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MARK A. LACKEY

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(Check out the printed score of Medium....)

Blugue for Reed Trio

Performed by The Vientos Trio
Ryan Zwahlen, oboe; Jennifer Stevenson, bass clarinet; Michael Kreiner, bassoon.

Biola University, March 24, 2010

©2001, 2009 Mark A. Lackey, (p) 2010 The Definiens Project

Fairy Tale

I.Once... (mp3)
II.Wicked... (mp3)
III.Frog... (mp3)
IV.Kiss... (mp3)
V.Happily... (mp3)

Kristin Bacchiocchi-Stewart, flute
Zane Forshee, guitar
Caleb Jones, cello
Kevin Clarke, percussion

Recorded live in Griswold Hall at The Peabody Conservatory, April 27, 2005.
©2005 Mark A. Lackey

embodied

DUO MARE (JeeYoung Rachel Choe, flute, and Akiko Sumi, guitar) gave the premiere of this piece for flute and guitar duo with boom box on the third After Now concert of new music in Baltimore.

I hope you have fun with this! (Or, to put it another way: "embodied enacts the re-embodiment of situated cognition and our sensorimotor experience of music as described by Vijay Iyer, a way of experiencing music that has been devalued in binaries of 'high' and 'low' art. Because of its engagement with popular style and with the physicality of dance, it exists in opposition to the abstract, language-based, phallogocentric models of musical meaning that have been dominant in the discourse within and about modernist music. Additionally, the unresolvable tension between the sounds from the boom box and the sounds from the flute and guitar, as well as dualities between electronic sounds and recorded 'real' sounds of clay and glass objects that foreground their earthiness, are themselves suggestive of these binaries and of the ever-present gap between our idea of a thing and the thing itself for which Derrida coined the term différance.")

Recorded live during the third After Now concert.
Red Room, Baltimore, MD, March 8, 2008.
©2008 Mark A. Lackey

Sacred Words In Dead Languages

Catherine Wong, B-flat clarinet
Devin Adams, alto saxophone
Daniel Miller, B-flat trumpet
Iain Roush, guitar
Dave DeDionisio, guitar
Mark A. Lackey, electric guitar
Doug Perry, vibraphone

Sacred Words In Dead Languages is dedicated with gratitude to these performers and to guitarist Tristan Panniers (now residing in Japan) and trumpeter Brody Gusar (now in Florida). I made the acquaintance of Cat, Devin, Iain, Doug, Tristan and Brody a few years ago, when they were near the beginning of their conservatory studies at The Peabody. They invited me to join their table in the cafeteria one day. Half-jokingly, perhaps, first one and then another asked me to compose something until they were all asking for new pieces. I noted a remarkable camaraderie among the group in spite of deep differences in world view, and decided it might be interesting to write a stochastic piece, a work that would focus on the group dynamic by giving them figures to play but letting them decide, in performance, when to enter, how many times to repeat a figure and so on.

Recorded live during the third After Now concert.
Red Room, Baltimore, MD, March 8, 2008.
©2008 Mark A. Lackey

Columns in the Air

Mindy Heinsohn, flute
Kristin Bacchiocchi-Stewart, flute
Rachel Choe, flute
Gina Kim, flute
Mark Lackey, electronics

©2007 Mark A. Lackey

Convergence

Convergence for orchestra was one of seven finalists in the Columbia Orchestra 2009 American Composer Competition. (Congratulations to winner Albert Hurwit and the other six finalists!)

The creation of this orchestral work was guided by a very simple abstraction: the confluence of two very different beings, one exquisite, the other ardent, with each one by turns elevated and ennobled, tempered, vivified by the other.

Measure 36, giocoso:
quirky, playful pizzicato strings (676 k)

Measure 60, cantabile:
yearning, romantic first violins and cellos (1027 k)

Measure 88, drammatico:
bold, tense counterpoint between various sections (386 k)

Measure 119, dolce:
lyrical oboe solo against rustling pianissimo string trills (772 k)

Measure 153, spinto ed intenso,
a heavy, hard-rock inspired orchestral tutti (676 k)

Peabody Symphony Orchestra, Baltimore, Maryland. Hajime Teri Murai, conductor.
Recorded in rehearsal, 5 March 2003.

©2002 Mark A. Lackey

Blugue

A fugue begins with a short tune played by just one player (or one voice of a polyphonic instrument such as the organ), then proceeds almost like a game. The other players take turns beginning the tune higher or lower, while the previous players play something to go with it. In a book about writing fugues, I ran across the rule that "a fugue must be on either a major or minor scale." Annoyed by this arbitrary pronouncement, I set out to write a fugue on the blues scale. So here you have it: a blue fugue. A Blugue.

Excerpt from Blugue (633 k)

Russell Kirk, alto saxophone
Glenn Quader, alto saxophone
Jacob Yoffee, tenor saxophone
Recorded live, Griswold Hall at The Peabody Conservatory of Music, 6 March 2002.

