Contact: BTBaxt@gmail.com Links: Brian Baxter MySpace The Sissy-Eared Mollycoddles Luke Gullickson Benjamin Hjertmann Eric Malmquist Shout Section Big Band |
Upcoming Concerts August 30th, 2008 8:00PM The Sissy-Eared Mollycoddles Summer Concert featuring works for electric guitar, amplified double bass, and drumset/percussion. Works by Baxter, Gullickson, Hjertmann, and Malmquist. For directions to any of the above locations please email: BTBaxt@gmail.com Biography Brian Baxter’s music is recognized for its colorful timbre, unique rhythmic textures, and a healthy preoccupation with symmetry. Baxter currently resides in Chicago where he is pursuing an M.M. in music composition at the Chicago College of Performing Arts. In 2007, he received a B.M. in music composition from Illinois Wesleyan University . His principal teachers at both institutions have included; Stacy Garrop, Daron Hagen, David Vayo, Mario Pelusi, and Garrett Byrnes. Baxter is also an active performer (percussion, piano) in several groups around the Chicagoland area including the Sissy-Eared Mollycoddles, Chicago's most exciting up-and-coming new music trio. Brian originally hails from Geneva, IL. Current Projects: -Re-orchestration of Roma for chamber quintet. -Song Cycle for soprano voice and piano based on text by Thoreau. -3 different orchestral pieces. -Crossover work for electric guitar, amplified upright bass, and drumset. -Piano Trio. Stay tuned for the latest! |
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Selected List of Recent Works
Music for the Sissy-Eared Mollycoddles: II. from The Bells - three percussionists and tenor voice, text by: Edgar Allen Poe (2007) The Morning of... - two speaking voices and doumbek (2007) Neige de Janvier - duet for percussion and steel string acoustic guitar (2008) *Listen and Look below! Roma - three movement work for electric guitar, electric bass, percussion, crystal glasses, and three voices (2007) Mixed Chamber Music: Fanfare for the Black Cat - Brass Quintet (2006) Elegy - alto saxophone and piano (2008) Kwai - 2 violins and piano (2008) Kyrie - Duet for B-flat Clarinet and Bassoon (2006) Passing Tour - string bass, marimba and oboe (2004) People Movement - chamber septet for flute, bassoon, 2 percussion, violin, viola, and cello (2006) *Listen and Look below! Vermont - quartet for A clarinet, two celli, and a string bass (2005) Percussion Music: Percussion Quintet - Percussion Ensemble (2007) Colossus of Rhodes - Percussion Ensemble (7 players) (2007) Vocal Music: If I gave you jigsaws. - tenor voice and piano, text by Josh Ziemann (2006-2007) Light the Way - song cycle for baritone voice and piano, seven songs based on seven poems written by Josh Ziemann (2005-2006) Large Ensemble Music: A Rising Sun Across the Water - wind ensemble (2007) After the Fact - wind ensemble (2004-2006) Fountain - orchestra (2008) Sol through white curtains - orchestra (2008) Solo Music: Three Sketches for Clarinet in B-flat - solo for B-flat Clarinet (2007) Airport Sketch - solo for double-bass (2006) The Box of Justice - unaccompanied solo for tuba (2005) Please email Brian at BTBaxt@gmail.com for scores and parts or for more information about the above pieces. |
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Compositions | |||
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A Rising Sun Across the Water (wind ensemble) |
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| A Rising Sun Across the Water (wind ensemble).mp3 - complete | |||
| A Rising Sun Across the Water (wind ensemble).pdf - complete | |||
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Composer’s Note: I sketched the initial drafts of A Rising Sun Across the Water during the fall of 2007, while gazing out over Lake Michigan from the Chicago lakefront. I completed further work on the piece during time spent gazing into the spray of water shooting forth from Grant Park’s Buckingham Fountain. A Rising Sun Across the Water invokes the natural beauty of Lake Michigan juxtaposed with the hustle and bustle of downtown Chicago. This juxtaposition was inspiring to me due in large part to my own personal struggle for identity as a young adult. By intertwining personal themes into the music I related my own experiences to my observations of the world around me. The music in a way is a conglomeration of several diverse elements unified by a common context. A Rising Sun Across the Water has come to represent a new sensitivity toward timbre and instrumental color in my compositional approach. | |||
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Old Meeting-House Bell (soprano voice and piano) |
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| Old Meeting-House Bell (soprano voice and piano).mp3 - complete | |||
| Old Meeting-House Bell (soprano voice and piano).pdf - complete | |||
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Composer's Note: Old Meeting-House Bell is the first in a cycle of four songs for soprano voice and piano that I am in the process of completing. This particular song is relatively short. The text itself consists of only a single five-line stanza. In the song, the sound and image of a large church bell is invoked on a couple of different levels. It is literally referenced through broadly sweeping bell-shaped gestures in the piano. These gestures produce a rich and sonorous sound reminiscent to that of a powerfully tolling bell. On a larger scale the image of the bell is projected in the overall formal shape of the piece. In this sense the musical materials for both the voice and piano parts are constructed in a symmetrical manner reflecting the similarly symmetrical construction of a bell. In fact, there is a broad sweep in range from low to high and then back down again in both the voice and the piano that create this composite symmetrical effect. Below is the text for Old Meeting-House Bell: Old Meeting-House Bell I love thy music well It peals through the air Sweetly full & fair As in the early times When I listened to its chimes. | |||
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Neige de Janvier (percussion and steel string guitar) |
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| Neige de Janvier (percussion and steel string guitar).mp3 - complete | |||
| Neige de Janvier (percussion and steel string guitar).pdf - complete | |||
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Composer’s Note: Neige de Janvier, which means January Snow, reflects the manner in which life often feels much more subdued during the cold winter season of the Midwest. This piece was inspired by winter's sparse daylight, biting cold air, and quieting blankets of snow. In Neige de Janvier, two distinct melodies from Debussy's piano prelude, Des Pas sur la Neige, are used as a basis for melodic development. Neige de Janvier was completed in January, 2008 for the Chicago new music ensemble, the Sissy-Eared Mollycoddles. | |||
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Elegy (alto saxophone and piano) |
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| Elegy (alto saxophone and piano).mp3 - complete | |||
| Elegy (alto saxophone and piano).pdf - complete | |||
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Elegy, for alto saxophone and piano, was written on February 14th, 2008. Minutes after completing this short piece I heard the awful news that a campus shooting had occurred at nearby Northern Illinois University earlier on that very day. Elegy is dedicated to the victims and survivors of this unthinkable tragedy. | |||
©2005 by Brian Baxter
All Rights Reserved
Brian Baxter is a member of Society of Composers, Inc. SCI is dedicated to the promotion of composition, performance, understanding and dissemination of new and contemporary music.