Charles H Ruggiero

Piano (Chamber)

Concerto for Alto Saxophone and Large Chamber Ensemble, Boppish Blue Tinged, 2010
Instrumentation, Program Notes

Concerto for Alto Saxophone and Large Chamber Ensemble, Boppish Blue Tinged, 2010
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Instrumentation: One player per part: Fl, Ob, Bb Cl, T Sax (doubling Sop Sax), Bsn, Hrn, C Tpt, Trb, Tuba, Perc, Pn (doubling Cel), Harp, A Sax, Vln 1, Vln 2, Vla, Vlc, DB, Cond

Duration: ca. 19-20 min.

Concerto for Alto Saxophone and Large Chamber Ensemble - Boppish Blue Tinged (2009)

Dedicated to Joseph Lulloff and Raphael Jimenez
Program Notes

Boppish Blue Tinged

The title of this concerto, Boppish Blue Tinged, is meant to be suggestive rather than unambiguously descriptive. Tinged refers, in part, to trace influences from jazz and other twentieth-century American musical genres that may be heard throughout the concerto, but especially in the first movement. One of my goals for the chaconne-like opening movement is to create variable textures and composite rhythms that suggest some of those created by the inspired improvised interplay of the great jazz “combos” (like the piano-bass-drum trios lead by Bill Evans, Keith Jarrett, Chick Corea, etc., and the quartets and quintets of Thelonious Monk, Miles Davis, Gerry Mulligan, Ornette Coleman, John Coltrane, Gary Burton, and so many others.), but it’s not my intention for much of this composition to sound like traditional jazz or any other familiar style of music.

Although it’s not based on a blues form or harmonic progression, I hope the second movement, Blue, conveys the kinds of emotional meanings that often are such an important part of blues performances. If the attitude of the first movement morphs from something like “confident energy” to “menacing force,” then the blue mood of the second movement might be thought of as “sorrowful” or “soulful” or, perhaps more accurately, “seeking solace and enlightenment”—but such linguistic translations of musical phenomena, I feel, always must be taken with a grain of salt.

Boppish, the last movement, like much of the music of the tragically self-destructive Charlie Parker and other troubled bebop masters, is intended to be infectiously animated and life affirming. Although little melodic or rhythmic material is shared among the different movements of Boppish Blue Tinged, and each movement is more-or-less complete in itself, the third movement is, nevertheless, intimately connected with the music and emotions of the previous two movements of the concerto. All three movements, in fact, are based on the same fundamental musical foundations and form a three-movement emotional arch.

To suggest some of the “emotional meanings” (a vague choice of words, to be sure) of this concerto, I have fashioned several questions for each movement.

Tinged: Tinged with what? Why does desire often lead to pain? Why do vitality and power sometimes overwhelm our better selves? Is the purpose of certain truth too often intolerance?

Blue: When and why do weeping for joy and weeping to wash away our pain meet?

Boppish: Why boppish? Why not the march or the hip-hop beat? Where (to what spiritual dimension or level of enlightenment) does the Parker train lead us? (March 3, 2010)

Dig 2: From Tunes My Grandmother Heard, for large chamber ensemble (17 players), 2009
Instrumentation, Program Notes

Dig 2: From Tunes My Grandmother Heard, for large chamber ensemble (17 players), 2009
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Instrumentation: One player per part: Fl (doubling Picc), Ob, Bb Cl (doubling B Cl), A Sax (doubling Bari Sax), Bsn, Hrn, C Tpt, Trb, Tuba, Perc, Pn (doubling Cel), Harp, Vln 1, Vln 2, Vla, Vlc, DB, cond

Duration: ca. 25:00 min.

Dig 2: From Tunes My Grandmother Heard (2009)

Dedicated to Susan Richardson Cook Wyllie (1893-1972)
Program Notes

Why, you might ask, would a “serious” composer writing in 2008 choose to base a new composition on American popular music from the period of 1902 to 1918? There are several reasons I've done this. First, this composition, Dig 2, is part of an ongoing project that began with my trio, Collage-1912, and continued with my saxophone quartet, Dig, in which I explore the relationships between twin interests of mine, arranging and composing. Each of these three compositions (which, with equal validity, could be thought of as elaborate and fanciful arrangements) includes borrowed material that is presented in a more-or-less straightforward manner (i.e., arranged for a particular instrumental ensemble) but also transformed, in some cases so radically that connections with the source material are very much obscured. The process of moving from “arrangement” to “composition” (and back) in these works fascinates me.

