Compositions by Larry Solomon

copyright © 2005 by Larry J Solomon

Composer's Statement

I am interested in creating music that is connected to human experience, and hope that my music can appeal and communicate, yet be substantive. Particularly interesting to me are untried ways of making and conceptualizing music, especially with respect to interaction with ideas and other arts. I have turned away from an exclusive atonality towards music that contains tonal or modal juxtapositions. I also incorporate improvisational performance techniques which include a degree of indeterminacy so that a composition does not become fixed, completely repeatable, or predictable -- thereby constantly changing.

A goal is to maintain interest in a work each time it is heard by incorporating performance variables. I believe this can be achieved by investing enough complexity and differentials that the music cannot be fully understood in a single hearing. Although I am not so concerned about being immediately comprehensible, I do try to use a commonly understood vocabulary in order to communicate.

Selected Compositions

• Five Meditations for prepared piano
• Jhala, guitar, with optional finger cymbal, 3.5 min
• ZERO, strings, winds, 2 perc, pno, organ 
• Positive-Negative, piano, strobe, and lights, c. 6 min., Phenomena, 1996  Score 
• Just Words, opera, c. 10 min., Phenomena, 1996
• The Creation, double choir, 4 min., Phenomena, , 1996  a page from the Score
• Sostenuto, solo piano with improvisor, length determined by performer, Phenomena, 1996  Score
• Random Play, electronic, 10-15 min., Phenomena, 1996   Score  
• Japan, prepared piano, Phenomena, 1995
• Eternal Light (et lux perpetua), a capella, 7 min, Phenomena, 1995
• Pop Song (Song without Words), 6 min., Phenomena, 1992  Keyboard Score ,  Sound sample
• Transcendental Etude, solo clarinet, 4 min, Mill Creek Publications, 1991
• 89 Mix, singers, reader, percussion, dancer, and piano, length indeterminant
• The Great Learning, clarinet and piano, 4 min., Phenomena, 1990
• Music for Voices (SATB), Phenomena1988
• Unheard Voices, piano and two other instruments, 45-55 minutes
• Music in a Space, chorus, winds, piano; length indeterminant, Phenomena 1988
• Strange Light, piano, lights, video, SATB choir, Phenomena 1986
• Lost Relations, clarinet, saxophone and piano, c. 7 min.
• Xenophile, clarinet, saxophone, guitar, piano, perc., Phenomena, 1987
• Imaginary Music, length indeterminant, Phenomena, 1986
• C2, for chorus, piano and lights, length indeterminant, Phenomena, 1986
• Masterpiece Pollution Theater, multimedia, electronic, length determined by performers, Phenomena, 1985
• Two Songs, voice and piano, 3 min.
• The Celestial Music, voices, glass harmonica, prep piano, and misc, length determined by performers, Phenomena, 1991
• Casio Improvisation No. 1, electronic, Perspectives of New Music, 1986 
• The Improvisor's Instrument, prepared piano, length determined by performer, Phenomena, 1984
• Orpheus & Euridice, parody for piano solo, 3 min., Phenomena, 1983
• Three Pieces, violin and piano, 5 min., Phenomena, 1983
• Constellations, piano, computer generated, 5 min., Phenomena, 1982
• Concertino, clarinet and wind ensemble, Phenomena, 1983
• Antiphony, two pianos, length determined by performers
• Oceans, improvisation ensemble, length determined by performers
• Three Visions, ensemble, length determined by performers
• Incantations, prepared piano; Phenomena, 1980
• Music of the Spheres, Suite for solo marimba, 10 min, Music for Percussion, 1977
• Suite, Prepared Piano, 17 min, Phenomena, 1976
• Poems, piano, based on poetry by Salvatore Quasimodo, 15 min
• Evolutions, a capella chorus, 6 min, Phenomena, 1976
• Apocalypse, winds, percussion, chorus, piano, lights
• Landscapes, electronic, for Modern dance
• Spotone, electronic, a film by Bruce Kawin
• Cantata No. 3, a capella chorus
• Psyche, electronic, Modern dance
• Four Klangs, grand piano
• Dance, electronic, modern dance
• Film Music for Julian Krainin
• Andromeda, piano solo; Phenomena, 1971
• Cantata No. 2, women's chorus and tape
• Cantata No. 1, women's choir and electronic tape
• For Bill, electronic, for Bill Melcher's lumia art