for orchestra - 2222, 2200, timp, perc, strings(2003: 6')
Confluences
2222, 2000, perc, pno,strings(2008: 6')
Released 2008: Made in the Americas, Volume 1, ERMMedia.
Recorded 2008: Millennium Symphony, Conducted by Robert Ian Winstin.
In Confluences, the deliberate, insistent pulse of the piano is the central force through which rhythmic and melodic lines are drawn in, influenced and transformed ? creating musical confluences whose predictable elements are offset by unexpected undercurrents and a sense of suspense.
Crazed&Blue
a dance cycle for orchestra - 2222, 2220 timp, 2perc, strings(1998: 7'30)
three sequential nocturnes for orchestra - 2222, 4220, timp, 2perc, pno, strings(2001: 16')
I.Running Late II.Waking from Broken Dreams III.Yet Still Night
Anxiety segues to a waking insight suffused with sadness and clarity, moving to the inescapable realization that night continues. Recurrent sonic punctuations of city life. Urban soundscape reverberating in the late hours of a night's existential moment. The final nocturne opens softly with a lullaby motive that becomes insistent and inconsolable.
a tone poem for orchestra - pic, 2222, 4000, timp, 2perc, strings(1997: 13'4)
I. Pulses of Distraction II. Empty CornersIII. Pulling Apart
Chromatic, strong tonal centers, neo-romantic and minimalist influences, atmospheric textures and rhythmic pulses without traditional harmonic development. Traces the stages of a separation, progressing through the piece. In Mvt 3, all elements are irrevocably set in motion.
Shredding Glass
for orchestra - 2222, 2021, timp, 2perc, pno, strings(2004: 9'40)
Shredding Glass began as an immediate cathartic response to the events and images of September 11, 2001.
To me this piece represents the essence of an emotional remembrance of how a sense of time and timelessness unfolded while coping with the realization, heartbreak and impact of this catastrophic event. I believe the music transcends the specific to touch the hearts of others who have similarly experienced the devastating consequences of politically motivated aggressions and tragedies. Here's a video of my photo images set to Shredding Glass on YouTube.
??Worthington?s piece provides the listener instead with exquisite disintegration, mere glass filaments casting light in all directions, with an undercurrent of unresolved apprehension? The texture is transparent but luminous, reminiscent perhaps of the late works of Mahler.?
-- ? Scott Locke (Journal of International Alliance of Women in Music, Vol. 14, No. 2, 2008)
a cycle for orchestra - 2000, 2201, timp, 2perc, strings(1999: 7')
Formerly entitled January - a cycle for orchestra.
Recorded 2009: Millennium Symphony, Conducted by Robert Ian Winstin for 2010 release on ERMMedia's Made in the Americas, Volume 2
Premiered: 2001 - Orchestra of the SEM Ensemble; Petr Kotik, Conductor; Brooklyn, NY (audio is from SEM Workshop performance.)
The inspiration for Still Motion arises from a combination of sorting through the emotional residue of the year's end and the impatient desire to move ahead with life. It is a mix of edgy energy, reflective sadness and strength of conviction.
Premiered: Orchestra of the SEM Ensemble; Petr Kotik, Conductor; Brooklyn, NY, 2003.
Yet Still Night for orchestra plays out the dichotomy of outward naivet?/underlying sophistication on a larger scale. You first think this is a lullaby, rocking back and forth between D-flat and B-flat in quarter notes that wander around the orchestra. But this is an urban lullaby, and the nocturnal world intrudes in growing chromatic lines and thickening textures.
-- Kyle Gann (Chamber Music, August, 2003)
** Indicates audio which features Jacqueline Leclair, eng horn; Evan Spritzer, cl; Richard Vrotney, bsn; Joseph Kubera, pno; Vita Wallace & Theresa Salomon, vlns; Liuh-Wen Ting, vla; Ariane Lallemand, vc.
(excerpted from Disturbances, a set of orchestra nocturnes.)
* Indicates audio which features Immanuel Davis, fl; Jennifer Raymond, ob; Evan Spritzer, cl; Denise Broadhurst, pno; Julanne Klopotic & Jenny Scheinman, vlns; Ron Lawrence, vla; Ariane Lallemand, vc.
Street City is an attempt to convey some of the elemental dissonance, repetition and rhythmic pulse of the city street sounds. It is also meant to evoke the cyclical transition of mood as day gives way to quieter night hours, then picking up rhythmically once again as morning approaches.
Violin & Piano version premiered by Julianne Klopotic & Elaine Kwon, Light & Sound Concert, Brooklyn, NY 2009
Jilted Tango (trio)
fl, vla, pno(1999: 5')
Moving Through Shadows and Light
alt. fl, hrp, vla(1996: 4'48)
A passage through an emotional landscape, moving through memories which at moments seem dark and remote, and other times lucid.
(audio is a midi realization)
Premiered at the Hartford Women's Music Festival, Hartford, CT 2008
Reconsidering is meant to evoke a contemplative mood... a lingering premonition that something may not be what it seems and must be reconsidered on a deeper level.
Reflections of a Distant Time
ob, cl, hrn, vla(1994: 2'47)
Quiet reminiscing for a simplicity and innocence of life, perhaps from another time.
Why Is It?
ob, vla, vc(1995: 2')
A moment's questioning of an emotional circumstance.
Winter's Solitude
ob, cl, vla, vc(1995: 3'55)
Clear, cold light and quiet introspection... two moods of existential contemplation on a winter's day.
Premiered: 6/12/98 Sirius String Quartet, concert of works, Turtle Bay Music School, NYC.
Reminiscent of children's taunts, not the playfulness but rather the emotional complexity and impact, Conflictions is meant to convey a psychological state - feeling "afflicted" with hurtful conflicts.
Rhythm Modes **
2 vlns, vla, vc(1999: 6'18)
...Worthington has taken Copland's structural use of rhythm to a further extreme than most composers. She uses it to enliven and articulate, not only a fixed gamut of harmonies, but motives and melodies.
-- Kyle Gann (Chamber Music, August, 2003)
Premiered: 6/4/99 Sirius String Quartet, concert of works, Turtle Bay Music School, NYC.
An anxious lament for love lost. The emotional context begins from a point of sadness and feeling that there is no escape from the hurt, then transmutes into edgy feelings of anger against the emotional pain. It takes musical inspiration from the plainsong, Dies Irae.
Belgian soprano, Francoise Vanhecke performs an alternate dramatic vocal interpretation of These days... in Europe on her More Than A Voice concert program and in the opening of the theater piece, Zielewind.
In These Days, with words and music by Rain Worthington, the texture is woven inseparably with the color - a most unusual and fascinating technique that allows for subtle, almost spectral shifts and emotional intensity. It is an extraordinary work.
-- New music journalist & reviewer, Mark Greenfest, (Journal of International Alliance of Women in Music, Vol. 10, No. 2, 2004)
