Opera
Beautiful Creatures
80 mins.
A one-act opera collaboration with playwright and TV writer Dominic Orlando, acclaimed director Christopher Alden, and producers StageTime Collaborative. Beautiful Creatures is about the politics and people inside the environmental movement. More broadly, the opera is about the loss of ideals and how we reconcile our best hopes with sobering realities. The opera received a stage reading in November, 2011. Over the summer, Alden, Orlando, and I reviewed the piece and possible venues. We have a version (fl/picc, ob, tp/fluegel, tb, stg 4tet, db, and perc) for further workshop or production.
Preview piano/vocal score of Beautiful Creatures: P/v score.pdf
Full audio of piano/vocal score Reading: StageTime Collaborative Reading
Preview orchestrated score of Beautiful Creatures: Part 1.pdf
Preview libretto Beautiful Creatures: Libretto
Dream President (2001–04)
20 mins.
Dream President for soprano and orchestra (fl, ob, cl, bn, tp, hn, tb, vln, vla, vc, db, pno, drum kit, perc) was presented at New York City Opera’s Showcasing American Composers in 2004, and again in revised version (2 sop, mezzo, baritone, ten/sop sax, db, pno, drums), directed and semi-staged by Caren France at the Manhattan School of Music’s Opera Theater opera previews in 2005. The final version was premiered in a collaborative production Opera After Hours, directed by Christopher Alden at the Zipper Factory in 2008.
The X-Dresser (2003)
11 mins.
opera short – libretto by Jennifer Griffith
Choral
The Reed (2010)
25 mins.
a chamber oratorio for mezzo-soprano and tenor soloists, narrator, SATB, pn, cl, vla, vc, perc.
Orchestral
A Short Drive (2003)
3 mins.
for chamber orchestra; fl/pc, cl, tpt, tbn, vn, vla, vc, db, pno.
Chamber
Hang-up (2003)
4 mins.
french horn, violin, cello, piano, perc.
On the Stairs (2003)
flute, violin, viola.
3 mins.
Pandora’s Hope (2003)
5 mins.
two guitars, flute, oboe, violin, cello.
The Clinton Dreams (2001-03)
11 mins.
three movements for soprano & 9 players;
“Bill & Hillary’s Caravan”
“Clinton’s Harem”
“A Short Drive”
Clinton’s Harem (2002)
5 mins.
Bb/bass cl, vn, vc, pn, perc.
Wind Quintet (2000)
12 mins.
3 Short Pieces for Flute, Horn and Piano (2001)
3 mins.
Two Pieces for Flute, Oboe and Guitar (2001)
3 mins.
Songs
Such Self-indulgence and Sloth (poem by David Budbill; 2018), soprano, pno; 3 mins
Night (poem by Louise Bogan; 2017), soprano, pno; 2 mins
Do You Like My Boots? (text by Jennifer Griffith; 2014), mezzo soprano, pno; 7.5 mins
Two Rumi Songs (2014), mezzo soprano, pno; 4 mins
Morphine (poem by Heinrich Heine; 2007), baritone, pno; 3 mins.
Songs for Early Spring (2005), settings of e.e. cummings, Judith Joiner, Ann Silsbee; soprano, pno; 7 mins.
Frank O’Hara Rocks! 4 settings from Lunch Poems (2004), baritone, pno; 10 mins.
Walt Whitman songs (2004), mezzo-soprano and gtr or pno; 4 mins.
Trails (poem by Ann Silsbee; 2005), soprano, pno; 2.5 mins.
Three Songs (1998), settings of Wallace Stevens and Edna St. Vincent Millay; soprano; 5 mins.
Solo Works
A Little Beastliness for Guitar (2002); 5 mins.
Five Pieces in A | I. Arnold II. Anton III. Alban IV. Aaron V. Alberto (2003), piano; 6 mins.
Something close to tango (2012), piano; 1 min.
The first four notes of something close to tango use the extra bass notes on the bösendorfer piano (or can be played an octave higher on a standard keyboard) and almost match the first pitches of Ernesto Nazareth’s famous Tango Odeón. I juxtapose rhythms and styles from Brazilian and Argentine tango.
Electroacoustic
Who Is Miranda? (2009), 5:39
Text from Shakespeare’s “The Tempest.” Sounds, additional text, and narration by Jennifer Griffith. Miranda, Anne Fiero; Prospero, Tom Noonan; Ferdinand, Patrick Porter