Stan Grill - ProfilesArchive

About Me

A few words about (and by) the composer
Stanley Grill studied at the Manhattan School of Music a long time ago. Working for most of his career outside of the music field, he spends every moment of his spare time composing. Major works include music for string orchestra, a nonet for winds and strings, an imaginary ballet (without dancers) for orchestra, and numerous chamber works and song cycles for voices and various instruments. Performances have been produced by the composer, as well as presented by the Composers Guild of New Jersey, the St. Pauls Church Festival of the Arts, the Leonia Chamber Players, the New York Composers Circle, the Northern New Jersey Camerata, the Bronx Arts Ensemble and One World Symphony. He currently works in New York City, and lives happily in New Jersey with his wife, cats and piano.
As I see it, as much as we strive to find reason and purpose in our having been born into this amazing, mysterious and awe-inspiring universe, that attempt is largely futile. It is however, the best part of our nature that obliges us to make the attempt, though the most we can hope for is to gain some small degree of understanding of the world around us, and, more importantly, of ourselves. To achieve this, we each approach the problem in our own way, uniquely shaped by our cultural background, innate talents and abilities, education and so on. For some, science may be the window through which they best perceive and interpret the world, for others, religion. For those to whom the world seems to express itself most clearly and beautifully through sound, music is the voice that speaks to us and through which we, in turn, best express ourselves. Now, I can write notes that will make pretty music because Ive been trained to do so, but the best of my music has arrived, rather inexplicably, as part of a personal effort to understand the world and myself. It is, in a way, an act of translation. The world says something, I try to understand it, and then translate it into musical language. The particular musical language which I speak, is, of course, a product of my conservatory training and personal musical tastes, but hopefully, the outcome, imperfect a translation as it may be, will convey to others something of its original intent.

Stan's music is melodic, modal, contrapuntal, characterized by extended, interweaving lines. His musical influences span the centuries, and include Machaut, Josquin, Palestrina, Monteverdi, Lassus, Britten, Ives, Vaughn Williams and Shostakovich. Two main themes permeate many of the pieces - music intended to influence the minds and hearts of those who hear it in such a way as to encourage thoughts about the possibility of world peace - and music composed in an attempt to translate something about the nature of the physical world.
For a complete list of works and scores, please go to Stan's web page at American Music Center

My Interests

Music:

Member Since: 4/16/2006
Band Website: newmusicjukebox.org/composers/
Band Members: Bronx Arts Ensemble
Composers Guild of NJ
Englewinds
Leonia Chamber Players
New York Composers Circle
Northern New Jersey Camerata
One World Symphony

Influences: Machaut-Josquin-Dufay-Palestrina-Monteverdi-Bach-Barber-Brit ten-Ives-Shostakovich
Sounds Like: COMPOSITIONS:

VOCAL MUSIC
The Snow Begins (Williams)
1975 sopr-pn 3 min
Earth and Sea (Eskimo text)
1975 sopr-pn 3 min
Preludes (Eliot) 1978
sopr-vn-vc 10 min
6 Songs (Yeats) 1983
sopr-pn 15 min
To a Child (Yeats) 1987
sopr-string quartet 20 min
Crazy Jane Sings (Yeats) 1999
sopr-fl-vn-va-vc-pn 25 min
Flowers (Williams) 2002
SATB-cello 18 min
Love Poems (Williams) 2003
SSAA 10 min
Trees (Williams) 2004
2 voices-2 cellos 15 min
Thinking of You (MacKenzie)
2005 sopr-vc-harp 7 min
Ariettas without words 2005
sopr-vc-harp 9 min
Scetate(Russo) 2005
SSATTBB 6 min
In Their Flight (Doty) 2006
sopr-mezzo-vn-vc 6 min

MUSIC FOR STRINGS ALONE
6 Contrapuntal Pieces 1986
string quartet 20 min
For Laura 1987
string quartet 25 min
As Easy as 1,2,3 1987
string trio 10 min
The Beckoning Stars 2001
string quartet 13 min
Imaginary Dances 2001
violin solo 18 min
Short Stories 2003
vn-va-vc-db 18 min
Duo 2003
va-vc 9 min
Pavanne 2005
string orchestra 8 min
4 Reflections 2006
string orchestra 8 min
American Landscapes 2006
string quartet 24 min

