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AISHIHIK
(orchestra)
(3-2-2-3, 4-2-3-1, Timp., Perc. (3), Pno, Str. 14')
"The music wins you over with its marvelous stillness." - The Toronto Star
SYMPHONY
NO.1
Ancient Evenings (orchestra)
(3-2-2-2, 4-2-3-1, Timp., Perc. (2), Str. 40')
"The orchestra reveled in the evocative and passionate passages of the
musical epic, which describes the visit of a hero's soul to his own funeral and a
re-visiting of his life." -The London Free Press
BACA LOCATION #1 (orchestra)
(1-1-1-1, 2-2-1-1, Timp., Str. 22')
"In his mystical and picturesque evocations, he explores not only sound, but shape,
mass, power, solidity, permanence. . . Baca
Location No.1 stretches the ear into strange, exotic and pleasing territory that
belongs as much to the contemporary world as to the ancient." -Kitchener-Waterloo Record
BACA LOCATION #1 (orchestra)
:. . . "a highly dramatic, even declamatory piece in two movements each of
which builds to a grand rhetorical climax before ending. His idiom is openly
communicative and emotional. He seems to be a composer of genuine originality and real
talent."
-Cleveland Plain Dealer
THE FIRE FROM WITHIN
(orchestra)
(3-3-2-2, 4-2-3-1, Timp., Perc. (3), Str. 13')
"This was an accessible and serious contemporary piece, based on an Indian Legend,
that spoke in its slow and sonorous language of a mysterious and profound psychic
experience" -The Leader-Post
KABAH (string
octet)
(Vln (4), Vla (2), Vlc. (2) 35')
"An exotically evocative piece, describing the atmosphere and spirit of the place
with eerie harmonics, long-held notes and often sparse harmonies conveying a sense of vast
emptiness and antiquity." -The Washington Post
"Peter Ware's 'Kabah'
begins with a haunting, almost eerie prestissimo appassionato accented by sweeping strings
and a bed of low notes under a single hanging violin line, creating a sense of awe and
mystery. In the andante con mosso, low note clusters are again used to create that sense
of weight, the weight of years. Maybe it's just the unsettling nature of the
arrangement that makes presto con brio convey such a sinister feel." -The North
Jersey Herald & New
"Kabah, inspired by a
Mayan ruin in Mexico's Yucatan peninsular, is a forceful and intense piece that yields
little to the narrative style." -Tim Panting, Classical Guitar magazine
Free
MP3 of Peter Ware's String Octet Kabah
TSANKAWI
(orchestra)
(2-2-2-2, 4-2-3-1, Timp., Perc. (3), Str. 7')
"From the arresting opening of the bass drums thundering at either side of the stage,
the music weaved a haunting spell." -The Leader Post
CHAMA
"The Eagle and the Plumed Serpent"
(chamber music)
(Vln/Fl., Gtr/Pn 14')
"Musical ideas are worked out in a very evocative way. Played properly this
music will dazzle an audience and thrill the players." -Soundboard
"Chama
began with a long lustrous flute solo,
gradually growing more knotty." -New York Times
"It’s slow unfolding course, in predominantly long violin phrases, has a cobra-like power
to hypnotise." -Allan Clive Jones, Classical Guitar
"Ware's style, inspired by North America's landscape and Indian heritage, has been
described as 'paintings in sound.' Chama, "the
Eagle and the Plumed Serpent", the opening composition, is exactly
that. It evoked exotic imagery which produced a blend both surreal and
dramatic." - Kitchener Waterloo Record
Free
MP3 excerpt of Peter Ware's Chama from the CD Americas!
"Well,
if you love "classical" guitar...I advise you to go out and get it
with its new music by Peter Ware with "ELEGY &
TOTENTANZ".
This piece starts with strummed chords that Sor would have cringed at, but
sound, to my ear, very interesting and make me want more. Lots of lead
playing with chords to punctuate the motion. Nothing here that would
irritate anyone, you CAN have a conversation while its playing....but I'd
advise you actually listen. Ware takes Harting - Ware on some adventures
that don't resolve quite the way you expect, but work wholeheartedly."
