John A. Carollo
Composer
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Works for Piano
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I. Early Piano Music
1986-1997
(All dates refer to the composition completion day)
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Invention No. 1 - Homage to Scarlatti - 5-1-1986
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John's first musical piece dates from May 1, 1986, the day he completed his first piano composition. Studying a Domenico Scarlatti sonata influenced this piece and was the inspirational basis that sparked his career as a composer.
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A Courtly Dance - 5-6-1986
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Waltz - 5-12-1986
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Invention No. 2 - Do You Know Who You Are? - 5-19-1986
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Janny’s Dance - 5-23-1986
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Lament No. 1 - 5-26-1986
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Invention No. 3 - Victim of His Constructs - 5-28-1986
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A Piece in Two Movements - 6-9-1986
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Minuet No. 1 - 6-15-1986
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Graceland - 6-19-1986
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It's All in the Genes - 3-2001 (themes based on Graceland)
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Invention No. 4 - Elusive Truth - 6-24-1986
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Lullaby - 6-25-1986
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A Fantasy No. 1 - Dance - 8-5-1986
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A Piece in Three Movements - 11-25-1986
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4 eyeballs went to the beach and met 4 penguins - 1-14-1987
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For Bill - 2-5-1987
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Follow The Leader - 2-28-1987
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Bagatelle No. 1 - 3-2-1987
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Cascade - 3-4-1987
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Mary’s Hymn - 3-7-1987
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Lament No. 2 - 3-10-1987
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Tweedy’s Last Dance - 3-12-1987
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Pastorale No. 1 - 3-19-1987
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Bagatelle No. 2 - 3-24-1987
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Spring Sketches - 4-2-1987
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Birthday Piece - 4-3-1987
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For No One - 5-15-1987
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Lament No. 3 - 7-28-1987
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Fantasy No. 2 - Sandy's Fantasy - 9-24-1987
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Invention No. 5 - English Lavender with Sweet Overtones - 10-14-1987
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Bagatelle No. 3 - 10-31-1987
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Snakefinger's Romantic Evening Among Stars - 1-20-1988
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Ten Little Tunes for Children - 2-24-1988
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Fantasy No. 3 - Themes for El Centro (Turning Back the Dials of Time) - 5-13-1988
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Japanese Landscape (In Eno's Garden of Possibilities) - 6-2-1988 - Francesco Attesti, concert pianist, premiered this work in Cortona, Italy, S. Domenico Church on the 13th of August, 2015.
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Lament No. 4 - 6-6-1988
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Minuet No. 2 - 6-11-1988
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Full Moon Over Diamond Head - 7-10-1988
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Lament No. 5 - 7-14-1988
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Bagatelle No. 4 (John's Bagatelle) - 7-19-1988
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Dance of the Butterflies (Waltz No. 2) - 8-6-1988
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John's Bagatelle (Bagatelle No. 5) - 8-11-1988
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Lament No. 6 (in memory of Isabel Baratta) - 8-13-1988
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Queen's Suite I-V - 9-16-1988
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Fantasy No. 4 - Themes for Honolulu - 11-13-1988
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John's Bagatelle (Bagatelle No. 6) - 11-27-1988 (Originally conceived on guitar, this tune was played during adolescence)
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Lament No. 7 - Oh Mama - 12-3-1988
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Bells for Saint Mary - (Christmas Melody) - 12-7-1988
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Fantasy Dances for Innocents - I-XXIV - 6-4-1989
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Folk Dance Variations - 11-12-1989
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Semplici Danze - 11-22-1989
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Lament No. 8 (Longing for Comfort in a Sea of Pain) - 12-10-1989
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Tony's Hymn - 12-17-1989
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Christmas Melody No. 2 - 12-25-1989
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Waltz (Goodbye to the 1980's) - 12-29-1989
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Dance for the New Year - 1-6-1990
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Requiem for Mary (for Mother) I-IX - 4-3-1990
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Bagatelle No. 7 - Homage to Scarlatti - 4-13-1990
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Invention No. 7 - 4-29-1990
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Summer Sketches - 5-15 -1990
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Lament No. 9 - 5-28-1990
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Silent Timbres - 6-2-1990
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Lament No. 10 - 10-14-1990
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Know The Infinite Moment of Now - (previously titled Fantasy No. 5) - 3-19-1991
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Character Pieces No.1 - Cleo's Dilemma - 5-16-1992
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Character Pieces No. 2 - Soothing waters - 5-17-1992
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Character Pieces No. 3 - Moonlight Glance - 5-17-1992
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Character Pieces No. 4 - If Only By Circumstances - 3/18/1996
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Catwalk Petite Suite - 5-12-1996
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Lament No. 11 - 8-4-1996
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Happy to be Back - 3/5/1996
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Remembrance or Mother's Memory - 7-15-1996
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The Dance - 9-22-1996
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Themes for Edward Gorey - 9-23-1996
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80th Birthday Jingles - 81 tonal miniatures - composed between 6-3-1997 and 8-9-1997
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Antoinette - 8/26/1997. This is the last early piano score before beginning composition lessons.