Another reason I’ve used popular songs and instrumental pieces from the first two decades in Dig 2 is that this music provides a means (or so I believe) to connect and explore in my work two vast bodies of musical literature that I very much admire: music of some early 20th-century avant-garde composers (Debussy, Ives, Ravel, Stravinsky, and others) and the jazz of the first half of the same century, much of which borrowed heavily both from early 20th-century popular music and contemporaneous European art music.

Finally, I simply like much of the American popular music of the first few decades of the 20th century, and developing compositional projects that involve this literature gives me a good excuse to study it, play it, and play with it.

The Movements

Each movement of Dig 2 is based almost entirely on two songs or instrumental pieces (Dig 2 could be described as an "entertainment in four double arrangements"), and each movement is dedicated to one or more individuals or groups. Any printed programs distributed for performances of Dig 2 should include the movement titles; the titles, dates, and composers’ names of the source compositions for each movement; and, the dedications for both the entire composition and each movement.

Movement 1: Afterthoughts and Reminiscences

Based on “Somebody Sole My Gal” (1918) by Leo Wood and “After You’ve Gone” (1918) by (Henry) Creamer & (Turner) Layton

Dedicated to Charles Ives, Creamer & Layton, and Gil Evans

Duration: ca. 4:10

Movement 2: Set to Rag

Based on “Tiger Rag” (1917?) attributed to Nick La Rocca and “Alexander’s Ragtime Band” (1911) by Irving Berlin

Dedicated to Michigan State University’s Musique 21 Ensemble

Duration: ca. 4:40

Movement 3: Melancholia

Based on “Poor Butterfly” by Raymond Hubbell (1916 and “My Melancholy Baby” (1912) by Ernie Burnett

Dedicated to Dr. Andreas Sidiropoulos

Duration: ca. 3:50

Movement 4: Thank You, Mr. Handy

Based on “The St. Louis Blues” by W(illiam) C(hristopher) Handy (1914) and “The Memphis Blues” by W. C. Handy (1909, 1912 & 1913)

Dedicated to Professor Raphael Jimenez

Duration: ca. 6:25

Duration of the Entire Composition: ca. 20 minutes

About Susan Richardson Cook Wyllie

Few people have had a greater influence on my development than my maternal grandmother, Susan Richardson Cook Wyllie (1893-1972). For much of my childhood, Grandma Wyllie lived with my family in Fairfield, Connecticut, near where she, my mother, and I were born and raised. For many years, while she was living with us, I thought of my grandmother as a unique combination of grandma, second mother, teacher, babysitter, playmate, and co-conspirator (when my parents weren’t home, we often broke the “house rules” together).

Grandma Wyllie was one of the sharpest persons I’ve ever met; she was resourceful, energetic, quick-witted, and full of basic wisdom. Although she was forced to leave elementary school at an early age, never to return, she did eventually teach herself how to read (as an adult, reading was something she enjoyed doing), but throughout her life, Grandma Wyllie regretted her lack of formal education and was self-conscious about not being able to write much more than her name.

Both of Grandma Wyllie’s parents came to America from Scotland, and despite being born in Connecticut, my grandmother’s speech would often slip into a distinctly Scottish brogue, especially when she would get excited about something (which was often). Her mother, Margaret Richardson, died in childbirth when my grandmother was only two years old. After that, Grandma Wyllie’s childhood was traumatic. Her coal-miner father, Charles Cook, apparently an alcoholic, was not able to provide for his large family, some 13 children (I don’t think there ever have been any coal mines in Connecticut!), and the family decided that my grandmother would have to leave school after the third grade, to work. By the age of 10, Grandma Wyllie found herself working in a soap factory from six AM to six PM, six days a week, earning literally pennies a day. These early years certainly took their toll on her, but Grandma Wyllie wasn’t a fundamentally dour or bitter person; to the contrary, she often was a fun-loving ball-of-fire, at least she seemed so to me at times.

Grandma Wyllie had no musical training, but she loved to sing, especially when she was young, and she claimed to have had a very good voice and to have performed in church-sponsored operettas when she was a young woman. At dances and parties that she attended when she was a teenager and young adult, surely she would have heard many of the pieces that this composition, Dig 2, is based on.

I think one of the reasons I fell in love with my wife, Pat, is that she got along so well with my grandmother and even shares some of her qualities and mannerisms. In honor of my grandmother, my wife and I named two of our four children after her, Charles Cook Ruggiero and Susan Elizabeth Ruggiero.

Intimate Recollections, for violin, viola, cello, and piano, 2008
Instrumentation, Program Notes

Intimate Recollections, for violin, viola, cello, and piano, 2008
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Instrumentation: Vln, Vla, Vlc, Pn

Duration: ca. 12:00 min.

INTIMATE RECOLLECTIONS was commissioned by the Atlantic Ensemble and is dedicated to its members: Wei Tsun Chang, Violin; Seanad Dunigan Chang, Viola; Kirsten Cassel, Cello; and, Leah Bowes, Piano
* * *
Intimate Recollections (2008)

Program Notes

In 2005, the Atlantic Ensemble’s leader, violinist Wei Tsun Chang, invited me to compose a quartet for the Ensemble. Although in 2005 I had not yet heard the Atlantic Ensemble, I was delighted to accept this commission, knowing that Wei Tsun is an exceptionally talented and accomplished performer who seems to have an ear for my music, based on his response to a work I composed for the Verdehr Trio, Collage-1912. Walter Verdehr, a co-founder of the Verdehr Trio, was Wei Tsun’s violin teacher at Michigan State University.

* * *

Intimate Recollections is a very personal and intensely felt work. The title is meant to be suggestive and somewhat vague. “Recollections” of what? Although the music of Intimate Recollections is quite varied in mood and style, with some passages that must be performed with great emotional intensity and others that are lighter (even playful) in nature, this work is essentially serious and reflective. Parts of Intimate Recollections are meant to have qualities that might be described as nostalgic, sorrowful, and even emotionally wrenched. In experiencing a performance of this composition, I hope the listener will sense that the “intimate recollections” explored in this work (and which, ideally, the listener will partially construct and experience for him- or herself) are renewed and made more vivid through this music. Musical recollections (or hints of Western art music from earlier centuries) are pervasive in Intimate Recollections, but no specific composition is quoted in this quartet—at least not consciously!

Charles Ruggiero September 18, 2008

Variations On and By, for flute, oboe, and piano, 2006
Instrumentation, Program Notes

Variations On and By, for flute, oboe, and piano, 2006
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Instrumentation: Fl, Ob, Pn

Duration: ca. 12:00 min.

Variations On and By - for Flute, Oboe and Piano (2006)
The “Ruggiero bass” is part of a melodic-harmonic formula that was very popular among Italian musicians during the 16th and 17th centuries. The Grove Music Online dictionary lists more than 30 renaissance and early baroque composers who wrote vocal or instrumental pieces on the Ruggiero formula. In the late 1960s, upon reading about the Ruggiero bass, I decided that someday I would compose a set of variations on it—not thinking, of course, that it would be some 27 years before I would begin and complete the project!
The most characteristic form of the Ruggiero bass is an eight-measure diatonic melody in G major, but for Variations On and By, I have used a Mixolydian version of the bass. The Ruggiero-bass theme is not stated literally at any point in this composition; hence, the beginning of the work is labeled “Variation 1.” But anyone familiar with the Ruggiero bass will recognize fragments of it in each of the 12 variations. Those listeners who do not know the theme will (I hope) mentally construct a version of it as they hear a performance of the composition. Variations 1 and 11, both of which are “hockets” (i.e., pieces based on what is sometimes described as a musical hiccupping effect), serve as bookends for the composition. In the final variation, parts of several earlier variations are reprised.
Many of the techniques used in Variations On and By come from medieval and renaissance music (hocket, canon, etc.), but a few of the variations are fashioned primarily by the manipulation of pitch-class sets that have been derived from the Ruggiero bass. I hope, however, that the listener will perceive Variations On and By as a unified and stylistically consistent whole, despite its mix of ancient and modern elements. (July 30, 2006)

Night Songs and Flights of Fancy, for alto saxophone and piano, 2005
Samples, Instrumentation, Program Notes

Night Songs and Flights of Fancy, for alto saxophone and piano, 2005
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Samples:
Excerpt - Ruggiero's NIGHT SONGS AND FLIGHTS OF FANCY, Mvt. 1
From - Faculty Recital
Joseph Lulloff, alto saxophone, Jun Okada, piano
(Used by permission. Unauthorized duplication is not permitted.)

Excerpt - Ruggiero's NIGHT SONGS AND FLIGHTS OF FANCY, Mvt. 2
From - Faculty Recital
Joseph Lulloff, alto saxophone, Jun Okada, piano
(Used by permission. Unauthorized duplication is not permitted.)

Excerpt - Ruggiero's NIGHT SONGS AND FLIGHTS OF FANCY, Mvt. 3
From - Faculty Recital
Joseph Lulloff, alto saxophone, Jun Okada, piano
(Used by permission. Unauthorized duplication is not permitted.)

Excerpt - Ruggiero's NIGHT SONGS AND FLIGHTS OF FANCY, Mvt. 4
From - Faculty Recital
Joseph Lulloff, alto saxophone, Jun Okada, piano
(Used by permission. Unauthorized duplication is not permitted.)

