Morningside Variations (2025)
for Flute, Clarinet in Bb (and Eb), Percussion, Violin, Violoncello, and Piano
Duration: 13 minutes
Premiere: TBD September 2026
Dedication: to Kevin Eubanks
Instrumentation: flute, clarinet in B-flat (and E-flat), piano, violin, violoncello, percussion. (suspended cymbal, 5 woodblocks, 5 temple blocks, glockenspiel, vibraphone, & 5 octave marimba)
Note: Often requires conductor.
Availability: Contact for availability
Program Note
First and foremost: I hope that you will just sit back and enjoy this work and listen to it as an evolving kaleidoscope of textures and harmonies. The work is about thirteen minutes and has no pauses between variations. Many of the tempi are similar. The program note below might tell you how the work is constructed, but is less helpful if you’re trying to listen.
In several recent works like my Viola Sonata (2023), Violin Concerto (2026), and Triple Variations (2025) for solo viola, I have been interested in variation forms.
Taking a cue from Haydn and Stravinsky, Morningside Variations is actually a set of “double-variations.” One series of variations, labeled in the score, Variations 1, 2, 3, etc up to 11 is interrupted at various points with a second series of variations, labeled in the score at Variation A, B, C and D.
Both series lack a “theme”, and although the first variation of each series is likely what a listener might compare subsequent variations against, I wanted to create different hierarchies in the work beyond the relationship of each variation to a “theme.”
Furthermore, the numbered variations are based on triadic harmonies and progressions of chords and not a melody or tune. This repeated chord progression is divided into two parts and each part changes its shape throughout the work, principally by the way that the chords are “stacked,” whether by triads, sevenths, ninths, elevenths, or thirteenths. While these variations are triadic, they mostly elude true tonal centers, even as each variation is transposed according to a separate scheme.
In contrast, the interrupting “lettered” variations are created by passages of registerally-fixed pitches (sometimes called “pitchfields” in music theory) and the results are more gestural than harmonic. Like the numbered variations, the pitchfield is transposed for different variations.
The instrumentation is varied as well. In the numbered variations, each part uses a different combination of six players or features a particular instrument in the foreground, although not strictly.
The work is titled after my neighborhood in Manhattan which is filled with gardens and parks. Each Spring brings a changing procession of flowers and foliage and that inspired this piece.