Michael Douglas Mauldin is a writer member, and M. Mauldin a publisher member, of ASCAP (American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers), which licenses performances of his works (ASCAP, One Lincoln Plaza, New York, NY 10023) www.ascap.com.

Please choose from the following categories:

ORCHESTRAL

For details on a title, scroll down or click on the title:

 
 The American West: Concertpiece for Narrator and Orchestra
  The Carman's Whistle (Byrd, arr. for youth orchestra)
  Celebration of the Sun: Three Conservations for Piano and Orchestra
 
 Dawn at San Juan Mesa
 
 Desert Light: Four Episodes for Chamber Orchestra
 
 Dreams of the Child of Light, for Native American Flute and String Orchestra
Earthsongs for Chorus and Orchestra (see under "Choral")
  El Morro: Three Nights at Inscription Rock (see under "Guitar")
 
 Enchanted Land: Suite for Narrator and Orchestra
 
 Entrada for Winds and Timpani
 
 Fajada Butte: An Epiphany
 
 High Places: Overture for Youth Orchestra
Kokopelli: His Flutesong
  The Last Musician of Ur
  Llanos: Concertpiece for Junior High Strings (also for full orchestra)
  Mountain Light: Four Landscapes for Orchestra
  Music for the Mountain Air: Fantasypiece for Chamber Orchestra
 
 Petroglyph for Strings
  Prayer of Mesas (see under "Choral")
 
 Prayers of the Children (see under "Choral")
 
 Promontory Night: Prelude for Chamber Orchestra
 
 Santa Fe Magic: Three Poems for Narrator and Orchestra
 
 Three Dances From Chaco Canyon: Concertpiece for Chamber Orchestra
  Three Jemez Landscapes (aka "Fantasy on a Huron Carol")
  Le Tombeau de l'eau, for strings and timpani
  Tribute to a Young Soldier
  The Valley at Annacarla
  Wilderness Scenes for Junior Orchestra
   
 
 = High quality mp3 clip(s) available.

+THE AMERICAN WEST: Concertpiece for Narrator and Orchestra (commissioned by Toni Watkins for the National Repertory Orchestra, Carl Topilow, Music Director, which premiered it, narrated by Richard Lamm, Governor of Colorado and author of the text, on June 28, 1986 at the Brown Palace Hotel in Denver).

  • Instrumentation: picc, 2222, 4331, 2 perc, timp, narrator, strgs.
  • Sound Clip(s) (mp3):
  • ASCAP Title Code: 506136498
  • Date Composed: 1986
  • Copyright: (sr) 1986 M Mauldin, © 2009 M Mauldin
  • Duration (MM:SS): 21:00
  • Score/Parts: M Mauldin (manuscript)
  • Recording: The July 2, 1986 performance (by the same forces) at Arvada Center for the Arts and Humanities, included on the cassette "Visions West", produced by M Mauldin, $10.00 and $3.00 shipping.
  • Program Notes/Reviews: Carl Topilow suggested a collaboration between Mauldin and Richard Lamm, who had written a narration about the American West and who was looking for a composer to set it.  At the same time, Toni Watkins, a member of the NRO board, approached Mauldin to commission a work in honor of her husband's memory.  The work was "dedicated to Victor Watkins, who came to this country as a young boy from a land where hope had died to a land where hope was infinite, and who loved this country, fought for it and believed in it through all his life."

    "The music has the broad spaciousness of too many movie scores." 
    --THE DENVER POST


+THE CARMAN'S WHISTLE, for Youth Orchestra (an arrangement of a portion of the harpsichord piece by William Byrd, 1543, for the Albuquerque Youth Orchestra, Ron Teare, Director, which premiered it in 1996).

  • Instrumentation: 2222, 4331, 2 perc, timp, strgs.
  • Date Arranged: 1996
  • Duration (MM:SS): 3:00
  • Score/Parts: M Mauldin (manuscript)
  • Recording: None

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+CELEBRATION OF THE SUN: Three Conservations for Piano and Orchestra (the composer's Masters Thesis composition at the University of New Mexico, written in 1974 and first performed March 6, 1980 by the New Mexico State University-Civic Orchestra, Marianna Gabbi, Conductor, Michael Mauldin, guest conductor in Las Cruces, NM, with James Rivers, Pianist-in-Residence at Washburn University, Topeka, as piano soloist).

  • Instrumentation: 2222, 2221, 4 perc, timp, pno solo, strgs.
  • Movement Titles:
    1. "The Fool"
    2. "The Orb Followers"
    3. "The Recyclement"
  • Date Composed: 1974
  • Duration (MM:SS): 23:10
  • Score/Parts: M Mauldin (manuscript)
  • Recording: Archival recording of premiere.
  • Program Notes/Reviews: "The work has the form of a traditional nineteenth-century piano concerto. Yet the subtitle and the programmatic titles of the movements suggest a suite of related pieces.  Though the work is a unified whole, there is a difference in approach among the movements, as they are character studies (the last suggesting interaction among the characters of the first two).  The work is predominantly tonal/modal, and it is frequented by major chords a tritone apart, and by major-minor combinations and sevenths.  Central to the piece is the opening synthetic scale, made of two tetrachords of a half-step, whole-step, half-step, and a connective step (raised fourth), very close to the octatonic scale and suggestive of the ancient 'church modes'."