Instrumentation: A Sax, PN

Duration: ca. 20:00 min.

Night Songs and Flights of Fancy - for Alto Saxophone and Piano (2005)
Night Songs and Flights of Fancy was written for Joseph Lulloff and Jun Okada, two immensely talented performers with whom I have had the good fortune to collaborate several times during the past two decades. In the music I’ve written for Joe and Jun, I have tried to exploit and enhance their unique synergy, especially the rhythmic energy and momentum that some of their best performances have.
Night Songs and Flights of Fancy is inspired by four songs and short instrumental pieces from the vast repertoire of American popular music and jazz of the 1930s and ‘40s—music that I’ve been interested in for most of my life and that continues to provide me with much enjoyment, especially when performed by masterful jazz improvisers. While the listener need not recognize hints of the four source works to comprehend and enjoy this composition, for those who are familiar with these mid twentieth-century popular songs and instrumental pieces, Nights Songs and Flights of Fancy may contain enriching associations, connections, and layers of meaning.
Each of the four movements of Night Songs and Flights of Fancy begins with more or less song-like material and is followed by freer and more complex music that develops the opening material but also introduces contrasting ideas, sometimes in ways that may seem fanciful, surprising, or even mildly perplexing.

Fantasy on a Theme by Ravel, for clarinet and piano, 2004-2009
Samples, Instrumentation, Program Notes

Fantasy on a Theme by Ravel, for clarinet and piano, 2004-2009
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Instrumentation: Bb Cl, Pn

Duration: ca. 10:05 min.

Fantasy on a Theme by Ravel - for Clarinet and Piano (2004)

I had admired the music of Maurice Ravel years before I began my composition lessons at the New England Conservatory in the mid 1960s. As a teenager, I remember spending hours listening to a Boston Symphony Orchestra recording of Ravel's Daphnis and Chloe; certainly, that listening experience helped shape my concept of what the power of music could be. But it wasn't until 2002, when I gave a composition seminar in the music of Ravel at Michigan State University, that I developed a deeper understanding of the French master's art.

I had not yet given the Ravel seminar at MSU, when the talented clarinetist, Suzanne Tirk, asked me to write something for clarinet and piano. I agreed to accept Suzanne's invitation, having, at first, no intention to incorporate anything Ravelian into the new piece. But by the time the composition was started, I felt almost compelled to draw upon my studies of Ravel's music in writing this duo for clarinet and piano. I'm not sure why, but I feel that the timbres of the clarinet are particularly well suited to articulate some of Ravel's melodic ideas.

Soon after I had decided to base my composition for clarinet and piano on melodic material by Ravel, I settled upon the main theme from the recapitulation of the first movement of Ravel's string quartet. Although Ravel's theme never appears verbatim, it is the basis for almost everything in my duo. And although I have not tried to "quote" elements of Ravel's style in Fantasy on a Theme by Ravel, much of this composition's harmony, texture, rhythm, etc. is indebted to Ravel's music. Fantasy is, then, offered in homage to the master, but offered with the hope that both the performer and listener will find in it more than just an attempt to mimic a well-known style. (June 2004)

Collage-1912, for clarinet, violin, and piano, 2001 (Michigan State University Press)
Samples, Instrumentation, Program Notes

Collage-1912, for clarinet, violin, and piano, 2001 (Michigan State University Press)
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Samples:
Excerpt - Ruggiero's COLLAGE, Mvts. at 280 and 360
From - COLLAGE, Crystal Records CD947
The Verdehre Trio: Walter Verdehr, violin, Elsa Ludewig-Verdehr, clarinet, Silvia Roederer, piano
(Used by permission. Unauthorized duplication is not permitted.)

Instrumentation: Vln, Bb Cl, Pn

Duration: ca. 9:40 min.

Collage-1912 (2001)

Several times during the 1990s Walter Verdehr, my Michigan State University colleague, invited me to write a piece for the renowned Verdehr Trio, the clarinet-violin-piano trio that he founded with his wife, Elsa Ludewig-Verdehr, in 1972 (just one year, coincidentally, before I joined the MSU faculty). I regret that it took me so long to compose something for the Verdehrs, but the delay wasn't due to lack of interest. I've been a great admirer of Elsa and Walter as solo performers and of their superb trio for many years, and I'm honored that they asked me to contribute to the distinctive repertoire that their talents and hard work have brought to life during the past three decades, but a variety of other exigent projects during the 1990s prevented me from working on a piece for the Verdehr Trio until the fall of 2001.

