Diamonds In The Rough

As with my previous two albums (Blueprints and Synthetic Sinfonias), this music has all been done with MIDI sound patches from my computer software instead of played on real instruments.  Again, I hope the listener will be patient with the somewhat mechanical sounds that will inevitably be heard.  Please use your imagination and think of it as if played by real musicians. 

Music for Percussion and Bass: i) Allegro alla marcia; ii) Allegro insidioso; iii) Andante--ninna-nanna; iv) Allegro balinese; v) Rondo: Allegro frenetico.  At times avant-garde and experimental.

Kevin Brown's New Home--dedicated to my late brother-in-law, who died of cancer several years ago, this piece is very gentle, sedate and traditional in harmony. 

Allegro Bizzarro--a very avant-garde and experimental piece, it is my only composition to use Schoenberg's twelve-tone system.  This is the tone row: A-flat, F, B, E-flat, G, D, A-natural, B-flat, C, D-flat, E-natural, and G-flat.  It is atonal, so don't expect anything even remotely resembling Tchaikovsky.  It is 'bizarre' because of its sudden shifts from one musical idea to another.

Harpsichord Sonata #2 in D-Major: i) Les Noirs; ii) Les Femmes; iii) Tambourin.  The first movement is inspired by funk and jazz, the second by old Genesis twelve-string acoustic guitar music, and the third merges themes from the first two movements.

Wind Quintet: i) Allegro vivace ma non troppo; ii) Adagio dolce e cantabile; iii) Scherzo e trio; iv) Rondo: allegro vertiginoso.  At times jazz-like, at times experimental (especially the last movement).

Piano Sonata: i) Allegro africano; ii) Andante arpeggiato; iii) Allegro sinistro.  The rhythms you hear in the first movement will easily explain its title, as will the melodic style of the second movement and the mood of the third.  This is another very experimental piece: I'm using a harmonic system of my own devising, based on equal octave divisions--those that would result in a tritone, a diminished seventh chord, an augmented triad, the whole-tone scale and all twelve semitones.  Different chords and melodic ideas come from combining intervals of these equal divisions with parallels of them transposed to different keys.