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+DAWN AT SAN JUAN MESA (commissioned by the Albuquerque Youth Symphony for the Albuquerque Junior Symphony, to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the AYS program, and premiered by the AJS April 20, 1996 in Popejoy Hall at UNM, conducted by Bruce Dalby).
  • Instrumentation: 2222, 4331, 2 perc, timp, harp, strgs. 
  • Sound Clip(s) (mp3):
  • ASCAP Title Code: 340379602
  • Date Composed: 1995
  • Copyright: 1996 M Mauldin
  • Duration (MM:SS): 5:15
  • Score/Parts: Published by Harmonic Services Group, 436 River Rock Court, San Jose, CA 95136-3903, 408 269 2301.
  • Recording: On the CD "Enchanted Land", produced by M Mauldin and performed by the New Mexico Symphony Orchestra, with the composer conducting.
  • Program Notes/Reviews: "This work was inspired by my many visits to an unexcavated Anasazi city on top of San Juan Mesa in the Jemez Mountains. Within view of Sandia Peak in the distance (where KHFM has its broadcasting tower), I brought my young son, Kendall, here once when my 'Petroglyph for Strings' was on the air.  I mused at the irony.  Before his birth, that piece had begun in that place.  But now I heard the music--fleshed out--and the laughter of a child in a plaza that once rang with the laughter of many children.  Since then, it seems as if the spirits there welcome me and the children I bring to see the petroglyphs and pot fragments.  Often I go away with a new fragment of insight, usually into the needs of children.  So years later, when I was commissioned by the AYS program, the magic of the mesa and its people seemed an appropriate inspiration for a piece to be performed by children."

    “Michael Mauldin wrote this accessible short orchestral work for a school orchestra. It is colorful, easy to play and understand, and evocative of the land where he lives…its harmonies paradoxically dissonant yet settled.”
    --ANSWERS.COM
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 With the Albuquerque Boy Choir looking for petroglyphs at San Juan Mesa

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+DESERT LIGHT: FOUR EPISODES FOR CHAMBER ORCHESTRA (for the Santa Fe Symphony, Stewart Robertson, Conductor, which premiered it October 18, 1987 in Santa Fe).

  • Instrumentation: 2222, 2211, timp, harp, strgs. 
  • Sound Clip(s) (mp3):
  • ASCAP Title Code: 340282322
  • Date Composed: 1987
  • Copyright: 1988 M Mauldin
  • Duration (MM:SS): 12:10
  • Score/Parts: M Mauldin (manuscript)
  • Recording: By the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra, conducted by David Oberg, on a CD produced by Opus One, Box 604, Greenville, Maine 04441.
  • Program Notes/Reviews: The score bears this quote from Edward Abbey's book "Desert Solitaire":  "The sun roars down from its track in space with a savage and holy light, a fantastic music in the mind."

    "Clarity of texture and lingering images of brilliancy and shimmer characterized (the work).  (It) began with delicate, brief sound patterns that suggested Chinese evocations by Stravinsky or Ravel, although their continuing reiteration took on the quality of Minimalist repetition.  Whatever its sources or resemblances, this music had a clear intention of its own: to portray light effects created by sunlight in the Utah desert, as reported by former park ranger Edward Abbey in his book 'Desert Solitaire.'  As Mauldin's music unfolded, other textures and rhythms emerged, all sketched with exquisite clarity, and with distinct but disruptive contrast with what preceded.  All these events had an exalted, light-shot quality about them.  Melodies soared over these textures at times, played by string sections or solo winds.  These tunes all had a flowing, slightly anonymous quality, as if they were intended to suggest passage of time rather than to characterize it too specifically."  --ALBUQUERQUE JOURNAL

    "Mauldin's work is also an evocation of place, in a more modern idiom - still decidedly tonal - with something of minimalism about its ostinato-driven motion over which sweeping lines suggest wide skies and open spaces." --RECORDS INTERNATIONAL

 

+DREAMS OF THE CHILD OF LIGHT FOR NATIVE AMERICAN FLUTE AND STRING ORCHESTRA (for James Pellerite and the Chamber Orchestra of Albuquerque, David Oberg, Conductor, which premiered it with Mr Pellerite on May 9, 2003 in Albuquerque).

  • Instrumentation: Native American flute and strings.
  • Movement Titles (click for mp3 sound clips):
    1. "Friendly Traveler"
    2. "Sorrows of My People"
    3. "Return to Lhasa"
  • ASCAP Title Code: 340706007
  • Date Composed: 2002
  • Copyright: 2003 M Mauldin
  • Duration (MM:SS): 14:20
  • Score/Parts: Available in rental only from JP-Publications, P.O. Box 7273, Bloomington, IN 47407, Phone/Fax: 812-339-8866 www.jamespellerite.com.
  • Recording: By the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra, conducted by David Oberg, on CD 189 produced by Opus One, Box 604, Greenville, Maine 04441. Also recorded by the Moravian Philharmonic, conducted by Lawrence Golan, native flute by James Pellerite, on the album "Visions, Dreams and Memories" (TROY893), Albany Records, 915 Broadway, Albany New York 12207.
  • Program Notes/Reviews: "Though I have written much music inspired by American Indian culture and beliefs, I wanted to use the charm of the native flute for something even more inclusive--the amazing spiritual depth of children everywhere. What better person could there be to embody that than the world's most cherished child-spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama. After meeting him and discovering that he is just as delightful and full-of-fun in his adulthood, I feel that, even in his mature years, he is indeed still the "child of light." The first movement refers to the true story of the Austrian, mountain-climber man-friend with whom he became close before having to leave his lofty home in Lhasa. The second movement sees the tragic plight of the Tibetan people through the eyes of a caring youth--one responsible for their spiritual and physical welfare. The third is the vision of a triumphant return to the holy city, a dream that many of us have. Children have a personal interest in peace. Perhaps they actually can lead us there, if we let them."

"Using a Tibetan theme and dedicated to the Dalai Lama, the three-movement work erases limitations and opens new worlds. Mauldin’s lyrical gifts and vivid melodic sense release the flute from its past with powerful lines, particularly in the second movement where they both turn sorrowfully inward and rise in anguish. Virtuosic writing given a virtuosic performance by Pellerite, the music was deeply moving."
--Joanne Sheehy Hoover, Albuquerque Journal, 5/11/03.

"I was captivated. ...full of beauty and charm."
--Philip Haldeman, AMERICAN RECORD GUIDE, 2006


+ENCHANTED LAND: SUITE FOR NARRATOR AND ORCHESTRA (the narration is taken from the book THE HOUSE AT OTOWI BRIDGE, by Peggy Pond Church, published by University of New Mexico Press, used by permission.  The first partial performance was by members of the Albuquerque Youth Symphony, Michael Mauldin, guest conductor, on May 12, 1979.  The first full performance was by the Chamber Orchestra of Albuquerque, David Oberg, Conductor at a concert of the composer's works in Keller Hall at UNM on June 21, 1981, sponsored by the Ghost Ranch Foundation).

  • Instrumentation: 2222, 2211, 2 perc, timp, narrator, strgs.
  • Movement Titles (click for mp3 sound clips):
    1. Prologue"
    2. "Where the River Makes a Noise"
    3. "Dance to Life"
    4. "If Our Hearts Are Right..."
    5. "The Rain Will Come"
      6.
  • ASCAP Title Code: 350181654
  • Date Composed: 1976
  • Copyright: 1989
  • Duration (MM:SS): 21:30
  • Score/Parts: M Mauldin (manuscript)
  • Recording: By the New Mexico Symphony Orchestra, Michael Mauldin conducting, Kathleen Church narrating, on the CD "Enchanted Land" produced by M Mauldin.
  • Program Notes/Reviews: "This is taken from the story of Edith Warner, the woman who lived in the little house at the Otowi bridge, and of Los Alamos--before, during and after the time it was home to the Manhattan Project.  Peggy had grown up on the Jemez mesas before her father's boys' school had been chosen by the government as the isolated site for atomic weapon research."

"Notable in the 'Prologue' is the reverence of the Indians for the earth and all nature, and their belief that it is the duty of man, himself a part of the same creation, to maintain the beauty and harmony he finds around him. The second movement follows the river as trapped between canyon walls below Otowi, it turns, darts, plunges, and curls whitely back upon itself, always struggling toward the sea.  In the third movement, we see colorful costumes and hear drums and moccasined feet on hard earth, until we ourselves are caught up in the dance and are one with the dancers' prayer to the sun, the lifegiver.  A more somber, even tragic tone pervades the fourth movement, as it tells of adversities.  And on the 'hill' men were experimenting with another kind of power, a power so far of death, not life.  In the final movement, the work comes full circle, recycling--but adding to--the music and text of the Prologue.  The rains came, bringing also the message that if our hearts are right, whatever is needed will come."


+ENTRADA FOR WINDS AND TIMPANI (commissioned by the Chamber Orchestra of Albuquerque, David Oberg, Conductor, to open the first concert of the group's 20th season, first performed October 7, 1994 in Albuquerque).