For years now both Elsa and Walter have been attracted to the paintings of my daughter Maria Fiorenza Ruggiero Sidiropoulos. Not only have the Verdehrs purchased several of Maria's paintings for their home, but they also have used a few of her images on Verdehr Trio posters and as part of their website. Every now and then, when I'd run into Walter in the halls of MSU's School of Music or chat with him after one of the trio's summer performances at MSU's Wharton Center, he would say something like, "About that piece we'd like you to write, . . . wouldn't it be wonderful if you could tie it in with some of Maria's paintings." And at one point Walter suggested that it would be delightful to have a number of Maria's paintings exhibited at the site of the premiere of my composition for the Verdehr Trio.

I liked Walter's idea that I relate my composition in some way to my daughter's work, but I did not want to write a "pictures-at-an-exhibition" type of piece. And I especially did not want to try to convey my impressions of Maria's depiction of some idyllic landscape located in a region of the world I'd never set foot in. After considerable thought I decided to try to develop a musical composition using techniques or procedures analogous to those Maria has been using in some of her recent (2000-2001) paintings.

Collage-1912 isn't based on any particular painting or paintings, nor is it intended to impart my musical impressions of, or responses to, the things and places represented in any of Maria's paintings; rather, this musical composition was created using steps analogous to those my daughter has used to transform some of her smaller still-life paintings into larger, more abstract landscapes. Maria's still-life paintings, like many traditional still-lifes, are representations of more-or-less common household objects—-glasses, dishes, candlesticks, vases, pieces of fruit, etc.—-arranged in a very "artificial" manner. That's to say, arranged not as they would be if someone were preparing for a dinner party, but arranged as a composition of shapes, colors, shadings, etc. Quite often in Maria's still-life paintings compositional motifs take precedence over "reality." For example, in one painting the pattern of a tablecloth is imprinted upon objects that sit on top of the cloth instead of being obscured by them. Although these small still-life paintings are already somewhat abstract, a more marked abstraction takes place in the next phase of the process, where various elements from some of these still-life paintings are used in the development of enlarged companion works.

Maria has produced a series of works in which she has attempted, quite successfully I believe, to transform original but somewhat conventional still-life paintings into bold landscapes that can (should?) be viewed in multiple ways. For example, a large piece might be perceived as an autonomous, rather loose, rhythmic, and intense post-impressionistic landscape and simultaneously seen as a radical permutation of the still-life painting with which it is paired.

How did the creation of Collage-1912 relate to the process outlined above? I started my piece for the Verdehr Trio by fashioning a musical still-life of sorts. I snipped many passages from a dozen compositions (all of which were either composed or published in 1911 or 1912—-hence the title) and rather "artificially" arranged them into a musical "still-life." This part of the process took about two months—-much more time than I had anticipated! In the next step of the compositional process, I modified the musical still-life by rearranging, supplementing, subtracting from, distorting, overlapping, fusing, etc. the snippets to create the final composition.

Every measure of Collage-1912 is based on one or more snippets (including a few fairly substantial excerpts) taken from one composition by each of the following twelve composers: Béla Bartók, Irving Berlin, Claude Debussy, W.C. Handy, Charles Ives, Gustav Mahler, Maurice Ravel, Arnold Schoenberg, James Scott, Richard Strauss, Igor Stravinsky, and Joaquín Turina. A diverse group of snippets, to be sure, but perhaps not as diverse as one might guess from reading any standard college textbook on the history of Western music! The use of existing music to create a new work is, of course, nothing new. Not only were numerous European medieval, renaissance, and baroque pieces constructed with borrowed materials, but many twentieth-century composers, including some of the twelve composers whose music is used in Collage-1912 (particularly Ives and Stravinsky), have quoted and parodied music from various sources extensively in certain compositions.

Collage-1912, which is approximately eleven minutes in duration, consists of two parts that are performed with no pause between them. This work is dedicated to the Verdehr Trio, to my daughter Maria, and to all twelve of the composers whose raw materials I mined for the "still-life" and consequent collage (or "abstract musical landscape") by which, I must admit, I've attempted to depict a significant chunk of the Western music world circa 1912. (November 29, 2001)

Strayhorn, for alto saxophone and piano, 1999-2000 (concert arrangement, published by RGM, Eau Claire, Wisconsin)
Samples, Instrumentation, Program Notes

Strayhorn, for alto saxophone and piano, 1999-2000 (concert arrangement, published by RGM, Eau Claire, Wisconsin)
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Instrumentation: A Sax, Pn

Duration: ca. 14:00 min.

