CCRMA OVERVIEW - CCRMA - Stanford University

5.2 Composers and Works
Recent compositional works realized at CCRMA include the following:
Oded Ben-Tal
• fortepiano (2000) for 4-channel tape utilizing the piano as a sound source.
• How silent comes the water (2000) for solo piano
How silent comes the water was commisioned by the Israeli pianist Michal Tal.
• Saraband for flute, clarinet, violin, cello, piano, percussion, and computer generated sound (2000)
• Socratic Dialogues for violin, percussion, and 8 winds (1999)
• Soliloquy for cello and computer generated sound (1999)
Jonathan Berger
• My Lai (2001) for solo piano
My Lai was premiered at the United Nations General Assembly, January 24 2001.
• Echoes of Light and Time (2000)
A sound installation and collaboration with Dale Chihuly. Commissioned by the City of Jerusalem
and Chihuly Studio for Chihuly in the Light of Jerusalem, 2000.
Echoes of Light and Time, Berger's millennium collaboration with sculptor Dale Chihuly was heard
by over two million visitors and received international attention. The CD adaptation of the work
was released by Vitosha/Sony in January 2001.
• Marcatto Sempre (2000) for clarinet (commissioned by Ensemble Kaprizma).
• Miracles and Mud (1999) for String Quartet.
• Of Hammered Gold (1999) for period instruments and digital bird organ (Chamber Music America
Millenium Commission).
Jonathan Berger is a National Endowment for the Arts Fellow, 1996-1997 and recipient of the
Chamber Music America Millenium Commission.
Chris Burns
• Misprision (2001) for flute and guitar
Misprision is dedicated to Joanna and Inouk Demers.
• Gineman (2000) for harpsichord
In the summer of 2000 I spent almost a month in Bali, studying music and attending performances.
When I returned home my head was full of Balinese music, and seemingly nothing else - every shred
of music I imagined was in pentatonic scales and cyclic patterns.
Gineman is the result of this situation - another in the series of collisions between Indonesian
music and my personal compositional idiom. In Bali, a gineman is the introductory section of a
longer work for gamelan gong kebyar, characterized by fast, angular phrases. While this Gineman
is certainly not a piece of Balinese music, it borrows the stop-and-start rhythms and unexpected
outbursts of its namesake. My perceptions of Balinese modality and rhythmic cycle are also
important to the piece, although in a more abstract fashion.
The harpsichord, closely associated with the European Baroque, may seem an unusual vehicle for
music inspired by Bali. However, the two manuals and flexible tuning of the instrument enabled me
to approximate the paired tunings that characterize the shimmering soundworld of the gamelan.
Gineman is dedicated to Mary Francis.
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