In the Midst of Life is a highly-virtuosic concertino for solo guitarist and chamber orchestra. The piece explores variations of makamic intervallic structures—complex melody types and modes in traditional Middle Eastern Music—and builds the formal architecture and the pitch material upon makamic textural and melodic relations. / text

In February of 2009 I began collaborating with the poet Margot Lurie on a series of songs for soprano voice and a large chamber ensemble. We worked separately for the following year and a half, meeting intermittently to exchange ideas and materials. I chose three poems of similar tone and thematic content, each illustrating a different "scene" which serves as a metaphor revealing a perspective of the human condition. Then I composed the music to support the text, preserving its raw clarity by allowing the piece to unfold on the surface level through simple harmonies and a primarily conjunct, speech-like vocal melody, as well as by controlling the density of instrumental textures and the rate at which new pitch information is introduced. The multiple meanings of the title are reflected in the work on several representational levels: as the vocal melody is rendered (distilled) from the surrounding harmony, the harmonies themselves render (surrender) their perceptual weight to the text, which is in itself a rendering (depiction).

In 2005, Dennis Kam completed the Sonata Ibis which the ensemble Ibis Camerata premiered at the Festival Miami at the University of Miami that same year. The composition is the last of five versions of the same work, originally written for piano solo. The work was recorded by the Ibis Camerata, on their CD titled Glisten, and released in 2006 on the Albany Records music label. The composition presents an important addition to the existing repertoire for the ensemble of clarinet, violin, cello, and piano. Sonata Ibis is a single movement work not following traditional forms. The work reflects the composer's conscious aim of making works with different versions. One of the issues that this study takes up is the evolution of the Sonata Ibis through all five versions. Analysis of musical materials and techniques used in the Sonata are also a part of the study. One chapter of this paper deals with Dennis Kam's biography. One chapter discusses the formal structure and musical idiom of the work. Performance-related issues from the ensemble and a pianist perspective are discussed in the remaining two chapters.

Trinity is an original musical composition for chamber ensemble and electroacoustic music. It is approximately 32 minutes in duration. Trinity is inspired by the basic triune principles of traditional Christianity: three persons, one body. The piece combines modern acoustic and electronic compositional techniques--especially serialism--with formal structures that are inspired by the basic triune of Christianity, the Holy Trinity. The references for this supportive document concentrate on twentieth-century composers who composed music influenced by their religiosity and spirituality. Their music and religious philosophies consequently inspired the composition of Trinity. All of the electroacoustic sounds in Trinity are from pre-recorded instrument sounds that are digitally manipulated in various software. Through the use of existing compositional methods--especially serialism--and current electroacoustic music techniques, Trinity is part of a long tradition of religion and spirituality in music.

The inspiration for The Fallow Ground is the time period of the Second Great Awakening (1790-1840s) and, in particular, the life and impact of one of the period's central figures: Charles Grandison Finney. Finney was a lawyer-turned-evangelist whose preaching style led to explosive and emotional conversions and helped spread the fire of revival throughout the state of New York and eventually throughout the country. In The Fallow Ground I have taken different events from Finney's life and the revivalist culture to create musical analogs that examine and critique the events within a twenty-first century musical aesthetic. Quotation and allusion of revival period hymns play a significant part in The Fallow Ground. Inspired by the works of Ives, Crumb, Ligeti, and Schnittke, quotation is used in this piece to develop or subvert the material, thus creating different contextual meanings from familiar material. In this way, the quotation not only alludes to an idea outside of the piece, but also casts a critical view of that idea by its placement in the context of the piece. Concerning the instrumentation, The Fallow Ground is written for what is commonly called the Pierrot ensemble (flute, clarinet, violin, cello, piano, and percussion) with male soloist. In my piece, the soprano has been replaced by a baritone soloist. The piece, approximately thirty minutes in length, has a chiastic five-movement structure with each of the movements depicting certain events or concepts that were prevalent during the time of Charles Finney and the Second Great Awakening.

Babel is a work for rock ‘n’ roll band (two electric guitars, electric bass, drum set), four soprano singers, and a twenty-one instrument mixed chamber ensemble. The 50-minute composition is based on the Tower of Babel story in Genesis 11:1-9, and the four-movement structure is derived from the form of this narrative. The first movement, “building rebellion,” establishes man’s intent to build a grand city and tower in a rebellion against God, while the second movement, “seeing/coming down,” describes the all-seeing God’s knowledge of man’s rebellion and God’s descent to the city. Movements three and four, “confusion” and “scatter,” depict the actions of God, confusing humankind’s language and scattering him over the earth. This project fuses rock ‘n’ roll influences with contemporary classical improvisation, creating a work that is sonically and dynamically excessive. One compositional goal was to use small amounts of material as the impetus for directed improvisation, which would be developed to create intricate and evolving textures. Each movement’s score is confined to a single page of music per part, necessitating highly graphic and aleatoric notation. The musical history and musicianship of each player greatly shapes the sonic outcome of Babel. Rigorous structure was mixed with extra-musical associations to create intricate layers of musical and metaphorical meanings. Every decision regarding form, pitch, rhythm, and improvisatory state is linked to a meaningful mathematical, philosophical, or theological idea. Out of the intention to illustrate a multi-layered, Biblical text interpreted in vastly different ways, came a complex work of art that challenges, yet welcomes, performers and listeners of all kinds.

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Based on a story by Joshua Forehand with additional lyrics by Joshua Bradford, Clockwork Plums is an original musical work that integrates techniques and ideas from composers and different cultures. The accompanying essay about the work includes a summary of the story, "Clockwork Plums," some historical background covering 30 years of pop music, an analysis focusing on the use of African and Reichian compositional devices, and discussion about controlled improvisation and use of the voice as compositional tools. The music consists of three sections scored for 5 voices (lead male vocalist and SATB), flute (doubling tenor saxophone), Bb clarinet (doubling baritone saxophone), violin, cello, piano, electronic keyboard, electric guitar, electric bass, drum set, and percussion.