Vera Ivanova,
composer

These short miniatures represent six dedications to composers who have anniversaries in 2016, when this cycle to be premiered by the pianist Nadia Shpachenko, who recorded these pieces with Reference Recordings on “Quotations and Homages” CD album (FR-726, released on April 6, 2018). I decided to remove my compositional style and instead recall through quotations and allusions the pieces of composers to whom each miniature is dedicated.

This title Aftertouch implies the composer’s intent to make the listener pay attention to the life and death of each sound with regard to the variety in attacks and decays.

Greek in origin, the word "Aura" has multiple meanings, which stand for "air; atmosphere; sensation..." These meanings are interpreted in the piece through the use of extended techniques.

In my piece "bariolage" is applied to a combination of open strings and harmonics, thus emphasizing even stronger the contrast in tone-colour. The title plays with two words: Bach (the BACH motif) and "bariolage" (technique), merging the two words into one, just like the a fast alteration between open strings and harmonics merge in a contrasting tone-colour texture throughout the composition.

This piece was inspired by the lute ayre of John Dowland (1563-1626) “Flow my tears,”

i-sola for piano solo was written for the Art of Virus online collaborative project, launched by Modern Orchestra, and overseen by the Hungarian composer Peter Eötvös.

Version of "Mbira" for toy piano (or piano).

In the Deep Heart’s Core is inspired by four poems joined together by a common theme of contemplation upon human existence and its reflection in nature. For all four poets, the images of nature were not merely an idyll, but a refuge from political oppression, which changed the course of their lives dramatically. Nature reflects their inner thoughts, hidden “in the deep heart’s core” and provides a consolation, expressed through the prism of lyricism, inherited by Pasternak and Akhmatova from the Russian “Silver Age” style, through the elements of psychoanalysis in Hesse’s poem, influenced by Jung’s method, and through the Romantic nationalism of early Yeats.

The title of my companion piece to Crumb’s Cancer, Karkata, translates from Sanskrit as cancer, the fourth sing of the zodiac and my own sign.

Mbira (or In Cage with Adams) was composed in 2012 for the pianist Aron Kallay, the first performer of the piece.

When I was writing this piece, I listened to the recording of Northern mockingbird singing and was literally mimicking the mimicker – writing a dictation of its song. I also incorporated in performance of this piece typical for the bird repetitions and movement patterns to recreate the mockingbird’s stellar performance fully.

Octavissimo is composed at Mark Robson’s request for his “Debussy project” – a collection of twelve pieces composed by different Los Angeles composers to commemorate Claude Debussy’s anniversary through alluding to one of Debussy’s “12 Études” (L 136, composed in 1915).

“Palpable breathing” was written specially for Christopher Adler, whose dedication to performance and creation of new music is remarkable.

"Quiet Light" refers to the special natural lighting that one can see in an old Russian Orthodox Church. It is dedicated to David Liptak, my composition teacher.

The Firebird’s Feather for flute solo is written at request of Michael Matsuno, the first performer of the piece. The piece is inspired by the legend of the Firebird (from Russian fairy tales) and partially by its interpretation by Igor Stravinsky in his famous ballet score “The Firebird” (specifically, by the overtone glissandos in strings from the Introduction to the ballet).

Three Studies in Uneven Meters were composed in the Spring of 2011. This set of etudes is dedicated to several 20th-century composers, who influenced my music in the past (Bartok, Kagel, Stravinsky, Piazzolla, Scriabin) and whose compositional technique is referenced in these three pieces: 1. BartoKagel (and a little bit of Stravinsky), 2. Canon à la Piazzolla (descending canon with all voices sustained), 3. Scriabinesque (fleeting cycles).

Vera Ivanova’s “What remain under the dust” is a musical commentary to J.S Bach’s Invention VI. It makes use of micro-quotations, syncopation, octave displacement and invertible counterpoint. The piece echoes Bach’s intricate mixture of tonal and chromatic scalar motion, spatializing it across extreme registers. The resulting resonances become “remains” of the Baroque, seen through the dust of the modern times.

composed for CAGE100 Party Pieces Project

Premiered at the Dartington Summer School (Dartington, U.K.).

My piece is in 6 mini-movements: 1. Tin Box 2. Dare 3. La vie en rose 4. Train 5. Bounneur 6. Dare of Dares which capture my personal highlights from the movie. The movie constantly switches kaleidoscopically from childhood’s fantasy world to the boredom of adult life, where the most interesting part seems to be the memories of a childhood imaginary world and a longing for perfect unconditional love.

