In 2007, I was an artist in residence at NYC’s venerable downtown theater Dixon Place. I put together a program of musical curiosities, based on similar shows I’d done for the INFO FortFest and the Fortean Times UnConvention. The program included music by Rameau’s Nephew, Lewis Carroll, and the Count of Saint-Germain; an odd tune […]

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André Breton once said that he wasn’t interested in music, because he couldn’t imagine representing the world with sound. I do disagree; and find diatonic cluster drones as good a symbol as any. This organ piece is one example; here’s how it begins.

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This rather exuberant waltz was written for a performance with Bob Berky at the Museum of Modern Art (NYC) in 1985. Here’s the way it starts.

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“The Muscatel Suite,” three movements of it, often showed up in my shows in the ’80s. Here’s the beginning.

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I celebrate the New Year in a bilingual waltz. I had never written a song with French lyrics before; it was challenging. I usually perform this song with a viola obbligato; it’s also been covered by one of my favorite bands, Les Chauds Lapins.

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My fifth string quartet is based on the “trowie tunes” of the Shetland Islands. I set them diatonically, embellishing them with scordatura, hocketing, harmonics, and other techniques. According to tradition, these tunes are to be played only once, out of respect for the trowies; the quartet is therefore brief.  

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I found this injunction in an old ukulele instruction book, and made it into buttons for my students. Don’t.

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I joined Brian Dewan and Nina Katchadourian in this collection of songs about Roosevelt Island. The island has a long and colorful history, and has had many names over the years: Hog Island, Manning’s Island, Blackwell’s Island, Welfare Island. For much of the 19th and 20th century, it was used as a prison and hospital. […]

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The Regard of Flight was a bit short, so we rounded out the evening with some of Bill’s shorter pieces, under the title of The Clown Bagatelles. The last of these was a dance piece called “The Marionette.” I played this piece hundreds of times, and always approached the final cadence with relief: we made […]

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I teach ukulele classes; here’s a brief clip of my students and me at a recital, at Brooklyn’s Jalopy Theater. (The clip has subsequently been removed.)

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