ALL WORKS VOCAL CHORAL OPERA / MUSICAL THEATRE CHAMBER ORCHESTRA/BAND
The Raven
incidental music for string orchestra and timpani
based on a theme by Edvard Grieg; 10′ (2013)
(commissioned by the Elgin Symphony Orchestra)
composer’s note: “The Raven” was written as underscoring to be played by a live orchestra underneath a dramatic reading of Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Raven.” It takes the beautiful, mournful “Aase’s Death” from Grieg’s “Peer Gynt” as source material, but elaborates on that work, expanding and deepening it. The most obvious addition is a somber 3-note timpani figure that comes back over and over again, echoing the 3-syllable “nevermore” that repeats throughout Poe’s poem. Like the original Grieg work, “The Raven” is a very spare piece of music, but it takes that empty quality and adds even more ominous foreboding, creating a gothic, spooky mood that just can’t be shaken off.
sample page:
incidental music for string orchestra and timpani
based on a theme by Edvard Grieg; 10′ (2013)
(commissioned by the Elgin Symphony Orchestra)
composer’s note: “The Raven” was written as underscoring to be played by a live orchestra underneath a dramatic reading of Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Raven.” It takes the beautiful, mournful “Aase’s Death” from Grieg’s “Peer Gynt” as source material, but elaborates on that work, expanding and deepening it. The most obvious addition is a somber 3-note timpani figure that comes back over and over again, echoing the 3-syllable “nevermore” that repeats throughout Poe’s poem. Like the original Grieg work, “The Raven” is a very spare piece of music, but it takes that empty quality and adds even more ominous foreboding, creating a gothic, spooky mood that just can’t be shaken off.
sample page:
