Michael Bies
pianist, composer, educator

bio          compositions          performance          lessons          teaching philosophy


Compositions
***If you are interested in performing my works or purchasing scores please don't hesitate to contact me.***



NEW Songs for hotoke (audio)
Performed by David L'Hommedieu, baritone and Sara Parkinson, piano

. . . in summer . . . in winter


Works in progress:
Vignettes for Bass and Bassoon
Six Songs
text by William Carlos Williams set for baritone voice and piano

List of Works

Selected Compositions - audio

Vocal Music

  Songs for Hotoke (2009)
  for Baritone and piano - 9'
  set in Japanese, text from 12 haiku
  premiered at The First Baptist Church, Boulder, CO, April, 2009.
  David L'Hommedieu - soloist

  Six Songs, text by William Carlos Williams
  The Red Wheelbarrow (2009) - 55"
  This is Just to Say (2009) - 40"
  Nantucket (2009) - 55"
  The Term (2009) - 55"

  To Loveliness (2006)
  Five Songs of Edgar Allen Poe
  for Baritone and piano - 10'
  texts by Edgar Allen Poe
  premiered at SUNY Fredonia, March 2006.
  David L'Hommedieu - soloist

  The Labour (Sub Umbra) (2005)
  for Baritone, fl, cl, hn, tbn, vl, vc - 10'
  text from Victor Hugo's Toilers of the Sea
  premiered at the Brevard Music Festival by ITCH ensemble
  Brevard, NC, July, 2005. David L'Hommedieu - soloist

  Silence - A Fable (2000)
  for tenor and piano - 2'
  text by Edgar Allen Poe
  premiered at SUNY Fredonia, October, 2000.
  Joseph Bellino - soloist


Instrumental Chamber Music

  Blue Ridge (2009)
  for piano trio - 6' 30"
  unperformed

  Sonata (2008)
  for viola and piano - 10'
  premiered by members of the Atlantic Piano Quintet.
  Lighthouse Center for the Arts, Tequesta, FL, April 2008

  Variations for Clarinet and String Quartet (2004, rev. 2006)
  for solo cl, string quartet - 9'
  premiered by James East, clarinet and the Fredonia Faculty String Quartet
  Diers Recital Hall, SUNY Fredonia, April 2004.

  Two Pieces for Violin and Viola (2006)
  for vn and va - 7' 30"
  premiered by Sarah Abend-Fritz, violin and Brian Walnicki, viola
  Rosch Recital Hall, SUNY Fredonia, March 2006

  Variations on and around Eb (2005)
  for tbn and perc. - 5'
  premiered by Sam Newsome, trombone and Matthew Wilson, percussion.
  Rosch Recital Hall, SUNY Fredonia, October, 2005.

  Bachian Contrasts (2004)
  for alto sax, va, pn, timp. - 9'
  premiered Diers Recital Hall, SUNY Fredonia, November, 2004


Orchestral Music

  Dichotomy (2005)
  2, 2, 2, 2,    4, 2, 2, 1,    perc., strings - 5'
  readings at the Brevard Music Festival and SUNY Fredonia, 2005


Solo Music

  Chimera - for alto saxophone (2009)
   7' unperformed

  Conversation - for solo violin (2004)
  solo violin - 2'
  unperformed

  FiveSix for piano (2002)
  solo piano - 3'
  premiered by Michael Bies, Diers Recital Hall, SUNY Fredonia, April 2002

Percussion Ensemble

  A Romp Through the Wood (2005)
  marimba duet for two marimbas - 7' 30"
  premiered by Brian Frazier and Matthew Wilson.
  Rosch Recital Hall, SUNY Fredonia, November, 2005

     I have written music for solo instruments, mixed chamber ensembles, orchestra and vocal chamber music. Below you can hear some of my pieces and see a list of relevant compositions to the left.

To Loveliness is a set of 5 songs based on poems of Edgar Allen Poe. The texts share a theme of love with different takes on it. The first four songs are linked by similar harmonic practices adding seconds and ninths to the tonal, triadic chords as well as structurally important chords spanning a large registral range that highlight important parts of the texts. The fourth song then takes a harmonic turn as the triadic structures break away and intervallic simultaneities carry the set from that point through the final song. Below are the first two songs.

To Loveliness - I To __ __ To Loveliness - II To __


A Romp Through the Wood is a set of three short pieces written for two marimbas. The two outer pieces or movements are fantasias with a similar rhythmic structure based on two groups of three eighth notes and a group of two eighth notes in various order. The second piece offers rhythmic contrast to the set and utilizes the mallett technique of "dead stroking" in large sections of the short composition hence the name "Deadwood". Below you can hear this middle piece and the third and final piece of the set

Deadwood Fantasia II


FiveSix for Piano is a short solo piano piece based upon an ostinato pattern consisting of 11 eighth notes that is broken into two units of five eighth notes and six eighth notes respectively.


FiveSix for Piano



Two Pieces for Violin and Viola was written in 2006. The titles of the individual pieces refer to the steady rhythmic action of the two instruments and in the case of the second piece, the title also references the well-defined yet non-standard formal aspects.

I - In the Pocket II - In the Pocket and Outside the Box


Variations for Clarinet and String Quartet, written in 2004, consists of eight variations on the "theme". In the formal design, the piece breaks down into three sections each consisting of three variations with certain characteristics. The theme and the first two variations are explicitly linked by the motive first heard in the clarinet. Variations III-V are linked by use of glissandi technique in the strings. Variations VI and VII utilize a more contrapuntal approach while the final variation serves to move the piece to its conclusion by way of a smaller durational unit of the sixteenth note and the return of the original motive at the final cadence.


Variations for Clarinet and String Quartet





Serving Wellington, Palm Beach Gardens
and Boca Raton
phone: (561) 333-0644
email: michaelbies@yahoo.com

bio          compositions          performance          lessons          teaching philosophy