ORCHESTRA
Full Orchestra
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AMERICAN DENIM • 9’
The commissioner has sole performance rights until 9/30/25 and the right of first refusal for commercial recording rights until 9/30/26.
INSTRUMENTATION
3222 4331 timpani, 3 perc, strings
YEAR COMPOSED
2024
COMMISSIONER
Commissioned by Dr. Carolyn Watson and the University of Illinos Symphony Orchestra for the 1874 Project.
PROGRAM NOTE
In December of 1870, a woman walked into Jacob Davis’ tailor shop in Nevada, wanting to order a pair of work pants for her husband. The man was portly and cut wood for a living, so she demanded a pair that could hold up to both his girth and job. As Davis worked on a pair of heavy duck twill pants, he saw rivets lying on the workshop floor, which he usually used when making horse blankets. Could the rivets be used on twill pants to reinforce pockets that usually tear apart on workmen? Davis added them. In 1871, he began receiving orders for more riveted pairs, as word spread about their strength and durability. By 1872, Davis realized he had something special, but lacked the money to apply for a patent from the U.S. government. He wrote to Levi Strauss, his cloth supplier who operated out of San Francisco, to ask if he would enter in a business agreement for producing riveted pants, should Strauss cover the patent filing fee. By 1873, they succeeded in securing the patent, and by January 1874, Levi Strauss & Company were successfully winning lawsuits against companies who were imitating their product. In the same year, the company’s profits tripled from what they had earned the year before, and Davis and Strauss knew they had an immense enterprise in their hands. The blue jean, more or less as we know it today, was officially born.
In American Denim, I explore two time periods and uses for blue jeans. Down in the Mines (movement 1) pays tribute to the use of the early riveted denim as a clothing staple for workmen. Miners, railroad builders, lumberjacks, farmers, and ranchers all made use of what were then called “waist overalls” in their professions. Movement 1 begins with a canary singing in a coal mine. As the canary sings, I introduce a fictitious work song that I based on 1800s folk tunes. As more workers join in the song, the music swells, then dies down as the miners stop singing. The canary returns at the end of the movement.
After the second World War, people began to wear denim for leisure. In Rebellious Youth (movement 2), I delve into the 1950s use of denim as a symbol of the rebellion of the younger generation against all types of authority, epitomized in Hollywood movies by Marlon Brando in The Wild One (1953) and James Dean in Rebel Without a Cause (1955). The movement begins with a rowdy, boisterous melody, which soon gives way to a cool, skulking section. The boisterous music returns, bringing the movement to a tumultuous boiling point before the skulking music returns once more. The movement ends with the once-boisterous theme now quietly smoldering.
-S.G. -
THE BATTLE FOR THE BALLOT • 16’
INSTRUMENTATION
3333 4331 harp, piano, timpani, 3 perc, strings, narrator
The narrator's part can be performed live or pre-recorded for playback in performance.
There is also a version for chamber orchestra.Virtual orchestra world premiere
August 9, 2020
Cabrillo Festival Orchestra
Cristian Măcelaru, conductor
Julie James, narrator
Produced, mixed, and edited
by Svet StoyanovStacy Garrop and Cristian Măcelaru introduce The Battle for the BallotYEAR COMPOSED
2020
ORDERING SCORES
Theodore Presser Company
Full Orchestra: https://www.presser.com/116-42039
Chamber Orchestra: https://www.presser.com/116-42052
Wind Ensemble: https://www.presser.com/115-40428
To view perusal, click on "Score and Parts" tab, then click on "Preview" below the window.
POWERPOINT SLIDE SHOW
An accompanying Microsoft PowerPoint slide presentation with public domain photos of Suffragists is available at no cost to groups for use in performance. To obtain, please click here to contact Stacy.
PUBLIC DOMAIN SUFFRAGIST PHOTOS
25 photos from the Library of Congress are located here.
These can be downloaded and used in performance and for promotion.
COMMISSIONER
Commissioned by the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music, Music Director & Conductor Cristian Măcelaru, with generous support from JoAnn Close and Michael Good. The Battle for the Ballot commemorates the centenary of the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution in 1920 granting women the right to vote.
TEXTS BY
American suffragists (in alphabetical order): Jane Addams, Susan B. Anthony, Carrie Chapman Catt, Carrie W. Clifford, Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, Adella Hunt Logan, Mary Church Terrell.
TEXTS (in order of use)
Woman suffrage is coming – you know it.
(Carrie Chapman Catt)
The ballot! The sign of power, the means by which things are brought to pass, the talisman that makes our dreams come true!
(Carrie W. Clifford)
When I am asked to give the reasons why women should have the ballot, the reasons are too many to name. At every turn we are brought up to the desire to have a vote.
(Jane Addams)
It is the ballot that opens the schoolhouse and closes the saloon; that keeps the food pure and the cost of living low; that causes a park to grow where a dump-pile grew before.
(Carrie W. Clifford)
It is the ballot that regulates capitol and protects labor; that up-roots disease and plants health. It is by the ballot we hope to develop the wonderful ideal state for which we are all so zealously working.
(Carrie W. Clifford)
I don’t believe in urging a man to vote against his convictions. I don’t even believe in trying too hard to persuade him… But the women should have votes to represent themselves.
(Jane Addams)
How can anyone who is able to use reason, and who believes in dealing out justice to all God’s creatures, think it is right to withhold from one-half the human race rights and privileges freely accorded to the other half? (Mary Church Terrell)
What a reproach it is to a government which owes its very existence to the loved freedom in the human heart that it should deprive any of its citizens of their sacred and cherished rights.
(Mary Church Terrell)
Justice is not fulfilled so long as woman is unequal before the law.
(Frances Ellen Watkins Harper)
Behold our Uncle Sam floating the banner with one hand, “Taxation without representation is tyranny,” and with the other seizing the billions of dollars paid in taxes by women to whom he refuses “representation.”
(Carrie Chapman Catt)
Behold him again, welcoming the boys of twenty-one and the newly made immigrant citizen to “a voice in their own government” while he denies that fundamental right of democracy to thousands of women public school teachers from whom many of these men learn all they know of citizenship and patriotism.
(Carrie Chapman Catt)
Is all this tyranny any less humiliating and degrading to women under our government today than it was to men one hundred years ago?
(Susan B. Anthony)
Seeking no favors because of our color, nor patronage because of our needs, we knock at the bar of justice, asking an equal chance.
(Mary Church Terrell)
Having no vote they need not be feared or heeded. The “right to petition” is good; but it is much better when well voted in.
(Adella Hunt Logan)
This much, however, is true now: the colored American believes in equal justice to all, regardless of race, color, creed or sex, …and longs for the day when the United States shall indeed have a government of the people, for the people… and by the people…even including the colored people. (Adella Hunt Logan)
Seek first the kingdom of the ballot, and all things else shall be given thee. (Susan B. Anthony)
If we once establish the false principle, that citizenship does not carry with it the right to vote in every state in this Union,…there is no end to the cunning devices that will be resorted to, to exclude one and another class of citizens from the right of suffrage.
(Susan B. Anthony)
The time for woman suffrage is come. The woman’s hour has struck.
(Carrie Chapman Catt)
And so, lifting as we climb, onward and upward we go, struggling and striving, and hoping that the buds and blossoms of our desires will burst into glorious fruition ere long.
(Mary Church Terrell)
With courage, born of success achieved in the past, with a keen sense of responsibility which we shall continue to assume, we look forward to a future large with promise and hope.
(Mary Church Terrell)
We propose to fight our battle for the ballot –all peaceably, but nevertheless persistently through to complete triumph, when all United States citizens shall be recognized as equals before the law.
(Susan B. Anthony)
PROGRAM NOTES
Democracy in the United States has always been a messy process that is in a constant state of flux. When the nation’s Constitution was penned, the framers of the document didn’t differentiate voting rights between men and women. This led to various interpretations in the thirteen original colonies. For instance, while most of the colonies passed state laws that stipulated only a male adult who possessed property worth fifty pounds to vote, New Jersey’s laws allowed women to vote between 1776 and 1807, after which they were excluded. Women weren’t the only disenfranchised party in these states – slaves, men of particular religions, and men too poor to own the requisite amount of land were excluded as well. As the country progressed, wording was added to many states’ voting laws to ensure that white men (and a slim grouping at that) were the sole possessors of the vote.
