DRIFTING, Volume 3 of the New Lullaby Project
Aaron Larget-Caplan, Guitar

The requirements were simple: a beautiful 3-5minute guitar solo in the genre of a lullaby… a malleable definition. So simple and yet after 65 premieres by over 55 composers in nine countries, no two lullabies sound the same.

The New Lullaby Project began in 2007, and the 15 guitar solos featured on this album were written between 2010 and 2020. In the debut album New Lullaby (2010) the compositions can be divided into warm and safe versus dark and foreboding. Nights Transfigured (2020) highlights a wealth of compositional languages and extended techniques, while the lullabies are tinged with melancholy.

In Drifting, some plead to or reflect humanity, while others testify to a memory and affirmation of a time passed by. There are lullabies born from an improvisation (Rivchun), patience and hope in love (Turner), a nod to Francisco Tarrega (Pence) and sleeping beauty (Drozd). One was written while I gave a lecture (McDonald), and others inspired by a nodding head (Green) and a dancing baby (Veloso). Some tell us to let the day be (Scharf), others acknowledge the troubles that await outside of our dream world (Schreiner), and then we hear a prayer and plea (Odriozola/Warren) and touches of love and friendship (Trester/Wiese). All the time a gorgeous 12-tone lullaby (Mashak) sits quietly to be discovered. The compositional language leans tonal and the tuning remains mostly standard, but don’t worry, harmonics still abound.

May voices be hushed, and peace be found.
– Aaron Larget-Caplan
February 2021


COMPOSITION NOTES & COMPOSER BIOGRAPHIES

THE SLEEPING GUITAR (2015) by Tim Pence
The Sleeping Guitar was written one day in the zone of the mind one finds quietly waiting in the corner. Into that corner you go over and find it waiting – it had always been there, patient, calm, content in the security that it knew about itself before you did and that when you found it you would know what to do with it. And then the light cracks in through the slice of a barely opened doorway and breaches the surface of what had always been up to that point a vast, gross, darkness. Purpose and fulfillment meet in exigency with time, space, and psyche. Losers, detractors, disruptors, all vanish, unable to maintain substance when cast in revealing truth, they cannot interfere or block that goodness which is now known and growing.
• Premiered at the Bolshaya Akademicheskaya in Moscow, Russia on May 17, 2016.
Tim Pence (1975-) is a composer and multi-instrumentalist who was active in the greater Boston area performing, writing, and teaching until 2015 when he moved to a small town (pop. 350) in Downeast Maine where he continues his work with a fresh perspective. Tim Pence studied classical guitar and composition at the New England Conservatory of Music and during this time won 1st prize in the 1996 New England Classical Guitar Society Competition.

COUNTING BACKWARDS (2020) by Anthony R. Green
When children (young and old) have difficulty falling asleep, one well-known suggestion is to start from a rather large number and count backwards. Doing this, I am guessing, is supposed to exhaust certain aspects of mental capacity to a point where one falls asleep with facility. What usually happens during this process are waves of cognition; the brain fighting to accomplish a task while simultaneously wanting to shut down and relax for the night. In this short lullaby Counting Backwards, this idea is at the fore. The melody, texture, and ostinato all undergo wave-like transformations. Eventually everything breaks down as the mind, body, and soul succumb to much needed sleep.
• Premiered online for the Boston New Music Festival on November 10, 2020.
• Score published in Hushed, volume two of the New Lullaby Project by the American Composers Alliance.
The practice of Anthony R. Green (1984-) includes musical and visual creations, interpretations of original, contemporary, and repertoire works, collaborations, educational outreach, and more. Behind his artistic endeavors are the ideals of equality and freedom. Green’s various projects have been presented in 25+ countries, including at the Israel Conservatory of Music, Cité de la musique et de la danse, Jordan Hall, and Symphony Hall. Green also co-founded Castle of our Skins: celebrating Black Artistry through Music. www.anthonyrgreen.com

CANCIÓN DE NIÑEZ (2014, rev. 2020) by Frank E. Warren
As Aaron and I became better acquainted, I learned he was blessed to balance his music with a wonderful family life-style, in a beautiful home. When he asked if I'd write a composition for his popular "New Lullaby Project," I was delighted.
It seemed appropriate this music be traditional in form, reflecting the sturdy structure of his family, and home. The result, a five-minute work in Rondo form. It has a simple melody with repeated accompaniment and obligatory contrasting sections. I like to think the theme is what many children might enjoy as they fall asleep, while the contrasting sections remind, life is not so simple!
My hope, even if you're not young, is within the simpleness of Canción de niñez, you'll find peace, teaching that lifestyle to your own children.
• Premiered at Middlesex Community College in Burlington, MA on March 27, 2015.
Frank E. Warren (1950-) is an award-winning composer whose works stem from classical tradition and jazz. Collaborating with poets, visual artists and modern dance companies, his work has been performed on six continents. Warren has received numerous awards for his work, and residence with Ragdale Foundation. As guest composer, he’s worked with ensembles and on college campuses throughout the U.S. and Canada, and has spoken at public libraries. www.few-music.com

