AS COMPOSER Jay Gordon's
compositions explore the intersection where
spirituality and music meet.
My compositions have been performed by some of the
best choral ensembles in the nation including
commissions by The Dale Warland Singers, Cantus, the
National Lutheran Choir, and the Rose Ensemble.
Since studying classical guitar and composition and
earning a Bachelors at the University of Minnesota,
I've been active as composer, guitarist, teacher and
concert producer. Little Boat Music Publishing
publishes my music.
Click here for guitar
performance information.
In a world that seems more devoted to ideas about
spirit than the experience of it, music is good at
melting the conceptual barriers that reinforce
religious isolation. It's for this reason that I've
focused on writing music that explores the
intersection where wisdom traditions and music meet.
My commission for Cantus and the National Lutheran
Choir, The Keeping of the Soul is a good example. It
explores the idea that though religious beliefs are
different the world over, the fact of death is
universal. This work had its Canadian premiere in April of 2014.
This is from a Saint Paul Pioneer Press review:
"The Keeping of the Soul" by Jay Gordon is
something like a Requiem Mass that looks at death
through the lenses and languages of nine religions.
Latin blends into Lakota, Aramaic into Arabic, but
what could have been scattershot and unfocused
instead proved very moving... It was one of the
highlights of a full-immersion concert
experience..."
Other choral works include commissions for the Rose
Ensemble for a work on the life of Joan of Arc (
Sixty
Against One). The Dale Warland Singers
commission (
If You Love, Love Openly) is a
work that combines a Zen story about the Buddhist
nun Eshun with pre-Buddhist meditation instructions.
It's uncompromising message of being true to
yourself. Through a composer’s residency with the
American Composers Forum's Faith Partners Program, I
also have composed a sacred music collection of
Psalm settings and other biblical texts.
In 1995 I founded and acted as Artistic Director for
Music Saint Croix, an annual series of chamber music
concerts and new music commissions based in
Stillwater, Minnesota. Music Saint Croix’s aim is to
attract new audiences for art music by presenting
concerts in areas of great scenic beauty.
Duo Ahlert and Schwab commissioned me to write
Listening Point for mandolin and guitar which had its
premiere in Germany in 2017 and a recording
by the duo for another work,
Demonelix, is now available on the Naxos label. I
have several albums (
Diggunim Trees, Hoary
Plucks: Renaissance music of Spain, Italy and
England on Guitar and the
latest
Spanish
Flowers: the Music of Albeniz and Granados) available on
online resources such as iTunes.