Women’s inability to vote carried significant consequences. They paid taxes with no legal voice in crafting the laws of the land (i.e. taxation without representation). They were barred from becoming politicians, formulating laws, and serving on juries. If a woman got married, she immediately lost custody of her wages, children, possessions, and property. Women grew progressively frustrated by these circumstances and began to organize. The first women’s rights convention was held in 1848 in Seneca Falls, New York, and officially launched the beginning of the women’s Suffrage movement. While additional conventions were held over the next several years, forward progress was halted during the Civil War (1861-1865), after which the cause was taken up again. Starting in the late 1860s, various Suffrage organizations formed, fell apart, and re-formed in pursuit of rallying women and men to the cause. Black female Suffragists were not treated well by many of their white counterparts; as a result, they created organizations and clubs of their own. Even when the Nineteenth Amendment was passed in 1919 and ratified in 1920, many states immediately passed laws that blocked Black women from voting by one means or another; this situation wasn’t rectified until Congress passed the 1965 Voting Rights Act which federally protected all citizen’s right to vote and put an end to discriminatory practices throughout the country. Nonetheless, we still witness today how various parts of our nation try new methods to disenfranchise Black women and men from voting. For instance, in June 2013 the U.S. Supreme Court removed a significant section of the 1965 Voting Rights Act which enabled especially southern states to once again seek to disenfranchise primarily Black voters because they are no longer required to get the approval of the Justice Department when revising voting laws in their states. Even more recently, the aftermath of the 2020 presidential election brought a fresh wave of attacks on voting rights in states all around the country. Not only is democracy a messy process, but it is something we must be vigilant in safekeeping for all of our citizens.
The Battle for the Ballot features the voices of seven Suffragists, four of whom are Black (Carrie W. Clifford, Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, Adella Hunt Logan, and Mary Church Terrell) and three of whom are white (Jane Addams, Susan B. Anthony, and Carrie Chapman Catt). I excerpted lines from their speeches and writings, then interwove these lines together to form a single narrative that follows their reasoning for fighting so hard for the right to vote.
Commissioned by the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music, Music Director & Conductor Cristian Măcelaru, with generous support from JoAnn Close and Michael Good, The Battle for the Ballot commemorates the centenary of the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution in 1920 granting women the right to vote.
-S.G.
BLOG POST on the genesis and development of the narration:
Getting Real about Suffragists and Racism in Composing The Battle for the Ballot -
BECOMING MEDUSA • 13’10”
INSTRUMENTATION
3333 4331 harp, piano, timpani, 3 perc, strings
Becoming Medusa is the first movement of the Mythology Symphony, and can be programmed as a stand-alone piece.
AUDIO
Chicago College of the Performing Arts Orchestra; Alondra de la Parra, conductor
YEAR COMPOSED
2007
COMMISSIONER
Detroit Symphony Orchestra
ORDERING SCORES • ONLINE PERUSAL
Theodore Presser Company
https://www.presser.com/416-41620-becoming-medusa.html
To view perusal, click on "Score and Parts" tab, then click on "Preview" below the window.
PROGRAM NOTES
Most of us are familiar with the legend of Medusa as a hideous Gorgon with scales for skin, snakes for hair, and a gaze that turns to stone anyone who dares look into her eyes. Our first encounter of Medusa usually finds her on a deserted island with her two sisters just as Perseus arrives to cut off Medusa’s head. But what about Medusa’s origins? Several stories portray Medusa as a strikingly beautiful woman whose features were hideously transformed by the goddess Athena after she seduced the god Poseidon in Athena’s temple. For its great dramatic appeal, it is this story of Medusa that I chose to set to music. Musically, Medusa is represented by a solo violin. When she first appears as a lovely woman (following a dissonant introduction indicating her final state), she is accompanied by harp, and her music is very lyrical. After Medusa is transformed, dissonance surrounds her: strings, woodwinds, and percussion represent the snakes on her head as they twist and turn around each other, while her piercing eyes are depicted by the discordant interval of a minor second. In between, we hear her sultry seduction of Poseidon and Athena’s furious reaction.
-S.G. -
BERKO'S JOURNEY • 20'
INSTRUMENTATION
3333 4331 harp, piano, timpani, 3 perc, strings
Watch the Omaha Symphony's full performance for free at:
https://www.symphonyanywhere.com/videos/garrop-x-berko-s-journey-full-piece
I. Leaving Ekaterinoslav (excerpt)II. In Transit (excerpt)III. At Home in Omaha (excerpt)
AUDIO EXCERPTS
Omaha Symphony Orchestra; Ankush Kumar Bahl, conductor. Used by permission.
DURATION
20'
YEAR COMPOSED
2022
COMMISSIONER
Commissioned by Classical 90.7 KVNO Radio in Commemoration of their 50th Anniversary, premiered in Omaha Nebraska 2022 by the Omaha Symphony.
ORDERING SCORES • ONLINE PERUSAL
Theodore Presser Company
https://www.presser.com/116-42143s-berko-27s-journey.html
To view perusal, click on "Score and Parts" tab, then click on "Preview" below the window.
PROGRAM NOTES
For most of my life, I never knew where my father’s family came from, beyond a few broad strokes: they had emigrated in the early 1900s from Eastern Europe and altered the family name along the way. This radically changed in the summer of 2021 when my mother and sister came across a folder in our family filing cabinet and made an astounding discovery of documents that revealed when, where, and how my great-grandfather came to America. The information I had been seeking was at home all along, waiting over forty years to be discovered.
Berko Gorobzoff, my great-grandfather, left Ekaterinoslav in 1904. At that time, this city was in the southern Russian area of modern-day Ukraine; as his family was Jewish, he and his siblings were attempting to escape the ongoing religious persecution and pogroms instigated by Tzar Nicholas II to root out Jewish people from Russia. Berko’s older brother Jakob had already emigrated to Illinois, and Berko was traveling with Chaje, Jakob’s wife, to join him. Their timing was fortuitous, as the following year saw a series of massive, brutal pogroms in the region. After arriving in Illinois, Berko went on to Omaha, Nebraska, where he married my great-grandmother Anna about eighteen months later. They remained in Omaha for the rest of their lives.
There is one more intriguing part to this historical account: I have a great-aunt in Texas who, as it turns out, is the youngest daughter of Berko and Anna. Through a series of phone calls, my great-aunt and I discussed what she could remember: her parents spoke Yiddish at home, her mother didn’t learn to read or write in English so my great-aunt was tasked with writing letters to family members, Berko ran a grocery store followed by a small hotel, and her parents enjoyed playing poker with friends. Above all else, neither of her parents ever spoke a word about their past or how they got to America. This was a common trait among Eastern European Jewish immigrants whose goal was to “blend in” within their new communities and country.
To craft Berko’s Journey, I melded the facts I uncovered about Berko with my own research into methods of transportation in the early 1900s. Also, to represent his heritage, I wove two Yiddish songs and one Klezmer tune into the work. In movement 1, Leaving Ekaterinoslav, we hear Berko packing his belongings, saying his goodbyes to family and friends, and walking to the train station. Included in this movement is a snippet of the Yiddish song “The Miller’s Tears” which references how the Jews were driven out of their villages by the Russian army. In movement 2, In Transit, we follow Berko as he boards a train and then a steamship, sails across the Atlantic Ocean, arrives at Ellis Island and anxiously waits in line for immigration, jubilantly steps foot into New York City, and finally boards a train that will take him to Chicago. While he’s on the steamship, we hear a group of fellow steerage musicians play a klezmer tune (“Freylachs in d minor”). In movement 3, At Home in Omaha, we hear Berko court and marry Anna. Their courtship is represented by “Tumbalalaika,” a Yiddish puzzle folksong in which a man asks a woman a series of riddles in order to get better acquainted with each other and to test her intellect.
On a final note, I crafted a musical motive to represent Berko throughout the piece. This motive is heard at the beginning of the first movement; its first pitches are B and E, which represent the first two letters of Berko’s name. I scatter this theme throughout the piece as Berko travels towards a new world and life. As the piece concludes, we hear Berko’s theme repeatedly and in close succession, representing the descendants of the Garrop line that came from Berko and Anna.
-S.G.