Commissioned by Oleh Krysa

The piece features four dialogues-variations between these two very different in properties and timbres instruments: flute and percussion.

Premiered at the Harris Concert Hall, Aspen Music Festival (Aspen, CO, U.S.A.) by Polina Kozhevnikova, Emily Brausa, and Elizabeth Etroyer.

"Melody for Two Violins" (or 2 Violas) is a short miniature which was first written for a dance project. It is a slow piece with the first player having a lead role and the second playing a accompanying line. Influenced by folk music, it plays with minor versus Phrygian mode inflection and when reached its pick, brings in parallel major, but soon returns back to A minor.

“Midsummer Rain” for piano and string quintet pictures a sudden rain on a sunny summer day, which starts suddenly, brings a lot of excitement to the day and a relief on a hot day.

This work was jointly commissioned by California Music Teachers Association and Music Teachers National Association in 2024 and was premiered on October 19, 2024, in Long Beach State University’s Bob Cole’s Conservatory of Music at the 2024 CAPMT State Conference in California by Duo Art. “Mirrored Rain” was inspired by different aspects of rain, reflected in three movements: “Glass Rain”, "Midsuumer Rain" and "Pineapple Express."

Night Music was premiered in 2001 at the Kilbourn Hall of the Eastman School of Music by OSSIA New Music, conducted by Jairo Duarte-Lopez.

Premiered at the Kilbourn Hall of the Eastman School of Music by Musica Nova, conducted by Brad Lubman.

The Sagittarius was commissioned by 2015 Sound Ways Festival in Saint Petersburg, Russia. It is in essence variations on Karlheinz Stockhausen's "Sagittarius" from his "Zodiac" ("Tierkreis;" 12 short movements written originally for a music box set 12 zodiac signs), an open-instrumentation work that can be played in any version by any ensemble or soloist.

This piece is saturated with symmetrical transformations and while it has a regular pulse, it frequently changes meters. The overall idea of going from a minimum of music material through self-generating processes to a full completeness is realized in several stages, with some internal recapitulations and referential “break points” from the flow.

Premiered by the Moscow Contemporary Ensemble at the Great Hall of the Moscow Composers’ House. 3 movements are in progress.

I wrote this piece while in residency at the Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts in Nebraska, where the artists of different disciplines (writers, artists, composers) are given an opportunity to dedicate all their time to creative work. When I was writing this piece, I was fascinated by images of sky, simple patterns based on numbers, and the sound of the traditional Chinese instruments: unique timbre of Sheng, the human voice-like expressive qualities of Erhu, versatility of Guzheng and the timbral qualities of Qudi (its "roundness') and Bangdi (its brightness).

Premiered at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama (London, U.K.) by Olivier Pigeut, Carolina Seibt, M.-L. Anton, Kalina Dimitrova.

"Still Images" is a version of the piece composed earlier, "Still Images of the Restless Mind."

The title of this piece was inspired by the visual similarity of the motion of water, being disturbed by an object (such as a stone), and a vibrating string, being plucked (on koto and violin) or bowed (on violin). Both the water and the string produce waves (vibrations), which we see on the surface of water, and which we hear as sound waves.

The piece makes use of minimalistic techniques and modal inclinations in harmonies created by constantly moving texture. The winds come to its full power in the middle of the piece, and depicted with diatonic glissandos, sliding in a manner of ocean waves. After achieving their peak, they suddenly drop down to the opening gesture, which rolls back and forwards, picturing a serene breeze to which these powerful gusts eventually turned.

The title of the piece ("The Laughing Man Alphabet") refers to the last name of the contemporary German composer Helmut Lachenmann (b. 1935), whose last name, loosely translated to English, means "laughing man." The reference will not limit itself only to the title of the piece; my musical idea is to incorporate Helmut Lachenmannan's suite for piano " Ein Kinderspiel" (Child's play," a suite of seven little pieces composed in 1980) as a framework in my own composition, shaping the form as seven variations on Lachenmann's seven little piano pieces. A particular emphasis (in terms of musical references) is given to the first piece from the suite, "Hanschen Klein" (translated to English as "Little Hans"), because of its importance and placement (as an opening movement) in Lachenmann's suite.

