...antiphonal play of the “barking” motif; polytonal triad stacks at the climax; the sound mass cord at the very end, which is really a verticalization of the dominant barking motif’s major second interval; “in breathless I explore in greater depth the flowers motif first seen in the “flowers and stones” fragment from 1988. I will return to this pattern again in Pelican song (2006), and once again to a lesser degree in star sonata (2024)

Modigliani's Arm is a one-movement tone poem for orchestra, commissioned for and premiered by Barry Silverman and the South Coast Symphony in 2006. The work displays a range of moods, from the humorous to the obscure, and pulls some of its material from Flowers and Stones, the source of much of my subsequent work. It also features some tone-painting, with wood block standing in for the clip-clop of horses hooves somewhere way out west.

Symphonic Suite is a Baroque-inspired symphony in 3 movements. It was commissioned with a grant from Meet the Composer, and premiered by music director Jung Ho Pak with the Idyllwild School of Music and the Arts International Chamber Orchestra in Spring, 1990.

DANCE SYMPHONY was composed at the request of conductor Jung Ho Pak for the
Idyllwild School of Music and the Arts International Chamber
Orchestra. The work was premiered on December 13, 1989.
The first movement is in the form of an arch, and plays with dramatic conventions normally
associated with opera music or film scores. Pathos alternates with irony, and the whole is
framed with a music of simple, unfettered exuberance.
The second movement is based on the Ländler, the German precursor to the Waltz; this
dance-inspired music is the source of the work's title.
The third movement is marked "stately" because it is a march; it is "meditative", because the
motor elements which drive the march are absent at the beginning. As the piece progresses,
they are gradually reinstated -- only to be withdrawn again at the work's close, leaving the bare
skeleton.
All of the music in DANCE SYMPHONY was inspired by the mountain village of Idyllwild,
California: its music, its art … and its magical forest. – RL

The reason for the pelican is simple…

Pelicans are fascinating. ...

PELICAN SONG was commissioned by Stephen Rochford for Soprano Linda Leyrer and the Irvine Valley College Orchestra. The work was premiered at Irvine Valley College on [date]

Thanks to percussionist Mark Peterson for constructing a special percussion instrument to convey the direction of "rigging" in the score.

A fanfare for irregular orchestra, composed for the graduating class of Idyllwild School of Music and the Arts. At that early stage in the School's development the instrumental forces in the Music Department did not yet add up to a full orchestra compliment. For example, three guitars and one trumpet. So, working with what was available at the time, I composed this fanfare, inspired by Mendelssohn's Hebrides Overture and by the majestic forest in which the work was composed.