ONLINE PRESENTATION ON COMPOSING THE PIECE
In November 2022, I gave a 30-minutes presentation on the research I did to figure out how my great-grandfather likely got from Eastern Europe to Omaha, Nebraska in 1904. The presentation includes numerous historical photographs and audio samples of Yiddish and Klezmer tunes that I threaded into the piece. -
BLURRR • 4’30”
Enter description here.
INSTRUMENTATION
3333 4331 piano, timpani, 3 perc, stringsVIDEO
Chicago Philharmonic Orchestra; Marin Alsop, conductor
YEAR COMPOSED
2003
COMMISSIONER
Minnesota Orchestra
ORDERING SCORES • ONLINE PERUSAL
Theodore Presser Company
https://www.presser.com/416-41493-blurrr.html
To view perusal, click on "Score and Parts" tab, then click on "Preview" below the window.
PROGRAM NOTES
Blurrr was commissioned by the Minnesota Orchestra in 2003 as part of their outreach program to schoolchildren. In the piece, I explored what I could do with a short, simple melody. After a brief introduction, a melody is played by a solo clarinet. Each future iteration of the melody is altered; sometimes the melody is lengthened by repeating some of its notes or by adding new notes, and sometimes it is shortened. I also poked holes in the melody, so sometimes there is silence instead of a pitch. I occasionally added some harmony to the melody; instead of hearing one note, you will hear two notes at the same time.
I also experimented with orchestral color by mixing and matching various instruments together to create an assortment of colors. For example, a melody played by a flute and a clarinet will sound very different from a melody played by an oboe and violin.
Finally, I added a variety of fun sounds to the music, such as downward glissandi in the strings, and maracas and a police siren in the percussion.
-S.G. -
THE FATES OF MAN • 8’10”
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INSTRUMENTATION
3333 4331 harp, piano, timpani, 3 perc, strings
The Fates of Man is the fourth movement of the Mythology Symphony, and can be programmed as a stand-alone piece.
AUDIO
Chicago College of the Performing Arts Orchestra; Alondra de la Parra, conductor
YEAR COMPOSED
2009
COMMISSIONER
Albany Symphony
ORDERING SCORES • ONLINE PERUSAL
Theodore Presser Company
https://www.presser.com/416-41622-the-fates-of-man.html
To view perusal, click on Score and Parts tab, then click on Preview below the window.
PROGRAM NOTES
The three Sisters of Fate were minor goddesses who served as personifications of man’s inescapable destiny. Each Sister had a particular task: Klotho spun the thread of life; Lakhesis measured the thread; and Atropos cut the thread. While a man’s actions affected various aspects of his life, the length of his mortality was predetermined. The Fates of Man portrays a man who realizes he is nearing the end of his life. He appeals to the three Sisters to give him control over his own destiny, but as they have already measured and cut his thread, they deny his request. The movement ends with the man slowly dying away.
-S.G. -
FORGING STEEL • 11'
Enter description here.
The commissioner has exclusive commercial recording rights until 6/9/25.
INSTRUMENTATION
There are two versions:
Triple winds: 3333 4331 harp, piano, timpani, 3 perc, strings
Quadruple winds: 4444 4441 harp, piano, timpani, 3 perc, strings
I. Blast Furnace (excerpt)
II. Billets and Blooms (excerpt)
AUDIO EXCERPTS
Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra; Manfred Honeck, conductor. Used by permission.
PHOTOS
Johnstown Symphony Orchestra; James Blachly, conductor. Photo credits: Judy Crookston
DURATION
11'
YEAR COMPOSED
2023
COMMISSIONER
Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra
ORDERING SCORES • ONLINE PERUSAL
Theodore Presser Company
https://www.presser.com/116-42181s-forging-steel.html (triple winds/brass)
https://www.presser.com/116-42144s-forging-steel.html (quadruple winds/brass)
To view perusal, click on Score and Parts tab, then click on Preview below the window.
PROGRAM NOTES
The steelmaking process fascinates and dazzles me! Think of it – skyscrapers, bridges, airplanes, cars, kitchen appliances, door hinges, even paper clips and staples all began as a white-hot molten mass of metal. This is a material that touches virtually every aspect of our daily lives.
Forging Steel portrays two key components of the steelmaking process. In Blast Furnace (movement 1), raw iron ore, coke (crushed coal that’s been cooked), and limestone are combined in a large furnace. These materials are blasted by columns of hot pressurized air, which react with the coke and raise the temperature inside the furnace. When the temperature reaches approximately 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit, the combined materials melt into liquid iron and slag (waste matter). The slag is skimmed off, and the iron gushes into a tank that carries it to the next phase, where the molten iron will be refined into molten steel. To musically represent the happenings inside the blast furnace, I start the piece with a series of loud, chaotic chords that represent the blasts of hot air. Over the course of the movement, patterns emerge from these blast chords as the materials mix and melt. As the movement ends, we hear the gushing of the molten iron out of the furnace as it heads into the next step of the steelmaking process.
Billets and Blooms (movement 2) picks up much later in the process, after the molten iron has been refined into steel, cast into long molds, and cut into blocks. These blocks are formed into various dimensions, including billets (long and square) and blooms (short, thick, and rectangular). As the blocks move along a long conveyor belt, they are stretched and shaped into very long, thin strips of metal which are rolled up, cooled off, and await shipping to customers. In this movement, we hear three main musical ideas. The first is a series of chords played by the brass section at the opening of the movement; these represent the new steel. The chord progression grows longer and louder over the course of the movement, depicting the stretching and shaping of the steel. The second idea is a repeated note played almost continuously, most often by the marimba and piano; this represents the conveyor belt that keeps the steel moving through its final stages of production. Finally, scattered throughout the movement, we will hear the percussion section playing an assortment of instruments made of metal and wood, evoking the sonic atmosphere of a steelmaking plant.
-S.G. -
GODDESS TRIPTYCH • 14’30"
Enter description here.
INSTRUMENTATION
3333 4331 harp, piano, timpani, 3 perc, stringsI. Durga Battles a Buffalo Demon (excerpt)II. Lakshmi Sits on a Lotus Blossom (excerpt)III. Ganga Cascades from the Heavens (excerpt)
AUDIO EXCERPTS
St. Louis Symphony Orchestra; Stéphane Denève, conductor. Used by permission.
YEAR COMPOSED
2020
COMMISSIONER
The League of American Orchestras with generous support of the Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation
ORDERING SCORES • ONLINE PERUSAL
Theodore Presser Company
https://www.presser.com/116-42128l-goddess-triptych.html
To view perusal, click on Score and Parts tab, then click on Preview below the window.
PROGRAM NOTES
The Hindu religion has a very ancient and rich history involving a wide array of gods and goddesses. My interest into Hindu stories began with my orchestral work Shiva Dances in which I musically portray Shiva, one of the principal gods, performing the Cosmic Dance in which he destroys the universe to allow a new universe to be born. When the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra approached me for a new work, my initial thought was to write a companion piece for Shiva Dances, but this time featuring the tale of a goddess. Over the course of my research, however, I discovered such a wealth of goddesses with fascinating stories that I decided to present three goddesses instead of just one. While researching, I came upon pictures for each of these goddesses that correspond with what I wished to represent musically; it struck me that I was building a musical “triptych,” to borrow the term from the art world.
Movement 1: Durga Battles a Buffalo Demon
Durga was created by the gods for the purpose of slaying a powerful buffalo demon that could not be killed by any male mortal or deity. She is typically pictured riding a lion, with her ten or eighteen arms carrying an assortment of weapons given to her by the gods. The movement begins with Durga issuing her battle cry. We hear the buffalo demon charging to meet her. The two engage in battle and ends with Durga slicing off the buffalo’s head.
Movement 2: Lakshmi Sits on a Lotus Blossom
Lakshmi is the goddess of beauty, fertility, and fortune (both spiritual and material). She is often pictured sitting in the middle of a lotus blossom (a symbol of purity), while holding additional blossoms in the upper two of her four hands. This quiet movement opens with Lakshmi sitting calmly and blissfully on a lotus blossom. In the middle of the movement, Lakshmi opens her lower two hands, and gold coins spill forth from her palms. The movement ends as it began when she returns to a blissful state.
