Music Compositions
of Michael A. Kimbell
Orchestral & Symphonic Works

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Chamber Music
Orchestral Music
Piano Music
Vocal Music
Stage Works
Music Excerpts
Arcadian Symphony  (1997)
1998 Winner of the Southern Arizona Symphony Orchestra Competition

Symphony in five movements

2(pic)222 2130 2perc str
25 minutes

Description
By juxtaposing formal, harmonic and contrapuntal gestures from classical and romantic symphonies with a modern sensibility and idiom, the music of this symphony explores the tensions between light and shadow, playfulness and seriousness, fantasy and taut structure.
The Gavotte is also available in a separate piano transcription.
1) Overture (See and hear an excerpt)
2) Scherzo
3) Variations
4) Gavotte (See and hear an excerpt)
5) Tarantella (See and hear an excerpt)
Reviews & Testimonials
“Neoclassic in design, the work takes unexpected Prokofievian shifts on a number of occasions, always leaving the listener alert.”
-- Phillip George in 20th Century Music, October 1998
“The scherzo is lively, sardonic, amusing, and motivically concise... the final tarantella is a strange one indeed, full of mysticism and wildness.”
-- Nancy Bloomer Deussen in 20th Century Music, March 1998
“...skillfully written, ambitious music that transmitted something fresh through old forms... The opening overture displayed imaginative orchestration... A theme and variations movement yielded one idiomatically luscious wind solo after another.”
-- Ken Keuffel Jr. in The Arizona Daily Star, December 1998
Bound score $50.00
Score, PDF download $25.00
CD, score & parts $50.00

Kritik des Herzens (The Heart’s Critique) (2003)
for orchestra and tenor

Symphonic German Lieder for tenor
1111 1000 1perc tenor str
10 min

Description
Six orchestral lieder in the tradition of Gustav Mahler and Richard Strauss set the poems by of the great German satirist and cartoonist Wilhelm Busch (1832-1908). Lyrical vignettes and ironic musings on life, love, loss, resignation and reconciliation. Optional English singing translations by Edith & Michael Kimbell. Version also available for tenor and piano.
1) Es sitzt ein Vogel auf dem Leim (See and hear an excerpt)
2) Seid mir nur nicht gar so traurig (See and hear an excerpt)
3) Es flog einmal ein muntres Fliegel (See and hear an excerpt)
4) Ferne Berge seh’ ich glühen
5) Sie war ein Blümlein hübsch und fein
6) O du, die mir die Liebste war
Reviews & Testimonials
“... a contemporary composer, not totally averse to tonality, who knows how to make skillful use of recent innovations. He has a real affinity for Wilhelm Busch’s humor and the lyrical sections are also spot-on.”
-- Gerhard Seitz, former concertmaster, Bavarian Radio Symphony
Bound score $30.00
Score, PDF download $15.00
CD, score & parts $30.00

Bound score $30.00
Score, PDF download $15.00
CD, score & parts $30.00
Nachtgesänge (Night Songs) (1999)
tone poem for orchestra

2(pic)222 2100 timp str4tet str
10 min 

Description
Tone poem/night music/nocturne evoking the moods and thoughts raised by the passage of twilight into deep night. Following a dramatic sunset for full orchestra, the strings suggest evening breezes while the woodwinds softly improvise the song of crickets and frogs. Emerging stars multiply into the immensity of the stellar panoply with its swirling galaxies. The night bird sings his commentary and serenade throughout.
(See and hear an excerpt)


Bound score $20.00
Score, PDF download $10.00
CD, score & parts $20.00
Pastorale (1974)

2122 2000 str  (or 203(BassCl)1 2000 str)

3 min 

Description
Atmospheric nocturne for students and amateurs. The opening lyrical clarinet melody is repeated and developed by various instruments; a second melody, related to the first, is introduced by the flutes. After a brief climax the Pastorale rapidly subsides and dies away.
(
See an excerpt)

Bound score $20.00
Score, PDF download $10.00
CD, score & parts $20.00
Rondino cappricioso (2001)

2(pic)2(EH)2(Eb)2 4231 3perc str
4 min 

Description
Dramatic, sarcastic rondo/quodlibet featuring a Turkish march and a surprise ending; other tunes that flit in and out of the texture include Haydn’s tune Austria and Home, Sweet Home. In a mischievous, if bittersweet comment on events of the early 21st century, the latter tune is superimposed on the Dies Irae. (See and hear an excerpt)

Reviews & Testimonials

“...the work is a veritable orchestral kaleidoscope, with witty effervescences that are obviously as much fun for the players to perform as for the audience to listen to... It is refreshing to hear such vibrant music that attempts neither to be a pastiche of the past, nor to explore some abstract and abstruse school...but instead stands firmly and unapologetically on its own frank enjoyability.”
-- Edmund Kimbell in 21st Century Music, March 2002

Taklamakán (2004)
tone poem for orchestra

2(pic)2(EH)22 4331(tuba optional) 2perc str
18 min 

Description
Dramatic and atmospheric tone poem inspired by the “Silk Road” and Mars deserts, evoking the feelings of mystery and the wonder of discovery, along with intimations of the impermanence of natural conditions which might foster life, as well as the fragility inherent in  both the means and the results of discovery. (See and hear an excerpt)

Bound score $40.00
Score, PDF download $20.00
CD, score & parts $40.00

Copyright © Michael & Edith Kimbell 2006. All rights reserved
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