STRAYHORN - A Concert Arrangement of Billy Strayhorn Compositions for Alto Saxophone and Piano (2000)

STRAYHORN was written for my friends Joseph Lulloff and Jun Okadaduring the seven days from December 26, 1999, to New Year's Day, 2000. Although I hadn't planned on spending that week writing music, when Joe asked me (late in November) to arrange "some jazz" for his appearance at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall on January 26, 2000, I just couldn't say no. The sponsors of Joe's recital, the New York Pro Musicis association, had suggested that he include some jazz on his program, and when Joe contacted me I immediately proposed an extended concert arrangement based on several songs and instrumental pieces of Billy Strayhorn. The choice of Strayhorn's music was easy; it was stimulated in part by my interest in Strayhorn's compositions and in part by Joe's admiration for the distinctive alto saxophone playing of Johnny Hodges, one of Strayhorn's colleagues in the Duke Ellington enterprise. (The attentive listener may recognize a brief reference to Strayhorn's musical tribute to Hodges, "Johnny Come Lately," at the very end of the arrangement.)

Although their emotional expressiveness and melodic beauty are quite captivating, it is the harmonic sophistication of Billy Strayhorn's compositions that is most intriguing to me. As José Hosiasson states in The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz, Strayhorn's "ballads . . . are harmonically and structurally among the most sophisticated in jazz." This sophistication is not surprising, considering the excellent early musical training that Strayhorn received, his intellectual curiosity, and his extraordinary gift for composition.

After spending nearly three decades as Duke Ellington's closest musical collaborator, Billy Strayhorn died somewhat in the shadow of jazz's greatest composer and bandleader. During his lifetime, some of Strayhorn's music, like the well-known theme song of Ellington's band, "Take the 'A' Train," was assumed by many to be Duke's work. But recently a number of performers and scholars have begun to better understand the significance of Strayhorn's contributions to Ellington's output and to reappraise Strayhorn's independent work.

This arrangement for alto saxophone and piano of Strayhorn works is intended to pay homage to Billy Strayhorn by helping to bring his music to the recital stage. It's my hope that in this piece two different performance practices (one involving improvisation, the other not) are blended effectively, resulting in a work that can be presented convincingly by musicians who are at ease with fully notated "art music" but not averse to improvisation. This approach seems appropriate, since Strayhorn was rooted in the traditions of both jazz and European "classical" music.

He was my listener, my most dependable appraiser, and as a critic he would be the most clinical, but his background--both classical and modern--was an accessory to his own good taste and understanding, so what came back to me was in perfect balance.

Duke Ellington (from his autobiography, Music Is My Mistress)

STRAYHORN is based on the following compositions (listed in order of their appearance in the arrangement):

Day Dream (Ellington/Strayhorn, 1941)

Rain Check (Strayhorn, 1942)

A Flower Is a Lovesome Thing (Strayhorn, 1941)

Blood Count (Strayhorn, 1967)

Upper Manhattan Medical Group--also known as "U.M.M.G." (Strayhorn, 1956)

Take the "A" Train (Strayhorn, 1941)

Johnny Come Lately (Strayhorn, 1942)
(December, 2000)

Interplay, for soprano saxophone and piano, 1988 (Dorn Publications, Inc.)
Samples, Instrumentation, Program Notes

Interplay, for soprano saxophone and piano, 1988 (Dorn Publications, Inc.)
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Samples:
Excerpt - Ruggiero's INTERPLAY, Mvt. 1, 'Octaves'
From - INTERPLAY, Channel Crossing CD CCS 10497
Joseph Lulloff, soprano saxophone, Philip Hosford, piano
(Used by permission. Unauthorized duplication is not permitted.)

Instrumentation: S Sax, Pn

Duration: ca. 19:00 min.

Interplay - for Soprano Saxophone and Piano (1988)

This composition for soprano saxophone and piano was written during the period of July 1987 through April 1988 and was one of three works commissioned by saxophonists Joseph Lulloff, Allen Rippe, and Cynthia Sikes as part of a 1987-89 National Endowment for the Arts Consortium Commissioning Project sponsored by Tulane University. William Russo and Ralph Shapey, the two other composers who participated in the project, were commissioned to write compositions that feature the alto saxophone.

* * *

Interplay is in three movements: "Octaves," "Night Song," and "Departures." The title "Interplay" refers to the sometimes playful, sometimes combative, interactions that occur between the saxophone and piano parts throughout the composition, but especially in the work's outer movements.

In the first and second movements of Interplay two essentially distinct sets of musical materials are presented; in the third movement these two sets of materials are synthesized and transformed. The use, in the first two movements, of certain stylistic models and materials borrowed from modern jazz is confirmed in the final movement as it departs from its opening style and moves toward a blatantly boppish idiom.

