List of compositions by Bill McGlaughlin


Conductor and radio commentator Bill McGlaughlin began composing in 1997, whereupon he left his conducting position at the Kansas City Symphony and moved to New York City to concentrate on composing. The outcome of the move was a flurry of creativity, and he has been composing successfully, although more intermittently, since then. Well over half of his works have been commissioned. In 1998 McGlaughlin signed a contract with Subito Music, which now publishes all of his work.

Selected major works; musical style

McGlaughlin's first major work was Three Dreams and a Question: Choral Songs on e.e. cummings, prompted by the death of a friend — which he debuted with the Kansas City Symphony on April 28, 1998, to an enthusiastic audience and press. It was quickly followed by five more premieres within a ten-month span.
For a millennial celebration, McGlaughlin was chosen from a field of 350 composers to write a major new work for Continental Harmony, a nationwide cultural initiative commissioned by the National Endowment for the Arts and the American Composers Forum. The composition, Walt Whitman's Dream, premiered in July 2000, and celebrated the new millennium with a combined chorus of nearly 800 singers from around the world, accompanied by orchestra.
On December 15, 2005, the national two-hour daily NPR classical music radio program Performance Today announced that out of all of the music aired that week, McGlaughlin's new commissioned composition Remembering Icarus garnered the most, and the most heartfelt, listener response.
McGlaughlin describes his compositional style as more intuitive than intellectual, and says that he does not shun tonality: "I think when composers turn completely away from tonality, they lose a big part of storytelling." Some of his work incorporates or references elements of jazz — for instance Bela's Bounce, an homage to Béla Bartók and Charlie Parker.
McGlaughlin characterizes his creative process as both studied and extemporaneous, experimenting with various methods to elicit the elusive "moment of inspiration." His compositional ideas often spring from external sources, either literary, personal, or musical, or from inspired tangents on commissioned requests. His muse-seeking practices have included walking in nature, running, meditating, and staying up all night at the keyboard. McGlaughlin's advice to young composers is never to shrug off an idea, even if at first it seems insignificant or similar to an existing work: "Write it down and throw it out later if you have to, but don't avoid the impulse."

Compositions

1990s

  • Solstice: Fantasy on Old English Carols. Orchestra. Christmas piece.
  • Crooked Timber. Orchestra. A celebration of the irregular, based on Immanuel Kant's words, "Out of timber so crooked, as that from which man is made, nothing entirely straight can be built."
  • Three Dreams and a Question: Choral Songs on e.e. cummings. Chorus and orchestra. Written in memory of composer and pianist Kevin Oldham.
  • Aaron's Horizons. Chamber orchestra. A tribute to composer Aaron Copland, with whom McGlaughlin worked in the 1970s. Heard nationwide in a broadcast performed by the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra.
  • Three Mile Table. Sextet of flute, oboe, violin, cello, guitar, and piano. In honor of the recently completed, 11-mile-long Vasco da Gama Bridge, the longest bridge in Europe, in Lisbon, Portugal. The title refers to a table constructed and placed on the bridge to celebrate its opening. The piece utilizes Portuguese folk melodies in a whimsical and buoyant way.
  • Bela's Bounce. Orchestra. An homage to Béla Bartók and Charlie Parker.

2000–2003

  • Walt Whitman's Dream. Chorus and orchestra. Commissioned by a national program called Continental Harmony — a Millennium Celebration sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts and the American Composers Forum. The premiere of Walt Whitman's Dream celebrated the new millennium with a combined chorus of nearly 800 singers from around the world, accompanied by the Missoula Symphony. McGlaughlin explained that his composition "... would allow the audience to feel the power of the human voice to bridge over language and culture." The text is from Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass.
  • Aunt Eva Suite . Narrator and orchestra or chamber ensemble. Narration written by Garrison Keillor.
  • Carol Antiqua. Ensemble of neglected instruments. Christmas piece.
  • Angelus. Orchestra. A 9/11 remembrance. Composed in celebration of the 50th Anniversary of the Minneapolis Civic Orchestra.
  • Three Pieces for Wind Trio, also known as Three Sketches for Three Winds. Flute, oboe, bassoon.
  • Echoes. Horn trio.
  • Three by Six. Chamber ensemble.
  • Theme to Exploring Music
  • The Bells of St. Ferdinand. Orchestra. Orchestral variations, in celebration of Tucson Symphony's 75th anniversary.

2004–present

  • Remembering Icarus. Orchestra. Honors local radio pioneer Ralph Willis Goddard, who was electrocuted in 1929 while checking a radio transmitter during a thunderstorm. Las Cruces public radio station KRWG, which commissioned the piece, uses his initials as its call letters. Remembering Icarus was subsequently aired nationally on NPR's Performance Today on December 9, 2005, and has been re-broadcast on radio three times.
  • Bagatelles: 1. Antique Dance with Ground Round 2. Fast and Loose. Saxophone quartet. Co-commissioned by Wolf Trap and the Washington Saxophone Quartet.
  • The Heart's Light: An Essay for Orchestra. Orchestra. Also performed at Carnegie Hall on April 2, 2008.
  • Old American Songs for G.K.. Orchestra.
  • Brave New World. Orchestral instruments plus harp, piano, and marimba. In honor of the 100th anniversary of New Mexico’s becoming a state in 1912.

Composer-in-residence engagements

McGlaughlin has had three composer-in-residence engagements. They are as follows: