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My Music: My Oratorio, My Opera, My Solo Pieces, My Chamber Music
Click on the links to the right to listen to excerpts from my pieces. All excerpts are in wma (windows media audio) format in low quality (32 kbps -- recommended for dial-up users) and high quality (64 kbps -- recommended for broadband users). You will need Windows Media Player to play these files.
My Oratorio: Apokálypsis, an Oratorio on the Book of Revelation in the Original Koine (click here to learn more about the oratorio)
| Title | Performers | Notes | Low quality | High quality |
| The Sixth Seal (Study for Orchestra) (1999) | Manhattan School of Music (MSM) Composers Orchestra, Glenn Cortese - conductor | My first composition for orchestra. It was never performed in concert, but was read by the MSM Composers Orchestra in April 1999. (Click here to learn more about the piece.) | 6th seal -lo | 6th seal -hi |
| The Two Witnesses (1999-2000) for bass-baritone and chamber orchestra | MSM Composers Chamber Orchestra, Daniel Gross - bass-baritone, Maurycy Banaszek - conductor | This is my largest individual piece on the Revelation topic: it is about seventeen and a half minutes long and was performed at MSM on April 15th 2000. This excerpt is from the very end of the piece and depicts the two witnesses ascending to Heaven. (Click here to learn more about the piece.) | 2 wit -lo | 2 wit -hi |
| Two Scenes from Revelation (2000-01) for orchestra | MSM Composers Orchestra, David Gilbert - conductor | Performed on January 26th 2001 at MSM's Borden Auditorium. These excerpts relate to the first and second scenes, which represent, respectively, the messianic kingdom that lasts a thousand years and the final defeat of Satan. (Click here to learn more about the piece.) | scene 1 -lo | scene 1 -hi |
| Four Movements from Revelation (2001) reduction for seven vocalists, organ and piano | Mónica Abrego, Stephanie Barnett - sopranos; Gudrun Bühler - alto; Marcos Vigil - tenor; Shinya Muto, Federico Trejo - baritones; Charles Temkey - bass; Maxine Thevenot - organ; Nadezhda Papayani - piano; and Christopher Dietz - conductor | These first four
movements of the oratorio were performed in a reduction in the beautiful
Riverside Church in New York, on April 25th 2001. Their titles are the
following: Introduction: "I am the Alpha and the Omega;"
I- The Risen Christ Appears; II- The Heavenly Throne Room; III- The
Scroll with the Seven Seals. All four movements are represented in the
excerpts. (Click here to learn more about the piece.)
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intro -lo | intro -hi |
| The Descent of the New Jerusalem (2002) for soprano, tenor, bass, full chorus, organ and orchestra | Unperformed | I think this is one of my best pieces, but unfortunately it has not been performed yet. It is the great culmination of the entire oratorio when the New Jerusalem descends from the heavens adorned with gold, pearls and every precious stone. I designed the piece so that it could be played without soloists or chorus, and, like every one of my pieces, it can be performed independently from the oratorio. | ||
| The Woman and the Dragon (2002-03) for orchestra | Manhattan School of Music Composers Orchestra, David Gilbert - conductor | The first excerpt represents a Christ-like child that a cosmic woman in Heaven gives birth to; the music is very gentle and delicate and is suddenly disturbed by the great red Dragon -- Satan. The second excerpt deals with the battle between the Dragon and the archangel Michael. (Click here to learn more about the piece.) | woman -lo | woman -hi |
My Opera: Le Petit Prince
| Title | Performers | Notes | Low quality | High quality |
| Three Scenes from Le Petit Prince (2000) reduction for soprano, tenor, women's chorus and piano | Dawn Kasprow (1), Amy Forburger (2) - solo sopranos; Álvaro Vallejo - tenor; Jennifer Sheldon, Catherine Robin (1), Amy Justman (3) - sopranos; Suzanne Schwing - alto; William Whipple (1), Anthony Romaniuk (2, 3) - piano; Pedro H. da Silva - conductor | My favourite book is Le Petit Prince -- The Little Prince -- by St.-Exupéry. It gave me immense pleasure to start writing an opera on the subject, which was not all that difficult since the music practically wrote itself. These three excerpts are from each of the three scenes that I wrote. There were two performances of it: the first excerpt has the original cast, and the other two have the second cast. (Click here to learn more about the piece.) | scene 1 -lo | scene 1 -hi |