"Octaves" is organized into seven main sections. Passages consisting of spun-out generative lines in octaves (i.e., with perfect octave or multiple-octave doublings between the saxophone and piano parts and between the two hands of the piano part) occur three times over the course of the movement and collectively serve as a source of materials for the movement's other sections.

Both perfect octaves and augmented octaves figure conspicuously in the melodic and harmonic palette of the first movement, and "Octaves" begins and ends with a juxtaposition of these two intervals. In the second and the sixth sections of the movement, perfect octaves are used prominently in the eighteenth-century derived accompaniment figures of the piano part. The classical keyboard style of these two sections serves as a foil to the volatile jazz "comping" that dominates the middle of the movement.

"Night Song" is an atmospheric "after-hours tune" in a harmonic style that is more explicitly tonal than that of "Octaves." Jazz-like pitch and timbre inflections, which for the most part are absent from the first movement, are introduced in "Night Song" and then are used more prominently in "Departures," the final movement of the work.

The form of "Departures" is the result of a process in which tempos, textures, repetitive figurations, harmonic progressions, etc. are established and then negated in ways so as to set up arrival points at new musical territories. "Departures" might be thought of as a voyage that ultimately takes the listener back to the two primary musical environments out of which were generated the materials of the first two movements: namely, the milieu of modern jazz (especially bop and bop-related jazz), and that of the neoclassic music of Igor Stravinsky. (June 6, 1989)

Dances and Other Movements, for violin, alto saxophone, and piano, 1983, rev. 1984 (Dorn Publications, Inc.)
Samples, Instrumentation, Program Notes

Dances and Other Movements, for violin, alto saxophone, and piano, 1983, rev. 1984 (Dorn Publications, Inc.)
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Samples:
Excerpt - Ruggiero's DANCES AND OTHER MOVEMENTS, Mvt. 9, 'Finale'
From - Faculty Recital
I-Fu Wang, violin, James Forger, alto saxophone, Deborah Moriarty, piano
(Used by permission. Unauthorized duplication is not permitted.)

Instrumentation: Vln, A Sax, Pn

Duration: ca. 25:00 min.

Dances and Other Movements - for Violin, Alto Saxophone, and Piano (1983)

Dances . . . is a suite of nine short movements three of which are solos: "Soliloquy" (for saxophone), "Interlude" (for piano), and "Violin Tune" (featuring, of course, violin). In several of the movements, especially in the dances, simple ostinatos and more-or-less familiar meters and rhythms are employed. In the last movement, "Finale," motives, themes, and other elements of the first eight movements are juxtaposed and further developed.

Although Dances and Other Movements is partially based on a 12-tone set, the style of this composition is indebted primarily to such diverse sources as the music of Bartok and Stravinsky, Latin-American popular music, traditional and modern jazz, and Eastern-European folk music.

The 12-tone set of Dances . . . is derived from part of the melody of a well-known jazz "standard"; this borrowing is a hidden tribute to one of the leading creative forces of modern jazz.

In Dances and Other Movements I have explored and tried to integrate contrasting rhythmic styles. Extensive portions of this composition are notated in "traditional" meters . . . , and the beat in these passages is often very easily distinguishable. In several movements, however, the beat is sometimes obscured by a variety of non-traditional rhythmic techniques and notational devices. It is hoped that the listener will hear transformations or "modulations" from one rhythmic style to another in certain passages; the most extended example of rhythmic transformation in this work can be heard in "Finale."

The basic 12-tone set of Dances and Other Movements is rotated (i.e., systematically reordered) and otherwise used rather freely throughout the composition. Less primitive than the 12-tone structure of this work is its use of registral and timbral constants as prime referential elements. Pitch classes tend to be associated with only one or two specific octave locations in each of the three instruments. It is hoped that the listener will perceive and, without much special effort, aurally remember the registral locations of pitch classes and that this will enhance the listener's understanding and enjoyment of the work. (1983)

Hocket Variations, for piano and prepared piano, 1978
Samples, Instrumentation, Program Notes

Hocket Variations, for piano and prepared piano, 1978
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Instrumentation: Pn, Prepared Pn

Duration: ca. 30:00 min.

Hocket Variations - for Piano and Prepared Piano (1978)

"Hocket Variations for Two Pianos" was commissioned by the Michigan Music Teachers Association and was composed during August and September, 1978.

