Selected Musical Compositions

All compositions copyrighted © by Karl Branting
All rights reserved

Vocal Music
- Where Lies The Land (video)
  A setting of a poem by Arthur Hugh Clough (1819-61), for piano and choir, that uses the familiar metaphor of life as an ocean voyage. The main melody, sung by the choir, has many Celtic elements, including an emphasis on the subdominant and harmonic movement from major to relative minor. The rhythm of the piano's counter-melody is based on the Scottish highlands fiddle tune called "The Midlothian Pipers Band". Performed on October, 11, 2009, by the UUCC chalice choir with Tom Benjamin conducting and Michael Adcock on piano.
- From Far, From Eve and Morning
  Poem XXIII of A Shropshire Lad by A. E. Housman (1859-1936), set for a cappella SATB choir. Performed March 8, 2009 by the UUCC chalice choir with Tom Benjamin conducting and Michael Adcock on piano.
- The Compassion Song
  Inspired by Raymond Smullyan's dialogue Is God a Taoist? this is an attempt at a pantheist anthem. The text is the following poem:
  The one true God is compassion
  Our forbearance is God's mercy
  Our science is God's knowledge
  Our empathy is God's wisdom
  Our courage is God's strength
  God doesn't punish or help or reward us, God
  Has no opinions or will or desire
  God's just the name for release from our prison by
  Seeing ourselves in each others lives
  The one true God is compassion.
  For the most part, this piece is in 14/8 (2+2+3+3+2+2) and Lydian mode.
- No Room For Hate
  A setting for 2 voices, cello, and violin of a poem by David Gould, whose daughter was killed in the 7 July 2005 London bombings. No Room for Hate was performed at a UUCC "Songs of Peace" service on 16 March 2008.
Keyboard Works
- Waiting for Laura Rag
- Sonatina
- Prelude in C
  This piece was inspired by Prelude 1, book 1, of Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier, but with a harmonic vocabulary extended to include quartal harmony.
- Marie Waltz
Ensemble Pieces
- Ceremony
  Scored for voices, marimba, music box, vibes, brass, and pan pipes, this composition explores gamelan-inspired interlocking chromatic percussion lines.
- Wind Trio
  Fangorn Wold is a wind trio inspired by an episode in Tolkein's Ring Trilogy in which Merry and Pippin hide in the animated forest of Fangorn Wold.
- Duet for Clarinet and Bassoon
Fugues
- Fugue in B minor
- Fugue in E minor
Parodies
- Home for the Holidays A song about differences in expectations between adult children and the parents that they visit, performed by my sone Eric, his girlfriend Lipica, and myself at a family talent show.
- The Real Smart Agent This is a parody of The Real Slim Shady, written when I was working on a dialogue system for LiveWire Logic, a.k.a. RealDialog, a North Carolina startup acquired in 2006. The song has references to Extempo, Bob, Ananova, Smarter Child, Ask Jeeves, and other dialogue agents of the time, most of which are now defunct.
Songs
- When God Lets My Body Be, words by E.E. Cummings
- All In Green, Went My Love Riding, words by E.E. Cummings
- Take, O, Take, words by W. Shakespeare
Marimba Compositions
- Toccata
- Fifty Variations on an 8-note Theme
Childrens' Compositions
These pieces were written as recital pieces for my son, Eric, when he was studying the piano. He composes music himself now, e.g., Just Like Clockwork, and is studying music technology at NYU.
Teenage Compositions
These pieces were composed when I was in high school and my first years of college.
- Graduation March Written for the Hinkley High School 1970 graduation. Performed by Glenn Chambers (now music professor at the Conservatoire de Paris) and Yvonne Zamora. Arranged here for winds
- Bugle An experiment in bitonality: a trumpet that likes only black notes meets a piano that insists on white.
- Longing An expression of adolescent emotion
- Minuet and Fugue Baroque musical forms with added chromaticism
- Morning
- Etude An exercise in thematic development, written in a basement practice room at Williams Village, at CU Boulder campus.
- Prelude
- Night Performed in a recital in 1969 at Hinkley High School.