Martin Gaskell – Musical
Compositions
(Updated 2010
November 25 – this web page is perpetually under construction – please let me
know if a link doesn’t work)
INTRODUCTION
Since I have spent my life
in academia as an astronomer rather than as a professional composer, my list of
musical compositions is small compared with the lists of works of well-known
composers of the last few centuries.
Here are some MP3 audio files of some of my musical compositions for
anyone who wants to listen to my music, and some PDF files of the scores for
people who are interested in performing pieces.
I have grouped the compositions below under the headings of orchestral
music (my favorite), chamber music, choral music, piano music, etc.
If you are interested in performing music of any particular genre send
me an e-mail (gaskell@astro.as.utexas.edu). Putting PDF and audio files on this site for
downloading is a long, slow, ongoing process, so if you are interested in
something for which the music is not yet posted, just send me an e-mail.
I’d like to express my appreciation to the many people who
play or sing in the excerpts of live performances. Although I know myself what my music sounds
like (or I think I know!), performers always play a role in adding something to
it. It’s always nice that my music
sounds better in performance than I imagine it will. There are too many performers to thank
individually here, but many names can be found in some of the on-line program
notes.
ORCHESTRAL MUSIC
Music with and without a soloist, for full orchestra, or just strings. Includes music suitable for high-school ensembles, youth, and community orchestras.
Title
|
Score |
Parts |
Audio Files (usually MP3) |
Performance
Recordings
|
More Information |
Fantasia for
Viola and Orchestra
|
(20 Mb) |
YouTube [Video] Excerpt
1 (1.6 Mb) Excerpt
2 (0.8 Mb) Excerpt
3 (1.8 Mb) Excerpt
4 (3.2 Mb) Excerpt
5 (3.6 Mb) Excerpt
6 (1.6 Mb)
|
[1] |
||
Symphony in B
minor
(4 movements) |
|
|
|
[2] |
|
Romance for
Strings
|
|
Complete Romance for Strings (6.3 Mb) |
[3] |
||
The Song of the
Night (Strings)
|
|
Complete (8 Mb) |
Chamber Orchestra (excerpt) (826 kb) |
[4] |
|
Pi Acres Suite
(for
youth string orch.)
(5 movements) |
|
Video, [5] |
|||
Fantasia for Harp
and Strings
|
|
|
[6] |
||
Windy Hill Suite
(for
youth string orch.)
(5 movements) |
|
[7] |
[1] Clark Potter, viola solo. MP3 of complete work – Garritan Orchestra (some glitches). YouTube video: Austin Philharmonic Orchestra, Nov. 10, 2010 (conducted by David Oertel). Short performance recording excerpts from University of Nebraska Symphony Orchestra, April 2002, conducted by Prof. Tyler White. The Fantasia for Viola and Orchestra was given a recital premiere on March 5, 2000 in Kimball Recital Hall at the University of Nebraska Lincoln as part of a concert by Prof. Potter of the works of living Nebraska composers. Click here for details of the recital.
[2] Garritan Orchestra
[3] Written as an engagement present for Tom and Jo Anne Pennello. Recorded in concert in Mueller Planetarium. Chamber orchestra conducted by Ben Carlisle.
[4] Recorded in concert in Mueller Planetarium. Chamber orchestra conducted by Ben Carlisle
[5]
[6]
[7]
BRASS ENSEMBLE
Title
|
Score |
Parts |
Audio File |
Performance
Recording
|
More Information |
Ceremonial Music
for Organ and Brass.
|
Tpt1, Tpt2, Tpt3, Tpt4, Tbn1, Tbn2, Tbn3, BTbn, percussion, organ |
|
[1] |
[1] Written for the wedding of Esther and Robert Crookshank in the chapel at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Louisville, Kentucky. A shortened version was used for the bridal entry. (Esther Crookshank is the Ollie Hale Chiles Professor of Church Music and Director of the Academy of Sacred Music at SBTS.)
