Performance materials available from the composer: Paul A. Epstein 379 Heathcliffe Road Huntingdon Valley, PA 19006 E-mail: pepstein@comcast.net links: Gold Branch Music, Inc. mode records Capstone Records Relâche |
In American Music in the Twentieth Century, critic Kyle Gann cites Epstein as “One of the finest postminimal composers...” and calls Chamber Music: Three Songs from Home “...a vocal setting for winds and keyboards of great contrapuntal beauty.” Epstein's music has been presented in the U.S. and abroad by such ensembles as Relâche, Synchronia, the Circle ensemble of London, and ONIX Nuevo Ensamble de México. It is available on compact disk on the Mode and Capstone labels. Paul A. Epstein is Professor Emeritus of Music Theory at Temple University, where he taught from 1969 to 2001. Born in Boston in 1938, he is a graduate of Brandeis University and the University of California at Berkeley. His composition teachers included Harold Shapero, Seymour Shifrin, and Luciano Berio, with whom he studied privately on a Fulbright grant to Italy in 1962-63. Epstein has been involved in closely collaborative work with artists in theater and dance. He was associated with the New York environmental theater group The Performance Group from 1969 to 1972, and from 1974 to 1987 he was composer and music director for ZeroMoving Dance Company of Philadelphia. An article by Kyle Gann, “American Composer: Paul A. Epstein,” appears in the December, 2004 issue of Chamber Music, a publication of Chamber Music America. |
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THREE SONNETS for mezzo-soprano, cello, and piano with poems by Harvey Gilman, 2004; 9 min. THE GREAT VALLEY, NO. 5: triptych for chamber chorus, with text by Toby Olson, 2003; 23 min. CHIHUAHUA, a chamber opera in six scenes with libretto by Toby Olson, 1999; 60 min. DORIT, a chamber opera in ten scenes with libretto by Toby Olson, 1993; ca. 60 min. FACING for baritone and string trio, with poem by Toby Olson, 1995; written for the AIDS Quilt Songbook; 3 min. READING for baritone and piano, with text by Toby Olson, 1994; 18 min. THE LEPER'S HELIX: Variations and Approximations for mezzo-soprano, flute, English horn, clarinet/bass clarinet, soprano/baritone saxophone, bassoon, accordion, and piano, with text by Robert Coover, 1990 (revised, 1991); 25 min. BIRDSONGS for baritone and piano, with poems by Toby Olson, 1988; 15 min. CHAMBER MUSIC: Three Songs from Home for mezzo-soprano, flute (also picc., alto fl.,) clarinet, saxophone (sop., alt.,) bassoon, and two keyboards, with poems by Toby Olson, 1986; 18 min. MOVING VOICES for two female voices and flute, with texts by Gertrude Stein, 1981; ca. 7. min. FOUR TIMES FOR THREE for three instruments, 2006; 11 min. SEVENS for flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, violin, viola, and cello, 2006; 7 min. THE GREAT VALLEY, NO 8 for two marimbas, 2005; 7 min. LANDSCAPE VARIATIONS for piano, 2005; Book I, 11 min.; Book II, 11 min. THE GREAT VALLEY, NO 7 for guitar, 2005; 8 min. THE GREAT VALLEY, NO. 6b for violin, 2004; 11 min. THE GREAT VALLEY, NO. 6c for viola, 2003; 11 min. THE GREAT VALLEY, NO. 6a for cello, 2003; 11 min. THE GREAT VALLEY, NO. 4: triptych for flute, cello, and piano, 2003; 15 min. MOVING VOICES version for flute, clarinet, and viola, 2002; 6 min. INTERLEAVINGS for piano, 2002; 11 min. ALGORHYTHMS 2 for flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, vibraphone, viola and contrabass, 2002; 15 min. ALGORHYTHMS 2000 for wind ensemble, 2000; 15 min. 57: 4/5/7 for amplified harpsichord, 1998; 10 min. ALGORHYTHMS 1 for flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, marimba, keyboard, viola, and contrabass, 1998; 15 min. SOLSTICE CANONS: Version for Woodwind Trio, 1995; 8 min. PALINDROME VARIATIONS: Version for Flute, Cello, and Piano, 1995; 8 min. TWO STUDIES FOR MANDOLIN, 1995; 10 min. CHANGES 3 for Violin (or Viola) and Viola (or Violin), 1993 SOLSTICE CANONS: Version for String Trio, 1993; 8 min. SOLSTICE CANONS for three instruments (open instrumentation), 1993; 8 min. VARIATIONS FOR WIND QUINTET, 1991; 13 min. CHANGES 2: Version for Two Instruments, 1990; open instrumentation, duration variable VARIATIONS FOR STRING ORCHESTRA, 1987; 15 min. PALINDROMES 2: Version for Six Instruments for flute, clarinet, cello, vibraphone, marimba, and piano, 1984; ca. 13 min. PALINDROMES 2: Version for String Quartet, 1983; ca. 10 min. PALINDROMES 2: Version for Saxophones and Percussion, 1983; ca. 10 min. PASSAGES FOR SEVEN INSTRUMENTS for flute, oboe (or soprano saxophone,) bass clarinet, violin, viola, cello, and piano, 1982; 18 min. CHANGES 4 for alto flute, alto saxophone, vibraphone, marimba, viola, and cello, 1980; ca. 20 APPROXIMATIONS: Prelude 2 for Piano, 1980 BIRDSONGS: Gregory Wiest, tenor, Oresta Cybriwsky, piano, as part of the compact disc Time Marches On: More Modern American Songs," Capstone Records, 1998 CHAMBER MUSIC: Three Songs from Home, recorded by the Relâche ensemble as part of the compact disk Relâche: On Edge; Mode records, 1991 PALINDROME VARIATIONS, SCI Journal of Scores, Vol.26. |
