early works     |    
early works
Listener,

  I began to play my first musical instrument at 13-years-of-age in 7th grade. It was the flute. After a great deal of practicing I became a very good player (as you can tell by Sonata (fl.). During the winter of my eighth-grade year I began learning how to play bassoon--and by the spring I was invited to play in a quintet of high school players in ensemble competition. That is were I met a clarinet player named Jessica and a flute player named Jennifer.  They asked me (since I was sooo good :) if I composed. I told them that I didn't know how but that I wanted to. Later that spring I pulled together a little duet between clarinet and bassoon after hearing about a fine artist contest. At that time I had not been exposed to any classical music aside from the music we played in band. At the time I didn't know how to count music or notate it. I was oblivious to the whole concept of harmony. So I went purely by what I heard in my head. After some help from my band director I finished writing out a song (what is now the first and second movements to the sonata for clarinet and flute), Jessica and I recorded it in her basement and I submitted it. Unfortunately, I never heard back from the competition people but all I knew was that I felt a great scense of accomplishment after I composed it. That summer I went to our school's summer band practices to help out beginning players. Jennifer, the flutist, would find time to play duets with me between rehearsals. I listened to the duets as we played them. They sounded beautiful...some of them were by none-other-than Mozart himself! I had heard the names Mozart and Beethoven as household names but I never understood their significance. That summer I managed to compose these 18 works with a keyboard out of pure bordom:


17) Adagio--Allegro di Molto--Presto Vivace (Bsns.)
16.) Fantasia (Flts.)
11-15.) Allegro Spiritoso, Adagio ma non troppo, Allegro grazioso, Largo, Poco Andante (Bsns.)
7-10.) Etudes 2-4 (Pf.)
6.) Sonata (Pf.)
5.) Allegro (Pf.)
4.) Air (Bsns.)
3.) Sonata (Fl.)
2.) Sonata (Fl. Bsn.)
1.) Sonata (Fl.Cl.)


During that fall, when I was a freshman in high school, my mother bought me a computer program that could help me compose....well, electronically. The program was called Cakewalk and it is the same program I am using today. It has jump-started my hobby as a composer as well as a musician. However, these songs were abandoned because I have deemed them--how can I say this nicely--unworthy. Some of the songs were erased and composed again--which is a process in which art conceals art--something I think is abominable. Some of the movements to a few songs have been lost. For example, many pages are missing to my sonata for flute and bassoon (second on the list) so I had to paste together the movements. While I composed all these songs I bought CD's--mainly with Mozart's and Bach's works. Many of the songs are in a free formed Mozart style while others are Bach-like [especially Sonata (Fl.) and Fantasy(Flts)]. Most of them (especially the Bassoon duets & the etudes) were meant to build up my...technique so-to-speak. That is why I don't include them in the main catalogue.

These songs were shut away in a briefcase for some time until I got the desire to look at them again. I am putting them on the web because it is important for a beginning composer to know that time and experience (as well as many other factors) are important to become as good as your will is capable of letting you. This page is used to exemplify that fact. I know of kids about my age who are trying to compose--and then they go and hear my works. I tell them " IT TAKES TIME!" You don't get from A to Z without having to go through all the obsticals in between. I have one suggestion for you while you are downloading these songs--don't listen to them--hear them. Educated musicians would automatically tell you (if he/she were listening to the songs) that they are boring and tastless. YOU AND I ALREADY KNOW THAT. Don't concentrate on the music--just let it pass through the air and enjoy it.