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All early piano music has been revised and/or updated, 2023.
II. Piano Suites
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Piano Suite No. 1 for Solo Piano - 1997
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Robert at the Easel
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Sophie's Characters
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Maxon's Poe
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Sketch for Aline
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Jesse's Beat Portraits
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Finale
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This work began on the day the composer had his first composition lesson.
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Piano Suite No. 2 for Two Pianos - 2002
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Thore and Runa
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Whirlwind Tryst
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Delicately Sensual
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The Mysterious Beyond
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Piano Suite No. 3 for Piano Solo - 2002
I-V
Nathanael May premiered this work in Cortona, Italy at the Teatro Signorelli Loggia on June 24, 2005.
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Piano Suite No. 4 For Three Pianos - 2005
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Giovanni Baudino's Cleft Hand
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Anguish in Every Household
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Do You Have an E.R. For Music?
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Piano Suite No. 5 for Solo Piano - 2007
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Free from Fashion
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The Virtual Liaison
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Impressions of Sampson
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Let Thy Mind Be Still (Red Dust Affairs)
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The Cruel Black Swan Effect
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Piano Suite No. 6 for Solo Piano - 2008
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Silent Night
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Starry Night
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Transfigured Night
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Flight of the Nine Reindeers
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The Dark Night
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Piano Suite No. 7 for Solo Piano - (Every Version of You) - 2011
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I See Your Face in Every Flower
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In Thunder
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Your Radiant Splendor
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And in the Singing of the Birds We Discover Beauty
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Piano Suite No. 8 for Solo Piano - 2011
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The Greatest Worth is Self-Mastery
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The Greatest Meditation is a Mind that Lets Go
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The Greatest Magic is Transmuting the Passions
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The Greatest Goodness is a Peaceful Mind (Om Mani Padme Hum, Part I)
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The Greatest Wisdom is Seeing Through Appearances
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The Greatest Action is not Conforming with the World’s Ways
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The Greatest Medicine is the Emptiness of Everything (Om Mani Padme Hum, Part II)
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The Greatest Generosity is Non-Attachment
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The Greatest Effort is not Concerned with Results
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Petite Suite for Solo Piano - 2012
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Savor The Moment
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The Hobgoblin (inspired by the art work of Alex Gross)
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Your Beauty Radiates Through Me on this Fine Spring Day
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The Riddler (inspired by the art work of Alex Gross)
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Day’s End
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Piano Suite No. 9 for Piano Solo - (Memories of Liszt) - 2012
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Memories of Liszt
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The Exuberant Guest
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Peace is on the Other Side of the Horizon
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Do We Have Time in Common?
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Transcendental Incantations
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Piano Suite No. 10 for Solo Piano - (A Lamentation) - 2014
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Now That You Are Gone
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Your Soul Travels The Cosmic Waves
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In the Interval
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A Sharp Dagger Pierced My Grief-Stricken Heart
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Piano Suite No. 11 for Solo Piano (Dialectical Dictums) - 2015
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When the Door of Opportunity Knocks, Walk Through
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The Artist was Sequestered but not Vanquished
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What Do You Do with the Time Given You?
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Free Markets Make Fools of All of Us
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The Cruel Emasculator Goes Down in Defeat
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Piano Suite No. 12 for Solo Piano - 2016
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Arditamente - Drammatico - Delicato - (The Rule Breaker)
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Grave - Intenso (This is Not Normal)
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Allegro - (This Too Shall Pass)
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Briskly - With Dark Certainty (The World Revolves Around Him)
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Piano Suite No. 13 for Solo Piano - 2017 (Homage to Goethe)
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Your Sweet Felicity
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The Burdened Man's Anguish
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The Frightened Man's Tears
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Not All The Blossoms of Dream Grew Ripe
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Who Rides By Night in the Wind So Wild?
