PERSONAE (1981) 1. Jackson Pollock:The War Goddess mp3Jules Eskin, cello,Edwin Barker, bass
MP3: Play audio file (personae1.pollock.mp3)
PERSONAE (1981) 2. Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn: St Peter in Prison mp3Jules Eskin, cello,Edwin Barker, bass
MP3: Play audio file (personae2.rembrandt.mp3)
PERSONAE (1981) 3. Rene Magritte: The Reckless Sleeper mp3Jules Eskin, cello,Edwin Barker, bass
MP3: Play audio file (personae3.magritte.mp3)
PERSONAE (1981) 4. Mark Rothko: Music for Rothko Chapel mp3Jules Eskin, cello,Edwin Barker, bass
MP3: Play audio file (personae4.rothko.mp3)
ARIAS for cello and piano (1989) 1. Cl’airea mp3Ronald Leonard, cello, Antoinette Perry, piano. This movement written for the wedding of Paul Reale and Claire Rydell.
MP3: Play audio file (arias-cello1.clairea.mp3)
ARIAS for cello and piano 2. Mount Shasta mp3Dedicated to the memory of Charlie Swigart.
MP3: Play audio file (arias-cello2.mount_shasta.mp3)
ARIAS for cello and piano 3. In Paris mp3Dedicated to John Hall and the memories of our trip there in 1989.
MP3: Play audio file (arias-cello3.in_paris.mp3)
I seem to have been obsessed with lumping sets of four movements or songs in most of the music from this period. Like Four Painters, this piece paints musical portraits of four poets. The process of trying to figure out how to express the musical persona of a particular poet is a mysterious one but an exciting one for a composer. As I have been “inspired” by paintings, and have set poetry, this compositional exercise turned the tables a bit and allowed me to look at another side of poets: the one projected by their poetry, which may not necessarily be the persona they had in life.
James Merrill and I were friends. He let me stay in the maid’s quarters in his New York apartment. I’ve always had a hard time setting his poetry as I prefer to hear him, or imagine him reading it.
This work is for string quartet and was commissioned by, dedicated to and premiered by The Ives Quartet.
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Four Poets (2005) for string quartet
MP3: Play audio file (4poets1.pound.mp3)
Ezra Pound
MP3: Play audio file (4poets2.schiller.mp3)
Friedrich Schiller
MP3: Play audio file (4poets3.merrill.mp3)
James Merrill
MP3: Play audio file (4poets4.williams.mp3)
William Carlos Williams
Music: Roger Bourland Performers: The Ives Quartet Publisher: Yelton Rhodes Music
I’ve had a life-long habit of composing music inspired by paintings. In this piece, I’ve decided to compose musical portraits of four painters. I loved this commission, my most recent from Pacific Serenades, and would do another in a heartbeat. The musical language is related to American Baroque in my mind.
MP3: Play audio file (4painters1.picasso.mp3)
1. Picasso
MP3: Play audio file (4painters2.thbenton.mp3)
2. Thomas Hart Benton
MP3: Play audio file (4painters3.man_ray.mp3)
3. Man Ray
MP3: Play audio file (4painters4.matisse.mp3)
4. Henri Matisse
Music: Roger Bourland Publisher: Pacific Serenades Music
Cantilena was commissioned for the first season of the award-winning Los Angeles chamber music ensemble, Pacific Serenades. The premiere was in the home of Leland Burns. This work was originally written for flutist, composer, and director of PacSer, Mark Carlson. Alden Ashforth had advised me to compose long lines for Mark as “…he plays as though he were a violinist.”
The performance here is one by Gary Gray, professor of clarinet at UCLA, and Thomas Harmon playing organ (Tom also played the premiere with Mark), both good friends.
This little piece has please quite a few, but it has annoyed some as well. I put it on a Composers in Red Sneakers concert in Boston and it stuck out like a sore thumb — wrong venue, even though that performance featured a soprano sax. The Boston Globe called the piece “treacle.” Hmmm.
MP3: Play audio file (cantilena.clar.mp3)
Cantilena (1981) Music: Roger Bourland Publisher: ECS Publishing Performers: Tom Harmon, organ; Gary Gray, clarinet
Death of Narcissus was composed for one of the Composers in Red Sneakers concerts. In that we were all students, we had composition assignments for our classes and had to keep producing for the Sneakers series, we had to compose all the time to keep up. This one was composed very quickly. It was one of the two pieces I composed while house-sitting for John and Rosemary Harbison. (I copied parts for John’s first symphony that summer.) I love the fantastical flow of this piece, and the eccentric form.
I’d like to revisit this piece and tidy up a few loose edges.
MP3: Play audio file (death_of_narcissus.mp3)
Death of Narcissus (1980) Music: Roger Bourland Richard Cornell conducts the Red Sneakers chamber ensemble Publisher: Yelton Rhodes Music
AMERICAN BAROQUE was commissioned by Mark Carlson and Pacific Serenades for their 1991-92 season. Like many of the music I was writing at that time, the form of the word is roughly palindrdomic, for instance ABCDEDC’B'A’. The sewing machine quality of the melody is something you will hear in this piece that vaguely evokes Baroque string music. I was in love with Ravel chamber music at that time, so you will hear a bit of that in the texture.
The chamber music I wrote in the early 1980s had a distinct Americana flavor to it. I say farewell to Americana in this piece, as my SEVEN POLLOCK PAINTING was an exorcism from atonality.
