Heather Gilligan
Compositions
Compositions
"Heather Gilligan’s Mourning Dew
had a kind of stylistic respiration:
flowing impressionism pared down
to pentatonic counterpoint, then
gradually enriched again."
-Matthew Guerrieri
NewMusicBox
Visit Soundcloud to hear other
works by Heather Gilligan.
Sound Files
Sound File #1
Buried Love
for soprano and cello
Song 1 from the cycle Living in Light.
Poetry by Sara Teasdale
Margot Rood, soprano
Patrick Owen, cello
Program Notes:
A few years back, Margot Rood asked me to write a set of songs for soprano and cello, with the request that they focus on simplicity. With just two melodic instruments, the challenge was to write four contrasting pieces that remained simple while giving each song its own, distinct personality. To achieve both simplicity and contrast, I gave the cello a different area of focus for each song: in the first song, melodic writing to imitate the voice; then, pizzicato to maintain a lightness of character; next, harmonics to achieve an uneasy, ethereal sound; and last, double stops to reach a sense of stability and peace. The poems, while agonizingly dark at times, also give way to a sense of hope amidst a backdrop of mortal human existence. I tried to capture the emotion behind Teasdale’s despair while ultimately favoring a sense of enduring love. The song cycle’s title comes from the last line of the fourth song, “Living in light, before they turn back to the nothingness that is their home.”
Sound File #2
Dona Nobis Pacem
for women's choir
Lorelei Ensemble
Beth Willer, conductor
Premiered at Shalin Liu Performance Center in Rockport, MA as part of WordSong's Forum VII, May 2011.
Recorded by Lorelei Ensemble and produced by Wordsong, 2011.
Program notes:
Amidst a creative and refreshing tonal palette and an evolving pitch center, this setting of Dona Nobis Pacem applies conventional elements of contrapuntal writing and resolution of suspended notes to unaccompanied women's voices. Its open fifths make reference to traditional uses of modes and harmonies, while its unexpected harmonies and use of cluster chords keeps the listener active and alert.
Sound File #3
Dialogue
for solo flute
Sarah Brady, flute
Commissioned by the Boston Composers Coalition and published in the SCI Journal of Music Scores
Program notes:
The inspiration for Dialogue came from an unlikely source. Composer Earl Kim (1920-1998) wrote a song cycle for soprano and chamber ensemble in 1982 entitled Where Grief Slumbers. The cycle’s fourth song, Ophelia, opens with a beautiful and tragic solo soprano line. Kim’s melody plays with intervallic material related to the major 7th, a dissonant interval which juxtaposes nicely with the consonant octave. Dialogue explores and develops related intervallic ideas on the flute but adds a crucial component, the interplay of a vocal line sung by the flute player. As a result of the melodic flute line against the vocal drone, an interference occurs which distorts both the flute and the vocal line. An eerie and intriguing sound ensues.
Compositions by Heather Gilligan
Compositions by Heather Gilligan
Chamber
2020 Rhapsody - violin, piano
2018 Swallowtail Suite - flute, clarinet, cello
2016 One Mountain - flute, clarinet, violin, cello, percussion, piano
2016 Six of One - woodwind quintet
2015 Scenes from Midtown - violin, clarinet, piano
2015 Cityscape - percussion septet
2014 Peregrine - flute and guitar
2014 Contemplation and Pursuit - string quartet
2012 Mourning Dew - flute, violin, and harp
2012 New Beginnings - tenor saxophone and marimba
2009 Music For Saxophone and Piano - tenor saxophone and piano
2006 Excursion II - violin, viola, cello, oboe, clarinet, flute, and harp
2004 3 by IV - flute, clarinet, and piano
2003 Musica Para Clarinete e Piano
2001 String Quartet No. 1
Vocal
2020 A Light Exists in Spring - soprano duet
2018 I'm a Girl. What's your superpower? - mezzo-soprano and piano
2017 La Vie En Rose - arranged for soprano and double bass
2016 Finer Points - soprano and percussion
2014 Living in Light - soprano and cello; four songs
2013 A Woman Knows - 8 unaccompanied songs for female vocal quartet
2010 Winged Reflections - mezzo-soprano, tenor saxophone, and piano; three songs
2009 Winter Wind - soprano, alto, viola, and flute
2008 Battlegrounds - soprano and string quartet, four songs
2007 Liebst du um Schönheit - soprano and piano
2007 The Lord’s Prayer - soprano and flute
2007 Garden Songs - soprano, trumpet, and piano; three songs
2006 Mixed Metaphors - soprano and piano, three cabaret songs
2005 Keeping Things Whole - mezzo-soprano, saxophone, and cello; three songs
2003 Carlos - soprano and string quartet
2002 Love, Hate, and Honor - soprano and mezzo-soprano, three unaccompanied songs
2001 Deliveries Only - soprano, mezzo-soprano, and piano
2001 Eros - piano reduction of orchestral version
2001 What the Motorcycle Said - narrator and computer
2000 Lessons - mezzo-soprano and piano, five songs
Choral
2021 One Step at a Time - a cappella round for SATB, words by RBG
2020 Keene State College Alma Mater - SSA transcription
2019 May It Be - SSAA arrangement of Enya song, a cappella
2014 I'll See You in the Morning - SATB chorus with soprano solo, a cappella
2014 Songs of the Seasons - SATB chorus and piano, four songs
2012 The Farmer - SATB chorus, clarinet, and English horn
2012 A Prayer in Spring - SATB chorus and piano
2011 Dona Nobis Pacem - SSAA women’s choir, a cappella
2011 Images of Autumn - SATB chorus and piano, two songs
2006 The Scarlet Letter - SATB chorus and piano, three songs
2002 Psalm - SATB sacred choral work, a cappella
Large Ensemble
2016 For Whom The Bell Tolls – wind symphony
2015 Flights Ascending – orchestra
2011 The Vibrance of Ordinary People – concert band
2008 Concertino for piano and chamber orchestra – piano concerto (doctoral dissertation)
2007 Excursion III – chamber orchestra
2004 Excursion I – orchestra
2001 Eros – mezzo-soprano and chamber orchestra
2000 From a Journal – mezzo-soprano and chamber orchestra
Solo
2019 Snow Ghost – piano solo
2019 Dream Play – piano solo
2017 The Adventures of Harold - vibraphone solo
2013 Dialogue – flute solo
2012 New Beginnings – piano solo
2003 Summer Folly – piano solo
2002 Five Pieces – piano solo
2002 Morning, Noon, and Night – piano solo
2001 Afterthoughts – piano solo
Piano duet
2012 A Warm Breeze in April – four-hands piano
2007 Speculation – duet for two pianos