Movement 3: Ganga Cascades from the Heavens
Ganga is the personification of the sacred river Ganges. The final movement opens as Ganga flows cheerfully around the heavens. She continues doing so until the god Vishnu (another principal god) kicks a hole in heaven’s wall. Ganga suddenly finds herself gushing through the hole and plummeting down uncontrollably towards earth. When Shiva realizes that Ganga is approaching with such force that she will destroy all that lies below her, he positions himself directly below Ganga to catch her waters in his hair. Shiva’s tactic succeeds; when Ganga reaches Shiva’s head, she becomes eternally tangled in his tresses. Shiva’s body breaks Ganga’s mighty water column into numerous streams that gently flow down his limbs to lightly fall upon the earth.
Goddess Triptych was commissioned by the League of American Orchestras with the generous support of the Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation.
-S.G. -
THE HEAVENS ABOVE US • 16'
Enter description here.
INSTRUMENTATION
3222 2221 timpani, 3 perc, stringsI. International Space StationII. Star TrailsIII. Total Lunar EclipseIV. Milky Way Galaxy
VIDEO
Reading Symphony Youth Orchestra; Christopher Cinquini, conductor
INSTRUMENTATION
3222 2221 timpani, 3 perc, strings
DURATION
16'
YEAR COMPOSED
2021
ORDERING SCORES • ONLINE PERUSAL
Theodore Presser Company
https://www.presser.com/116-42127s-the-heavens-above-us.html?conf=116-42127
To view perusal, click on Score and Parts tab, then click on Preview below the window.
COMMISSIONER
Commissioned by the Reading Symphony Orchestra on a grant by Tom & Dianne Work made in honor of Christopher Cinquini, conductor of the Reading Symphony Youth Orchestra.
PROGRAM NOTES
When Reading Symphony Youth Orchestra’s conductor Christopher Cinquini and I talked about possible topics for a new piece, he mentioned his passion for astrophotography. While this isn’t a term I had heard before, it made perfect sense: Christopher takes pictures of space. Intrigued, I asked Christopher to share some of his photos with me. In The Heavens Above Us, I selected four images from his collection and fashioned short movements for each.
I. International Space Station
Traveling at over 17,500 miles per hour, the International Space Station circles the earth every 90 minutes. This gives photographers numerous opportunities to take photos of the station’s transit in front of both the sun and moon. For his photo, Christopher stacked multiple images of the ISS as it crossed in front of the sun from his vantage point. Similarly, I musically represent the steady motion of the ISS as it smoothly glides through the icy atmosphere and gracefully soars above us.
II. Star Trails
A “star trail” is the name for the compilation of photos taken over several hours, or of a camera using a long exposure setting, to capture what appears to be the motion of the stars circling in the night sky (actually, it is our planet that is rotating and causing this effect, not the stars). Using the North Star as the focal point, Christopher snapped 341 photos over two hours to create this beautiful effect. I begin this movement with a single pitch to represent the North Star, then musically represent the stars as they dance in ever-widening circles.
III. Total Lunar Eclipse
In ancient times, people were frightened by solar and lunar eclipses. What great evil was at work that could hide a planetary body, darken the daylight, or turn the moon blood red? I drew inspiration from Christopher’s photo of a total lunar eclipse that occurred in January 2019. In this composite photo, he stacked images together to show the gradual progression of the moon as it seemingly disappears (while the earth passes between it and the sun), turns red at the height of the eclipse when the moon is completely in the earth’s shadow, and then gradually re-appears. My movement follows suit.
IV. Milky Way Galaxy
Of all the images Christopher shared with me, the most awe inspiring of all is his photo of the Milky Way Galaxy. Our Solar System is situated about two-thirds away from the center of the Galaxy, and we reside between two large spiral arms, each of which contains stars, gas, and dust. Christopher captured the majesty of one of these spiral arms as it stretches across the heavens. Musically, the movement starts small and intimate, much like our limited view of the night sky from our windows, then expands to represent the full grandeur of the galaxy above us. As the piece concludes, we hear stars shimmering in the heavens.
-S.G.
PHOTOS
Christopher Cinquini, photographer
These photos can be downloaded and used in performance. Please give photo credits to Christopher Cinquini.
I. International Space Station
II. Star Trails
III. Total Lunar Eclipse
IV. Milky Way Galaxy -
THE LOVELY SIRENS • 5’30”
Enter description here.
INSTRUMENTATION
3333 4331 harp, piano, timpani, 3 perc, strings
The Lovely Sirens is the third movement of the Mythology Symphony, and can be programmed as a stand-alone piece.
AUDIO
Chicago College of the Performing Arts Orchestra; Alondra de la Parra, conductor
YEAR COMPOSED
2009
COMMISSIONER
Albany Symphony
ORDERING SCORES • ONLINE PERUSAL
Theodore Presser Company
https://www.presser.com/416-41621-the-lovely-sirens.html
To view perusal, click on Score and Parts tab, then click on Preview below the window.
PROGRAM NOTES
The Sirens were sea nymphs, usually pictured as part woman and part bird, who lived on a secluded island surrounded by rocks. Their enchanting song was irresistible to passing sailors, who were lured to their deaths as their ships were destroyed upon the rocks. The Lovely Sirens presents three ideas: the Sirens’ beautiful song, an unfortunate group of sailors whose course takes them near the island, and the disaster that befalls the sailors. The sailors’ peril is represented by the Morse code S.O.S. signal (three dots, three dashes, and three dots—represented musically by short and long rhythms). The S.O.S. signal grows increasingly more insistent and distressed as it becomes obvious that the sailors, smitten with the voices of the Sirens, are headed for their demise.
-S.G. -
MYTHOLOGY SYMPHONY • 40’
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INSTRUMENTATION
3333 4331 harp, piano, timpani, 3 perc, stringsI. Becoming MedusaII. Penelope WaitsIII. The Lovely SirensIV. The Fates of ManV. Pandora Undone
AUDIO
Chicago College of the Performing Arts Orchestra; Alondra de la Parra, conductor
YEAR COMPOSED
2007-2013
COMMISSIONERS
Detroit Symphony, Albany Symphony, and the Chicago College of the Performing Arts
ORDERING SCORES • ONLINE PERUSAL
Theodore Presser Company
https://www.presser.com/416-41616-mythology-symphony.html
To view perusal, click on Score and Parts tab, then click on Preview below the window.
SYMPHONY PROGRAM NOTES
The Mythology Symphony was progressively written over several years, starting with a commission in 2007 by the Detroit Symphony for Becoming Medusa. The Albany Symphony followed in 2009 with commissions for The Lovely Sirens and The Fates of Man. The Symphony was completed when the Chicago College of Performing Arts of Roosevelt University commissioned Penelope Waits and Pandora Undone. The entire symphony received its world premiere by the Chicago College of Performing Arts Orchestra in January of 2015 under the baton of Alondra de la Parra.
-S.G.
MOVEMENTS
All movements in the Mythology Symphony can be performed either together (as the Symphony) or individually. For perusal scores and program notes of individual movements, please select the specific titles on this page. Movements I, III, IV, and V are for full orchestra, and movement II is for chamber orchestra.
I. Becoming Medusa • 13'10"
II. Penelope Waits • 5'50"
III. The Lovely Sirens • 5'30"
IV. The Fates of Man • 8'10"
V. Pandora Undone • 7'20" -
PANDORA UNDONE • 7’20”
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INSTRUMENTATION
3333 4331 harp, piano, timpani, 3 perc, strings
Pandora Undone is the fifth movement of the Mythology Symphony, and can be programmed as a stand-alone piece.
AUDIO
Chicago College of the Performing Arts Orchestra; Alondra de la Parra, conductor
YEAR COMPOSED
2013
COMMISSIONER
Chicago College of the Performing Arts
ORDERING SCORES • ONLINE PERUSAL
Theodore Presser Company
https://www.presser.com/416-41513-pandora-undone.html
To view perusal, click on Score and Parts tab, then click on Preview below the window.
PROGRAM NOTES
This movement is, in turns, both lighthearted and serious. The music depicts a young, naïve Pandora who, while dancing around her house, spies a mysterious box. She tries to resist opening it, but her curiosity ultimately gets the best of her. When she cracks the lid open and looks inside, all evils escape into the world. Dismayed by what she has done, she looks inside the box once more. She discovers hope still in the box and releases it to temper the escaped evils and assuage mankind's new burden.
-S.G. -
SHIVA DANCES • 9’
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INSTRUMENTATION
3333 4331 pno, harp, timp, 3 perc, strings
YEAR COMPOSED
2019
COMMISSIONER
Grant Park Music Festival
ORDERING SCORES
Theodore Presser Company
https://www.presser.com/116-42035l-shiva-dances.html
To view perusal, click on Score and Parts tab, then click on Preview below the window.