MP3: Play audio file (american_baroque.mp3)
American Baroque (1992) for piano trio Music: Roger Bourland Performers: Mark Kaplan, vln; Antonio Lysy, vcl; Walter Ponce, pno Publisher: Yelton Rhodes Music
Mel Shapiro
I’m doing the music to a short film by Mel Shapiro called INFRARED. Mel, as you may remember, wrote the book and lyrics to HOMER IN CYBERSPACE — a musical we premiered last years. I’m playing all the parts myself using Logic 9 (just arrived yesterday). It’s the smokiest, jazziest music I’ve composed to date, but somehow the material seems to call for it. The orchestration so far is piano, pizz acoustic bass, brush light drums, and sustained strings. I’ve got a muted trumpet obbligato line in each cue if we need it — I’m leaving it out because it interferes with the dialog, but by itself, the chord progression is screaming for a melody. So, I’ll probably string together a piece made from cues from INFRARED and if we end up using the trumpet melodies, I’ll get a REAL trumpeter to play that line.
[I have some advice for electronic musicians in emulating monophonic instruments (i.e. instruments that can only play one note at a time) on a keyboard: don't let notes overlap; use ONE FINGER to play the melody whenever possible. You'll find this works surprisingly well, especially for brass. This won't work for fast passagework, of course.]
The “hit” song from the 38 minute film is called “Terrible” which is a very infectious Vaudevillian-type song that I know people will like.
Rosarium: A Drama for Chorus and Orchestra
Act 1: Flower and Song
1. Prologue
MP3: Play audio file (rosarium1.prologue.mp3)
2. The Arrival
MP3: Play audio file (rosarium2.arrival.mp3)
3. Tenochtitlan
MP3: Play audio file (rosarium3.tenochtitlan.mp3)
4. Tepeyac
MP3: Play audio file (rosarium4.tepeyac.mp3)
5. (Link)
MP3: Play audio file (rosarium5.dont_you_know_me.mp3)
6. Santa Maria
MP3: Play audio file (rosarium6.santa_maria.mp3)
Music: Roger Bourland Lyrics: William MacDuff UCLA Chorale and the Angeles Chorale UCLA Philharmonia UCLA Opera Workshop Conducted by Donald Neuen
LIBRETTO
Rosarium
Prologue: First Song of the End-Time
Herald (Tenor Solo) Behold the End-Time, dark days, dark days of holocaust and insurrection. The End-Time is come!
Chorus Warring images collide: the orphans and the amputees, bewildered brides arrayed in black and highways thick with refugees. I am Sarajevo, Kigali and Beirut. I am a house divided, the sniper and the parricide. The global village trembles and braces for attack. Surely these are final days!
Herald Behold the End-Time, strange days, strange days of irony and deconstruction. The End-Time is come!
Chorus There’s a loud, insistent wail in the Land of the Disenchanted, where justice is a thing-for-sale and compassion is out of fashion. I am California and New Jerusalem. I am the late Utopia, the Promise spent and Hope denied. The bureaucrats assemble to handle the details. Surely these are final days!
Herald Behold the End-Time: fierce days! “Vengeance is mine!” cries the Earth… Read the rest of this entry »
The Crocodile’s Christmas Ball and other odd tales (2002) Music: Roger Bourland Lyrics: William MacDuff UCLA Chorale, Donald Neuen, Director UCLA Wind Ensemble, D. Thomas Lee, Director Roger Bourland, conducting
1. Tropical Christmas
MP3: Play audio file (crocxball1.mp3)
2. A Proper Cat Reflects upon the Holidays
MP3: Play audio file (crocxball2.mp3)
3. After Halloween
MP3: Play audio file (crocxball3.mp3)
4. Santa Claws (Daniel Cummings, tenor)
MP3: Play audio file (crocxball4.mp3)
5. Down Home Christmas on Mars (Roger Bourland, solo)
MP3: Play audio file (crocxball5.mp3)
6. The Crocodile’s Christmas Ball (Tim Mussard, baritone)
MP3: Play audio file (crocxball6.mp3)
7. It Isn’t Christmas (Juliana Gondek, soprano)
MP3: Play audio file (crocxball7.mp3)
8. A Fly on the Wall
MP3: Play audio file (crocxball8.mp3)
LYRICS
The snow is falling The sleigh-bells calling All across the frozen North. It’s oh, so grand In this winter wonderland, Now is the very best of times! But it’s December the twenty-fourth And I’m longing for warmer climes… I’m dreaming of a tropical Christmas Just like I knew when I was young, Where palm trees sway Beside the bay And Santa Claus rides In an open Chevrolet. I’m dreaming of a tropical Christmas Whenever “Silent Night” is sung, Where Santa and His elves are tanned And carolers sing With a mariachi band. Deck the malls with cotton snowballs, Paint a frost on the window pane. Christmas can be just as jolly With a holly Made of polyurethane. I’m dreaming of a tropical Christmas Where lights on lemon trees are hung. The snow-bird sports Black socks and shorts And flocks to his kind By the pools and tennis courts. Christmas day we’ll open presents Then we’ll swim in the balmy sea. After dinner we’ll retire To perspire By the fire on TV. I’m dreaming of a tropical Christmas Just like I knew when I was young. Where moonlight pours On sandy shores I’m longing to go In December, for it seems A merry Christmas Is the very Christmas You remember in your dreams. Read the rest of this entry »