©2002 Mark A. Lackey

Three Simple Prayers for Brass Quintet

Like many Americans, on September 11, 2001 I sat and cried and prayed most of the day. Late that night, I sat down at the piano - a very atypical way for me to begin composing - and found a few simple sounds that helped me begin to work through my feelings. Within a few weeks those sounds had expanded into this piece. It is humbly offered in the hope that you may also find some comfort in it.

I. A prayer for those who are suffering
4:07 (4.7 MB)

II. A prayer for those who cause suffering
2:25 (2.8 MB)

III. A prayer for peace
4:28 (5.1 MB)

Elizabeth Robinson, trumpet; Brian Bunnell, trumpet; Jennifer Hansen, horn; Karl MacMillan, trombone; Armen Dohanian, tuba.

Recorded on October 24, 2001 in Griswold Hall at The Peabody Conservatory.

©2001 Mark A. Lackey

Medium

Mark A. Lackey, voice

The medium is. (Or, to put it another way: "Medium foregrounds the mediating physicality of the printed score as object through an unconventional choice of print substrate. Moreover, Medium foregrounds the technological mediation of interpersonal communication, reanimating the now-clichéd McLuhan expression "the medium is the message" by deploying cellular telephones as theatrical properties and their carrier networks as signal processors, impeding the intelligibility of the vocal performance while enhancing its sonic interest.")

Recorded live during the third After Now concert.
Red Room, Baltimore, MD, March 8, 2008.
©2008 Mark A. Lackey

Stravinsky-Lackey "Dances of the Young Girls"
from Rite of Spring

I finally gave in to the impulse I had many years ago when I first heard Rite of Spring: to re-imagine Stravinsky as a rocker. To create this recording, I studied the original orchestration extensively and then mapped out this arrangement, faithfully transferring every note of the original to a line-up of drumkit, fretless electric basses, electric and acoustic guitars, keyboards, and electronics. Over the course of a few months I performed and recorded the project in my little home studio. If you like rock or Stravinsky, I think you'll want to hear this. There's a very brief excerpt here, and a link to the entire four-minute mp3 below.

Excerpt from Rite of Spring (193 k)
Recorded toward the end of 2002 and the first few days of 2003; remixed 2007.
©2003 Mark A. Lackey
TO DOWNLOAD THE COMPLETE RECORDING... CLICK HERE!

"If It Don't Kill You"

This is a recording by jaKe, featuring co-writers Stanley Jake Haught and Marcus Jake Lackey. Vocals, guitar, dulcimer and other instruments and noises on this here partick-lar recordin' made by Marcus Jake Lackey.

"There Is A Place"

Despite speculation that Julian Date's "There Is A Place" was inspired by the rugged beauty of Alaska, Mark wrote the song prior to his first move to Alaska. A friend took this video of a 1995 performance by JULIAN DATE at The Cannery in Nashville, Tennessee. Drumkit was played by Rodney Wright, electric bass guitar was played by Scott Nelson, and electric guitar was played by Brian Paris. Guitars, synthesizers, and lead vocals were performed by Julian Date. The part of Julian Date was played by Mark A. Lackey. This video is presented here for possible historical - or hysterical - interest. Click on the Google Video button to see more.

"I Believe"

Recorded on home 4-track cassette. Julian Date performed vocals, drums, electric bass, guitars and synthesizers. The part of Julian Date was played by Mark A. Lackey.

"There Is A Place"

Recorded at Resaca Beach, Monty Powell's 16-track project studio, Nashville, in 1993. Drums, programming: Steve Brewster. Horn in F: Amy Brady. Vocals, synthesizers, guitars, violin: Julian Date. Recording engineer: Jim Dineen. The part of Julian Date was played by Mark A. Lackey.

"Permanent Crush"

Recorded at Resaca Beach. Drums, programming: Steve Brewster. Vocals, synthesizers, guitars: Julian Date. Recording engineer: Jim Dineen. The part of Julian Date was played by Mark A. Lackey.

"Dog"

Recorded on home 4-track cassette. Vocals, guitars, synthsizers, programming, toy flute, ruined autoharp: Julian Date. Barking (sic) vocals: Dieter Spears. The part of Julian Date was played by Mark A. Lackey.

"Welcome Home "

Recorded at Resaca Beach, Nashville, TN. Vocals, guitars, synthsizers, programming: Julian Date. Producer: Monty Powell. Engineer: Jim Dineen. The part of Julian Date was played by Mark A. Lackey.

"Last Night We Spoke In A Dream"

Recorded at Resaca Beach, Nashville, TN. Vocals, guitars, synthesizers, electronic drums, programming: Julian Date. The part of Julian Date was played by Mark A. Lackey.

Thanks for listening!

MARKLACKEY (at) MARKLACKEY.NET

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