INSTRUMENTATION: Symphony Orchestra (3333 4331 T+3 Hp Str. Fl3 doubles picc; Cl3 plays B Cl throughout.)

DURATION: ca. 6... More > minutes

For more information, please see:
http://www.aaronalon.com/works/everest/everest.html < Less

A song from a new dramatic musical, LEPers.

A song from the new dramatic musical, LEPers.

INSTRUMENTATION: Solo oboe or alto sax
DURATION: 1 minute 45 seconds

This piece was written in response to C.P. Cavafy’s... More > poem, Walls, as translated by Elena Spilioti (with the collaboration of George Zorbas and Chris Burke). An excerpt from this poem prefaces the movement. Walls was originally part of a three-movement work for oboe titled Córdoba. < Less

A comic art song for high voice & piano DURATION: ca. 5 1/2 minutes For more information, please visit: http://www.aaronalon.com/works/allrights

A setting of Wilfred Owen's "Dulce Et Decorum Est" for baritone and piano (also available in the original baritone and string quartet version).

A setting of Wilfred Owen's "Dulce et Decorum Est" for baritone and string quartet.

SpellINSTRUMENTATION: Violin & 2 cellos

While Spell is not truly programmatic, the music and movement titles are meant to... More > create a loose story of sorcerers casting a spell. In the first movement (“Spell”), the casting of the spell starts in the violin and is echoed and expanded upon by the second cello. The second movement (“Pagan Dance”) starts as an extension of the first, but gradually builds into a raucous and chaotic dance. The energy continually increases until it is finally suspended at a high point: the spell is ending; dawn in approaching. In the final movement (“Embers”), the fire begins to die. Various motives and themes return and are subject to increasing fragmentation. Though the spell and the fire are dying, the magic only fades from view. The movements are played without pause.

Performance notes for atypical notation are provided within the context of the score. The movements are to be played attacca. < Less

Spring and FallINSTRUMENTATION: Medium voice, cello, & piano

“Spring and Fall” is a setting of Hopkins’ poem by the... More > same name. In the text, the speaker consoles Margaret, who is grieving her first loss (loss of innocence or possibly a death). The speaker attempts a stoic veneer, but emotion seeps through; the speaker’s own struggle is brought out in the rapidly shifting mood of the cello cadenza. The speaker asks Margaret why she is weeping, concluding that she weeps for a universal human condition, something we all feel but can scarcely name: “It is the blight man was born for, / It is Margaret you mourn for.” While both instruments engage in musical commentary on the text, the piano is more of a passive observer of the mood; the cello is more closely aligned to the voice and to the speaker’s emotional struggle, as the speaker tries to comfort Margaret, and ultimately, him- or herself. < Less

INSTRUMENTATION: Symphony Orchestra (3333 4331 T+3 Hp Str. Fl3 doubles picc; Cl3 plays B Cl throughout.)

DURATION: ca. 6... More > minutes

For more information, please see:
http://www.aaronalon.com/works/everest/everest.html < Less