Author: debmin

The Gnarled Root

(revised 2007)

Think of a forest: not quite like the ones familiar here on the West Coast (BC, Canada), but perhaps something a little more surreal and enchanted.  This forest is home to the most beautiful as well as the most primitive forms of life, and much as we would like to believe that we’ve conquered our fears of the unknown, a solitary walk off the beaten path, at night, could easily prove us wrong…

This piece is an exploration of both the luminous and the darker colors of the orchestra– but is it possible that what lurks in the darkness here will reveal some of its secrets? Or will they remain intangible, dreamlike, locked beneath a grid of gnarled roots– an enigma?

  • Winner of the Golden Key International Honor Society’s Performing Arts- Composition award, 2004
  • Selected for reading by the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, as part of Jean Coulthard Reading Sessions (conducted by Bramwell Tovey), at the Orpheum Theatre, Vancouver, 12 February, 2004.
  • Revised (2007) version premiered by the West Coast Symphony Orchestra (Bujar Llapaj- conductor), 12 October, 2007.

_____________

Sheet music is available through the Canadian Music Centre.

Recipe

As is the case with composers or individuals in any creative field, there are those who like to “do things by the book”, and those who prefer to improvise. But what happens when a spontaneous thespian-turned-chef with a flair for the absurd meets his match in a classic cookbook’s recipe for a vegetable stew? A duel of saxophones and kitchen sounds tells the tale…

The recipe quotations in this piece were all taken from a veritable vintage cookbook. The chef’s rants, however, were completely ad lib, courtesy of Clint Enns (note: not a “real” chef nor a “real” thespian). Sax sounds were also improvised, courtesy of the composer. No vegetables were seriously harmed in the creation of this piece.

 

  • Performed in stereo format (with video) as part of “raw + cooked” series, Western Front, Vancouver 29 February, 2004.

 

  • Performed in stereo format at Sonic Boom Festival, Western Front, Vancouver 11 March, 2004.

 

  • Performed in 8-channel format at “Electro Currents” concert, Simon Fraser University Theatre, Burnaby, BC, Canada, 12 November, 2004.

 

http://derek.trideja.com/media/recipe.php

 

A Vagabond Song

This piece was based upon a poem of the same name by Canadian maritime poet, Bliss Carman. It is a celebration of the vibrant colours and free-spirited feeling that the autumn season can evoke:

“There is something in the autumn that is native to my blood.
Touch of manner, hint of mood;
And my heart is like a rhyme,
With the yellow and the purple and the crimson keeping time.

The scarlet of the maples can shake me like a cry
Of bugles going by.
And my lonely spirit thrills
To see the frosty asters like a smoke upon the hills.

There is something in October sets the gypsy blood astir:
We must rise and follow her,
When from every hill aflame
She calls each vagabond by name.”

Bliss Carman (1861-1929)

_____________

  • Winner of West Coast Amateur Music Society competition, 2004; winner of the Association of Canadian Women Composers’ choral composing competition, 2005.
  • Performed by DaCapo Chamber Choir at Open Ears Festival, Kitchener, Ontario, 1 May 2005
  • Performed by Massey Choir, at Massey College, University of Toronto, Ontario, 22 November, 2008
  • Performed by Northern Lights Chamber Choir, Armstrong, B.C., 29 February, 2012; Salmon Arm, B.C., 2 & 4 March, 2012; Sorrento, B.C., 11 March, 2012
  • Performed by Vancouver Chamber Choir (Michael Zaugg, guest conductor), at Ryerson United Church, Vancouver, B.C., 20 April, 2018.
  • Performed by Vancouver Chamber Choir (Jon Washburn, conductor), at Pacific Spirit United Church, Vancouver, B.C., 19 October, 2018.

_____________

Sheet music is available through the Canadian Music Centre.

Published
Categorised as Choral

Acquainted With the Night

I have been one acquainted with the night.
I have walked out in rain — and back in rain.
I have outwalked the furthest city light.

I have looked down the saddest city lane.
I have passed by the watchman on his beat
And dropped my eyes, unwilling to explain.

I have stood still and stopped the sound of feet
When far away an interrupted cry
Came over houses from another street,

But not to call me back or say good-bye;
And further still at an unearthly height,
A luminary clock against the sky

Proclaimed the time was neither wrong nor right.
I have been one acquainted with the night.

Robert Frost (1874-1963)

 

  • Read by Chor Leoni Men’s Choir at New Compositions Workshop, 26 February, 2003.

 

Published
Categorised as Choral

El hongo

El hongo was envisioned as something colourful, a bit eccentric, and purely fun. The ensemble of alto sax, cello, piano, and vibraphone suggested the idea of jazz… with some unexpected Javanese gamelan phrases incorporated into the mix.

  • Premiered by, and performed many times by Ensemble Symposium, including at the Sonic Boom Festival, Western Front, Vancouver, 14 March 2004.

_____________

Sheet music is available through the Canadian Music Centre.

String Games

String Games is a stereo electroacoustic piece, composed using live recorded cello sounds as its only sound source. The sounds were manipulated digitally in various ways, including echo, pitch shifting, reverb, ring modulation, and filtering.

String Games has been performed at the Vancouver Art Gallery, and Simon Fraser University Theatre, Burnaby, BC, Canada (2002).