jon magnussen / composer

Music > chamber

  

10 Rooms (2020)
12 min. ca.

For 'Cello Quartet with Four Triangles 

In celebration of the 90th anniversary of the Fondation des États-Unis (14 boulevard Jourdan, Paris) and of the important role the ten fifth-floor rooms have played in the lives of countless young artists, thanks to Harriet Hale Woolley's generous 1930 bequest to the Conseil d'Administration de la Fondation des États-Unis of the Cité Universitaire of the University of Paris "to maintain ten rooms in the American House for the use of the beneficiaries of the scholarships." (New York Times, July 26, 1931).

Click here for perusal score.

Nā Kau ʻElua (2019) 
40 min. ca.
Concerto in 12 short movements for solo oboe, string quartet, piano, Western and Hawaiian percussion and natural sounds

First Performances: May 6 & 20, 2019
Chamber Music Hawaii's "Tresemble"
with J. Scott Janusch, oboe; Galliard String Quartet (Helen Liu Wong, Hung Wu, Colin Belisle and Sung Chan Chang), Tommy Yee, piano and Jordan Schifino, percussion)
Paliku Theater & Honolulu Museum of Art
Honolulu, Hawaii

Commissioned by J. Scott Janusch and Live Music Awareness in celebration of the new legacy oboe constructed by Howarth of London with wood from a kauila tree (alphitonia ponderosa) native to Kōkeʻe, Kauaʻi.  Funded in part through a Grant In Aid  from the City and County of Honolulu and by private donors.

KAU HOʻOILO (Wet season)
  I. Ka ʻŌʻō a Kane – Kane’s Digging Stick
  II. Ka Papa Hōlua o Kamapuaʻa – Kamapuaʻa’s Hōlua Sled
  III. Na Līloa Ka Lāʻau Pālau – Līloa’s War Club
  IV. He Mele No Kālāʻau – The Song of Kālāʻau
  V. Ka Ihe a Kāwelu – Kāwelu’s Spear
  VI. Ka Lāʻau a Ke Kia Manu – The Bird Catcher’s Pole

KAU WELA (Dry season)
  VII. Ka Puhi o Laumeki – The Eel of the ʻAnae-Holo
  VIII. I Ka ʻAuamo ʻIa o Kamapuaʻa – As Kamapuaʻa is Carried Away
  IX.  Ka Iʻe Kuku – The Kapa Beater
  X. Ka Lāʻau Pālau a Kawelo – Kawelo’s War Club
  XI. Ka Hiʻa Kā ʻUpena – The Netting Needle
  XII. Kā Kekuhaupiʻo Pāhoa – Kekuhaupiʻo’s Dagger

Click here for perusal score and program note.
deep sea, distant sky (String Quartet No. 1) (2015)     
22 min.
for string quartet
 
First Performances: April, 2015
Galliard String Quartet
(Claire Sakai Hazzard, Hung Wu, Colin Belisle, and I-Bei Lin)
Paliku Theater, UH West O'ahu Library, Honolulu Academy of Arts.

 
Paka`a Lanakila! (2011) 
30 min. ca.
for narrator and wind quintet (flute, oboe, clarinet, horn and bassoon)
 
First Performances: October 3 & 10, 2011
Chamber Music Hawaii's "Spring Wind Quintet"
(Marsha Schweitzer, basson; Jonathan Parrish, horn; James Moffitt, clarinet; Scott Janusch, oboe; with guest Claire Butin, flute;  and composer as narrator)
Paliku Theater & Honolulu Academy of Arts
Honolulu, Hawaii

Commissioned with generous funding from the Honolulu Mayor's Office on Culture and the Arts, "Paka`a Lanakila!" was written for audiences young and young-at-heart.  With words and music, it tells the heart-warming story of Paka`a, a young boy of ali`i lineage, growing up on Kaua`i without his own blood father, and trying to get out in the world and make something of himself.  Themes of love, respect, courage, rejection, acceptance, family, and community resonate in this wind-themed story (which ends with a canoe race against all odds).
Outta This World (unplugged) (1998/2010)     
13 min.
for string quartet, amplified or acoustic
 
First Performance: May 8, 2010
ETHEL (Cornelius Dufallo and Mary Rowell, violins; Ralph Farris, viola; Dorothy Lawson, 'cello)
Carnegie Hall Neighborhood Concert
Laguardia Performing Arts Center
Queens, New York

Premiere performance composer activities funded in part by Meet The Composer's MetLife Creative Connections program and an American Composers Forum ENCORE program award.
 
Two Dances from "Dances Ebb, Dances Flow" (2007) 
13 min. ca.
Messiaen quartet (violin, 'cello, clarinet and piano)
 
First Performance: February 14, 2007
New York New Music Ensemble
(Linda Quan, vln; Christopher Finckel,'vcl; Jean Kopperud, cl; Stephen Gosling, pno)
Duncan Recital Hall, Shepherd School of Music
Rice University
Houston, Texas

In memoriam Patricia Hagan
 
Dances Ebb, Dances Flow (2006) 
22 min. ca.
Messiaen quartet (violin, 'cello, clarinet and piano)
 
First Performance: December 5, 2007
Ebb and Flow Arts Ensemble
(Iggy Jang, vln; Joanna Morrison, vcl; Scott Anderson, cl; Robert Pollock, pno)
Atherton Studio
Hawai`i Public Radio
Honolulu, HI

In memoriam Patricia Hagan

[Excerpt of Mvt. 2 from Ebb and Flow Arts Ensemble's live premiere performance]

[score-pdf]    [note-pdf]

 
Ko`olau Sketches (2001) 
13 min.
marimba quartet (two 4 1/3, one 5, one 5 1/3, and crotales)
 
First Performance: October 17, 2001
New York Percussion Quartet
(Benny Koonyevsky,  Joseph Perreira, David Rozenblatt, Pablo Rieppi)
Wolfensohn Hall
Institute for Advanced Study
Princeton, New Jersey

For Benny, David, Joe and Pablo
[Audio - excerpt from NYPQ's live performance]

[score-pdf]    [note-pdf]
 
Outta This World (1998)     
13 min.
for amplified string quartet, sound effects processor
 
First Performance: May 27, 1998
St. Luke's Chamber Ensemble
Second Helpings Series
DIA Center for the Arts
New York, New York

Commissioned by the St. Luke's Chamber Ensemble with funding from the Jerome Foundation.

 [Outta This World.mp3]
 
Fore! (1996/rev. 2000)  
6 min.
for 2 horns in f, in and outside a performance space
 
First Performance: November 8, 1996
John Smith and Julia Pilant, horns
Paul Hall, The Juilliard School
New York, New York

For John Smith and Julia Pilant

 [score-pdf]
 
Full Circle (1995) for choreography by Natalie Desch  
6 min.
for 2 pianos /4 hands
 
First Performance: January 18, 1995
Ilgin Aka and Orla McDonagh, pianos
Wednesdays at One Series
Alice Tully Hall
New York, New York

For Natalie Desch, choreographer
 [Audio - excerpt of performance by Ilgin and Orla]
 
Altered Path (1994) for choreography by Franck Baranek  
7 min.
for soprano, 2 perc, pno, 3 vcl
 
First Performance: January 18, 1994
Clemence Gegauff, soprano
Members of the Juilliard Orchestra
Jon Magnussen, conductor
Wednesdays at One Series
Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center
New York, New York

For Frank Baranek, choreographer

[Audio - world premiere performance]

[score-pdf]
     

(18 July 2008)

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