The music of Daron Hagen is notable for its warm lyricism, but his style defies easy categorization. While his works demonstrate fluency with a range of twentieth century compositional techniques, those procedures are secondary to his exploitation and expansion of the possibilities of tonal harmony, giving his music an immediacy that makes it appealing to a wide spectrum of audiences. Hagen's song cycle for baritone and string quartet Alive in a Moment was composed during July of 2003 and it functions both as an instrumental string quartet and a traditional song cycle. In seven movements, based on the poetry of W.H. Auden, the entire work develops three musical ideas given at the outset: a rhythmic tattoo in the violin, what the composer calls a "smudged melody," created by adding trills to each successive note of the melody, and heavy glissandi. Watch a performance of the first movement of Daron Hagen's  String Quartet No. 2, "Alive in a Moment", performed by baritone Robert Frankenberry and the Voxare String Quartet . . . one of this week's FEATURED NEW MUSIC VIDEOS.

Composer William Ortiz-Alvarado was born in Puerto Rico and raised in New York City. A member of that fascinating hybrid culture known as "Newyorican", Ortiz composes music that often reflects the realities of urban life. After studying composition with Hector Campos Parsi at the Puerto Rico Conservatory of Music, he received his M.A. from SUNY at Stony Brook where his teachers were Billy Jim Layton and Bulent Arel. He later was granted a Ph.D. in Composition from SUNY at Buffalo, where he studied with Lejaren Hiller and Morton Feldman. Ricardo A. Coelho de Souza writes in his book The Percussion Music of William Ortiz, "Ortiz uses the clave rhythm as a motive or as a sonic icon of Latin American music. In his percussion quartet La Clave Bien Temperada for four clave players, it is no surprise that the clave rhythm is used. Here this distinctive rhythm is treated simply as a musical motif and not as a structural principle, as Ortiz has employed it in some of his other percussion works." Watch a performance of William Ortiz-Alvarado's The Well-Tempered Clave (La Clave Bien Temperada) (2003) played by members of Academia Latinoamericana de Percusion y Fesnojiv, with Jose Alicea-Concierto de Clasura conducting . . . it's our BANG, CLANG and BEAT/Contemporary Percussion Music for the week.

Scottish born composer Thea Musgrave writes about her work Night Music (1968), "In this work, two horn players are featured in soloistic and dramatic ways. Contrasting musical ideas are explored dependent on where they are seated in the orchestra — more lyrical when they are seated close together, more dramatic later on, when they stand at either side of the conductor, some distance from each other, and then near the end of the work the musical contrasts are further heightened by the echo effects produced by one distant offstage horn. As so often in Dreams, there are quickly changing moods; frightening, eerie, peaceful, romantic, stormy, and so in this work, highly contrasted musical sections quickly follow on from each other, they interchange and at times even overlap. The dream landscape painted in Night Music is thus in one continuous movement - the different sections indicating the changing moods: Andante Notturnale: / Misterioso: / Svegliato: (waking up) / Andante Amoroso..piu mosso, con ardore: / Appassionato: / Calmo: (Here the two horns move to their new positions either side of the conductor) / Minaccevole: (threatening) / Tempestuoso: (Here the first horn moves offstage) / Tempo di Andante amoroso alternating with Scherzoso: / Tempo di Andante." Hear a performance of Thea Musgrave's Night Music . . . it's one of our PYTHEAS EARFULS for the week.

Award-winning composer Robert J. Bradshaw strives to forge a unique connection between composer, musicians and audiences. His compositions have been heard throughout the Americas, Europe, Asia and Middle East. Bradshaw’s numerous commissions include works for the American String Teachers Association with NSOA, New England Musical Heritage Initiative / New England String Ensemble and the Pappoutsakis Flute Competition. His music has been honored with first place awards by the Alabama Orchestra Association Composition Competition and the Manchester Music Festival Composition Competition which included a performance of Articles Nor-east at Lincoln Center, New York. Many of Bradshaw’s compositions, commissions and residencies have been made possible through such organizations as  the National Endowment for the Arts, Meet the Composer, MetLife Creative Connections program, American Music Center, American Composers Forum, Harvard Musical Association, Harpley Foundation, Argosy Foundation, The Bruce J. Anderson Foundation, Alabama State Council on the Arts, The Cape Ann Symphony Association, Inc., Youths’ Friends Association, The Goldhirsh Foundation and the Massachusetts Cultural Council. Passionate about expressing himself through the abstract art of music, Robert Bradshaw has always loved composing.  Winner of many commissions and awards, he is convinced that classical music is alive and well in America. Watch a performance of the third movement of his Concerto for Trumpet (2006) performed by trumpetist Michael Arndt and the MTSU Wind Ensemble . . . this week's FROM THE PYTHEAS ARCHIVES.