the soloists seem to find a new way to coexist, with the orchestra now in support of their reunification. The third movement is both energetic and expressive, and all voices seem to have found a way to cooperate and exist together. The two main themes no longer yearn for the past, now allowing a playful interplay between the soloists as a group with the orchestra. Each of the soloists gets the opportunity to shine individually, at times with interjecting allusions to the past (quotes and misquotes alike). By the conclusion, this nostalgia has passed, and in its place is an acknowledgement — a tribute, celebrating the relationships, the individuals, and the history of the concerto.
— Avner Dorman -
Letters from Gettysburg
Avner Dorman
Avner Dorman has fast become one of the most sought-after composers of his generation. In 2018, he received the prestigious Azrieli Prize for composition for his second violin concerto. His debut opera, Wahnfried, commissioned by Staatstheater Karlsruheas a counterpoint to their new Ring cycle in 2017, received unanimous and enthusiastic reviews, and was a nominee in the 2018 International Opera Awards, in the category of World Premiere.
Letters from Gettysburg, a work scored for soprano, baritone, large chorus,and percussion, is the centerpiece in this all-Dorman release. Written in 2013 to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg, it was commissioned by the Gettysburg College American Civil War Sesquicentennial Planning Committee. Following its premiere, Letters from Gettysburg was broadcast on radio stations across the U.S., including KUSC, WWFM, and WETA.
The text for Letters from Gettysburg, Dorman writes, “comes mostly from letters written by 1st Lieutenant Rush P. Cady – Co. K, 97th New York Infantry, who was fatally wounded during the Battle of Gettysburg and died a few days later. ”In five movements, organized in symmetrical arc form, Letters from Gettysburg displays Dorman’s soulful expression as a composer, combined with inventive vocal writing. These powerful texts are poignantly supported by percussion scoring that creates an almost supernatural ambience, recalling the tragic events of the War.
Coupled on this recording are two Dorman works commissioned by Orli and Gil Shaham. Dorman composed After Brahms, three short pieces for solo piano, for Orli Shaham’s solo project, “Brahms Inspired.” In each of the movements, Dorman cleverly extends the harmonic language of Brahms while still preserving the stylistic vernacular of his own music. The violin sonata, Nigunim, was commissioned by Orli and her brother Gil for a “Hebrew Melodies” project, released on Canary Classics in 2012. Nigunim draws on the musical influences of Jewish song, hailing from locations around the world – Africa, the Caucasus, the Balkans, and Central Asia. With these global influences, the listener can imagine, hypothetically, the music of the Ten Lost Tribes. After Nigunim’s premiere, San Diego Today affirmed that “it was hard to miss [its] visceral excitement and structural elegance,” and the Boston Globe admired the “uncommonly intriguing sounds.”
Hailed as a “brilliant young Israeli composer” by Stephen Brookes in The Washington Post, Dorman is currently an associate professor of composition at the Sunderman Conservatory of Music at Gettysburg College. He is also an active conductor, having served as music director of CityMusic Cleveland Chamber Orchestra for six years.
-
Now (2018)
Avner Dorman
Worlds are turned upside down for two couples when a partner in each couple undergoes a gender transition. Based on true events, Now explores losing what you thought you had and gaining something you could never imagine.
-
Still (Violin Concerto No. 3)
Avner Dorman
Composer note:
According to Buddhist traditions and some prominent Western philosophers, only when the mind is still can we see the world clearly. Being still, or finding a still mind is the goal of many meditative practices and traditions.
In my third violin concerto, titled Still, I looked to explore these ideas through music. In this sense the piece is quite spiritual in its conception: can one find deep silence and calm in an art form that begins with sound?
As in most concertos, the protagonist of the piece is the soloist. The violin searches for silence and calm in the notes and the phrases with which it is familiar. The piece alludes to musical styles of the past as a symbol of one’s thoughts, as these elements of history make up a great deal of our memories and reflections. The piece is constructed in one movement, which can be divided into four large parts:- Opening section, in which the soloist and orchestra meditate slowly on materials alluding to mostly Renaissance and Baroque music, with specific quotes from J.S. Bach and Josquin Des Prez. Brief outbursts of energy foreshadow the struggles of the violin to find stillness despite internal and external distractions.
- Fast tutti section in which the struggles of the protagonist grow and take over the soloist’s attention. The violin attempts to fight them with a variety of musical weapons, from technical passages to new allusions to expressive outbursts and familiar harmonic structures. None of these attempts are successful, and, in fact, they only add fuel to the energy and push our protagonist away from stillness. At the culmination of the movement the soloist breaks down and cannot compete with its own ideas, now manifested in the orchestra in a tutti whirlwind that seems to spin out of control.
- In the cadenza, the soloist moves from extreme anguish through its own emotions back to balance and seeking calmness. At the end of the cadenza the soloist abandons all ideas and settles on on its lowest string, symbolizing the violin’s true unconditioned nature.