  • Instrumentation: 2 fl, 2 ob, 2 cl, 2 bsn, 2 hn, 2 tps, timp.
  • Sound Clip(s) (sequenced mp3):
  • ASCAP Title Code: 350203577
  • Date Composed: 1994
  • Copyright: 1994 M Mauldin
  • Duration (MM:SS): 4:51
  • Score/Parts: M Mauldin (manuscript). Printable download available for purchase from MyScoreStore.com:
  • Recording: Archival, with COA.

 

+FAJADA BUTTE: AN EPIPHANY (a symphonic movement commissioned by the New Mexico Symphony Orchestra, which premiered it March 11 & 12, 1983 in Popejoy Hall at the University of New Mexico, conducted by Yoshimi Takeda.  It was dedicated to Ellie Scott, "a close friend of the symphony, whose spirited appearance in New Mexico showered the arts with energies that will live indefinitely.")

  • Instrumentation: picc, 2222, 4331, celesta, 2 perc, timp (6), strgs. 
  • Sound Clip(s) (mp3):
  • ASCAP Title Code: 361588098
  • Date Composed: 1982
  • Copyright: 1988 M Mauldin
  • Duration (MM:SS): 14:00
  • Score/Parts: M Mauldin (computer-engraved, available for sale/rental).
  • Recording: By the New Mexico Symphony Orchestra, conducted by the composer, on the CD "Enchanted Land" produced by M Mauldin, and by the Kiev Philharmonic, conducted by Robert Ian Winstin, on Volume 9 of the Masterworks of the New Era produced by ERM Media, www.numusic.org.
  • Program Notes/Reviews: "More than just an observatory, the butte must have been regarded as a temple, perhaps for the 'meeting' of earth and sky. For 300 years, this was the 'center' for a people who truly celebrated life and light, and who found themselves in vibrant harmony with their cosmos. The Anasazi vanished.  The vibrant harmony remains."
"Mauldin's work is in no way derivative.  His sound is distinct throughout, and his music is vital for this reason and also for the way he goes about working his musical material."
--ALBUQUERQUE TRIBUNE

"Mauldin makes thorough use of his impressive instrumental palette, with a delightful emphasis on percussive instruments, notably the celesta, chimes and touches of a snare drum."
--NEW MEXICO SUN

"The gargantuan sound written on the page and realized by the orchestra carried the audience along in powerful melodies that flooded in great gushes of cinematic effect derived from the powerful impression of Fajada Butte."
--ALBUQUERQUE JOURNAL


+HIGH PLACES: Overture for Youth Orchestra (for the Albuquerque Youth Symphony).

  • Instrumentation: picc, 2222, 3221, 2 perc, timp, pno, strings. 
  • Sound Clip(s) (mp3):
  • ASCAP Title Code: 380343913
  • Date Composed: 1981
  • Copyright: 1988 Neil A Kjos Music Co.
  • Duration (MM:SS): 8:00
  • Score/Parts: Neil A Kjos Music Co (engraved).
  • Recording: On the CD "Enchanted Land", produced by M Mauldin and performed by the New Mexico Symphony Orchestra, with the composer conducting.
  • Program Notes/Reviews: "Written for the Albuquerque Youth Symphony in 1981, HIGH PLACES was inspired by a hike up La Luz Trail (on Sandia Mountain) several years earlier.  With my infant son, Kendall, in a front pack, I descended and was struck by the dual sensation of exhilaration/serenity.  More than oxygen deprivation, the deep insights lasted.  I thought of the vision-quests of wise men through the ages and their penchant toward lofty places for meditation (I didn't know then that I would later meet the Dalai Lama, and that, even later, the story of his exile as a child from his lofty home, and of his mountain-climber man-friend, would help me understand the connection of my dual passions--spiritual places and the spiritual  beauty of children).  I usually enjoy hiding some kind of musical pun in my pieces.  But I happily share them, as I wouldn'twant anyone to take them too seriously.  In this piece, the 'game' is the use of the opening, excited, 'ascending' theme--but in augmentation and inversion--as the basis for the quiet B-section, which peacefully (and reverently) observes the world from 'the other side'--from the top down.

+KOKOPELLI: His Flutesong (based on a piece for pipe organ, which was commissioned by Saint Margaret’s Episcopal Church in Palm Desert, California, and re-arranged and orchestrated for the Albuquerque Youth Symphony, Gabriel Gordon, conductor, for a premiere in Popejoy Hall, UNM, Albuquerque in 2009).

  • Instrumentation: picc, bass cl, 2222, 3431, timp, perc, harp, strgs.
  • ASCAP Title Code: 410951636
  • Date Composed: 2008
  • Copyright: 2009 M Mauldin
  • Duration (MM:SS): 7:05
  • Score/Parts: M Mauldin (computer-engraved, available for sale/rental). 
  • Program Notes/Reviews: This is a re-arrangement and orchestration of a piece for pipe organ, which was commissioned by Saint Margaret’s Episcopal Church in Palm Desert, California for the dedication recital of its new chancel organ and premiered there in 1999 by Michael Brittenback.  Mr. Brittenback first sent me sound samples of the organ’s flute stops, for which the organ builder was famous.  Several of them reminded me of the Native American flute, which brought to mind Kokopelli, the legendary flute-playing deity of the ancient Puebloans.  Like most fertility deities, hump-backed Kokopelli was believed to have presided over courtship, childbirth and agriculture, including blowing away Winter and bringing the Spring.  The Zuni associate Kokopelli with the rains.  He was thought of as a trickster, but he also represented the spirit of music, which was a sacred and unifying force.

 

+THE LAST MUSICIAN OF UR: for The Iraqi National Symphony Orchestra, Karim Wasfi, Chief Principal Conductor/Director.
  • Instrumentation: picc, 2222, 3431, 2 perc (bells/tri, BD sus cym), timp, harp, strgs.
  • Date Composed: 2009
  • Copyright: 2010
  • Duration (MM:SS): 7:05
  • Score/Parts: M Mauldin (computer-engraved, available for sale/rental).
  • Program Notes/Reviews: In 1929 archaeologists discovered royal graves, from around 4,500 years ago that appeared to be the scene of a mass suicide. Sixty eight bodies lay, as if asleep, dressed in similar costumes and identical jewelry. In the corner were the remains of the Gold Lyre of Ur, with the arm of its last player draped over it, as if she had played to the end.

    Mauldin wrote on the score: “I see the narrative of the piece opening with a thriving, growing civilization in the ancient desert. Suddenly there is a great threat. A tragic second melody marches to an inescapable destiny, but gives way to a hauntingly innocent and reverent melody, accompanied by the pedal harp. Other instruments drop away, but the harp plays alone until a quiet, dark section arrests time and hope. Suddenly a door is opened and light pours in, accompanied by the original theme, this time representing a new, thriving and growing civilization in the desert. There is still tragedy, as suggested by the reappearance of the second theme, but its character is different—this time struggling toward hope rather than inescapable destruction. The harp’s reverent melody is lower, less innocent, and is interrupted by brief references to the ‘Hurrian Song,’ believed to be the earliest known piece of written music, slightly younger than the Lyre but still written in cuneiform (translated by Professor Anne Kilmer). The piece’s conclusion is neither triumphant nor defeated. It ends in a major key, but with quiet emphasis on the ‘dominant’ (questioning) note of the scale. It gently reminds us that we must write our own story.”

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+LLANOS: Concertpiece for Junior Strings (also for full orchestra).  (The original string version was for the New Mexico Chapter of the American String Teachers Association, and was premiered April 11, 1987 by the student chapter.  The full-orchestra version was first performed by the Albuquerque Junior Symphony, conducted by James Bonnell, on April 17, 1988 in Popejoy Hall at UNM).
  • Instrumentation: strgs only, or 2222, 4331, 2 perc, timp, strgs (with a part for 3rd violin (viola T.C.). 
  • ASCAP Title Code: 420367062
  • Date Composed: Strgs only, 1987; full orchestra, 1988
  • Copyright: 1988 Neil A Kjos Music Co (4380 Jutland Drive, San Diego, California, 92117).
  • Duration (MM:SS): 4:05
  • Score/Parts: strgs only: M Mauldin (manuscript); full orchestra: Neil A Kjos (engraved).
  • Recording: Promotional recording made by Neil A Kjos.
  • Program Notes/Reviews: "Llanos (pronounced YAW-nos) is a programmatic work describing life on the southwest American plains.  Pioneer life on the rugged frontier was challenging and filled with adversity.  Yet, there was a peacefulness and serenity to the vast open plains.  This dichotomy of emotions serves as the inspiration for the music." 
    --Neil A Kjos Music Co.

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+MOUNTAIN LIGHT: Four Landscapes for Orchestra (for the National Repertory Orchestra, which premiered it July 2, 1989 at Keystone, Colorado, conducted by Carl Topilow, at the dedication ceremony of the Keystone Conference Center).

  • Instrumentation: picc, 2222, bass cl, 4332, harp, 2 perc, timp, strgs.
  • Movement Titles (click for mp3 sound clips):
    1. Summer Afternoon
    2. Autumn Morning
    3. Winter Evening
    4. Spring Midday
      5.
  • ASCAP Title Code: 432285753
  • Date Composed: 1987
  • Copyright: 1989 M Mauldin
  • Duration (MM:SS): 21:41
  • Score/Parts: M Mauldin (manuscript)
  • Recording: Archival cassette recording of premiere.

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+MUSIC FOR THE MOUNTAIN AIR: Fantasypiece for Chamber Orchestra (for the Dallas Fine Arts Chamber Orchestra, Mischa Semanitzky, director, which premiered it August 13, 1988 at Purgatory, Colorado).