LULLABY FOR CHILDREN OF THE NEW WORLD (2011) by Ricardo Odriozola
Lullaby for children of the new world represents the provision of nurturing rest to new generations of human beings who will hopefully steer our sorry world in a more compassionate and harmonious direction.
• Premiered at the Aliso Valejo Library in Aliso Viejo, CA on July 27, 2014.
Ricardo Odriozola (1965-) studied violin in Bilbao and Madrid. After a year in Arlington MA, he took a bachelor degree in performance from the Eastman School of Music. In 1987 he moved to Bergen (Norway) and began teaching at the Grieg Academy, where he remains to this day. He has written more than 40 works (chamber music, solo, songs and orchestral music) and arranged music by other composers. Several of his works appear on CD. In January 2015 he released his first CD dedicated exclusively to his music: “Views from my Horse”. Ricardo Odriozola’s music is primarily informed by his wide experience as a performer. He strives to produce scores that are performer-friendly and music that can communicate directly with the listener without the aid of intellectual filters. ricardoodriozola.bandcamp.com • www.amethyst-records.com

DRIFTING (2018) by Stefanie Lubkowski
Drifting is a work that does not follow traditional song forms associated with lullabies. Rather, it is meant to evoke and accompany the last stages of falling asleep. Drifting captures the feelings of deep relaxation and free-floating consciousness experienced in the final moments of lucidity before sleep. In this state, the imagination runs free and it is then that a gentle lullaby can have the most influence on a restorative sleep and invigorating dreams. Several melodic fragments appear in variations thought the piece, interspersed with complex chords and ethereal harmonics, eventually settling into waves of oscillating thirds and fourths that bring the piece to a state of rest.
• Premiered online for the New Music Gathering Portland, OR on June 23, 2020.
• Score published in Hushed, volume two of the New Lullaby Project by the American Composers Alliance.
Stefanie Lubkowski’s (1974-) is interested in creating sound worlds guided by harmony and punctuated by melody. Stefanie has written for orchestra, voice, various chamber ensembles, and electronic media. She has been commissioned by New Gallery Concert Series, The Fourth Wall Ensemble, Transient Canvas, NakedEye Ensemble, Departure Duo, Peridot Duo, soprano Elisabeth Halliday-Quan, and Strange Trace opera company. She currently teaches composition and theory at Concord Academy. www.stefanielubkowski.com

WHITE POTATOES (2013) by Charles Turner
White Potatoes began as the opening number of a one-act musical that I wrote in 2012. It is a ‘composed folk song’ along the lines of ‘I Wonder as I Wander’ and ‘Black Is the Color of My True Love’s Hair.’ The singer is a woman who is waiting for her husband to return from the Civil War. When I found out about Aaron’s New Lullaby Project, White Potatoes came to mind right away, and I arranged it for solo guitar.
• Premiered on Greater Boston House Concerts, Boston, MA on January 11, 2013.
• Score published in Hushed, volume two of the New Lullaby Project by the American Composers Alliance.
Charles Turner (1951-) began composing while he was in high school in rural Iowa. He studied composition with Richard Hervig, William Hibbard, Peter Tod Lewis, Donald Martin Jenni, Robert Stern and Charles Fussell. He studied voice with Albert Gammon and Kathleen Spillane. Charles has composed operas, vocal music, handbell music, toy piano music, solo and chamber music, and most recently a symphony and a violin concerto. He has written a few other solo guitar works: Solitudes (for beginners), Sweet Gazelle for guitar and shakuhachi, Lullaby for Lahore, and Raven Dreams of Flight. www.hand2ear.net.