| Title | Performers | Notes | Low quality | High quality |
| Lachrymae (1994) for guitar | Not recorded | One of my first compositions for guitar, and the only one of my early pieces that I have kept. It is a tribute to Villa-Lobos, and is heavily influenced by his music. | ||
| 7/1999 (1998) for electric guitar | Pedro da Silva - electric guitar | An experimental piece on the vast sonic possibilities that the electric guitar has to offer. You might want to lower the volume down a bit... | 7/1999 -lo | 7/1999 -hi |
| ATANOS (1998, rev. 2001) for piano | Rubén Yessayán - piano | This is a dialogue on contrasts, on extremes: from the slowest to the fastest possible, from softest to loudest, from lowest to highest, etc. | atanos -lo | atanos -hi |
| Fuga on the Theme from ATANOS (1998, rev. 2004) for piano | Not recorded | This fugue was originally part of ATANOS (see the next entry) but the piece was too long and I decided to take this section out. Fortunately, I think it works fine as an independent piece. | ||
| Prélude (2001) for piano | William Whipple - piano | A very simple piece, very gentle, that has obvious French influences but in my own style. | prelude -lo | prelude -hi |
| Rapsodie sur un Thème d’Olivier Messiaen (2002) for guitar | Pedro da Silva - guitar | After too many years of not writing for the guitar I came back to it. I relished every moment and used all my favourite compositional and guitaristic techniques. (Click here to learn more about the piece.) | rapsodie -lo | rapsodie -hi |
| Trois Pièces Enfantines (2002) for piano | Not recorded | Satie's music greatly influenced this work in which I tried to use utmost simplicity: only the white keys of the piano are used in all three pieces. The first one is a vocalise, the second one is about a butterfly, and the third one is about a little boy who is very sad... |
| Title | Performers | Notes | Low quality | High quality |
| Alvorada (1995-96) for string quartet | Not recorded | Of the original four movements of my first string quartet I only kept the first -- this piece -- and the third, which I revised and called 'String Quartet nr.1' (see the next entry). 'Alvorada' means 'dawn' in Portuguese. | ||
| String Quartet nr.1 (1996, rev. 1998) | Cármelo de los Santos, Ann-Estelle Medouze - violins; Omar Guey - viola; Michael Hakim - violoncello | The work is in two main sections: the first one which is highly rhythmic, and the second one which is very slow and tranquil. This excerpt falls in between those two sections. | quartet -lo | quartet -hi |
| Solstício de Verão (1997) for violin and viola braguesa | Bruno Monteiro - violin; Pedro da Silva - viola braguesa | A Portuguese instrument (the viola braguesa), a violin, with Spanish harmonies and Indian scales that result in a music that is more akin to Eastern European Gypsies than to anyone else. With this piece I assert my long held belief that music sometimes is just supposed to be fun. | solsticio -lo | solsticio -hi |
| Duo Lidico (1998) for flute and guitar | Sophia Anastasia - flute; Pedro H. da Silva - guitar | An unpretentious work that climaxes in this excerpt. As the title indicates, the piece is mostly in the Lydian mode, but this climax combines both Lydian and Locrian in a highly chromatic fashion. | duo -lo | duo -hi |
| Spleen (1999) for voice, clarinet and two bass-clarinets | Andrea Needell - soprano; Dana Hotle - clarinet; Wilfredo Figueroa, Mariam Adam - bass-clarinets | Based on one of the several 'Spleen' poems of Charles Baudelaire -- one of my favourite poets. The word in the title is of course English, and refers to that organ that was believed in the past to secrete 'black bile' which resulted in melancholia... | spleen -lo | spleen -hi |
| 24-hour Passacaglia (2001) for string quartet | Ernesto Villa-Lobos, Jennifer Best - violins; Derek Smith - viola; and Ignacio Gallego - violoncello | As the title indicates, I wrote this piece in twenty-four hours. I had to write it for my doctoral audition, with only the requirements that I should use a string quartet and Verdi's 'enigmatic' scale. | 24-hr -lo | 24-hr -hi |
Last updated on Tuesday, 21 June 2005
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