  • Instrumentation: 2222, 2 hns, 2 tps, pno, timp, strgs.
  • ASCAP Title Code: 430398680
  • Date Composed: 1988
  • Copyright: 1988 M Mauldin
  • Duration (MM:SS): 8:45
  • Score/Parts: M Mauldin (manuscript)
  • Recording: Archival recording of April 3, 1989 performance by the Orchestra of Santa Fe, conducted by William Kirschke. Also recorded by the Kiev Philharmonic, conducted by Robert Ian Winstin, on Volume 6 of the Masterworks of the New Era, produced by ERM Media, www.numusic.org.
  • Program Notes/Reviews:
    "Clarity of coloring, expressed by his many unusual combinations of instruments, seemed inspired by the purity of high mountain atmosphere.  Romantic music at its newest, painting the mountain air experience with old and new instrumental capabilities."
    --SANTA FE  REPORTER

    "The music began in Mauldin's typical clear-cut style, neo-romantic in harmony and melody but with a distinctive tang in these elements somehow right for the scenic subject of the music.  But this piece moved into electric, piercing transformations of its materials that made it memorable even to a listener who had just sat through seven consecutive concerts of new American compositions at the University of New Mexico."
    --ALBUQUERQUE JOURNAL

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+PETROGLYPH FOR STRINGS  (for the Chamber Orchestra of Albuquerque, winner of the COA's New Music Composition Contest in 1978, and premiered by it July 30 of that year in UNM's Keller Hall, conducted by David Oberg).

  • Instrumentation: strgs
  • Sound Clip(s) (mp3):
  • ASCAP Title Code: 461839850
  • Date Composed: 1978
  • Copyright: 1978 M Mauldin
  • Duration (MM:SS): 10:38
  • Score/Parts: M Mauldin (computer-engraved, available for sale/rental).
  • Recording: Archival recording of premiere; stereo record (#51) released by Opus One (Box 604, Greenville, Maine 04441), made from edited sessions with the COA (Oberg) in Keller Hall, UNM. Also recorded by the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra, conducted by David Oberg, on CD 193 produced by Opus One, Box 604, Greenville, Maine 04441.
  • Program Notes/Reviews: "The piece was inspired by the evocative rock-drawings inscribed throughout the southwestern United States by the ancestors of the Pueblo Indians."
"Mauldin's 'Petroglyph' is a work of more than passing interest.  His musical style is neither shocking nor dissonant.  It is clearly contemporary writing with a 'bite' to it, but the harmonies are near conventional and the style quite accessible.  It is a good example of well-crafted music of our time, which can speak to us without shouting."
--AMERICAN RECORD GUIDE, November, 1981.

"Three works by New Mexico Composer Michael Mauldin ["Petroglyph for Strings", "Promontory Night" and "Three Dances from Chaco Canyon"] show his ability to evoke the wonder of Western American landscapes. In "Petroglyph" conductor David Oberg allows the music to breathe, taking his time through a lovely violin solo, powering the tempo when needed."
--Barry Kilpatrick, AMERICAN RECORD GUIDE, 2006

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+PROMONTORY NIGHT: Prelude for Chamber Orchestra (dedicated to "the spirits at Ghost Ranch, New Mexico, the work was premiered Feburary 18, 1979 in Albuquerque by the New Mexico Symphony Chamber Orchestra, Yoshimi Takeda, Music Director, Kurt Frederick, guest conductor).

  • Instrumentation: 2122, 2 hns, 1 tpt, bells, strgs.
  • Sound Clip(s) (mp3):
  • ASCAP Title Code: 460272133
  • Date Composed: 1977
  • Copyright: (sr) 1983 M Mauldin
  • Duration (MM:SS): 7:50
  • Score/Parts: Published by Harmonic Services Group, 436 River Rock Court, San Jose, CA 95136-3903, 408 269 2301. 
  • Recording: Edited recording in Keller Hall by the Chamber Orchestra of Albuquerque, David Oberg, conductor, on the cassette "Our Magic Places", produced by M Mauldin--sold out, archival copies only. Also recorded by the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra, conducted by David Oberg, on CD 196 produced by Opus One, Box 604, Greenville, Maine 04441.
  • Program Notes/Reviews: "Ghost Ranch, which I visited as a child, is a well-known conference center on a cattle ranch near the foothills of the Jemez Mountains.  It was the home of artist Georgia O'Keefe.  The huge mesas surrounding the ranch take on an eerie quality after dark; the echoes of bird calls and wind create an evocative atmosphere.  The first and last sections of 'Promontory Night' recreate that air.  One imagines he hears the echoes of past human activity, even the good times--the celebrations, the dances--which the 'B' section of the piece recalls before dissolving back into the opening material."