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Compositions | |||
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Interleavings: 1. The Great Valley, No. 1 |
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| Interleavings: 1. The Great Valley, No. 1.mp3 - complete | |||
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The five pieces in this set explore a process I call interleaving: the interspersing of two or more melodic patterns of varying lengths. The first, fourth, and fifth pieces are also studies for a larger project inspired by Joan Mitchell’s monumental Grande Vallée paintings. La Grande Vallée was a real place described to Mitchell by a friend, Gisèlle Barreau, for whom it had been a secret retreat (“Magical childhood land: harmony, refuge, shelter, tranquillity.”) Mitchell knew the valley only through her friend’s memories. For me it exists through the additional mediation of Mitchell’s extraordinary paintings. The recording is from a live performance by pianist Charles Abramovic, for whom Interleavings was written. duration: 1'20" | |||
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The Great Valley, No. 4: i. O Wüsst ich Doch... [MIDI realization] |
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| The Great Valley, No. 4: i. O Wüsst ich Doch... [MIDI realization].mp3 - complete | |||
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I think of the pieces in the Great Valley series as imaginary landscapes, not in the picturesque sense but rather as embodiments of structural rules, much as a real landscape embodies the rules of its geological, climatological, and botanical structures. Here the rules govern such things as pitch, rhythm, and articulation as well as when and how these things may change. duration: 3'46" | |||
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Palindrome Variations: Version for flute, cello, and piano |
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| Palindrome Variations: Version for flute, cello, and piano.mp3 - complete | |||
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This version of Palindrome Variations (1995) is the latest in a series of pieces dating back to 1983, all derived from a single short pattern that reads the same forward or backward. The pattern is subjected to a variety of transformations and combined with itself canonically to create a series of changing textures. I was particularly interested in exploring the tension created when the original pattern competes for our attention with the new composite patterns emerging from this layering process. The recording is by the New Music Trio of Temple University (Cynthia Folio, Jeffrey Solow, and Charles Abramovic.) It appears on the compact disk “Connections” on Capstone Records as part of the SCI Series and is published in the SCI Journal of Music Scores, Vol. 26. duration: 9’06” | |||
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BirdSongs: 3. Sparrow |
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| BirdSongs: 3. Sparrow.mp3 - complete | |||
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In the process of composing BirdSongs, I became increasingly aware of the complex relationship between the human persona of Toby Olson's poems (from Bird Songs, ©The Perishable Press Limited, 1980) and the natural landscape which the persona is both a part of and, by virtue of human consciousness, set apart from. This relationship is reflected in the musical structure, specifically in the varying degree of integration of voice and piano. The recording, by tenor Gregory Wiest and pianist Oresta Cybriwski, is from the Capstone CD “Time Marches On: More Modern American Songs.” duration: 2'58" text: The lone sparrow comes and settles in on the feeder as the light fails us and her. she is pregnant, allows us to come close enough to see that, and when we are almost too close she moves off: twig, to another twig to a branch cross space, to another tree. her movements are economical; she watches us, and we too watch as if her life mattered we stand there in regard of her namesake, the small sparrows in her; it is no coincidence we lack mastery. We call it grace or the absence of grace, insouciance, fact of the mother swollen, to her instinct to rest: the nesting urge. she watches. and in the morning he rises complicatedly beside you from clarity of sleep, puts bare feet on cold floor; who is the simpleton? the hawk will eat her in regard of his namesake; her bones crack brittle, spectacular in her death to us who watch her fllammable in shadow (which obscures her) we are the fire. | |||
©2005 by Paul Epstein
All Rights Reserved
Paul Epstein 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.