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Hello all. I'm a guitarist, composer and music teacher living in Brooklyn, N.Y. Earned M.A. in classical guitar performance from Mannes College of Music in New York City; B.A. in music from the University of Pittsburgh. Have performed solo guitar repertoire in a wide variety of styles from many historical periods, from Luis de Milan to Leo Brouwer, and have performed works for guitar ensembles and chamber pieces for guitar and various other instruments.

I'm basically self-taught as a composer. I've written pieces for string orchestra, mixed orchestral ensembles, guitar solo and ensembles, and have composed a number of electroacoustic works (www.myspace.com/jrossdrone). Some of my dronal music can be heard on the New York Miniaturist Ensemble's Static Music - Drone Podcast. Visit nyme.org/feed.xml to subscribe and hear dronal music from a variety of composers.

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Our plan was to choose some basic sounds--environmental noises, samples of existing musical compositions, voices, etc.--and bend, stretch, assault, batter and otherwise manipulate them into new forms. We settled on the nerve-shattering racket of a masonry saw tearing its way through bricks. It was recorded at a workshop in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn, N.Y. The naked sound of the saw is amazingly complex. The first thing you notice, of course, is sheer NOISE. After listening for a while, you discover that contained within the sonic onslaught is a variety of tones, drones, shimmering high harmonics, percussive accents--a spray of melody, harmony and rhythm. With careful listening, and the application of various filters and no small amount of equalization, we realized that the saw was truly singing. Maybe that's what all saws secretly desire: to be musical instruments--to sing. We tried to capture as much of the saw's music as we could within the time restraints of a mini CD (about 24 minutes). The five tracks on this disc--each one a kind of "study" on some aspect of the saw's sound--are the result. Hope you will enjoy.

About the music on this page:

Three Gorges

"Flute Choir" is a work in progress. Based on a line from "Winds and Strings," it's an exploration of textures ranging from a mass of sound from the whole ensemble to a simple interlocking melodic figure played by single pair of instruments. At the moment, it's scored for four piccolos and six flutes, but I'd like to work a few altos in without increasing the number of players. Would ideally like to have the instruments amplified so effects could be added during performance. More to come on this one.

"Winds and Strings" and "Strings I" are concerned with the possibilities of composition with a very limited number of pitch classes. In the case of "Strings I," two pitch classes only (Ab and Bb), spread over five and a half octaves. These pieces explore textures and durations, and exploit the spectrum of sounds contained within every individual note. On the surface, at least, this is not complex music. "Winds and Strings," like "Flutes," is completely multicyclic--every instrumental part travels in a 3-, 5- or 7-bar orbit of 3/4 time.

"Flutes" is scored for flute quartet (two concert flutes, alto flute and piccolo) and is accompanied by a field recording. The "field" in this case is a spot beneath the Williamsburg Bridge near where I live in Brooklyn. The flute music has been molded around the sounds on the recording, creating a form and length dictated by the chance ebb and flow of the traffic, subways passing overhead, pedestrians, etc. Each instrumental part has its own pitch material (though there are some common tones), and the entire gamut of pitches was derived by combining the pool of tones used to build "Strings" and "Winds and Strings." Each instrumental part revolves in its own rhythmic cycle (of 2, 3, 5 or 7 bars of 3/4 time), though the durations are sometimes obscured by pauses and a few repetitions to match the flow of the recorded sounds. I would say that all the sounds in this piece are traveling alone.

"Strings Mix I" is a reworking of Strings I (see above). This is how that piece sounds when transposed to a few other key areas and played by four string orchestras. It's the result of some simple experimentation with Ableton Live, which I am just beginning to learn. I plan to use the program quite a bit in the coming year, so this piece is a taste of things to come.

All pieces are fully notated. Scores are available upon request. The sounds you hear come from Garritan Personal Orchestra and Garritan Jazz & Big Band, played by the notation software Finale.

Thank you for visiting this site.

Peace

jr