- A slow finale begins with the orchestra still fighting the soloist. However, the long open G string is infectious in its stillness — soon enough the raucous discord is over, and the orchestra joins the soloist in the renewed meditation. Some outbursts remain, but they begin to abate. In the violin’s own open strings, its natural state provides stillness and calm. As the meditation grows deeper, the notes get longer and softer, and the changes occur less and less frequently until time seems to stand still.
— Avner Dorman
-
Eternal Rhythm
Avner Dorman
Composer note:
Rhythm is, perhaps, the most fundamental aspect of music. In fact, the basic properties of rhythm express the essential signs of life. Without a pulse, we cannot live. Without pulsation and repetitive motion, the physical world cannot exist. To the best of our knowledge, the universe began with a large impulse, and the resulting oscillations, pulses, and beats, are what we still experience — an Eternal Rhythm that stretches from the beginning of time in perpetuity.
The concerto begins with a short introduction based on the harmonic series of overtones. Structured in five movements, each part is connected by a short interlude that echoes the familiar introduction. Each of the movements echoes the general idea of the harmonic series — an infinite series of oscillations — in a different way. The soloist alternates between a variety of percussion instruments, including vibraphone, marimba, glockenspiel, and crotales, as well as a melodic set of tom-tom drums and a variety of tin cans and cow bells.
The music of the Balinese Gamelan inspires much of the first movement, employing a limited number of pitches, yet organizing them in complex rhythmic cycles. As in Gamelan music, metallic keyboard percussion features prominently, along with a variety of flute-like melodic combinations. As the movement progresses, energy accumulates leading to a virtuosic drumming section. The movement ends with a simple tune that repeats and recalls the opening materials.
The second movement begins with an expressive chromatic melody. The accompanying figure employs spiral structures oscillating at perfect fifths (the second interval of the harmonic series). As the movement develops, more spirals and melodic lines emerge and weave together into a complex web.
Rhythmic and angular, the third movement is structured as a call and response between the orchestra and soloist. Rising scales and syncopated rhythms come together to create a movement that is both light-hearted and energetic. While the scales initially appear to be standard at the outset, every few notes, a "wrong" interval appears. As a result, as the scale rises, the music arrives at different and unexpected places. While the harmony of the movement is completely consonant (again drawn from the natural harmonic series), the rate of change is so fast that our ears hear what they interpret as "dissonance."
The heart of the piece is its fourth movement. Featuring a Hebrew text from the 11th century, this movement raises deep questions regarding our interaction as conscious beings with the physical world:
Does the tear know whose cheek it runs down, Or the heart by whom it is turned? It turns to its light that is now in the ground, And the ground knows not who has returned. Returned is a grandee of our town, A man who feared God and was upright and learned.
(original poem by Yehuda Halevi, translated by Hillel Halkin)
The text figuratively reverses the roles of consciousness and physicality, asking whether one's tears know who is crying them and whether the earth knows who lays in it. At this point in the piece we realize that the rhythm of life and rhythm of the universe are one and the same; our experience of the world is inevitably linked to the pulse of the universe and the oscillation of matter and energy.
The work ends with an exuberant movement: a celebration of life, energy and an ever-present and eternal rhythm.
— Avner Dorman -
Nigunim (Violin Concerto No. 2)
Avner Dorman
Concerto for Violin and Orchestra inspired by Jewish folk music from around the world.
-
The Complete Chopin Etudes
Jocelyn Swigger
This album includes the complete Chopin etudes with some original ornaments. Jocelyn Swigger recorded on an 1841 Paris Erard piano (from Chopin's lifetime), tuned to a historical temperament devised specifically for Chopin.
-
Gettysburg at 150: Music of the American Civil War
Russell G. McCutcheon
Russell McCutcheon, Associate Professor of Music and Director of Bands, Sunderman Conservatory of Music, recorded "Gettysburg at 150: Music of the American Civil War" (Mark Records 50696-MCD) as conductor of the Sunderman Conservatory Wind Symphony. This recording includes the premiere recordings of "Unknown Heroes of the Civil War" by Craig Thomas Naylor and "Gettysburg Triumphant" by F. William Sunderman.
-
Cochran Chamber Commissioning Series, Volume 1
Russell G. McCutcheon
Conservatory of Music, published a recording: "Cochran Chamber Winds Commissioning Series, Volume 1" as conductor of the Atlantic Chamber Winds. This recording features the music of Adam Gorb, Shelley Hanson, Daniel Kallman and Clark McAlister.
-
Afterward
Jocelyn Swigger
Compact disc program notes:
It seemed fitting to end this program, with its layers of notation and improvisation, with my own improvised reflection. These four short baubles are what came out at the end of the recording session when, steeped in syncopation, I found myself also hungry for dissonance and simplicity.
Jocelyn Swigger