PROGRAM NOTES
When Grant Park Music Festival commissioned me to write a piece in honor of Carlos Kalmar’s 20th anniversary as Principal Conductor, I began searching for a topic suitable for this celebratory occasion. During this brainstorming process, I came across pictures of bronze statues of Shiva, one of the three main gods in Hinduism, which depict Shiva in his role as the Nataraja, or Lord of the Dance. Shiva is performing the Cosmic Dance in order to destroy the universe and allow for a new universe to be born. The concept of rebirth and renewal was very appealing to me in a celebratory work, as was the prospect of writing music that would have Maestro Kalmar dancing on the podium as he conducts.
In these statues, every aspect is symbolic: Shiva is surrounded by a ring of fire, which represents the cosmos locked in its eternal cycle of destruction and rebirth; he lifts his left leg high and his right knee is bent, frozen in a posture of ecstatic dancing; his right foot is firmly placed on a demon, embodying the defeat of ignorance; his four arms are raised in various functions (i.e. one hand holds a drum to accompany his dance, while another clasps divine fire which he will use to destroy the universe); and the river Ganges flows through his wildly streaming hair. Throughout the dance, Shiva’s face remains tranquil.
Shiva Dances consists of four sections, each with its own distinct music. In the first section, Shiva slowly awakens from deep meditation as the sun sets on the old universe. The second section represents Shiva performing the Cosmic Dance in the dead of night. Shiva starts the dance slowly, but as he dances faster and faster, the universe begins to break apart from the energy generated. When the tempo has increased to a feverish pitch, Shiva simultaneously destroys the old universe while creating a new universe in its place. In the third section, Shiva observes the young universe as it shimmers and bubbles with energy in the pre-dawn hours of a new day. The piece concludes with the fourth section, in which Shiva sees the sun’s rays break into view, representing that a new universe has officially begun.
-S.G. -
SONG OF ORPHEUS • 7’30"
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The commissioner has exclusive commercial recording rights until 3/12/25.
AUDIO
Courtesy of the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra; Matthew Kramer, Music Director
INSTRUMENTATION
3333 4231 piano/celesta, harp, timp, 3 perc, strings
YEAR COMPOSED
2023
COMMISSIONER
Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra
ORDERING SCORES
Theodore Presser Company
https://www.presser.com/116-42221
To view perusal, click on Score and Parts tab, then click on Preview below the window.
PROGRAM NOTES
It is always a joy to compose celebratory music! When the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra approached me to write a new work, they were excited about beginning a new chapter in their organization with Matthew Kraemer, their incoming Music Director. As my new work would open their fall concert season, this would be the first piece that Mr. Kraemer performs with the musicians. A new chapter, a new leaf, a new season…a celebration is truly in order!
In addition to wanting to write joyous music, I was particularly inspired by the Orpheum Theater, the LPO’s longtime performance venue. Built in 1918, this Beaux-Arts style house was originally part of a chain of theaters around the country that were all named after Orpheus, a musician in ancient Greek mythology. Orpheus’ music could charm all of nature, subduing the violent tendencies of animals with the sweetness of his song.
Song of Orpheus opens with Orpheus strumming his lyre at the dawn of a new day. He begins humming while he strums, then he breaks into full voice. Nearby animals are charmed by his song and begin a lively, light-footed dance. Rocks soon fall under his charm as well and join the dance with a heavy, off-kilter step. More charmed animals join in, and soon all of creation sings in unity with Orpheus. As the celebration winds down, we hear Orpheus’ song echoing throughout the world.
Song of Orpheus was commissioned by the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra. As a tribute to five musicians who took part in forming the LPO in 1991 and who are still performing with the group today, you will hear solos for the piccolo, bass clarinet, viola, cello, and harp.
-S.G. -
THERE'S A VILLAGE IN MY SNEAKERS • 2'
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INSTRUMENTATION
2222 4231 piano, harp, timp, 2 perc, strings
YEAR COMPOSED
2024
COMMISSIONER
Chicago Symphony Orchestra
PROGRAM NOTES
When the Chicago Symphony Orchestra commissioned me for a short work for their youth concerts, they sent me to Whitney M. Young Magnet High School for inspiration. I met with a class of orchestral students and asked them who is their "village,” the people who support them in their lives. I invited the students to respond through drawing artwork or writing poetry. Students answered in a number of creative and unexpected ways: one student drew a house with her mom holding it aloft like a bodybuilder; another drew a collage that included his friends and family as well as his favorite possessions; another wrote free verse poetry on how the student’s village in the stories he (or she) writes.
I was most intrigued with a drawing that consisted of three pairs of legs, each wearing sneakers. When the student presented her picture to the class, she explained that her village is her track team, represented by the legs, as well as her parents, who support her endeavors and purchase her running shoes.
There’s a village in my sneakers begins with a single runner putting on her shoes, then running laps alone around the school track. She is soon joined by a friend who runs alongside her. As she jogs, she thinks about her parents who support her and purchased the sneakers she’s wearing. As more teammates join, she realizes that her village is all around her, from her friends running alongside her to her family that supports her, all embodied by the sneakers on her feet.
-S.G.
Chamber Orchestra
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THE BATTLE FOR THE BALLOT • 16’
INSTRUMENTATION
2222 2220 harp, piano, timpani, 2 perc, strings, narrator
The narrator's part can be performed live or pre-recorded for playback in performance.
There is also a version for full orchestra.Virtual orchestra world premiere
August 9, 2020
Cabrillo Festival Orchestra
Cristian Măcelaru, conductor
Julie James, narrator
Produced, mixed, and edited
by Svet StoyanovStacy Garrop and Cristian Măcelaru introduce The Battle for the BallotYEAR COMPOSED
2020
ORDERING SCORES
Theodore Presser Company
Full Orchestra: https://www.presser.com/116-42039
Chamber Orchestra: https://www.presser.com/116-42052
Wind Ensemble: https://www.presser.com/115-40428
To view perusal, click on "Score and Parts" tab, then click on "Preview" below the window.
POWERPOINT SLIDE SHOW
An accompanying Microsoft PowerPoint slide presentation with public domain photos of Suffragists is available at no cost to groups for use in performance. To obtain, please click here to contact Stacy.
PUBLIC DOMAIN SUFFRAGIST PHOTOS
25 photos from the Library of Congress are located here.
These can be downloaded and used in performance and for promotion.
COMMISSIONER
Commissioned by the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music, Music Director & Conductor Cristian Măcelaru, with generous support from JoAnn Close and Michael Good. The Battle for the Ballot commemorates the centenary of the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution in 1920 granting women the right to vote.
TEXTS BY
American suffragists (in alphabetical order): Jane Addams, Susan B. Anthony, Carrie Chapman Catt, Carrie W. Clifford, Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, Adella Hunt Logan, Mary Church Terrell.
TEXTS (in order of use)
Woman suffrage is coming – you know it.
(Carrie Chapman Catt)
The ballot! The sign of power, the means by which things are brought to pass, the talisman that makes our dreams come true!
(Carrie W. Clifford)
When I am asked to give the reasons why women should have the ballot, the reasons are too many to name. At every turn we are brought up to the desire to have a vote.
(Jane Addams)
It is the ballot that opens the schoolhouse and closes the saloon; that keeps the food pure and the cost of living low; that causes a park to grow where a dump-pile grew before.
(Carrie W. Clifford)
It is the ballot that regulates capitol and protects labor; that up-roots disease and plants health. It is by the ballot we hope to develop the wonderful ideal state for which we are all so zealously working.
(Carrie W. Clifford)
I don’t believe in urging a man to vote against his convictions. I don’t even believe in trying too hard to persuade him… But the women should have votes to represent themselves.
(Jane Addams)
How can anyone who is able to use reason, and who believes in dealing out justice to all God’s creatures, think it is right to withhold from one-half the human race rights and privileges freely accorded to the other half? (Mary Church Terrell)
What a reproach it is to a government which owes its very existence to the loved freedom in the human heart that it should deprive any of its citizens of their sacred and cherished rights.
(Mary Church Terrell)
Justice is not fulfilled so long as woman is unequal before the law.
