
John A. Carollo
Composer
Works for Piano
(All dates refer to the composition completion day)
I. Early Piano Music
1986-1997
Invention No. 1 - (Homage to Scarlatti) - 5-1-1986
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. He has begun to revise his early piano works and will be posting them as they are updated.
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A Courtly Dance - 5-6-1986
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Waltz - 5-12-1986
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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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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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Elusive Truth - 6-24-1986
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Lullaby - 6-25-1986
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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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Sandy's Fantasy - 9-24-1987
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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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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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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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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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Summer Sketches - 6-17-1990
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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
II. Piano Suites
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
This work began on the day the composer had his first composition lesson.
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
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.
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?
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
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
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
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
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 http://www.alexgross.com/)
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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
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
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
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
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)
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?
Piano Suite No. 14 for Two Pianos - 2021
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Saved From Extravagance and Incoherence I-IV
Piano Suite No. 15 for Solo Piano - 2022
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From Here to There Or Here To Go - I-IV
III. Works for Solo Piano
Metamorphosis N° 6, 7 and 8 – 2002
Your Beauty Transcends Tiime - 2006
Lament - (The Passing) - 2007
Dino's Dilemma – 2008
Jade Ponds – 2008
Completely Clothed in Sound for Piano, for Three Players – 2011
Lament No. 14 - “The Death of Michael Alexander Snow” – 2011
No. 99 – 2012
Miniatures - 2013
I-IX
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
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
A Fronte Praecipitium a Tergo Lupi - 2015
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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
The Iron Cage of Reason - 2017
I. Con Brio, Delicatamente, Presto
II. Drammatico
III. Animato, Arditamente
A circular Jingle - 2017
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
Phantasmamusica (An ongoing series of inventive musical creations)
Book I. - 2019
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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
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)
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
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
V. Piano Etudes
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)
Book Two (Philosophies) - 2006
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- A Recording is the Antithesis of his Aesthetic (in memory of John Cage)
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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
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.
IV. Piano Preludes
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
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
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
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
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
V. Works for Two Pianos
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
Transcendence in the Age of War - 2003
(in memory of 9-11)
Broken Promises (Another Disappointment) – 2007
Sobering Indignities (Another Sad Commentary) - 2008
(for the disappointed)
The Bells - 2011
(Celebrating a 35-year love affair and journey)
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.
Piano Suite No. 14 for Two Pianos - 2021
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Saved From Extravagance and Incoherence I-IV