-Alternate Music Press
Free
Classical Guitar MP3 excerpt of Peter
Ware's Totentanz
Order
the Score for Elegy and Totentanz @ Amazon.com
ELEGY &
TOTENTANZ &
FOREST SCENES
(classical guitar)
"Born at Richmond, Virginia, in 1951, Ware offers melodic content that is quite
strong, Totentanz
a fascinating score with a motoric rhythm that drives the work forward. Equally appealing
are the highly descriptive pieces that form Forest Scenes, the
section, Woodchuck Blues,
being a wonderful, tongue-in-cheek look at a lazy blues." -David
Denton, Fanfare
FOREST
SCENES
"Before starting to play this interesting and creative work, it is good to read
the poem "Hibiscus by
Piscataway," written by the composer and printed
in the edition. This can be a nice, inspirational introduction to this striking
collection of four programmatic pieces, in which guitar techniques are truly
used in an evocative sense.
The group starts with "North Face," depicting the dramatic Rocky Mountains of Banff. There follows a fantasy "Hibiscus on the Water" in a Largo expressivo variation form. Andante, then Allegro
"Woodchuck
Blues" combines jazz and blues styles, employing syncopated rhythms with hemiolas and an ostinato on the damped open sixth string (in D). The collection closes with the Presto "Wind Dance", full of rocking chords and stinging snap pizzicato effects. (Wind Dance is recorded on
Americas Acoma
GXD-5736)
This attractive work can be heard on a CD of the same name
(Acoma GXD-5734), played
by the editor, so we can recommend listening. It demands a high technical level,
and includes "rasgueado suave" (brushing the strings), "Bartok"
pizzicati, tremolo, different ornaments, and many other effects and
articulations. Good and precise editing (especially left-hand fingerings) facilitates
the work." -Uros Dojcinovic, Soundboard
Classical Guitar MP3 of Ware's Hibiscus on the Water from Forest
Scenes
Free
classical Guitar MP3 file of Ware's Wind Dance from Forest Scenes
Order
Score of Peter
Ware's Forest Scenes for solo Guitar @ Amazon.com.
LIBERA ME DOMINE
(chamber music for saxophone and percussion
Two Saxophonists and Three Percussionists. 15')
"The mood is 'cool' and distanced, yet always the emotional tone is one of intense
reverence" -St.Louis Post-Dispatch
LIBERA ME DOMINE
"Ware's textures are carefully calculated. Fragments of saxophone licks
and jazz-like scales disappear into distant clouds of vibraphone trills, only to
rematerialize and glide back." -The Cincinnati Enquirer
Free
MP3 of chamber music for saxophone and percussion of Peter Ware's Libera
Me Domine
first movement excerpt
NAKINA (classical guitar)
(Gtr 21')
"Ware's pungent, poignant Nakina suite."
-Los Angeles Times
"Peter Ware's Nakina is a probing, introspective work imbued with elements of jazz
and blues." -Classical Music Magazine
NAKINA (classical guitar)
"This is a sonata-length, four-movement work with the first three movements calling
for a scordatura (the low E and A strings each lowered a half-step). The movement
scheme is traditional, but the altered tuning gives the piece an exotic flavor. The
texture is mostly two-part, and the writing works well, as the composer obviously
understands the guitar well. This is a dramatic, lyrical work; the third movement
contains some particularly nice passages." -Soundboard
MP3
Classical Guitar excerpt of Peter Ware's Bacarole from Nakina on the CD The Many
Moods of the Guitar
THE NIGHT RAINBOW (chamber music)
(Clt.,Vla/Hn, Pno 11')
“Night Rainbow finds the piano glistening as the clarinet and viola intone mysterious chants. Time is virtually suspended in Ware’s pieces, which are mesmerizing in effect.” -Akron Beacon Journal
PISCATAWAY
(classical piano)
(Pno 18')
"Romantic, lyrical and impressionistic all at once,
the pieces have a beautiful natural pianism" -Hamilton Spectator
Free
MP3 od piano Music of Peter Ware's
Piscataway performed by Yvar Mikashoff
THREE PIECES FOR
VOICE,
CLARINET AND PIANO
(chamber music with voice)
(Sop, Cl., & Pn 6')
"Another work I enjoyed hearing again was Peter Ware's Three Pieces for Voice,
Clarinet and Piano. It's a setting of three sparse 'cubistic' poems of
e.e.
cummings in which the music perfectly matches the wit and sonic playfulness of the
text." -Musical America
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