(Frances Ellen Watkins Harper)
Behold our Uncle Sam floating the banner with one hand, “Taxation without representation is tyranny,” and with the other seizing the billions of dollars paid in taxes by women to whom he refuses “representation.”
(Carrie Chapman Catt)
Behold him again, welcoming the boys of twenty-one and the newly made immigrant citizen to “a voice in their own government” while he denies that fundamental right of democracy to thousands of women public school teachers from whom many of these men learn all they know of citizenship and patriotism.
(Carrie Chapman Catt)
Is all this tyranny any less humiliating and degrading to women under our government today than it was to men one hundred years ago?
(Susan B. Anthony)
Seeking no favors because of our color, nor patronage because of our needs, we knock at the bar of justice, asking an equal chance.
(Mary Church Terrell)
Having no vote they need not be feared or heeded. The “right to petition” is good; but it is much better when well voted in.
(Adella Hunt Logan)
This much, however, is true now: the colored American believes in equal justice to all, regardless of race, color, creed or sex, …and longs for the day when the United States shall indeed have a government of the people, for the people… and by the people…even including the colored people. (Adella Hunt Logan)
Seek first the kingdom of the ballot, and all things else shall be given thee. (Susan B. Anthony)
If we once establish the false principle, that citizenship does not carry with it the right to vote in every state in this Union,…there is no end to the cunning devices that will be resorted to, to exclude one and another class of citizens from the right of suffrage.
(Susan B. Anthony)
The time for woman suffrage is come. The woman’s hour has struck.
(Carrie Chapman Catt)
And so, lifting as we climb, onward and upward we go, struggling and striving, and hoping that the buds and blossoms of our desires will burst into glorious fruition ere long.
(Mary Church Terrell)
With courage, born of success achieved in the past, with a keen sense of responsibility which we shall continue to assume, we look forward to a future large with promise and hope.
(Mary Church Terrell)
We propose to fight our battle for the ballot –all peaceably, but nevertheless persistently through to complete triumph, when all United States citizens shall be recognized as equals before the law.
(Susan B. Anthony)
PROGRAM NOTES
Democracy in the United States has always been a messy process that is in a constant state of flux. When the nation’s Constitution was penned, the framers of the document didn’t differentiate voting rights between men and women. This led to various interpretations in the thirteen original colonies. For instance, while most of the colonies passed state laws that stipulated only a male adult who possessed property worth fifty pounds to vote, New Jersey’s laws allowed women to vote between 1776 and 1807, after which they were excluded. Women weren’t the only disenfranchised party in these states – slaves, men of particular religions, and men too poor to own the requisite amount of land were excluded as well. As the country progressed, wording was added to many states’ voting laws to ensure that white men (and a slim grouping at that) were the sole possessors of the vote.
Women’s inability to vote carried significant consequences. They paid taxes with no legal voice in crafting the laws of the land (i.e. taxation without representation). They were barred from becoming politicians, formulating laws, and serving on juries. If a woman got married, she immediately lost custody of her wages, children, possessions, and property. Women grew progressively frustrated by these circumstances and began to organize. The first women’s rights convention was held in 1848 in Seneca Falls, New York, and officially launched the beginning of the women’s Suffrage movement. While additional conventions were held over the next several years, forward progress was halted during the Civil War (1861-1865), after which the cause was taken up again. Starting in the late 1860s, various Suffrage organizations formed, fell apart, and re-formed in pursuit of rallying women and men to the cause. Black female Suffragists were not treated well by many of their white counterparts; as a result, they created organizations and clubs of their own. Even when the Nineteenth Amendment was passed in 1919 and ratified in 1920, many states immediately passed laws that blocked Black women from voting by one means or another; this situation wasn’t rectified until Congress passed the 1965 Voting Rights Act which federally protected all citizen’s right to vote and put an end to discriminatory practices throughout the country. Nonetheless, we still witness today how various parts of our nation try new methods to disenfranchise Black women and men from voting. For instance, in June 2013 the U.S. Supreme Court removed a significant section of the 1965 Voting Rights Act which enabled especially southern states to once again seek to disenfranchise primarily Black voters because they are no longer required to get the approval of the Justice Department when revising voting laws in their states. Even more recently, the aftermath of the 2020 presidential election brought a fresh wave of attacks on voting rights in states all around the country. Not only is democracy a messy process, but it is something we must be vigilant in safekeeping for all of our citizens.
The Battle for the Ballot features the voices of seven Suffragists, four of whom are Black (Carrie W. Clifford, Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, Adella Hunt Logan, and Mary Church Terrell) and three of whom are white (Jane Addams, Susan B. Anthony, and Carrie Chapman Catt). I excerpted lines from their speeches and writings, then interwove these lines together to form a single narrative that follows their reasoning for fighting so hard for the right to vote.
Commissioned by the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music, Music Director & Conductor Cristian Măcelaru, with generous support from JoAnn Close and Michael Good, The Battle for the Ballot commemorates the centenary of the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution in 1920 granting women the right to vote.
-S.G.
BLOG POST on the genesis and development of the narration:
Getting Real about Suffragists and Racism in Composing The Battle for the Ballot -
KRAKATOA (concerto for solo viola or alto saxophone) • 19’
INSTRUMENTATION
Solo alto saxophone or solo viola, strings (suggested size: 12,10,8,6,4), timpani, 3 percussion*I. ImminentII. EruptionIII. Dormant
An introduction to KrakatoaA conversation about the new saxophone version of Krakatoa with Stacy Garrop and Joe Lulloff**Excerpts
VIDEOS
*Joe Lulloff, alto saxophone, and the Michigan State University Symphony Orchestra; Octavio Más-Arocas, conductor
**Joe Lulloff, alto saxophone, and the Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra; Matthew Kraemer, conductor
DURATION
19'
YEAR COMPOSED
2017
COMMISSIONER
Barlow Endowment
ORDERING SCORES
Theodore Presser Company
Saxophone version: https://www.presser.com/116-42156s-krakatoa.html
Viola version: https://www.presser.com/116-42008s-krakatoa.html
To view perusals, click on Score and Parts tab, then click on Preview below the window.
PROGRAM NOTES
On May 20, 1883, a cloud of ash rose six miles high above Krakatoa, a volcano nestled on an island in the Sunda Strait between Java and Sumatra. For the next two months, the volcano rumbled and spewed occasional dust and debris into the air, giving nearby inhabitants a spectacular show. On August 26th, Krakatoa turned deadly with an enormous blast that spewed pyroclastic flows (a blend of ash, lava, and gases) and pumice (lava that mixes with water and solidifies quickly into rock), and commenced a series of eruptions. On the next day, the volcano produced four enormous eruptions over four and a half hours. These eruptions were so loud (particularly the fourth) that they could be heard 3,000 miles away, and so devastating that two-thirds of the island sank back under the sea. The effects of Krakatoa’s eruptions were staggering: they sent shock waves into the atmosphere that circled the globe at least seven times; they triggered numerous tsunamis, the highest nearly 120 feet tall, which flooded and destroyed 165 coastal villages along with their inhabitants; and they propelled tons of ash roughly fifty miles up into the atmosphere. This ash blotted out the sun in Indonesia for days; it also lowered global temperatures for several years afterwards, and produced a wide range of atmospheric colors and phenomena. At least 36,000 people tragically lost their lives that fateful day. For the next forty-four years, Krakatoa was silent below the sea. This silence ended in 1927, when fishermen spotted steam and debris rising from the island. Within a year, a new volcano began to take shape above sea level. This new volcano is named Anak Krakatau, which translates to “child of Krakatoa,” and periodically experiences small eruptions.
Krakatoa for solo alto saxophone or solo viola, strings, and percussion follows the path of the volcano’s four main eruptions. In the first movement, Imminent, the violist uneasily plays as the orchestra (representing the volcano) shows ever-increasing signs of awakening. The orchestra bursts forth into the second movement, Eruption, where it proceeds through four eruptions that get progressively more cataclysmic. After the final and most violent eruption, the violist plays a cadenza that eases the volcano into the third movement, Dormant. In this final movement, the volcano slumbers, soothed by musical traits that I borrowed from traditional Javanese gamelan music: a cyclical, repetitive structure in which the largest gong is heard at the end of each cycle, and a musical scale loosely based on the Javanese pelog tuning system. The movement ends peacefully with an array of string harmonics, representing the intense and brilliantly colored sunsets generated by Krakatoa’s ash in the earth’s atmosphere.