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Piano Suite No. 14 for Two Pianos - 2021
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Saved From Extravagance and Incoherence
I-IV
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Piano Suite No. 15 for Solo Piano - 2022
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From Here to There Or Here To Go
I-IV
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III. Works for Solo Piano
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Metamorphosis N° 6, 7 and 8 – 2002
Your Beauty Transcends Time - 2006
Lament - (The Passing) - 2007
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Dino's Dilemma – 2008
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Jade Ponds – 2008
Completely Clothed in Sound for Piano, for Three Players – 2011
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Lament No. 14 - “The Death of Michael Alexander Snow” – 2011
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No. 99 – 2012
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Miniatures - 2013
I-IX
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Imaginations - 2013
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An Imagined Future Audience
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Like the Whispering Wind
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You Are a Mirror, I See Myself in You
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Stimulating Inventive Dreams
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Conceptualize the Infinite
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Flight of Fancy
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Piano Elegies – 2013-14
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Till Death Do Us Part
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Reform by The Grim Reaper
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Theatre of the Absurd
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Lament for the Ghost of Blind Joe Death
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Lost Memories
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A Fronte Praecipitium a Tergo Lupi - 2015 (In memory of Robert Kehoe)
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A Precipice Awaits You
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Always Look Back for Wolves Approaching
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Running to the Edge of the Precipice Can Only Do You Harm
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The Iron Cage of Reason - 2017
I. Con Brio, Delicatamente, Presto
II. Drammatico
III. Animato, Arditamente
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A circular Jingle - 2017
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In Supine Terror of a Tweet - 2018
Parts I-II
Americans in Fantasyland (Truth Does Not Lie in the Gut) - 2018
Music for Children (Children in Fantasyland) - 2018
1. Lullaby
II. The Playground
III. The Fanfare
IV. The Jolly Tinkerman
V. Musical Chairs
VI. Depp and Marlon
VII. Nonchalantly Suave
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Phantasmamusica Book I. - 2019
(An ongoing series of inventive musical creations)
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Musica Moderna
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Converted to a Talking Book (in memory of Philip K. Dick)
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Mindless Repetition and Constant Plagiarism
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Figures of Thought
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Figures of Speech
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The Decay of Rhetoric
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Frequency Hopping (Move Over J.S. Bach)
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Your Words Can't Take Away the Joy of Creation
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The Last Nine Steps of Thor
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Phantasmamusica Book II. - 2020
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Spooky Entanglements
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Waves of Probability
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Entangled Qubits
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Spooky Actions at a Distance
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Groups of Qubits
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Entangled by Reality
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Collapsing to One Reality
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The Uncertainty Principle
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Every Version of Me (A Quantum dance)
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Phantasmamusica Book III - 2021
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Musical Reflections at 66
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Resistance to the Herd Spirit
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Fads and Affections
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Original Thoughts in Obscurity
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Working in a Vacuum
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Abandon Yourself to Your Instinct
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Reshuffling What Already Exists
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Menaced By Herd Compulsions
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The Muse Has Never Left
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Phantasmamusica Book IV - 2023​
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Loitering on the Fringes
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The Art of Interpretation
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Unfolding With Infinite Leisure
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The Virtues Seem Quite Stunning
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Fighting Against the Grain
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Sacrificing Nuances and Refinements
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To a Piddling Whine
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Finding Your Way Again
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The Perils of Middle Age
Phantasmamusica Book V - 2024​ (From 365 Tao Daily Meditations by Deng Ming-Dao)
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The Void is Fundamental for four hands (there is no separation between void and phenomena)
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The Single Point (abide in utter tranquility)
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The Infinite Continuation (even death is not a true ending)
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Movement in Stillness (the deepest sound is silence)
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Rinse Away Dreams (purification starts all practice)
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With No Thought of Gain (hold no expectations)
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The Degree of Elegance (let us make it as beautifully as we can)
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Beyond all Descriptions (some experiences are impossible to conceptualize)
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Expression Becomes Formless (the form will emerge with fluidity, grace, originality and beauty)
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The Musical Judgment - 2024
I. Every Musician is a Music Critic
II. Obliged to Make Musical Judgments
III. Making a Fair Estimate
IV. Absorbed From Beginning to End
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Phantasmamusica Book VI - 2024​-2025
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Perilous Times
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V. Piano Etudes
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Book One (Maladies) - 2005
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- The Repeated Spasm
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- Sightless
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- The Ruptured Disc
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- The Umbilical Hernia
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- Sciatica (for Pierre Grill)
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- Incystence (for Nathanael May)
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Book Two (Philosophies) - 2006
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- A Recording is the Antithesis of his Aesthetic
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- No One Has an Idea
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- Everything is 9
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- At The Tomb of Liszt
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- Recombination
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- Riding Potatoes to Maryland
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Book Three (Histories) - 2007
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- To Honor the Past is to Honor the Future (for the past is the great teacher from which our constructs are built)
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- Passing on Ancient Skills
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- Unmasking the Past
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- Ancestral Dreams
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- Ancestral Desires
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- Ancestral Devotions
Piano Etudes Books 1, 2 and 3 are to be performed in sets of three.