"Energetic but infused with quiet introspection."
--Barry Kilpatrick, AMERICAN RECORD GUIDE, 2006


 Ghost Ranch, near Abiquiu

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+SANTA FE MAGIC:Three Poems for Narrator and Orchestra (the narration is made up of three poems by New Mexico poet, Peggy Pond Church).

  • Instrumentation: picc, 222 (+bass cl)2, 4331, 2 perc, timp, harp, narrator, strgs.
  • Movement Titles (click for mp3 sound clips):
    1. "October Sundown" (2:52)
    2. "The Children" (3:05)
    3. "Ecstasy" (5:05)
  • Date Composed: 2003
  • Copyright: 2007 M Mauldin
  • Duration (MM:SS): 11:05
  • Score/Parts: M Mauldin (computer-engraved, available for sale/rental)
  • Recording: Studio recording by the Russian State Symphony Cinema Orchestra, conducted by Sergei Skripka and narrated by Kathleen Church on the CD “Enchantment: Music by Michael Mauldin,” produced by M Mauldin, $10.95 plus shipping.
  • Program Notes/Reviews: “Peggy Pond Church is best-known for her book, THE HOUSE AT OTOWI BRIDGE (pronounced OH-toh-wee), published by the University of New Mexico Press.  It is the story of Edith Warner, the woman who lived in the little house at the bridge, and of Los Alamos—before, during and after it became the birthplace of ‘the bomb.’  Peggy had grown up on the Jemez mesas before her father’s boys’ school was chosen by the government as the isolated site for atomic weapon research.  This piece is a tribute to Peggy’s life and work.  I used her words also in ‘Enchanted Land’ and in the three short pieces for the Pacific Boychoir.  After she had to leave ‘the hills,’ she lived and raised a family in Santa Fe.  She had a keen eye for the beauty and sacredness of wildness—whether in nature or in people, themselves a part of nature.  And what she saw, she put into words—every day, in her journals and poems.  She was a gifted and prolific poet.  After her death, I chose these three poems from the unpublished writings I was shown by Peggy’s daughter, Kathleen, who narrates this recording.

 

+THREE DANCES FROM CHACO CANYON: Concertpiece for Chamber Orchestra. It was premiered June 21, 1981 by the Chamber Orchestra of Albuquerque, conducted by David Oberg, in a concert of Mauldin's works in Keller Hall, sponsored by Ghost Ranch Foundation).

  • Instrumentation: 1212, 2 hn, timp, pno, strgs.
  • Sound Clip(s) (mp3):
  • ASCAP Title Code: 500397708
  • Date Composed: 1980
  • Copyright: 2006 M Mauldin
  • Duration (MM:SS): 10:50
  • Score/Parts: M Mauldin (computer-engraved, available for sale/rental). 
  • Recording: Edited recording in Keller Hall by the Chamber Orchestra of Albuquerque, David Oberg, conductor, on the cassette "Our Magic Places", produced by M Mauldin, sold out, archival copies only. Also recorded by the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra, conducted by David Oberg, on CD 189 produced by Opus One, Box 604, Greenville, Maine 04441. Also recorded by the Kiev Philharmonic, conducted by Robert Ian Winstin, on Volume 10 of the Masterworks of the New Era, produced by ERM Media, www.numusic.org.
  • Program Notes/Reviews: "Dutch linguist Elizabeth Willink, mother of my composer-friend George Willink, invited me to stay at her adobe house near Cuba, New Mexico on my trips back and forth from Chaco Canyon.  Using her piano, I sketched this work there, and years after her death I bought the home for my composing and teaching retreat."

"The effect of my visits to Chaco was overwhelming.  The Anasazis' accomplishments radiated from this mecca--beautiful cities, intricate artwork, straight roads, a far-flung trade network, and a fascination with religion and the cosmos.  Seeing things through the eyes of the Anasazi allowed me to say positive things in my work, but instead of eliminating negative things, my 'time-travel' at Chaco heightened the awareness of both good and evil.  I felt as a child feels, breathing in both the joys and terrors of existence on this planet.  This piece shocked audiences with its wild reliving of ancient ceremonies.  But some people missed the great tenderness of the second dance.

"Energetic but infused with quiet introspection."
--Barry Kilpatrick, AMERICAN RECORD GUIDE, 2006


+THREE JEMEZ LANDSCAPES for Chamber Orchestra (aka "Fantasy on a Huron Carol.  It won first-place in the "large ensemble" category of the New Mexico Composers Guild Bicentennial Composition Contest and was premiered on October 2, 1976 in Popejoy Hall at UNM by the Albuquerque Youth Symphony Orchestra, Dale Kempter, Director).