Krakatoa was commissioned by the Barlow Endowment for Music Composition at Brigham Young University.
-S.G. -
PENELOPE WAITS • 5’50”
INSTRUMENTATION
2222 2110 harp, timpani, 2 perc, strings
Penelope Waits is the second movement of the Mythology Symphony, and can be programmed as a stand-alone piece.
AUDIO
Chicago College of the Performing Arts Orchestra; Alondra de la Parra, conductor
YEAR COMPOSED
2013
COMMISSIONER
Chicago College of the Performing Arts
ORDERING SCORES • ONLINE PERUSAL
Theodore Presser Company
https://www.presser.com/416-41512-penelope-waits.html
To view perusal, click on Score and Parts tab, then click on Preview below the window.
PROGRAM NOTES
This quiet movement represents Queen Penelope, the faithful wife of Odysseus, as she patiently waits twenty years for her husband's return from fighting the Trojan Wars. Penelope herself is represented as an oboe. She is accompanied by a chamber orchestra (rather than the entire ensemble) as she keeps at bay the suitors who wish to marry her and inherit her riches.
-S.G. -
SHADOW • 9’
INSTRUMENTATION
2222 2110 pno, timp, 1 perc, strings
AUDIO
Chicago College of the Performing Arts Orchestra; Markand Thakar, conductor
YEAR COMPOSED
2001
ORDERING SCORES • ONLINE PERUSAL
Theodore Presser Company
https://www.presser.com/416-41265-shadow.html
To view perusal, click on Score and Parts tab, then click on Preview below the window.
PROGRAM NOTES
Shadow is a chronicle of my stay at the Yaddo artist colony in New York in summer 2001. Upon arriving, I met several visual artists and photographers whose work sparked my imagination. One artist used ordinary safety pins to create wall hangings and tree snakes; a painter studied a scene of nature and then painted it from memory so the final painting would contain bright blues, pinks, and greens not in Nature’s original. Since I wanted to explore ways to break out of my current composing methods, I spent time taking photographs of particular items — a statue’s reflection in the ripples of a fountain and small parts of stained glass window — to shift my mind into new directions. When pieced together on my studio wall, these pictures formed a collage of jagged bits of color and motion. To me, these suggested overlapping lines of counterpoint, shifting textures, and intersecting blocks of music. I also felt the need to write the piece out of order; parts of the piece got developed for a month or two, then a part that comes earlier would be worked out, then I would skip ahead to what I thought would be the end, and then go back to parts already developed to pull the music further along.
The title is derived from a Yaddo story. Over a century ago, the Trask family bought the property that would later become Yaddo. When Mrs. Trask asked her four-year-old daughter what they should name the place, she replied Yaddo, because it rhymes with shadow. To the little girl, the word shadow represented death. Death constantly surrounded the Trask family, who ultimately lost all four children during their infancy or early childhood. As death surrounds us in unexpected ways throughout our lives, I could not escape learning of an old friend’s demise while at Yaddo. This experience shaded what I had originally planned to be a light, colorful work into something much darker.
-S.G. -
SPECTACLE OF LIGHT • 6'
Enter description here.
INSTRUMENTATION
1202 2200 harp, timpani, strings
A baroque orchestra version of the piece is available; see "Baroque Orchestra" below.
AUDIO
Music of the Baroque Orchestra; Dame Jane Glover, conductor
DURATION
6'
YEAR COMPOSED
2020
COMMISSIONER
Music of the Baroque
ORDERING SCORES • ONLINE PERUSAL
Theodore Presser Company
https://www.presser.com/catalogsearch/result/?q=spectacle+of+light
Available versions for Baroque orchestra and chamber orchestra
To view perusal, click on Score and Parts tab, then click on Preview below the window.
PROGRAM NOTES
When Music of the Baroque commissioned me to compose a piece in honor of their 50th anniversary season, I was delighted that my new piece would premiere on a concert entitled Baroque Fireworks. But what aspect of Baroque fireworks should I explore? I found the answer on Music of the Baroque’s website. In perusing the webpage for the Baroque Fireworks concert, I was mesmerized by the page’s backdrop image, which looked to be a hand-drawn picture of a fireworks show. A little research uncovered that the image is an etching of a 1749 fireworks spectacle that took place on the River Thames in honor of Great Britain’s King George II. The king had signed the 1748 treaty at Aix-la-Chapelle that officially ended the War of Austrian Succession, and as was typical in this era, he wanted to celebrate with a grand show of music and fireworks. This is the very same event for which George Frideric Handel wrote Music for the Royal Fireworks.
I was intrigued by the manner in which the etching’s artist represented the path of each individual firework, starting with an upward trajectory of a golden streak of light that inevitably bends and falls back towards the earth, blooming into glittering specks before flickering out. This inspired me to find other depictions and etchings of Baroque fireworks, as well as to view numerous modern-day fireworks shows on YouTube to study how they rise, bloom, and overlap with each other to create a rich, complex, and fleeting tapestry of color. I realized that fireworks and music share an ephemeral nature: they both delight our senses before fading into memory.
Ultimately, I decided that Spectacle of Light would represent the experience of a fireworks show. The music starts with great anticipation as the crowd waits in darkness, then a single firework illuminates the sky, followed by a massive eruption of light, color, and sound. After this initial frenzied burst, the fireworks quiet down into a slower-paced, mesmerizing display of colors before building to a big, fiery ending. As a tip of the hat to Music of the Baroque, I worked a few salient elements of the baroque style into my own musical language, as well as found a few choice spots to add a few subtle hints of Handel’s Royal Fireworks.
-S.G. -
THUNDERWALKER • 12’
Enter description here.
INSTRUMENTATION
2222 2120 pno, timp, 2 perc, stringsI. RitualII. Invoking the GodsIII. Summoned
AUDIO
Chicago College of the Performing Arts Orchestra; Markand Thakar, conductor
YEAR COMPOSED
1999
ORDERING SCORES • ONLINE PERUSAL
Theodore Presser Company
https://www.presser.com/416-41494-thunderwalker.html
To view perusal, click on Score and Parts tab, then click on Preview below the window.
PROGRAM NOTES
Thunderwalker is built on two overlapping structures. The first encompasses the form of each movement: the first movement is a fugue, the second a ground bass (passacaglia), the third a scherzo-trio. The second derives from what the title suggested to me. I see a thunderwalker as a huge, god-like figure who lives in the sky and whose footsteps fall loudly among the clouds. If I were a member of a pre-modern earth society and wanted to get the god-like figure’s attention, I would go through a ritual cleansing ceremony (movement 1), then invoke him over and over again (movement 2) until I had successfully summoned him (movement 3).
The two structures complement each other: a fugue is a ritual of sorts: it follows a strict set of procedures, much like what one might do in a cleansing ceremony. Passacaglias, by their very nature, repeat themselves endlessly, like one lost in chanting invocations. This particular passacaglia is interrupted after each repetitive cycle by chaotic, grumbling noises, suggesting the god awakening in the skies. The character of a scherzo-trio can range from light and quick to sinister or macabre. I imagine that if a god were summoned down to earth, he would appear good to some and sinister to others, and he would move swiftly about the earth’s surface.
The entire work is spun from the opening fugue motive. The first movement focuses on developing the fugue materials, particularly a minor third–tritone interval pattern. The second movement takes a nine-note pitch pattern that was introduced in the first movement — a repeating interval pattern of two minor seconds followed by a major second — and turns it into a nine-chord pattern (each statement of this pattern equals one complete cycle of the passacaglia). Finally, the third movement mutates the nine-note pitch pattern into an eight-note pattern of alternating minor and major seconds known as the octatonic scale.
-S.G.
Baroque Orchestra
-
SPECTACLE OF LIGHT • 6'
INSTRUMENTATION
1202 2200 harpsichord, baroque timpani, strings (modern day instruments with baroque bows)
A modern day version is also available; see "Chamber Orchestra" above.