The idea of the piece came to my mind when I was reading Sarah Ruhl’s play Eurydice, a contemporary take on the myth of Orpheus from the perspective of Eurydice, his wife. While the play starts in New York City of 1950s, the rest of the story takes place in the timeless underworld and focuses on Eurydice's choice to return to earth with Orpheus or to stay with her father and marry the Lord of the Underworld.

Three Chants and Three Interludes for three performers is a melancholic miniature, where distant chants are heard at the beginning and the very end of the piece, as a short introduction and postlude to the three interludes, and one of them is hidden in the flute part in the middle section of the piece. Those chants are independent melodies in each instrument, which contrapuntally combine together and contrast the three interludes, where the three performers are playing independently and in disagreement with each other, competing for the dominance over the trio.

Score is available from composer.

Premiered at the Kilbourn Hall of the Eastman School of Music by the Composers’ Sinfonietta.

A setting of Daniil Kharms' poem "Each Tuesday."

Fame is a setting of Emily Dickinson’s poem of the same name. It makes use of both vocal and piano extended techniques to convey a fickleness and illusiveness of fame.

“Four Drinking Songs” is a cycle of four songs: 1. A Drinking Song (W.B. Yeats) 2. A Drunken Man's Praise of Sobriety (W.B. Yeats) 3. The Last Toast (A. Akhmatova) 4. One More Toast (A. Akhmatova)

“I Like For You To Be Still” is an early poem by Pablo Neruda, first published and quoted from his collection “Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair” (1924). It is written in 2 transpositions (one for a higher male voice - tenor, and another one is for baritone).

"Kak u oblaka," is a setting of Anna Akhmatova's poem ("As if on the rim of a cloud") in original language of the poem - Russian. The poem is about love, and the music reflects the dreamy atmosphere and unresolved feelings.

A humorous setting of Daniil Kharms' poem "Khaldeyev, Naldeyev..."

A setting of Daniil Kharms' poem "Lead me away."

As the verse of the second poem from this cycle goes, "One would say that the earth is the way of the flesh, that the sea is the way of the soul." This poetic connection of a human soul to the sea inspired me to compose a song cycle for soprano and piano, based on three poems by three different Spanish poets, living in different epochs.

A setting of Arthur Rimbaud's poems and letters; commissioned and first performed by Richard Lea.

The Walrus and The Carpenter Text by Lewis Carroll from Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There, 1872 (edited by Vera Ivanova).

"Un~Now" for solo voice is a setting of an absurd poem by the Russian poet Daniil Kharms.

This piece is suitable for performance by youth or community orchestra, or a professional orchestra, and exists in 2 versions (for 24 parts or for 21 parts). It is inspired by cinematic picturing of a landscape right before dawn.

“Midsummer Rain” for piano and string orchestra was written for conductor Tammy Yi and pictures a sudden rain on a sunny summer day, which starts suddenly, brings a lot of excitement to the day and a relief on a hot day.

Still Images of the Restless Mind is a reflection on an emotional state of mind when the most important personal images, preserved in the memory, come to the rescue of the disturbed mind. These images have settled in the mind from the early childhood on, and the mind does not recall them in its every day life, overwhelmed by the excessive information that it has to perceive every day.

Variations on Chords: Distances was composed in 2003 and premiered by the Eastman Philharmonia, conducted by Clay Greenberg.

Snow Song was written by request for Angel Vázquez-Ramos and CalState Fullerton's Men's Chorus in April 2015.

The poem is written by young and talented poetess Rachel Kaufman, who I met at the Helene Wurlitzer Foundation in Taos, New Mexico, where we were both in residence in the summer of 2023. Her imaginative and beautiful poem evokes associations with deeply connected processes in nature, the earth’s fragile ecosystem and the frequent draughts followed by devastating rainstorms in Southern California (and many other parts of the world).

The main idea of the poem is in constant movement towards a higher goal, which comes with some struggle, and ends with a success. The imagery of climbing an apple tree to reach the top translates for me into an encouraging message to all who work hard striving towards success and overcome all the obstacles on their path.

The setting of four poems by well-known and widely appreciated by many composers poetesses Emily Dickinson (movements I and II) and Sara Teasdale (movements III and IV) are elegiac (as they follow the four seasons from summer to spring), yet different in character.