LULUBYE (2011) by Jacob Mashak
Lulubye was written in response to Aaron wondering if a 12-tone lullaby were possible. I took some inspiration from Alban Berg (maybe the “prettiest” of the Second Viennese School), and repurposed a bit of juvenilia, and came up with this within a few days. It includes a reference to Bach (through Berg), with a quote of the chorale "Es ist genug" (as Berg had done in his Violin Concerto). The title comes from Berg’s opera “Lulu” (though not musically references) and from the fact that “lu” on its own could be pronounced as “loo” or “luh”. Thus, both “lulu-bye” or “lullaby” are valid interpretations of the title.
• Premiered at the University of Vermont Burlington on September 29, 2011.
• Score published in Hushed, volume two of the New Lullaby Project by the American Composers Alliance.
Jacob Mashak (1983-) is a Pacific Northwest based composer, conductor and variable instrumentalist. Among other distinctions, he is recognized for having written the longest non-repetitive piano piece on record, the 11-hour long Beatus Vir for two pianos, premiered at Boston University in 2008. Finding the most beautiful things in the world are the result of random processes, their works most often use various machinations of indeterminacy to attempt to achieve the splendor, not present after human intervention but only discoverable in the natural world. Other notable works include Vita Nuova for one-mallet marimba, written for percussionist Jane Boxall, and Rest, Madrid for solo guitar, written for Aaron Larget-Caplan. www.jacobmashak.com

SEEKETH NOT ITS OWN (2016) by Ian Wiese
I had been wanting to write for solo guitar since my time in undergraduate. Aaron’s New Lullaby Project seemed like a great fit, especially given his love of performing new works. Best of all, through our music fraternity Mu Phi Epsilon connection, we became close friends. As a result, I thought it fitting to title this lullaby after one of the key fraternity phrases, "Seeketh Not Its Own," for that bond of friendship that formed between us. While quiet and deep, friendship remains constant throughout this piece, never fading despite the darkness.
• Premiered at the Institute for Contemporary Art Boston (ICA) on February 25, 2017.
The Boston Musical Intelligencer described Ian Wiese’s (1994-) music as a ”captivating mix of busy and sparse”. His works have been heard at The Walt Disney World Resort, and Boston Jordan’s Hall. He recently won the Nightingale Ensemble Young Composers’ Commissioning Project and the Mu Phi Epsilon 2019 Original Composition Competition, among many others. He lives in Quincy, MA along the Atlantic Ocean. www.ianwiese.com

LULLABY FOR LETTING THE DAY BE WHAT IT IS (2013) by Scott Scharf
After I was asked by Aaron Larget-Caplan to compose a piece for his New Lullaby Project, I remembered back to a small, see-through music box I had as a child. I was fascinated with the moving gears and continuously looping music after winding it up. My lullaby was written with the intention of mimicking this seemingly endless, yet calming, salve.
• Premiered at the Boston Conservatory at Berklee on February 7, 2014.
Described as "quietly obsessive," Scott Scharf's (1979-) most recent work is quasi-static music focusing on color patterns of varied repetitions. Much of his work stems from his interest in other mediums of art, particularly painting, poetry and mixed media. The influence of visual art has led him to focus on using timbre and texture as structure independent of form.

UPWARD, Op. 470 (2011) by John McDonald
My second offering for Aaron Larget-Caplan’s transfiguring musical naptime series, I sketched this lullaby during one of my composition seminars at Tufts, inspired by the proceedings of Aaron’s writing-for-guitar guest presentation given that February Monday evening. After the class, by composing what I’d sketched on the classroom dry-erase board, I got myself a superb coaching from Aaron that quickly clarified how the piece could go. To open a preliminary space encouraging restful sleep, each hypnotic phrase of the piece ascends to harmonics; they all go upward. The phrase-ends themselves follow a syllabic verse form/rhyme scheme of 1, 2, or 3 harmonics, with a central phrase of 5 harmonics. The score is inscribed: “to Aaron Larget-Caplan; the rocking continues.”
• Premiered at the New School of Music, Cambridge, MA on December 10, 2011.
• Score published in Hushed, volume two of the New Lullaby Project by the American Composers Alliance.
Recently described as “the New England master of the short piece,” John McDonald (1959-) is a composer who tries to play the piano and a pianist who tries to compose. He is Professor of Music and Director of Graduate Music Studies at Tufts University. His output concentrates on vocal, chamber, and solo instrumental works, and includes interdisciplinary experiments. Though he has multiple chamber works for guitar, his only other guitar solo is ‘You Are Alone To Sleep’. www.johndmcdonaldmusic.com

DREAMS (2015) by Boris Rivchun
Dreams began as an improvisation, though since this is my first piece for guitar and my instrument is the piano, I had to adjust my thinking. I sought a melodic line and various harmonies that would be characteristic of guitar technique, and convey my close and favorite intonations, reminiscent of Rachmaninoff and Scriabin. I think of a lullaby as more than a music genre...in my opinion, all the most beautiful things in a person's life are connected with childhood, and therefore with a lullaby. It is titled ‘dreams’ because I see the piece as a form of memory and sometimes these memories occur in a dream.
• Premiered at Yelagin Palace, Saint Petersburg, Russia on May 18, 2016.
Boris Rivchun (1947-) was born in Moscow, Russia to a family of musicians. A pianist and composer who works in various genres, he’s written music chamber ensembles, choir, ballet, jazz ensembles, and music for theater. He is a graduate from Moscow State Conservatory named after P.I. Tchaikovsky.