CHAMBER MUSIC
Three for Three 1992
vn-vc-pn 16 min
Civil War Songs 1992
va-pn 18 min
Take Five 1993
2 vns-va-vc-pn 25 min
Serenade 1999
fl-vn-va-vc 11 min
Distant Music 2000
cl-vn-vc-pn 20 min
Driven by the Wind 2001
fl-vc-pn 25 min
Nonet (for New York) 2002
winds/strings 35 min
Duet 2003
fl-vc 10 min
On the edge of sleep & dreaming 2003
hn-vc-harp 31 min
5 Pastoral Pieces 2004
ob-bn-vn-va-vc 30 min
dreaming of the sea 2004
vn (or fl)-vc-pn 7 min
Little Tales of Mirth & Woe
2004 vn (or fl)-vc-pn 6 min
Ode to Peace 2005
cl-vn-vc 15 min
Elements 2006
fl-ob-cl-hn-bn 11 min
Motet for Brass 2006
2 tp-hn-tb-tu 6 min

ORCHESTRAL MUSIC
Appalachian Songs 1988
chamber orch 25 min
Morning Music 2001
cl-string orch 35 min
Two Sad Songs (Yeats)
2002 sopr-string orch 15 min
Invisible Ballet 2003
chamber orch 33 min
Pluto 2005
orchestra 15 min
Ophelia Songs (Shakespeare) 2005
sopr-hp-string orch 12 min

Type of Label: None

My Blog

a thought about the modern orchestra

I have been finding the sound of the modern orchestra increasingly unbearable. While I understand the historical development of the modern orchestra, I cannot help but find it a rather peculiar ...
Posted by Stan Grill on Sun, 22 Oct 2006 04:24:00 PST

In Their Flight

Sung Jin Hong, music director of One World Symphony, called me in the midst of the usual hectic workday, just before July 4th weekend and said, "I'm planning a concert in September to honor the heroes...
Posted by Stan Grill on Sat, 07 Oct 2006 08:10:00 PST

about "A Sad Song"

Composed for One World Symphony, for a program entitled - Love's Laments - this is one of 2 songs setting poems by W.B. Yeats. This post is the 2nd of the two, setting The Cloak, the Boat and th...
Posted by Stan Grill on Sun, 16 Jul 2006 08:52:00 PST

Why write music (2)?

Reason #2: I have a hope, not founded in reason given the realities of the world, that peace is possible. Although there is little that can realistically be done about the penchant for vio...
Posted by Stan Grill on Fri, 09 Jun 2006 05:38:00 PST

about "Pluto" - a work to accompany Holst's "The Planets"

Composed for One World Symphony to provide the missing planet in a program presenting Holsts The Planets, this music is intended to capture something of the eternal sweep of this cold and mysterious p...
Posted by Stan Grill on Fri, 02 Jun 2006 08:00:00 PST

Ode to the Possibility of Peace (2005)

Ode to the Possibility of Peace (2005) for clarinet, violin & cello There was a short time in my life, when the achievement of peace seemed to be a tangible, real possibility. Naive a...
Posted by Stan Grill on Sun, 14 May 2006 04:23:00 PST

Nonet for the City of New York (2001)

This piece was written shortly after hearing Bohuslav Martinus Nonet for the first time, with an aim towards achieving the same buoyant, passionate and optimistic expressiveness. Like a few othe...
Posted by Stan Grill on Sun, 14 May 2006 04:20:00 PST

Why write music?

Reason #1. A vivid memory -- as a small child, lying on the living room floor staring up at the dark ceiling, alone in the night, with the sound of Bach's b minor mass pouring out of the speaker...
Posted by Stan Grill on Sat, 06 May 2006 04:30:00 PST

Searching for a beautiful simplicity in music

The psychological fact that repetition dulls our capacity to react, has a deplorable, if cyclical, effect on art. From simple beginnings, art becomes more complex, more startling, more outrageou...
Posted by Stan Grill on Sat, 06 May 2006 04:00:00 PST

Art

Any attempt to assess the usefulness, value, purpose, or whatever of the arts must begin, not with the products of artistic endeavor, but with the inner process by which individual works of arts are c...
Posted by Stan Grill on Wed, 19 Apr 2006 06:37:00 PST