  • Instrumentation: 2222, 4331, 2 perc, timp, strgs.
  • Movement Titles (click for mp3 sound clips):
    1. "Calavaras Dawn/Moonset (an old carol)"
    2. "Rio de las Vacas (some old jokes)"
    3. "Paliza Sun-Cliffs (some old echoes)"
  • ASCAP Title Code: 500984681
  • Date Composed: 1973
  • Copyright: 1994 M Mauldin
  • Duration (MM:SS): 9:40
  • Score/Parts: Published by Harmonic Services Group, 436 River Rock Court, San Jose, CA 95136-3903, 408 269 2301.
  • Recording: Performed by the New Mexico Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Michael Mauldin, on the CD "Enchanted Land" produced by M Mauldin.
  • Program Notes/Reviews: "Written in 1973, as little more than an entry in a kind of personal journal, the piece reflects remembered visions from a camping trip with my wife in the Jemez Mountains.  The melody of a Huron Carol haunted me for days.  It reminded me of another spiritual landscape on this continent which had witnessed a fairly harmonious mix of Native American and European ideals.  But the three movements reflect the 'feel' of the Jemez Mountains."


  Near Cat Mesa in the Jemez Mountains

 

+LE TOMBEAU DE L'EAU, for strings and timpani (premiered October 18, 1973 by members of the Albuquerque Youth Symphony, conducted by the composer, in UNM's Keller Hall on a New Mexico Composers Guild Benefit Concert).

  • Instrumentation: solo vln, solo 'cello, strgs, and timp.
  • Date Composed: 1970
  • Duration (MM:SS): 12:20
  • Score/Parts: M Mauldin (manuscript)
  • Recording: Archival recording of premiere.
  • Program Notes/Reviews: "The Tombeau proved to be a moving musical expression and was memorably performed in the fine tradition of our own Albuquerque Youth Symphony."
    --ALBUQUERQUE JOURNAL

 

+TRIBUTE TO A YOUNG SOLDIER (commissioned by the New Mexico Military Institute, in celebration of its centennial and for the Roswell Symphony Orchestra, John Farrer, music director, which premiered it October 12, 1991 in Roswell, NM).

  • Instrumentation: picc, 2222, bass cl, 4331, 2 perc, timp, harp, strgs. 
  • ASCAP Title Code: 500460040
  • Date Composed: 1991
  • Duration (MM:SS): 11:00
  • Score/Parts: M Mauldin (manuscript)
  • Recording: Archival recording of the premiere, RSO.
  • Program Notes/Reviews: "I've always been impressed with young people who seem to accept early in life the fact that true pleasure comes when we give of ourselves, and when we discipline and test ourselves.  Whether it's a music student giving the very best of himself to an audience that he doesn't even know, or a soldier risking life and limb for countrymen he has not met, the gift--especially from one whose life is just forming--is extraordinary.  'Tribute to a Young Soldier' celebrates the gift with pomp and gallantry. There are only distant rumbles of turmoil and sadness.  For contrast, the 'B' section flashes back to young man or woman in childhood, a reminder that, for all our conditioning and skills, we are--as we should be--still capable of awe, tenderness and delight.  Those child-like qualities are some of the very goals of the 'pursuit of happiness' that we reserve the right to fight for."

 

+THE VALLEY AT ANNACARLA (for the Durango Youth Symphony, which premiered it April 16, 2007 at Fort Lewis State College in Durango CO).

  • Instrumentation: 2222 (& bass cl), 4331, harp, bells, 2 perc, timp, strgs.
  • Date Composed: 2006
  • Copyright: 2006 M Mauldin
  • Duration (MM:SS): 5:20
  • Score/Parts: Published by Harmonic Services Group, 436 River Rock Court, San Jose, CA 95136-3903, 408 269 2301.
  • Recording: Sequenced version available for review on the publisher's website.
  • Program Notes/Reviews: "Annacarla is the name that Dutch linguist, Elizabeth Willink, gave her rambling adobe house near Cuba, New Mexico. She invited composer Michael Mauldin to stay there on his trips to Chaco Canyon, the center of a mysterious and prodigious American Indian civilization a thousand years ago. Twenty-five years after Willink's death, Mauldin bought and restored the house as a composing and teaching retreat. This piece was inspired by the beauty and spirit of the valley that the house overlooks. It's a welcoming and nurturing place, appropriate for the teaching of youth, yet visited by blizzards, forest fires and the other adversities of nature."

 

+WILDERNESS SCENES (for the Albuquerque Junior Orchestra, Art Sheinberg, Director, which premiered it April 6, 1992 at Popejoy Hall, UNM).

  • Instrumentation: 2222, 4331, 2 perc, timp, strgs.
  • Movement Titles (click for mp3 sound clips):
    1. "Ridge Trail"
    2. "Forest Fire"
    3. "Whitewater"
  • ASCAP Title Code: 530541085
  • Date Composed: 1991
  • Duration (MM:SS): 6:20
  • Score/Parts: M Mauldin (manuscript and computer generated).
  • Recording: Archival recording of the premiere.

 

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