Parts for Scores are available upon request at purchase.
Restless Nation String Quartet
The quartet Restless Nation was originally conceived as a musical evocation of a year when the composer and his wife took their two children on a home-schooling expedition. Each movement refl ects different aspects of the adventure from the children’s perspective: the open road, the sounds of insects and night animals, rambunctious and refl ective moments, wilderness, and the journey home. Now, in this pandemic moment, the restless energy resonates with a sense of wanting to move in confl icting directions: inward toward the surety of solitude, and outward with the persistent hope to connect in an irreconcilable, endlessly fascinating world. The altered tuning of the fi rst violin, borrowed from Arkansas fi ddlers, is audible in the final (sixth) movement, driven by a fiddle tune called “The Hangman’s Reel.” Restless Nation was commissioned and premiered by the Cassatt Quartet at Symphony Space in New York City.
©2021 (revision) by Animal Stone Productions
Breathing Tunes (1 & 2)
For 4 Accordions
Commissioned in 2022 by the Bachtopus Ensemble.
Two Movements: Breathing Tune 1, Breathing Tune 2
Photo: Andy Teirstein with accordion, still from How They Broke Away film
©2022 by Animal Stone Productions
Mamie Till Reads the FBI Report
Aria for voice and piano
Commissioned in 2022 by Spectrum Dance Theater for choreographer Donald Byrd’s new dance, Grief.
Text - the transcript of the FBI report of the Emmett Till murder in 1955.
Image: Josephine Howell and dancers, from video by Spectrum Dance Theatre.
©2022 by Animal Stone Productions
Secrets of the North (for String Quartet & Nyckelharpa)
Secrets of the North is inspired by one of the other-worldly short stories of Isak Dinesen (née Karen Blixen), The Sailor Boy’s Tale. The Suite version is composed for nyckelharpa and string quartet. The larger piece is composed for narrator, string quartet and three folk instruments: Swedish nyckelharpa, Sami mouthbow, and concertina.
I am drawn to the inspiration of Scandinavian roots music, with the distinctive sound of the nyckelharpa (key fiddle). Dinesen's The Sailor Boy's Tale brings us into the realm of Scandinavia's indigenous Sami people, where an old woman turns into a hawk. The music, like the story, strives to achieve a sense of what is ethereal, magical, and yet wild and raw—elements that are inherent in Scandinavian folk music.
For me, the folk influence in both these pieces is about what is earthy, anonymous, and dips into a collective imagination developed by a culture over time.
©2018 by Animal Stone Productions
Azazme Songs
For String Quartet, Oud, and Lap Dulcimer
The suite of tunes Azazme Songs was composed after a four-day trek with the Walidi family of the Azazme Bedouins across the Aravah desert, close to the Israel/Egypt border. The caravan was organized by Yair Dalal and the Walidis. At each meal, ouds and violins were taken down from the camels and played. The songs are known as “Hjennies,” old tunes the camel drivers sing to themselves on their journeys across the Aravah. The gently repeating themes are steeped in the maqamat Rast and Bayati. The Lap Dulcimer is used here as a sound evokedby the Bedouin Sumsumia, a strummed psaltry-like instrument.
Photo: Yair Dalal with The Walidi and other Azazme Bedouin musicians. Photo by the composer.
©2019 by Animal Stone Productions
Duo Kopanitza
For Violin and Viola
The music draws on the asymmetrical rhythms of some Balkan musical styles.
Premiered at Carnegie Hall by Yuri Vodovoz (Vn) and Andy Teirstein (Vla) 2005.
Photo by composer.
©2005 by Animal Stone Productions
How They Broke Away
For Soprano, Mezzo Soprano, Tenor and Baritone
With Accordion, Banjo, Flute, Oboe, Clarinet, Marimba, Percussion, Violin, Viola and Cello.
Text by Carl Sandburg, from The Rootabaga Stories, for a short film made in the early months of the COVID pandemic. The piece is an absurdist look at Americana, particularly the Midwest, through the eyes of this nonsense lyricism that Sandburg wrote in 1922. The film be viewed on this website, under the Films tab.
Photo by the composer: David DeWitt, in Baritone role of “Gimme the Axe”.
©2021 by Animal Stone Productions
I Heard You Were Looking for Me
Orchestral Suite for the Ghana National Orchestra
For Orchestra with soloists: Gonje, Kologo, Gyil, and Fretless Banjo
Photo: Meirigah Abubakari and Andy Teirstein.
Photo by Cari Ann Shim Sham, 2017.
©2017 by Animal Stone Productions
Three Movements for String Quartet and Folk Musician
Commissioned by Symphony Space, New York, for the Cassatt Quartet.
The folk musician plays 5-string banjo (clawhammer style), Harmonica and Jew’s Harp.
Limberjack with Jew’s Harp
Vest Pocket with Harmonica (D and Bb)
East Virginia with Banjo
Photo of Andy Teirstein by Nancy Adler.
©2007 by Animal Stone Productions
Letter from Woody
For Orchestra, Folk Singer and Dancer
Inspired by a series of love letters written by Woody Guthrie.
The piece draws on traditional American folk string bowings and energies. The roles of Woody Guthrie and Marjorie Mazia are enacted in this Dramatic Symphony.
With permission of the Woody Guthrie Foundation and Woody Guthrie Publications.
Photo: Woody Guthrie and Marjorie Mazia, 1940.
Photo by Paul Zollo.
©2011 by Animal Stone Productions, revised 2021.
Turn Me Loose
Trio for Violin, Cello and Piano
Commissioned by the Alaria Trio.
Photo by composer.
©2007 by Animal Stone Productions.
What is Left of Us
For Alto, Women’s Chorus, Viola and Cello
Words from poetry by Mahmoud Darwish.
Photo of Naaz Hosseini, singer.
©2012 by Animal Stone Productions.