This organ piece was composed for David Bohn’s 2013 Vox Novus “Fifteen-Minutes-of-Fame” call for scores, where he would choose and play, in concert, 15 pieces of 60 seconds each submitted by composers. He chose my piece, “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Airport,” to close the recital, which took place in Appleton, WI on June 12, 2013.
It is a cheery “baseball rag” in AABA form.
Here is his recording of the concert:
https://youtu.be/fjENiXrFvj0?si=T98xF-J5L4XfRu3w&t=995
La Persecución/Slow Speed Chase
I wrote this during my UCLA Extension Certificate Program (2010-2011). This specific assignment was given by professor Robert Drasnin, and part of the assignment was that it had to be influenced by Stravinsky and had to follow timing notes for a car chase. It was recorded at the studio of the former Vine St location of Local 47 by session orchestra players.
Ragtime No. 21 "Banana Rag"
A short and simple AABBA’ rag in C, written in Shanghai in 2016. I nicknamed it “Banana” because I at first thought the main motif subconsciously came from one of the strains of “The Banana Boat Song” (“tally me banana”)- but, when rehearing the song to confirm whether or not it was the same, I realized it wasn’t quite it. It turns out I’d misheard the strain all along, and because it wasn’t the same, no copyright violation occurred; I didn’t have to shelve the rag.
Ragtime No. 22
A paratonal piano rag I wrote in 2016 in Shanghai, It has four sections, with the form AABBACCDD. Each time the theme is repeated, it is varied slightly via accidentals.
A video of the score is here:
Joropo for Harp
This sylized joropo was written ca. 2016 in Shanghai. It uses several cliche joropo devices. in 3/4 / 6/8, it changes meter to 4/4 before the coda.
The track was produced by Ravel Virtual Studios and was included in my first album, Ode to Man, available on Spotify, Amazon, Apple Music, Pandora and more.
Fugato and Canon in A
This piece for strings was written in Boston ca. 2006/7. The first part is a rather conventional fugato, followed by a modern-sounding canon that doesn’t sound like a canon, ending with a fugato closing that utilizes the theme from the canon and blends it with the fugue subject.
The track was produced by Ravel Virtual Studios. It was included in my first album, Ode to Man, available on Spotify, Amazon, Apple Music, Pandora and more.
Ragtime No. 18
This paratonal work for cello and trumpet was written in Shanghai in December 2014. It has four sections: A B, C and D. The material of C and D are meter-reworked version of A and B respectively, wherein A is in 4/4, B in 6/8, C the A material in 6/8, and D the B material in 4/4. Being paratonal, the notes dance around the tonally centered lines but not always exactly the same in each iteration of the same material.
You can see the sheet music, licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0, here:
Ragtime No. 18
Paraphrase No. 1
I wrote this piece for trombone and piccolo on May 17, 2013 in Los Angeles, CA. The conceit of it is that the trombone and piccolo each play the same long phrase, in their own register, but with different rhythms and starting times. In other words, they are saying the same things in different ways.
A link to the score, which is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0, is here:
The piece was premiered in 2023 by Mariaceli Navarro (Piccolo) and Alonso Olvera (Trombone) under the Piccolegio Youtube channel:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FC5AY2j2zww