AUDIO
Music of the Baroque Orchestra; Dame Jane Glover, conductor
DURATION
6'
YEAR COMPOSED
2020
COMMISSIONER
Music of the Baroque
ORDERING SCORES • ONLINE PERUSAL
Theodore Presser Company
https://www.presser.com/catalogsearch/result/?q=spectacle+of+light
Available versions for Baroque orchestra and chamber orchestra
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PROGRAM NOTES
When Music of the Baroque commissioned me to compose a piece in honor of their 50th anniversary season, I was delighted that my new piece would premiere on a concert entitled Baroque Fireworks. But what aspect of Baroque fireworks should I explore? I found the answer on Music of the Baroque’s website. In perusing the webpage for the Baroque Fireworks concert, I was mesmerized by the page’s backdrop image, which looked to be a hand-drawn picture of a fireworks show. A little research uncovered that the image is an etching of a 1749 fireworks spectacle that took place on the River Thames in honor of Great Britain’s King George II. The king had signed the 1748 treaty at Aix-la-Chapelle that officially ended the War of Austrian Succession, and as was typical in this era, he wanted to celebrate with a grand show of music and fireworks. This is the very same event for which George Frideric Handel wrote Music for the Royal Fireworks.
I was intrigued by the manner in which the etching’s artist represented the path of each individual firework, starting with an upward trajectory of a golden streak of light that inevitably bends and falls back towards the earth, blooming into glittering specks before flickering out. This inspired me to find other depictions and etchings of Baroque fireworks, as well as to view numerous modern-day fireworks shows on YouTube to study how they rise, bloom, and overlap with each other to create a rich, complex, and fleeting tapestry of color. I realized that fireworks and music share an ephemeral nature: they both delight our senses before fading into memory.
Ultimately, I decided that Spectacle of Light would represent the experience of a fireworks show. The music starts with great anticipation as the crowd waits in darkness, then a single firework illuminates the sky, followed by a massive eruption of light, color, and sound. After this initial frenzied burst, the fireworks quiet down into a slower-paced, mesmerizing display of colors before building to a big, fiery ending. As a tip of the hat to Music of the Baroque, I worked a few salient elements of the baroque style into my own musical language, as well as found a few choice spots to add a few subtle hints of Handel’s Royal Fireworks.
-S.G.
String Orchestra
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INNER DEMONS • 11'30"
AUDIO
Recorded sound courtesy of the U.S. Marine Band®. Use of the recorded sound does not constitute or imply endorsement by the Department of Defense, U.S. Marine Corps or U.S. Marine Band®. The terms U.S. Marine Band® and “The President’s Own®“ are registered trademarks of the U.S. Marine Corps, used with permission.
YEAR COMPOSED
2007
COMMISSIONER
Peter Austin and Music in the Loft Concert Series
ORDERING SCORES
Theodore Presser Company
https://www.presser.com/416-41495-inner-demons.html
PROGRAM NOTES
Inner Demons depicts a man as he loses his mind. This piece contains four themes: a tarantella, a demented waltz, a scherzo, and the Appalachian folk hymn “The Wayfaring Stranger”. The themes are stated quite briskly until arriving at the hymn. This theme consumes the man; it destroys his mind and he melts down. As his mind is slowly rebuilt, his thoughts become increasingly chaotic, until elements of all four themes are heard simultaneously. Inner Demons is an arrangement of the third and second movements (in this order) of my String Quartet No. 2: Demons and Angels.
-S.G. -
LO YISA GOY • 5’
VIDEO
University of Utah Philharmonia
Robert Baldwin, conductor
Jacob Davis, viola
YEAR COMPOSED
2007; 2020 (string arrangement)
COMMISSIONER
Chicago a cappella
ORDERING SCORES
Theodore Presser Company
https://www.presser.com/116-42036s-lo-yisa-goy.html
PROGRAM NOTE
I took on a few projects during the 2020 Coronavirus pandemic for musicians and ensembles that were seeking collaborations during the long months of isolation. The first of these projects was the transcribing of my choral work Lo Yisa Goy for instruments. In April, saxophonist Paul Nolen asked if I might have something that his Illinois State University students could learn and individually record their parts; he would then mix the tracks together and share online. Then, over the summer, conductor Robert Baldwin asked if I might have anything suitable for the string section of the University of Utah Philharmonia, one of the few large groups that can safely gather together if performers are carefully spaced out. Once I had transcribed the piece for saxophone ensemble, I found the music made a compelling string orchestra version as well.
The text of Lo Yisa Goy is the Jewish prayer for peace:
And they shall beat their swords into plowshares,
and their spears into pruning hooks:
nation shall not lift up a sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore.
But they shall sit every man under his vine
and under his fig tree;
and none shall make them afraid:
for the mouth of the Lord of hosts hath spoken it.
-S.G. -
REPAIR THE WORLD • 6'
Enter description here.
l'Solisti of the Midwest Young Artists Conservatory, led by Desirée Ruhstrat • Highwood, IL
YEAR COMPOSED
2023
COMMISSIONER
Commissioned by Joanne Bernstein and made possible by many generous donors.
When there are no words, there is music.
ORDERING SCORES
Inkjar Publishing Company
To order:
• Click on the link to email Inkjar Publishing Company
• Specify the instrumentation you wish to order.
• An invoice will be sent to you via PayPal.
• Once payment is received, you will be emailed the licensed performance materials will be sent as PDFs within three business days (excluding weekends and holidays).
Pricing:
• clarinet, cello, and piano • $25
• piano solo (professional) • $15
• piano solo (student) • $15
• piano trio (professional) • $25
• piano trio (student) • $25
• saxophone (alto) and piano • $20
• saxophone (soprano), cello, and piano • $25
• saxophone quartet • $30
• string orchestra • $125
• string trio • $25
• string quartet • $30
• violin solo • $15
• violin and piano • $20
• viola solo • $15
• viola and piano • $20
• violoncello and piano • $20
PROGRAM NOTES
How does a composer write a work in response to the horrific mass shooting that took place at Highland Park’s Independence Day parade in 2022? I started with research. Joanne Bernstein, a longtime Highland Park resident and the commissioner of this project, arranged for us to talk with a wide range of people about the event, from city organizers and first responders to witnesses and survivors. We also visited the current memorial site for the seven victims, along with a Kindness Rock Garden situated close to the memorial where people have placed painted rocks with messages. Additionally, we sorted through thousands of tags written by people who visited the temporary arch memorial erected near the parade route in the months after the event. As I ruminated over our research, I placed on my desk a stone I had brought from the Rock Garden that had the word “peace” written on it. Alongside it, I put a tag from the memorial arch that was inscribed with the Hebrew words tikkun olam and its corresponding English “repair the world.” The rock and the tag stayed as permanent fixtures on my desk as I completed the process of composing the piece. These objects became my guiding light as to how to respond musically in my work.
What is the role of music in response to such an event? I find three purposes: first, to honor the victims and survivors. Second, to reflect on the inherent goodness of the people who jumped into action to save the injured, who provided resources to the families of victims and to the survivors in the immediate aftermath, and who are continuously working to bring the community together since the terrible incident. Third, to attempt to bring healing to members of the community.
In naming the work Repair the World, I call upon the Jewish concept of tikkun olam that we need to fix what is broken. This idea plays out musically in the piece, with melodies and chords first moving one way, then “fixing” themselves by reversing, as though getting repaired. The entire structure rewinds as well, with sections presenting themselves in reverse order halfway through the piece. I also wanted to express musically that our work to heal the world is ongoing. To represent this, I introduce a repeated note motive at the very opening of the piece; this motive is heard throughout the entire work. I end the piece with this same motive to signify that we still have work to do.
Additionally, I wish to make the universal concept of tikkun olam personal for all who perform and hear it. I invite all presenters and performers to translate the title into the language that is personal to them and their audiences, and to list the title in their chosen language in concert programs. May we all strive to heal the world together.
After the beginning of the Israel-Hamas war in October 2023, musicians began performing Repair the World as a response to the crisis. The commissioner and I welcome musicians to play the work anywhere and everywhere people are dealing with loss of any kind, whether from gun violence, war, or even personal loss.
-S.G.
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HELIOS • 4’30” • 2 tpts/flugelhorns, hn, tbn, tba
PROGRAM NOTES
In Greek mythology, Helios was the god of the sun. His head wreathed in light, he daily drove a chariot drawn by four horses (in some tales, the horses are winged; in others, they are made of fire) across the sky. At the end of each day’s journey, he slept in a golden boat that carried him on the Okeanos River (a fresh water stream that encircled the flat earth) back to his rising place. The cyclic journey of Helios is depicted in this short work for brass quintet. The first half is fast-paced and very energetic, while the second half is slow and serene, representing day and night.
-S.G.
