Desires is a one-movement piece for string orchestra. It was written in 2006-2007. It is basically in sonata-allegro, with a fast first theme and a slow second theme, with many transitory themes in between. As with practically all of my pieces, it breaks into a fugato towards the end: I can't resist.

Free Form (for alto sax and chamber orchestra) was composed in 2004. The concept of water was central to this composition. The piece begins in six-eight meter with a placid water scene. The alto sax plays a lyrical melody over a rolling accompaniment in the strings and horns. High-pitched splashes of percussion accentuate the cadences. The tranquil music gradually intensifies. Timpani punctuations lead the music into the next section. A rocklike accompaniment begins the Allegro. Peaceful water has been transformed into powerful waves. A jazzy sax melody soars above. Fragments of the tune are heard in the upper strings and horns as the music progresses. The Allegro grows intensifies then transforms into a softer, contrapuntal middle section. Bluesy, chromatic melodies are passed from alto sax through the orchestra. Finally, consonant clusters of sound are heard to return the music to the main theme. The original sax melody returns, but the string accompaniment is slightly altered, as a water scene might be different at another time. Shortly, this section leads into an energetic coda. The music rises, grows in complexity, then finally holds on a fortissimo chord. Free Form concludes dramatically with a rapid sax passage and loud accents in the orchestra.

Trap Door 'is a dream like story of an American soldier in Iraq, and the music contains fragments of contemporary American pop music, set as the opera opens. The two excerpts are from Lisa Prosek's upcoming opera "Trap Door" commissioned by The Lab and to be premiered in San Francisco in June 2008.

Life Is Like That by David Graves

Life Is Like That was written specifically for the San Francisco Composers Chamber Orchestra, its standard instrumentation plus a synthesizer. The performance is scheduled for September 15, 2007. Click on the SFCCO link for information about other pieces scheduled for that concert, as well as directions. This will be my fourth autumn concert in a row with SFCCO, on the occasion of SFCCO's fifth anniversary. I'm very excited about the piece, which was written over the course of 2006 and tweaked in the past year. Several metaphors were developed from clichés into music ... Life Is Like That uses a 5+4/4 motif, which weaves into an uncertain rhythm that is vaguely familiar. Harmonies, at times both consonant and dissonant, elide throughout the piece; one chord passes into another, almost unnoticed. Moments of apparent clarity are interrupted by childish pranks and surprises. And it ends with a question mark.

Dancing on the Brink of the World: San Francisco - 1600 to The Present, a 14 Movement piece on the history of San Francisco - 1600 to the Present. Seven other movements have been performed in previous SFCCO concerts. This piece was made possible by a Creative Connections Award from Meet The Composer.

9. Playland - 1920’s

As early as 1884, there was a roller coaster at Ocean Beach, but Playland-at-the-Beach really began in 1928. At the entrance to Playland, “Laughing Sal” was the mechanical laughing lunatic who greeted visitors to the Crazy House, later called the Fun House. It housed the worlds greatest mirror maze, saved from the Midwinter Exposition. High above the moving sidewalks, shooting air holes, and staggering staircases, loomed a 200-foot, six lane slide of polished hardwood, the largest indoor slide in the world. There was a great Roller Coaster, a scary Haunted House dark ride, a Diving Bell, Bumper Cars, many other rides, and hundreds of concessions and minor amusements. A carnival atmosphere prevailed in this cousin of Coney Island. At night, the place glowed with thousands of glittering lights, creating a "fairy-like effect." In the 1960’s it began to run down, and developed a rather sleazy ominous atmosphere, however, it still retained much of the magic and joy of an earlier era. Sadly, Playland was torn down in 1972 and replaced by condominiums. The sounds of Ocean Beach and Laughing Sal begin this movement. Laughing Sal and many of Playland’s original player pianos and other wonderful curios can still be experienced at the Musee Mecanique at Fisherman's Wharf.


11. North Beach - 1950’s

Along with Chinatown and the Barbary Coast, this was one of the original parts of San Francisco. For more than a century North Beach has been a predominantly Italian neighborhood. The Beatnik era of the 1950’s attracted poets and artists here from around the world. When I was a kid my parents would frequently take me out to dinner to one of their favorite Italian North Beach restaurants. I loved the narrow streets, the steep hills around Coit Tower, the Beat scene, and a girl who worked in an art store who looked like she was from the “Adams family”. When I grew up I wanted to be a Beatnik. Today, North Beach is still the Little Italy of the West Coast, as well as a home for Beatniks and Hipsters.


8. Earthquake and Fire - 1906

Just after 5:00 AM on April 18, 1906, San Francisco was devastated by a major earthquake, and then ravaged by a great fire that burned for four days. Over 3,000 people lost their lives. A quote from an Oakland paper read: “After darkness, thousands of the homeless were making their way with their blankets and scant provisions to Golden Gate Park and the beach to find shelter. Everybody in San Francisco is prepared to leave the city, for the belief is firm that San Francisco will be totally destroyed.” Culled from hundreds of photographs, life stories and letters written during this period, this movement was created during the earthquake’s one hundred year anniversary. The movement begins with the clock striking 5:00 AM, then uses percussion and effects to create the quake and it’s aftermath. Various themes are occasionally enhanced by the haunting qualities of a musical saw.