Andrew Mark Sauerwein

Composed for Dr. Stephen Sachs, who premiered the work on February 22, 2019.  The music voices the idea of its title with the interplay of three themes focused on discovery, surprise, and wonder.

In memoriam Joel David Sauerwein (1959-2017).

A pensive reflection on the last few verses of Psalm 19.

This prelude is a still-life image of the Tower of Babel, the firstfruits of ongoing collaborative work with artist Jacob Rowan.  The piece was first performed at a faculty recital in 2015.

Composed on the heels of completing Sakharoviana, this piece evokes a speculative image of Russian physicist Andrei Sakharov's calm, thoughtful, compassionate curiosity. 

A wistful etude, named after an early mishap in the compositional process.

A short prelude with a silly name.

A birthday present for my charming wife, Quita--a sincere, whimsical portrait of our enduring affection and steadfast friendship.  

A friend of mine commissioned this as a birthday gift for his wife.  It includes a handful of references to well-known romantic pieces, as well as a variety of subtle allusions to melodic motives from a familiar celebratory tune.    

This piece never got a suitable title, and was inadvertently numbered out of order among the ongoing set of Digressions.

These pieces comment on a common but problematic way of thinking. The musical language for this series is deliberately contrived to be abstract and open to unbridled interpretation, but its use evokes intentionally vivid and concrete imagery.

A collaboration with fellow composer Kurt Landre, who named the piece Insipid Digression.

In this, our second collaboration, Kurt Landre gave me a twelve-tone row and a rhythmic gesture, with which I composed a short etude.  

I composed this short prelude during a workshop on choreography and composition.  My collaborator (Margo van Ummerson) independently designed a solo dance, and we put the two together, sight unseen.  The effect was surprisingly captivating...

An early work, based on an improvisation, for a UO Composition Workshop reading by Anthony Demare.

Snow Music is a conversational meditation on a single moment of wonder: One evening, halfway through composing this piece, sitting at the piano in a pool of lamplight, I was surprised to notice snowflakes falling outside my living-room window. Their simple, swirling, entrancing beauty crystallized the music's expressive focus.