LITTLE DANCER (2010) by Michael J. Veloso
Little Dancer was composed for my first son Julian; I started the piece while he was in the womb, and finished it just before his birth. "Little Dancer" was one of our nicknames for him after seeing him wiggle and dance during his first ultrasound. Many lullabies offer a startling juxtaposition of grim and bleak imagery against placid, gentle music, and I wanted to keep that tension even in a wordless piece; it begins gently and gracefully before giving way to more turbulent, troubled music, eventually returning to crystalline calm.
• Premiered at First Parish Cohasset in Cohasset, MA on May 15, 2011.
Michael J. Veloso's (1977-) music education began with piano lessons at age 6, which eventually blossomed into composition while at Williams College, where he primarily studied with David Kechley. Since getting his Master's from NEC as a student of Michael Gandolfi, his most notable accomplishment is likely having composed interactive and generative music for the video game Fantasia: Music Evolved. Most recently, his setting of Jane Kenyon's poem cycle Having It Out With Melancholy, made in collaboration with Boston-based avant-rock band Jaggery, is available at jaggery.bandcamp.com/album/having-it-out-with-melancholy

DREAMCATCHER (2011) by Francine Trester
Dreamcatcher is dedicated to my husband Charles Carrano. It was written shortly after the birth of our daughter. It's a tribute and something I imagined being played as our infant daughter fell asleep.
• Premiered at the New School of Music on December 10, 2011.
Francine Trester (1969-) is Professor of Composition at Berklee College of Music. Francine has written several works for Aaron Larget-Caplan including three lullabies, a song cycle and set of duets. Her works have been performed at Bruno Walter Auditorium at Lincoln Center, the Louvre, and Faneuil Hall. Trester’s "A Walk in Her Shoes" commemorates the centennial of the 19th Amendment and will be premiered by Boston Landmarks Orchestra in 2021. www.francinetrester.com

LE BELLE ADDORMENTATE (2010) by Gerard Drozd
• Premiered at Metro Galleries for the CSU Bakersfield Guitar Arts Series, Bakersfield, CA on February 25, 2011.
Gerard Drozd (1955-) born in Gliwice, Poland – is a versatile composer, arranger, guitarist, lecturer and teacher. As a composer has written more than 250 compositions for one or more guitars, piano, voice, etc... Among his works are four Concertos, Concerto “Carpe Diem” for guitar and string quartet, String quartets, 24 Preludes, 24 Preludes and Fugues for guitar, and much more. His music has been played by well-known artists in countries around the world. The composer refers to his harmonic language as a “Kaleidoscopic”. Music critics say that he has an attractive, intelligent, interesting and very personal musical language.

A LULLABY IN RESTLESS TIMES (2011, rev. 2020) by Martin Max Schreiner
A Lullaby in Restless Times was written to convey a story of unrest and a yearning for peace and stability. I devised a simple lullaby tune and strategically infused it with chromatic stresses to create a sense of being pulled away from a tonal center. Each of the three varied repetitions of the lullaby tune conveys a struggle to return to a stable tonal center. The four-bar introduction, drifts away from establishing the key of C and the tune begins in B minor. There is continuous struggle in the music to lull the tune back to C as restless chromatic challenges are encountered. At the end of the second repetition of the tune, a serene dream-like moment occurs in the sounding of guitar string harmonics—as if restful peace is found. However, it is interrupted until a firm resolution in C is achieved in the final bars. So, it is a story with a happy ending. Although, a lingering incongruence between C major and C minor suggests a lasting impact of the unrest.

• Premiered at the New School of Music, Cambridge, MA on December 10, 2011.
• Score published in Hushed, volume two of the New Lullaby Project by the American Composers Alliance.

Martin Max Schreiner (1950-) began gigging as a clarinetist and saxophonist at age 16 with local jazz groups and small combos. After serving as a bandsman/clarinetist in the U. S. Army 1970-72, he studied music at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. He later did graduate studies in composition at the New England Conservatory. As a composer, he has broad-ranging interests in music across genres and cultures. Martin’s collaborations with guitarist Aaron Larget-Caplan also includes his Two Japanese Idylls included on Aaron’s album The Legend of Hagoromo, Stone Records 8056, released 2015. www.mmschreiner.instantencore.com