Incline, O Maiden is a large-scale work cast as a dramatic scene for mezzo-soprano and chamber ensemble. It is an exploration of space between music and drama, and the problems inherent in creating a single-character operatic scene. This paper, which serves as an accompaniment to the musical score, is a detailed analysis of the work and focuses on the ways in which form and recurring music motives are used to establish a dramatic conflict with only a single character. The libretto for this dramatic scene is extracted from the play, Faust: A Tragedy, by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832), written in 1808, with English translation by Bayard Taylor (1825-1878). This libretto is centered on the character of Margaret, an original addition to the Faust legend by Goethe, and is a depiction of her inner psychological turmoil as she becomes a willing victim of Faust's seduction. The story begins as Margaret has just met Faust and quickly becomes infatuated with him, and continues through the death of her mother. Composed as a single movement, this piece is divided into two major parts for each of the two sections of action in the libretto. Each major part is further divided into smaller formal sections that are supported and delineated by five major motives that serve as the vast majority of the musical material, and are at the forefront of each formal and dramatic division in the work. Recurring musical motives, sometimes known as leitmotivs, have a long history in opera dating back to Wagner, and in this work, explore how tradition is part of the modern creative process. In Incline, O Maiden, despite the absence of interplay between characters, and given the internal struggle at the heart of the libretto, an indelible link between the drama and music is made meaningful by the unified thematic nature of the music. / text

Symphony no. 2 is a three-movement work for band. Each movement is dedicated to a pivotal figure in my development as a composer. The first movement is a march/scherzo based on octatonic collections, the second movement is a passacaglia modeled after the style of Philip Glass, and the third movement is a theme and variations written in my own personal style. Additionally, all three movements contain references to the hymn "Blessed Assurance" in gradually more obvious forms as the work progresses, although only the third movement includes an outright statement of the tune. This treatise consists of the full score for the symphony, followed by a discussion of the programmatic, formal, harmonic, and motivic elements of the music. / text

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Trails by a River, for Large Orchestra and Electronic Sounds (MAX/MSP), is a work in which different compositional techniques come together. The work can be characterized as being in an eclectic style, involving aspects of practices such as micro polyphony, pointillism, spectralism, computer music, tonality, and other non-tonal categories. Although it cannot be referred to as a work that represents a style with a specific ethno-cultural background, the rhythmic foundations of certain parts are derived from some modern Afro-Brazilian folk genres, such as candomblé, mostly present in the Northeastern part of that country. The electronic part is conceived as a timbral extension of the orchestral sounds, and the MAX/MSP patcher used to generate it has a graphical interface that is designed to be a compositional tool. Hence, it can also be used for future projects. The overall formal design of the work can be described as being a multi-part form, with an almost continuous flow between the sections.

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