WOODWIND – see below under “Chamber Music”
CHORAL MUSIC
Sacred music with and without accompaniment. Some audio help files for singers can be found under “more information”
Title
|
Voices |
Sheet Music |
Audio Files (MP3) |
Performance
Recordings |
More Information |
Sanctus
|
SABarBB |
DWS Chorale [1] |
|
||
Genitum, non
factum
|
SSATB + org. |
Excerpt of performance at Grace Community Evangelical Church (824 kb) [2] |
|
||
|
Deus, Creator Omnium |
SATB + organ |
Deus Creator (6.9 Mb) |
St. Paul’s United Methodist Church (recording of complete anthem) [3] |
[1] An intimate performance by the
DWS Chorale.
Listen to that exquisite alto
singing! For more information about
David Solomons, and more recordings by the DWS Chorale, click here.
[2] First performance at
[3] Recorded at St. Paul’s United Methodist Church, Lincoln, Nebraska, with Dr. John Friesen, organist. Click here for more details and photos.
CHAMBER MUSIC
Sonatas and other compositions for
solo instrument with piano accompaniment, and chamber ensembles.
Title
|
Score |
Parts |
Audio Files |
Performances
|
More Information |
Sonata for Violin
and Piano (3 movements)
|
|
|
|
[1] |
|
Woodwind Quartet
(Fl, (4 movements) |
Excerpt
from performance of 1st movement Excerpt
from performance of 2nd movement |
[2] |
|||
Third Order
Variation on Packington’s Pound (La Folia) (Vn. and Pf.)
|
|
|
|
[3] |
|
“With me”
(Violin and Piano) |
|
|
|
[4] |
[1] First performance by David
Solomons (violin) and the composer.
Second performance, Jon Berger (violin) and the composer, 1976.
[2] Premiered by the “Quasar
Quartet”,
[3] Variation on a variation by
Sergei Rachmaninoff on a variation by Arcangelo Corelli on La Folia (~ Packington’s
Pound). First performance by Helen
Dowd (violin) and the composer (piano) in a private recital in 2007 (as an
“addition” to the Corelli variations!)
[4] First performance by Helen
Dowd (violin) and the composer (piano) in a private recital, summer 2008.
ORGAN MUSIC
Title
|
Sheet Music |
Audio File |
Performances
|
More Information |
Chorale Prelude
on “O Haupt voll Blut und Wunden” / “O Sacred Head Now Wounded”
|
|
[1] |
||
Chorale Prelude
on “The Strife is O’er the Battle Won”
|
|
[1] |
||
|
Chorale Prelude on
“Holy, Holy, Holy” |
|
[2] |
||
|
(See also previews of works in progress) |
[1] First performance by Katja
Lindner, Easter 2010, First Cumberland
Presbyterian Church, Austin TX.
[2] The two MP3 files have
different registrations and tempi
PIANO SOLO MUSIC
Title
|
Sheet Music |
Audio File |
Performances
|
More Information |
Prelude in B
major
|
|
|
|
|
Prelude in D-flat
minor
|
|
|
|
|
|
Sonata for Piano (3 movements) |
|
|
Excerpt of 1st movement
(526 kb)
Excerpt of 2nd movement (762 kb) |
[1] , [2] |
[1] Performance by composer at
[2] Dedicated to Kenneth C.
Burgess.
What I am working on right now?
Because of
my responsibilities as an astrophysicist, I only compose in my spare time and
composing goes slowly. My current big
project is a three-movement piano concerto for
In my spare time I have also been gradually writing a full length text book called Composing and Interpreting Music. If you are curious about what is in it, here is a PDF files of the Preface and Table of Contents of a recent draft.
Hear previews of works in progress!
In the past composers sketched out drafts of their compositions on paper. Sometimes these drafts and sketches have survived along with occasional diary entries by the composer. When such information is available musicologists and music historians have great fun piecing together the genesis and evolution of a composition. We are now, however, in the age of computers and the internet, so records of the process of composing music do not need to be confined to archives of rare manuscripts where only a few scholars can access them. I’m not the “blogging” type of person, but it did occur to me that I could put a few sound recordings of bits of my unfinished compositions here for anyone who is curious to hear what they sound like.
National
Association of Composers / USA (NACUSA) - Texas Chapter web site.