Scott Perkins - Selected Works

SELECTED WORKS

Stage Works • Choral • Solo Voice • Instrumental • Film Music • Electroacoustic

STAGE WORKS

The Revolt of the Angels (in progress)
A ballet based on an angel's account of the fall of Lucifer in Anatole France's novel of the same name. The six-movement work, commissioned by organist Lars Gjerde, is scored for large pipe organ, electric violin, and a chamber ensemble of violins, brass, and percussion. It is tentatively scheduled to be premiered in Spring 2010.

Open For Me (2007; c. 150') - web page
A musical with libretto by playwright Bill C. Davis. Dora, singer/songwriter, interrupts her sold out national tour to get the opening act she wants and was promised by her intimate manager, David Greene. Alma Dumas, black singer activist, now an expatriate living in France, is and has been Dora's idol. David describes Alma as a "diva deluxe - she alone can put terra firma in flux." Alma's son, Marcus Benjamin, unlike his mother, is committed to his country to such an extent that he is running for congress in South Carolina. The last thing he and his campaign manager, Libby Blossom, want is for Alma to return to the states. Her angry rhetoric about the racist country she left is nothing that will help her son's campaign. Dora and Marcus arrive in France at the same time. As Dora tries to convince Alma to return to her homeland to open for her, Marcus tries to stop her. Dora and Marcus, in spite of and because of their intense and conflicting interest in Alma's moves, find each other irresistible. Their unexpected romance complicates Alma's return, Marcus's election and Dora's tour.

Algonquin Productions presented a reading of the musical on May 12, 2008, at their theater in Manhattan, NY.

CHORAL

Veni, Creator Spiritus, for SATB choir and organ (2008; 4')
A setting of the popular 9th-century Latin text by Rabanus Maurus.

L'Invitation au Voyage, for double SATB choir, unaccompanied (2007; 6')
A setting of Richard Wilbur's translation of Charles Baudelaire's poem. This work was commissioned by The Esoterics as part of the prize for their 2007 POLYPHONOS competition. Under the direction of Eric Banks, the group gave its premiere on April 12, 2008.

The Stolen Child, for mixed voices, unaccompanied (2006; 13')
A choral cycle on texts by Yeats.

Prologue: The Stolen Child
   To a Child Dancing in the Wind
      I.
      II.
   A Memory of Youth
   When You are Old
Epilogue: The Stolen Child

O magnum mysterium, for mixed voices, unaccompanied (2004, revised 2006; 4')
Setting of two Christmas texts, "O Magnum Mysterium" and "Hodie Christus Natus Est." This piece was written for Stephen Kennedy and the Christ Church Schola Cantorum of Rochester, NY, in July, 2004, and was premiered on April 10, 2005. A small ensemble of middle voices (altos and/or tenors) sings an ethereal setting of the "O magnum mysterium" text, and is supported harmonically by lower voices. Higher voices join later in the piece with an adaptation of the plainchant tune "Hodie Christus Natus Est."

A Word Out of the Sea, for mixed voices, unaccompanied, with solo tenor (2003, revised 2004; 16')
Setting of selections from Walt Whitman's poem "Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking." This work is intended for a medium- to large-sized choir, including a tenor soloist drawn from its ranks. Completed in October, 2003, and revised in April, 2004, this piece won a 2004 BMI Student Composer Award. Competition judges Donald Crockett, Richard Danielpour, Gunther Schuller, and Michael Torke described the work as "a dramatic and strikingly beautiful example of choral writing which speaks to the heart as well as to the mind." The Seattle-based men's choral ensemble, ÆDONIS, premiered the work on May 10, 2008, under the direction of Eric Banks.

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SOLO VOICE

Riddle Songs, for baritone and piano (2008; 9')
Settings in vastly differing styles of five tenth-century riddles from the Exeter Book. Baritone Jordan Wilson commissioned the songs, and premiered three of them with pianist Tatiana Vassilieva on April 19, 2008.

Spring and All, cantata for tenor and chamber ensemble (2006; 15')
Settings of three poems (sung) and prose (spoken over music) from William Carlos Williams' Spring and All. This work has undergone numerous and drastic transformations since its inception in 2001. The earliest version, a set of five songs for tenor and piano, won Boston University's Wainwright Prize in 2002. The final version was premiered on October 5, 2006, at the Eastman School of Music's Kilbourn Hall, in Rochester, NY. OSSIA new music ensemble, conducted by Robert Pierzak, performed the work with Scott Perkins, tenor.

