Clark Nichols’ Princeton Portfolio

Listening Instructions

Thank you for taking the time to listen to my portfolio! Please listen to Invocation and Verses (2021) and Telos (2023) before moving on to either Duwamish (2020) or Frankenstein Overture (2024), depending on which of the following aspects is more relevant to you:

  • If you are looking for a demonstration of my ability to orchestrate for a large forces, please listen to the midi rendering of Frankenstein Overture (2024).

  • If are looking for a work that showcases a style that is significantly different than Telos or Invocation and Verses, I recommend listening to the recording of Duwamish (2020).

Invocation and Verses (2021)

Mandolin & String Quartet

Length: 12 minutes

Click Here for Score

Written in completion of my Master’s degree at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. Explores musical abstraction of poetic form and extended techniques for strings while working towards my goal of expanding existing repertoire of quality for the mandolin.

Τέλος
(2023)

Piano Solo

Length: 9 Minutes

Click Here for Score

Written for my friend Geoffrey Lee, this piece once more dealing musical abstraction and while incorporating my interests in Aristotelian ethics and teleology, which have become more central to my approach to life and composing in recent years. Musically, this piece is an exploration of how momentum is stored and spent.

Duwamish (2020)

Solo Oboe

Length: 5 Minutes

Click Here for Score

Written for SF Opera oboist Ben Brogadir, Duwamish is about a need for personal and creative space in a time (COVID-19) that those things were a luxury. Stylistically, Duwamish is much more lyrical piece than other works in this portfolio. Additionally, it contains a musical allusions to Ravel’s Sonatine, and Lou Harrison’s (my favorite composer) 1950 ballet Solstice.

Frankenstein Overture
(2024) - MIDI

Orchestra

Length: 5 Minutes

Click Here for Score

This piece was written as a proof of concept of what the overture for an operatic adaptation of Frankenstein might sound like, and as a means to demonstrate my abilities to manage writing for a large ensemble. This is part of a long term project where my friend Rosie Rogers and I are working together to adapt Mary Shelley’s novel into a libretto as a fun side project. This project is still in its early stages, and you can see the compositional notes in the score for more details.