May Day is composed as a companion to Snow Song, which was written by request for Angel Vázquez- Ramos and CalState Fullerton's Men's Chorus in April 2015, as a continuation of our collaboration (my “Three Summer Songs” for women’s choir was also written for and premiered by Angel Vázquez- Ramos).

Setting of Two Poems by Emily Dickinson is written on two poems by well-known and widely appreciated by many composers poetess Emily Dickinson, elegiac in character as they follow the seasons of summer and autumn.

Setting of Two Poems by Sara Teasdale is written of two poems by well-known and widely appreciated by many composers poetess Sara Teasdale. The poems are elegiac in character as they follow the seasons of winter and spring.

Summer Going is an arrangement for SSA choir + piano of my third song from “Three Summer Songs” for SSAA choir, which I composed during the summer months of 2011 for conductor Angel Vázquez-Ramos.

Three Summer Songs were composed during the summer months of 2011 for conductor Angel Vázquez-Ramos. Each song uses a text by a different author and depicts one of the summer months.

One of the most known Henry Jackson van Dyke’s poems, Time is, attracted my attention by its profound philosophical statements which are expressed with such candor and simplicity, that it made the poem truly universal and timeless. The piece exists in 2 versions: version 2 includes additional text and the optional use of hand bells.

The piece is written for bass clarinet and is accompanied by a pre-recorded soundtrack; its main source comes from the sound sample of a whale song, manipulated and transformed through the use of various software to create an image of a creature, a digitized sea mammal, submerging into the deep ocean and emerging to a digitized surface.

"Expectations" was composed in 2020 for mise-en ensemble. The form of the piece is based on a rondo with a skipped refrain (A B A C B A/B), where the last section combines the material of the refrain (A) with the first episode (B). The chosen form reflects best the idea of the piece, tracing the nature of expectations, planted from a seed of hope. What do expectations do? They grow. They grow and depart greatly from innocent hope to a destructive and uncontrolled form, expressed in this piece in alternating refrain and episodes, constantly growing as waves.

In the Deep Heart’s Core is inspired by four poems joined together by a common theme of contemplation upon human existence and its reflection in nature. For all four poets, the images of nature were not merely an idyll, but a refuge from political oppression, which changed the course of their lives dramatically. Nature reflects their inner thoughts, hidden “in the deep heart’s core” and provides a consolation, expressed through the prism of lyricism, inherited by Pasternak and Akhmatova from the Russian “Silver Age” style, through the elements of psychoanalysis in Hesse’s poem, influenced by Jung’s method, and through the Romantic nationalism of early Yeats.

Toy Phantasy for piano and fixed audio was composed in 2022-2023 for Luo Ting, the first performer of the work. The piece has been inspired by the poem by John Updike “Player Piano,” originally published in “The New Yorker” magazine.

Commissioned by the State Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre and the College of Choreography of N.Novgorod-city (Russia)

My opera originated from re-visiting Classical Russian writer Fyodor Dostoevsky's early novel "The Double" and the movie made after the novel in 2013 (directed by Richard Ayoade, starring Jesse Eisenberg and Mia Wasikowska). Being inspired by the story, I asked the librettist Sarah LaBrie to write a new original libretto for a chamber opera, in which she re-tells the story from three different points of view: one of the main character (Noth, an analogy of Dostoevsky’s Golyadkin), another one from the girl he loves (Klara), and the last one from the Therapist (Dr. Rutenspitz in Dostoevsky), who treats them both and in the process of this treatment creates Noth’s Double

Commissioned through the Moscow Culture Committee grant “Open Stage” by the Theatre of Nations (Moscow, Russia)

“Pacific Overture” for wind ensemble is a celebration of a unique region – the Pacific Ocean coastline and its diverse community.

Melancholy is a lyric composition based on the pre-recorded voice of Judith Caplan.

Panic stands on the border between “serious” electro-acoustic music and its exaggeration. It reflects the way of living in today’s metropolis with its rush hours, lack of time and noise pollution, its everyday stress and loneliness. The result – panic. The initial material of Panic is the filtered beginning of my Night Music for large ensemble. The main sources of the piece are graphic patterns used as filters for the Metasynth software, transforming graphic images into sound objects and filters.

Premiered in 2003 at the Theremin Center for electro-acoustic music and multi-media (Moscow, Russia).

Premiered at the Moscow Culture Center “DOM,” Moscow International Festival of electro-acoustic music and multimedia “Altermedium 2.0: well-tempered noise” (Moscow, Russia)