Since an early age, I have been inspired by minimalist music. I used to find that the music of Philip Glass and composer Michael Scott’s Mosaics I & II, “spoke to me.” My early compositional style took on some of their characteristics: one chord, unchanging, arpeggiated in one hand and a snappy or melancholic melody in the other. The harmony was fixed, it never changed, it never contained more than three tones. Fast forward to my first week in collage, on the day I met my dear friend and composer companion, Luke Gion, he shared with me Steve Reich’s Music for 18 Musicians, and it blew me away. I was struck by how the pulses in the first few minutes conveyed such a sense of activity and motion and at the same time, total stasis and stillness. I found this to be a much richer kind of minimalism.
Loops in D♭ Major is inspired, in many ways, by the stylistic approach of Steve Reich. Notice that in my piece, a groove is revealed by one voice at a time in the piano part and the other instruments of the orchestra come in following the entrance of each voice. Notice the colorful swells which enter about two minutes into the piece, how they affect the harmonic texture without changing the repeating parts.
A condensed live version of this piece was showcased at the University of Saint Thomas’s 2021 Festival Orchestra which I found valuable for experiencing the process of writing an orchestral composition, preparing clean, accurate, and legible parts, and having an ensemble play the piece. Today, I will share a digital, full version of the composition.
Special thanks to my mentor, Dr. Josh Bauder, for all the years of guidance in preparing sheet music. It especially came in handy when preparing the parts for the Festival Orchestra feature of this piece.
Perhaps the most important achievement of my undergraduate career at the University of St. Thomas is my senior composition recital performed with hybrid (live or pre-recorded) acts on Mother's Day, May 9th, 2021. The full feature of this concert includes ten original compositions of various styles and for various instruments. This program was adjusted over the following summer for an online premiere on August 22nd, 2021. Here you will see the whole program with program notes delivered by the composer.
Connect with William Gomes at wsGomes17@hotmail.com to negotiate a price and receive a copy.
Audio mixdown created in Cubase 10.5 by William Gomes. Visualizations generated using the Music Animation Machine by Stephen Malinowski.
Editor
Joseph Ortiz
© 2021 William Gomes.
... to the University of St. Thomas for permitting us to rehearse in the Iverson Center for Faith and record in the Chapel of St. Thomas and in Baumgaertner Auditorium.
... to the faculty of the Basilica of Saint Mary for permitting us to record in the Basilica.
... to Paul Schulz for permitting us to record at his home during a pandemic.
... to Irene Domingo for teaching pronunciation for Y Dice el Pastorcico.
... to Dr. Sherstan Johnson and Jaclyn Schwartz for answering countless emails and fulfilling endless requests.
... to Joseph Ortiz for being an incredible and gracious director and editor for my 2021 Composition Recital. Your contribution has been crucial to the completion of this project. God bless you all your days and then some!
For a more complete dictation of gratitude, please visit the honor's page for this recital.