Performance by commissioner Monica Chew

Duration: variable

Commissioner: Chris Opperman (Website)

peace by piece was commissioned by pianist Chris Opperman in 2021 for his 2023 album, Still Waters. As an album, Still Waters seeks to create a kind of winter dreamland—a beautiful, tranquil place to provide a safe harbor for troubled minds and weary souls. Music has often provided that safe harbor for me, and I am in constant awe of how a piece of music can bring me peace of mind. Wanting to provide that for others and using the album art as inspiration, I created my own dreamland to wander in, explore about, and recover. However you encounter this piece—whether you end up hearing the trees chatter or stones whistle across the ice, track footprints or sip in the warmth, fill the silence with gentle hums or whistles, or even just bask in stillness—I offer this “choose-your-own-adventure” work for both listener and performer, in the hopes you can get lost together in this gentle, wintry land.

Pricing

Digital: $12

PDF includes a piano score (4-page spread recommended) and complete instructions.

This work has not yet been recorded—a MIDI rendering is available above.

Duration: 4’30”

Commissioner: Timothy Ledger (Website | YouTube)

Inspired by the beautiful Bugambilia tree outside my partner’s childhood home and dedicated to his mother, Bugambilia was commissioned by Timothy Ledger as part of the Key Notes commissioning series. With lighting-fast runs, groove-based rhythms, lush harmonies, singing melodies, and a wide variety of moods throughout, this virtuosic work is a true showcase for the advanced pianist—and a lively addition to any public performance context!

Pricing

Digital: $12

PDF includes a piano score formatted for page turns (3-page spreads required).

Duration: 3’30”

Commissioner: Paul Safar, for his students (Website | YouTube)

Commissioned by Paul Safar as part of the Key Notes commissioning series, Forth and Back explores a dynamic array of textures and styles. From dark, sweet melody to rambunctious groove, from theatrical glisses and powerful bell-toll gestures to delicate tremolos and sparkling textures of structured improvisation, this work provides ample opportunity for the intermediate pianist to demonstrate the wide range of gesture, color, range, and textures the piano—and pianist!—can achieve.

Pricing

Digital: $10

PDF includes a piano score formatted for page turns.

Duration: 6’15”

Commissioner: Benjamin Hopkins (Facebook | YouTube)

Commissioned by Benjamin Hopkins as part of the Key Notes commissioning series for a recital of works regarding social issues, More or Less was inspired by the onset of AI-generated creative works. The work explores the idea of AI’s capability to “more or less” emulate the complexity and expressive nuance of human-generated music—and to what extent that music remains satisfying or fullfiling to listen to.

Pricing

Digital: $10

PDF includes a piano score formatted for page turns (3-page spreads required).

Duration: 2’00”

Commissioner: Anonymous

Range: C4-C6

As the title suggests, Playful is a fanciful work for toy piano. Featuring percussive use of clusters, simple-but-twisty melodies, and an accelerando that builds throughout the work, this short piece explores a wide range of colors and textures available on this small-but-mighty instrument.

Pricing

Digital: $0!

All works in the Commissions from Quarantine series are available for free.

Recording from Nicole Gillotti’s album, Many Faces

Duration: 6’30”

Commissioner: Nicole Gillotti (Website | YouTube)

Mutes used: harmon mute (stem in)

Commissioned by Nicolle Gillotti to pay tribute to two of her great loves - beer and skiing - Hops lives up to its name. After a brief solo from the trumpet, the piano soon picks up a lilting melody that rips up and down as the motive passes to the trumpet and back. Buzzing, burbling, swirling, singing, leaping, and—of course—hopping permeate the piece, creating a fun challenge for performers and a delightful listen that is sure to leave audiences thirsty for more!

Pricing

Digital: $35

PDF includes a piano score (transposed and/or in C) and a solo trumpet part, formatted for page turns.

This work is in three movements:

1. Ahuixotl (3’00”)
2. Moon Rabbit (5’00”)
3. Thunderbird (4’30”)

Duration: 12'30"

Commissioner: Andrew Chybowski, Pittsburg State University Wind Ensemble (wind ensemble version), and Will Koehler (piano version)

Mutes used: straight mute (Movement 1 only), harmon mute (stem in, Movement 2 only)

Kindred Spirits was written for trumpet player, Will Koehler. The work was inspired by our mutual passion, mythological creatures. While many pieces exist for Greek and Roman creations, I wanted to write a work which focused on creatures which had parallels across the globe.

The Ahuixotl (hailing from Aztec legends, with parallels in Russia and Ireland) is a demonic water creature, similar to a dog; it resides in fresh water sources, such as lakes, and has a claw-like tail that snatches unsuspecting swimmers from the surface.

The Moon Rabbit is by far the most prominent throughout the world—cultures throughout time and throughout the globe have seemed to notice a rabbit on the face of the moon, though they have different explanations for how it came to be there. I was particularly inspired by the Cree version, in which a rabbit wishes to go the moon and rides the back of a crane; the crane stretches its legs, and the rabbit digs its paws into the crane’s head to hold on. The rabbit has, by all accounts, remained there to this day.

The last movement, inspired by the Thunderbird, is most commonly known the US as hailing from North American tribes (particularly Algonquian tribes), though parallels exist in South African and Māori traditions as well. The Thunderbird is thought to have been of unimaginable size, serving both as a protector of the innocent and the judge, jury, and executioner of the wicked.

Pricing

Trumpet and Piano version:

Full score, digital: $40

Per movement, digital: $15

PDF includes a full piano score (page turner required) and a solo trumpet part formatted for page turns.

Recording by Caitlyn Fukai and Noah Sonderling

From the premiere at the University of Arkansas SHE Festival (Mvts 1 and 2). Performance starts at 1:32:05

This work is in three movements:

1. Morning (4’45”)
2. Afternoon (3’30”)
3. Evening (4’00”)

This work can also be viewed as a 360 video (SamsungVR) with a performance by the Bruce Wood Dance company on my YouTube Channel!

Duration: 6’30”

Commissioner: Trio Kavanáh (now MAKEnsemble)

Commissioned by Trio Kavanáh and the Dallas Contemporary to accompany the showcase, Interplay is inspired by the Horizons exhibit by artist, Ian Davenport. The work opens with a vivid mimicry of paint falling on canvas, but soon explodes into a frenzy of dovetailing counterpoint and strong, tutti arrivals—highlighting each member of the ensemble. A slow, aleatoric middle section enchants the listener before a final explosion of energy, culminating in dramatic ensemble runs.

Pricing

Digital: $25

PDF includes a piano score (transposed and/or in C) as well as individual parts for clarinet and violin, formatted for page turns

Duration: 5’30”

While I was getting coffee one summer, I saw some local kids throwing various discs, boomerangs, and other flight toys around a field. At one point, a cheap boomerang they had been playing around with snapped off at one end; the kids started flicking it around, trying to get it to return to them with varying degrees of failure. I started thinking about how to depict this struggle musically, and the result was this work. A large variety of textures flit and scurry as the main idea struggles to return, resulting in rhythmic-but-fragmented interruptions, lyrical-but-melancholic melodies, and a final outburst that leaves the listener with only cinders.

Pricing

Digital: $25

PDF includes a full score (transposing and/or in C) and individual parts for each player formatted for page turns.

This work is in three movements:

1. Thin Aire (5’30”)
2. Bearceuse (3’45”)
3. Sun(ata) Burnt (4’15”)