Composition Recital - 6 original chamber works (Live) + bonus

[Corran]

I guess I should start with a little introduction. My name is Bryan Garris, and I'm a junior in college majoring in both music education and composition. You might know me from my one remix here. I am cross-posting this from VGMix2.5 in an effort to get some of my compositions "out there," or at least get some unbiased opinions on it! If you listen to anything, I'd love to hear from you. Anyways:

March 20th was my first composition recital featuring only my work. I had 6 original pieces that were performed by faculty and students from my college. They were all small ensembles. Anyway, here they are, for your possible enjoyment. Tell me what you think.

By the way, I did not play anything in this recital, so therefore I was able to run my entire mobile recording setup. These recordings were all made by me and my equipment.

Dark Wood, Dark Water

This is a piece for Soprano Voice, Oboe, and Piano. It's based on the poem by Sylvia Plath with the same name. The piece is sort of ethereal...It is fairly tonal but meanders a lot in different keys and modes. This was my first work with vocal music, and I think it turned out really well.

March for Woodwind Quintet

This woodwind quintet was written in 2005, and has been performed before. If you have kept up with my work you probably have heard it on my website. However, this recording and performance is 100x better! This work was composed before my current "21st century" style, so it's a little more tonal than everything else.

Sky High (Jazz Combo)

Another first, this is a jazz tune that I wrote for the first jazz combo at my college (they are really good). I did this over the Christmas break because I always wanted to write a jazz chart. I hope to do more, because this was a lot of fun to compose!

Vertical Modulations (String Quartet

Well, this string quartet is indicative of my current style. It's very 20th century writing, because it's directly influenced by John Adams and minimalism. You just have to hear it to understand. Interestingly, I got inspired and wrote this entire piece in 2 days. Anyway, this recording is not live, because the string quartet that played it on my recital kind of messed up a lot. If you want, that recording is here

Fantasy for Violin and Piano

This is another piece that has been performed before. However, this time it went a little smoother. I also added some material in the middle section. The work is in ABA form, and is written in the style of Paul Hindemith or Robert Muczynski, who I became familiar with by playing their flute sonatas.

Fourth Brass Quintet-

Andante et Vivace

Adagio non troppo

Vivo con moto

This three movement work was composed over the last year. It represents my changes as a composer. The first movement is fairly tonal but has some leanings towards dissonance and some pandiatonicism. The second movement starts fairly normal but with the addition of serial elements (12-tone) near the end it crescendos to the final chord, a dissonant Dm9. I regain my tonal center in the third movement, which is very scherzo-like, though the hintings of dissonance still stick around here and there. I love this piece and am looking into getting it published. Also, you might have already heard the first movement, but this recording is of a much better quality.

Videos:

I also recorded everything on tape! Though the quality was pretty bad (VHS). If you are interested though, here are the links:

Dark Wood, Dark Water

March for Woodwind Quintet

Sky High (Jazz Combo)

Fantasy for Violin and Piano

Fourth Brass Quintet

BONUS:

Finally, I just performed a piece on a small recital on piccolo. This recital was for the finalists in a competition to play a concerto with the Valdosta Symphony Orchestra. I was one of the finalists, obviously, but only the winner gets to play with the orchestra (though I was apparently a very, very close second). I got to play just with the piano, but it was still awesome, and the recording came out pretty good! So, here it is:

Concerto for Piccolo and Orchestra - Lowell Liebermann

Well, this is a ton of material, so I hope some of you will give it all a listen and leave me some feedback. This composition recital is the culmination of my work in the last 2 years, and I am very excited to post it here.

Thanks for listening!

-Corran

[Corran]

Well, this was an experiment. I guess OCR is just as bad with feedback as VGMix for non-remixes. Oh well.

[Red Shadow]

Pretty sure people dont come in here but once a week or so. I'll be likely to give these a listen later tonight and let you know what I think, though.

[Red Shadow]

I trust you'll forgive me for saying portions of Vertical Modulation sound an awful lot like they should be in a zelda game?

[Sil]

This is some pretty amazing stuff. Besides the composers you already mentioned, who else influences your work? Are you planning to write anything for a large ensemble such as concert band or orchestra?

[Corran]

I'll take that as a compliment, Red Shadow, though I didn't hear that myself. Any spot in particular?

Sil: There is a plethora of composers that I call my influences: John Adams, Paul Hindemith, Arnold Schoenberg, Robert Muczynski, David Holsinger, Robert W. Smith, Thomas Doss, etc etc etc.

I do plan on doing large-scale works in the future, but right now I feel that I am better prepared to do chamber works.