Dogen Songs, for voice and piano or guitar (2006; 5')
Four miniature songs on poems by Dogen Zenji. Tenor Zachary Wilder commissioned the songs and premiered them with pianist Amy Yeh on Sunday, April 30, at Kilbourn Hall, Eastman School of Music, Rochester, NY.

I. Viewing Peach Blossoms and Realizing the Way
II. On Nondependence of Mind
III. The Body Born Before the Parents
IV. On the Treasury of the True Dharma Eye

Holy Sonnets of John Donne, for soprano and piano (2005; 9')
Settings of three of Donne's Holy Sonnets, commissioned by soprano Erica Schuller. The first of the three songs, "Thou hast made me," features anxious, running scales under the singer's desperate plea to God for strength in the face of temptation. The second song, "At the round earths imagin'd corners," contrasts a fiery and powerful opening, depicting Judgment Day, with a tranquil conclusion, in which the penitent singer invokes God's mercy. The final song, "Death be not proud," is soft and reflective, emphasizing the poem's imagery of sleep and rest as metaphors of death. Erica Schuller and pianist Alisa Curlee gave the first performance of Holy Sonnets of John Donne on March 24, 2006, in Kilbourn Hall, Eastman School of Music, Rochester, NY.

I. Thou hast made me
II. At the round earths imagin'd corners
III. Death be not proud

Songs from Spring and All, for tenor and piano (2002, revised 2006; 8')
Three songs from the cantata Spring and All, arranged for voice and piano. Tenor Jim DeSelms and pianist Susan Rogers DeSelms premiered the original version of the work on April 27, 2002, at the United Parish of Brookline, MA.

I. Spring and All
II. The Farmer
III. The Right of Way

INSTRUMENTAL

Three Prayers, for organ (2006; 9')
Commissioned by Lars Gjerde, who premiered the work on February 25, 2006 at the Chapel of Reconciliation at Augustana College, Sioux Falls, SD. The first Prayer is a sustained and awestruck invocation; the second is a lament against war, a soft and tender setting of the popular Renaissance war tune L'homme armé, or "The armed man;" the third is an exultant expression of thanks. Three Prayers may be used in concert and liturgical settings; in the latter case, the first Prayer may be used as a prelude, the second as an offertory, and the third as a postlude.

I. Prayer of Praise
II. Prayer for Forgiveness
III. Prayer of Thanks

Elegy, for trumpet and piano (2003; 4')
Lyrical work for trumpet and piano. Slow, soft, reflective piece with modal influences.

Meditation, for trumpet and organ (2002; 4')
Setting of the hymn tune "St. Theodulph," for trumpet and organ. This work was premiered by trumpeter Jeremy Peterson and organist Susan Rogers DeSelms on April 27, 2002, at the United Parish of Brookline, MA.

Five Short Piano Pieces, for solo piano (2001, revised 2004; 10')
Collection of short piano pieces, including a processional, ostinato, song without words, waltz, and fugue. This work, composed in 2001, was revised in 2004. Tetyana Ryabchikova gave the premiere of the 2001 version at Boston University's College of Fine Arts, Boston, MA, on December 4, 2001.

FILM MUSIC

[New Film] (in progress)
Score for a documentary film by Dave Marshall about GLBT history in Buffalo, New York.

ELECTROACOUSTIC

exosphir, for CD (2008; 5')
A short, atmospheric installation derived entirely from a sample of the composer blowing into a bottle. The work was premiered at the Eastman School of Music on May 5, 2008.

inspirivation, for the Italian Baroque organ at the Memorial Art Gallery, Rochester, NY, and CD (2007; 8.5')
Commissioned by organist Hans Davidsson, this work can be performed only on the Italian Baroque organ at the Memorial Art Gallery in Rochester, NY. The CD part is derived from the composer's reading of Chapter 2, Verse 7, of Genesis, or Bereshit, in five different languages: Latin (Vulgate), Hebrew (Masoretic Text), German (Luther Bibel), Spanish (Reina-Valera Antigua), and English (King James). inspirivation exists in three forms: inspirivation i, for CD only (premiered on December 20, 2006, at the Eastman School of Music); inspirivation ii, for the Italian Baroque organ (premiered April 15, 2007, by Hans Davidsson); and inspirivation i+ii (premiered April 15, 2007, by Hans Davidsson).

For more information on any of these works or others by Scott Perkins, to request a score or schedule a performance, or to commission a new work, please contact the composer at info@scottperkins.org.