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IV. Piano Preludes
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Book One – 2000 (revised 2014)
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Watery Abstractions (Premiered by Hugh Sung, staff pianist at the Curtis Institute, at Cabrini College, November 9, 2005 in Philadelphia, PA.)
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B Bach
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Gamme de Bertha
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Don't Give Me Grief
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Amorphous Structures
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Edward's Polymath (Premiered by Hugh Sung at Cabrini College, November 9, 2005 in Philadelphia, PA.)
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The Emperor's Gestures in His Majestic Garden (Premiered by Hugh Sung at Cabrini College, November 9, 2005 in Philadelphia, PA.)
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The Unexpected
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The Ocean That Divides Us
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Book Two - 2001 (revised 2014)
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Be Nothing
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Pensive Leanings
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Power Games (Premiered on 3/23/07 by Brent Nitta at Hawaii Music Awards 2006 where "Ampersand" was recognized as best Classical release)
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The Path Is Ambiguous
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Un Prelude e'tonnant
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Appease Me
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A Falling Leaf
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Twice The Speed of Stitches
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The Dexterous Toss
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Book Three – 2009-11
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Dollars for Prague
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Stillness in Motion, Swimming in Air
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For Mary Ann
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Magical Incantations
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Humility Over Hubris
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Better Than Herding Donkeys
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Crosshairs
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A Wealth of Sorrow
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Sheep & Chickens
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Book Four – 2013-14
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Arcane Gestures
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21st Century Abominations
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Grateful for The Privilege
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Cleo's Curiosity
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The Charmer
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Velocity
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Methodically Speaking
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The Loner
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The Mad Genius
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Book Five – 2018
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Eric's Walk Through Town
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From Precision to Decay
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The Needy and The Greedy
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Debt Carnivore
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From Luxury to Landfill
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Gold in My Pocket, Pain in My Heart
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No Donuts for James
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Accidental Music
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Stick a Pin in That Story
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V. Works for Two Pianos
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Piano Suite No. 2 for Two Pianos - 2002
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Thore and Runa
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Whirlwind Tryst
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Delicately Sensual
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The Mysterious Beyond
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Transcendence in the Age of War - 2003 - (in memory of 9-11)
Broken Promises (Another Disappointment) – 2007
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Sobering Indignities (Another Sad Commentary) - 2008
(for the disappointed)
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The Bells - 2011
(Celebrating a 35-year love affair and journey)
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Music for Piano Duo (Seminal Constructs) - 2013
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Exquisite (In stillness there is intensity as well as in the slowest of movements and the softness of utterances)
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Pi (He saw himself in every transcendental number and in every lotus flower)
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Seminal Constructs (You have to erase sections of previous constructs to build new ones)
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The Mirror (I look at myself in you)
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Beneath the Surface of a Memory (Securing our desires is a rarity)
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In Search of Truth, Beauty and Justice (The search leads to nothing, but it's the search that counts)
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Agreements Rule Our Dreams (Our construct system is the rule of law that governs our behaviors and dreams)
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We Keep Searching and Dancing (The Traveling Dancer) (Our personal journeys take us to destinations known and unknown, while the search itself becomes the diary of our lives)
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Taking the Risk of Being Alive (The Dreamer) (We live in a dream that has no beginning or ending)
To be played in any order.
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Piano Suite No. 14 for Two Pianos - 2021
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Saved From Extravagance and Incoherence
I-IV
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