Although no theme is stated at any point in the composition, certain rhythmic, melodic, harmonic, textural, and formal elements are introduced, repeated, and varied throughout. Some of the more important of these elements are: hocket (a compositional device perfected in the middle ages consisting of the rapid alternation of two or more voices or instruments with single notes or groups of notes) and pointillism (a twentieth-century manner of composition in which single notes or small groups of notes are separated or isolated by musical space, timbre, dynamics, rests, etc.)—-the two of which should be regarded as closely related in this composition; the opening chords of Variation 1 (which, incidentally, is only one measure in duration); the long series of pitches which is first stated in Variation 2; repeated notes and chords played accelerando (first found at the end of Variation 2) . . . ; the melodic and harmonic material first stated in Variation 3; the pitch class B-natural and the E major triad; and, trills and grace notes (first stated in Variation 6). It is hoped that even on first hearing a careful listener will recognize most of these elements much of the time when they are present in the work. As a successful performance of this composition unfolds, a creative and sensitive listener should intuitively or subconsciously construct an abstract "theme" (i.e., collection of compositional constants). So this work is, in a sense, a theme and variations.

Most of the variations are for two pianos, Piano I being "prepared" (i.e., physically modified, in this case by placing plastic screw anchors between the wires of all of the double and triple strings) to help clarify the hocket passages and provide timbral richness. Of the 20 variations three (5, 10, and 16) are for one piano. These solo variations not only provide some timbral and textural contrast, but also serve to introduce and recapitulate materials for two groups of variations.

In homage to the Goldberg Variations Variations 11, 14, and part of 15 of "Hocket Variations" are canons. However, the canons in Variations 11 and 15 are unmetered, and all three canons are as much timbral-textural-rhythmic "effects" as examples of strict counterpoint. (October, 1978)

Now Welcome, Somer, with Thy Sunne Softe, for chorus and percussion, 1978
Samples, Instrumentation, Program Notes

Now Welcome, Somer, with Thy Sunne Softe, for chorus and percussion, 1978
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Instrumentation: Chorus consisting of S (I-IV, 14 singers), A (I-II, 9 singers), T (4 to 6 singers), B (6 to 10 singers), Perc (8 Chrotale parts that may be performed by percussionists or non-singing members of the chorus), Pn (2 players), cond
Duration: ca. 10:00 min.

Now Welcome, Somer, With Thy Sunne Softe - for Chorus, 8 Crotales, and Piano (1979)

Now Welcome, Somer, With Thy Sunne Soft is a composition for chorus, percussion, and piano, based on a roundel by Geoffrey Chaucer. "Roundel" is a Middle English word which identifies the poetic form often called "rondeau," one of the formes fixes.

The composition is constructed in two large sections. In both of these sections, the first 17 members of the harmonic series on G unfold.

The work is based on two medieval musical ideas: "music of the spheres" and isorhythm. The former, a philosophical concept developed by ancient Greek philosophers and promulgated by medieval musical authorities, links musical harmony, as reflected in the proper tuning of musical intervals, with the harmony of the universe (i.e., the proper organization and workings of the planets, stars, days, seasons, etc.). The latter, isorhythm, is a compositional technique which was used during Chaucer's lifetime. In isorhythmic structure, a repeating rhythmic pattern, the talea, is applied to a repeating pitch pattern, the color. Generally, the talea is shorter than the color.

Chaucer's roundel welcomes the return of summer and reminds us of the eternal rotation of the seasons. Early in my creative process, the poem stimulated thoughts that led to the establishment of the following goal: to express musically the unity in such seeming opposities as timelessness and flowing time, permanence and flux, and eternity and temporality. This aesthetic goal accounts for the treatment of materials in the composition. Textural, dynamic, and rhythmic changes throughout create constantly fluctuating tension levels, but tonally, the composition is completely static.

The text of Chaucer's poem provides the main timbral resources of this work. Eleven vowels and 21 consonants have been isolated from the roundel and arranged into two ordered sets; these sets, comparable to the talea and color respectively, are linked in a manner analogous to isorhythm. Furthermore, the movement of the soprano and alto melodic lines is governed by a contour set. This set limits the directions in which a melodic line may move from one vowel to the next. For example, in the highest soprano part, the pitch of the vowel "e" always must be approached from below.

The length of the composition is determined by the isorhythmic plan. After 21 statements of the vowel set, the work ends.

This composition is dedicated to H. Owen Reed. (1979)

Songs from Emily Dickinson, for soprano and chamber ensemble, 1974
Samples, Instrumentation, Program Notes

Songs from Emily Dickinson, for soprano and chamber ensemble, 1974
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Instrumentation: Voice (sop), Pn, Fl (doubling Picc, Bass Fl, & Melodica), Perc, Hpsd, 2 Vln, Vla, Vc, DB (doubling bowed Vibraphone), cond

Duration: ca. 21:00 min.

Compositions and Arrangements