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Long Distance is a work for solo percussion (marimba and vibraphone), wind ensemble, and electronics consisting of four movements and lasting approximately twenty minutes. Each movement is designed to be able to stand on its own and, when multiple movements are performed, their order is flexible. A version of this piece with no wind ensemble also exists and was commissioned by a consortium of 33 percussionists. From its inception, this solo version was composed with the possibility of expansion to a larger instrumentation in mind. In this paper, I will discuss and analyze many of the factors and influences involved in my composition process for this piece. This will include performance techniques, extracting and utilizing musical material from field recordings, audio processing techniques, orchestration, drawing musical inspiration from non-musical sources, and stylistic juxtaposition. In addition, I will provide some background on how this commission came about and how composition as a collaborative process shaped this piece especially in the context of working with such a large and diverse consortium. / text

Songs out of Sorrow is a seven-movement work for wind ensemble and soprano. The text and title come from the second chapter of American poet Sara Teasdale’s collection Love Songs. The methodical use of trichord combinations provides the primary harmonic and melodic language of the work, creating rising tension through the first four movements and subsequent resolution through the final three. Movement one, Spirit’s House, utilizes non-functional triadic harmonies with the addition of fourths and seconds. The second movement, Mastery, contains whole tone language. An instrumental interlude precedes the vocal music of the third movement, Lessons. When the soprano enters, the harmonic material of the interlude intermingles with the octatonic nature of the vocal line to create a folk music quality. Another instrumental interlude follows, utilizing a truncated and re-orchestrated version of the musical material featured in the first interlude. This leads directly into the climatic fourth movement, Wisdom, which is characterized by chromatic lines and tritones. A subdued fifth movement, In a Burying Ground, follows, undulating with a percussion ostinato, which is also a feature of the first movement. Wood Song, the sixth movement, begins with a stylized birdcall based loosely on Messiaen's transcription of the call of the wood thrush, which is referenced in opening line of the text. The harmonies of this movement contain augmented triads. The final movement, Refuge, features a return to the triadic harmonic material of the first movement, providing a sense of large-scale resolution.

Contours is scored for full wind ensemble and percussion, and is approximately nine minutes in length. The title refers to the way melodic shape or contour is used to create unity and variety in the piece. Contours is a single-movement work containing three sections that are unified by thematic and harmonic materials. The melodic material is generated by three twelve-tone rows, which are then used in combination with freely composed material. The first and last sections are highly contrapuntal and rhythmically disjunct. Both sections share common rhythmic and melodic patterns. These sections are contrasted with a slower and more lyric middle section. This section is made of a series of episodes that create an overall A-B-A structure.

Persistence is a composition scored for piccolo, 2 flutes, 2 oboes, English horn, 2 bassoons, E-flat clarinet, 3 1st B-flat clarinets, 3 2nd B-flat clarinets, 3 3rd B-flat clarinets, bass clarinet, 2 E-flat alto saxophones, B-flat tenor saxophone, E-flat baritone saxophone, 3 B-flat trumpets, 4 French horns in F, 2 trombones, bass trombone, baritone, tuba, timpani, and 4 auxiliary percussionists. The music consists of three movements, fast-slow-fast, lasting approximately eleven and one-half minutes. The three movements last three minutes and twenty seconds, five minutes and thirty seconds, and three minutes and ten seconds respectively.

Typescript (photocopy). / Digitized by Kansas Correctional Industries

This thesis is a musical composition featuring solo percussion with wind ensemble. It is in three movements with a cadenza linking the second and third movements. The performance time of this work is approximately 12’ 30”. The work will receive its world premiere in the spring of 2014 by Adam Groh and the Graceland University Symphonic Band. / text

Concerto for violin and wind ensemble is a 25-minute virtuosic work for the violin and accompanying winds, brass, and percussion. As a trained violinist, among the first works I learned were the concerti of J.S. Bach. Thus, I pay special homage to Bach in this piece by using the famous B-A-C-H motive (each letter corresponding to a pitch) to generate much of the musical material in the work. The analysis of the Concerto details the processes in which B-A-C-H affected and shaped the melodic and harmonic language of the piece, while also touching upon the use of orchestration and the problems associated with balancing a single solo instrument against a large ensemble. I also discuss the several existing works for violin that were highly influential in composing the Concerto and the "anxiety of influence" associated with each model. / text

Thesis (M.M.)--California State University, Long Beach, 2007. / Thesis called v.1, score called v.2. Media material contains author's Master's recital, performed September 16, 2006. Photocopy of typescript. Abstract preceding title page. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 33-34).