ALEXANDER ELLIOTT MILLER
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COMPOSITIONS
Finding Breath
Chaparral
Finding Breath
"Finding Breath" is a work for violin and piano with live effects processing, composed in 2018. The work was composed for Rafael Liebich, Alex Russell and the People Inside Electronics concert series in Los Angeles. While much of the work is fast paced, energetic and unstopping, the title refers to passages that take place in the middle of the piece, where both instruments gradually settle down and find a gesture that deliberately imitates deep breaths in and out. I suppose this is my attempt to find some inner calm in a frenzied 2018; I hope perhaps you may find the same.

Alex Russell, violin
​Rafael Liebich, piano
​Alexander Elliott Miller, electronics

Chaparral
Chaparral is a d
uo for alto saxophone and classical guitar, commissioned for the 2020 California tour of the Duo Montagnard, the duo of Joseph Murphy and Matt Slotkin.   The word “chaparral” itself refers to the ecosystem, mostly short shrubs and bushes, that cover much of the dry, open and undeveloped inland Southern California territories.  The shrubs themselves are dry, fast growing and burn easily, making them particularly prone to California wildfires.  Covering approximately 5% of the state of California, I named this piece Chaparral in honor of the Duo Montagnard’s tour through the southern California region.

Joseph Murphy, saxophone
Matthew Slotkin, guitar

BGA (Breonna, George & Ahmaud)
Dewdrops: Songs for D. Elliott Wilbur
BGA (Breonna, George & Ahmaud)
Commissioned as part of HOCKET's (Sarah Gibson & Thomas Kotcheff, pianos) #What2020SoundsLike project, "BGA (Breonna, George & Ahmaud" is a short work for piano, four hands intended as a quiet memorial to Breonna Taylor, George Floyd and Ahmaud Arbery. The piece uses their initials, BGA, as musical notes throughout the work. This piece is the first of 50 short works that HOCKET is commissioned from different composers in 2020.

HOCKET:
Sarah Gibson & Thomas Kotcheff, piano
DEWDROPS: Songs for D. Elliott Wilbur
Dewdrops ​is a song cycle for soprano and electric guitar, commissioned by Ariel Pisturino, and dedicated to the memory of my grandfather, Donald Elliott Wilbur, Jr.  My grandfather took a music theory course in college in the 1940's, and his assignments and compositions were saved in the attic for decades; after his death, my grandmother gave those to me, and I adapted, varied and reharmonizes his own melodic shapes for the poems in this work.  

Ariel Pisturino, soprano
​Alexander Elliott Miller, guitar
Clock Smasher
Actions & Resonances
Clock Smasher
Clock Smasher is a work for piano, four-hands commissioned by my friends, Sarah Gibson and Thomas Kotcheff of HOCKET.   The title simply describes various musical characteristics of the work, especially its loud outbursts and its frequent polyrhythms, many of which do have a sort of "tick-tock" quality, like a room full of out of sync clocks.  

​But just as important an inspiration for the piece were Sarah and Thomas themselves.  I'd like to think that their personalities and talents have each shaped this piece, every bit as much as an imaginary room full of broken clocks.

Sarah Gibson & Thomas Kotcheff, piano
Synchromy + HOCKET: Crusoe
​LA City College, November 5th, 2016
Actions & Resonances
Actions & Resonances is a stand-alone fast movement for piano composed in 2005.  The title is abstract, describing the primary characteristics of the work’s sound: sharp, crisp and percussive musical gestures that are occasionally interrupted by gentler, resonant chords, which almost seem like distant echoes.  The piece even moves into jazzy territory in its middle section.  At its conclusion, its energy dissipates, the forward rhythmic motion dies away and the percussive gestures disappear, replaced by fragments of earlier motives that dissolve into silence.

​Nic Gerpe, piano
88 MPH
88 MPH (2015)
88 MPH is a work for the Magnetic Resonator Piano: a device invented by Andrew McPherson which may be installed into any acoustic grand piano, and expand its sonic capabilities.  The piece was commissioned by pianist Nic Gerpe and the People Inside Electronics concert series in Los Angeles.  Inspired by the appearance of the apparatus, this work became a tribute to the Back to the Future movies.

Nic Gerpe, Magnetic Resonator Piano
People Inside Electronics
Neighborhood Church of Pasadena
April 18th, 2015

GUITARIST
A Procession Winding Around Me: Four Civil War Songs
II. Beat! Beat! Drums!

Composer: Jeffrey Van
Text: Walt Whitman

CSULB Chamber Choir
Jon Talberg, conductor
Alexander Elliott Miller, classical guitar

Los Alamitos United Methodist Church
Long Beach, California
March 17th, 2017

What's Next? Ensemble: JACOB TV: "The News" (excerpts)
Composer: Jacob ter Veldhuis

What's Next? Ensemble
Vimbayi Kaziboni, conductor

Cafe Club Fais Do Do
Los Angeles, California
March 27th, 2014
Solo Guitar Arrangements
In addition to my work as a composer, a hobby that gives me a great deal of joy is arranging my favorite jazz and popular songs for solo guitar.   Here are some favorites;  a playlist of additional arrangements is on YouTube.
Copyright 2021 Alexander Elliott Miller