ORCHESTRA AND CHAMBER ORCHESTRA
Colorado Variations (1994) 5 min.
picc./2/2/2/b. cl./2/cbn.; 4/3/3/1; timp., perc. (3), pno.; str.
Condominiums on the Hot Stove (Home on the Range)(1989) 8 min.
Theme and Variations for Small Chamber Orchestra
1/1/0/0; 1/1/1/1; perc. (2); str.
Duo Concertante (2000) 16'
Solo vln., Solo va.; 1/1/1/1; 2/1/0/0; str.
Heidi, A Symphonic Narrative (Part I) (1979) 25 min.
3 (picc.)/2/3 (b. cl.)/3 (cbn.)/t. sax.; 4/3/3/1; timp., perc. (4), hp.; str.;
The children's classic is told by musical instruments, sound effects and romantic mountain music (solo instruments from the orchestra represent the principal characters - Violin [Heidi], Amplified Bass [Grandfather] and Trombone [Aunt Dete]).
(photographic slides of text optional)
[also available in a version of 8' duration]
The Legend of Spuyten Duyvil (1991) 19 min.
Narrator; 2 (picc.)/2/2 (b. cl.)/2 (cbn.); 2/2/1/0; str.
The conductor, preferably doubling as the narrator, presents an historical legend of old New York.
Reviews
The cleverest and most digestible work was Jon Deak's "The Legend of Spuyten Duyvil," a tale of Old New Amsterdam narrated by the conductor. Deak, who makes his living as associate principal bass of the New York Philharmonic, has more fun with music than anyone I know except, perhaps, Peter Schickele.
Peter Goodman, New York Newsday
New York, 1842: A City on Fire (1992) 23 min.
Narrator; 3 (picc.)/2/3 (b. cl.)/3 (cbn.); 2/3/3/1; timp., perc. (4); hp.; str.
The Snow Queen Finale: The Ice Palace (1991) 14 min.
Narrator; viola obbligato, contrabass obbligato; 3 (picc.)/2/3 (b. cl.)/2/cbn.; 4/2/3/1; timp., perc. (3), pno., hp.; str.
The conductor may double as narrator in this retelling of the tale by Hans Christian Andersen.
Reviews
The concert opened with the world premiere of Jon Deak's "The Snow Queen," commissioned by the [Long Island Philharmonic] music director Marin Alsop and the Philharmonic...
Deak, who makes his steady living as associate principal bass of the New York Philharmonic, is a composer who really believes that music is fun. His works are witty and unashamedly playful. In "The Snow Queen," he set the tone for the conclusion of Andersen's tale of a girl, Gerda (violist Tina Pelikan), who sets out to rescue her friend, Kai (bassist Paul Harris), who has been blind and is held prisoner in the Snow Queen's palace.
Deak pulls out all the stops: The music itself is sweeping and singing but without that thick romanticism. He uses an electronic keyboard to make crunching snow sounds. He asks the musicians to sigh, breathe, gasp and whisper. He asks the conductor to narrate and lead simultaneously—a task which Alsop handled with exactly the right blend of twinkling seriousness. This is a work that orchestras should snap up.
Peter Goodman, New York Newsday
Celebration and Remembrance (1996) 6'
picc./2/2 (eng. hn.)/2 (b. cl.)/2 (cbn.); 4/3/3/1; timp., perc. (3), pno, hp.; str.
CHORUS AND ORCHESTRA
The Broccoli Beast of Bedford Avenue (1994) 23 min.
Solo trumpet (narrator); child narrator; children's chorus; 2/1/1/2; 2/1/2/0; perc. (3); str.
Reviews
A lighter jazziness enlivened the latest of Jon Deak's children's works, "The Broccoli Beast of Bedford Avenue," a drama based on a story by Michelle Ellis, a student at P.S. 3 in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn. In the story, Michelle discovers a broccoli monster in her refrigerator, and after first recoiling (on the ground that he is smelly), she sprays himwith perfume, shields him from the police and becomes his pal.
Cimone Graves, a 9-year-old from P.S. 3, did a fabulous job as Michelle. She had memorized the text and made the character her own, complete with deadpan humor. Wayne du Maine played Mr. Deak's solo trumpet figures -- part jazz, part Stravinsky-style angularity -- with flair, and doubled as the monster, delivering his lines with a Louis Armstrong growl. A chorus from P.S. 3 chimed in with
responses to Michelle's observations, in appealingly complex rhythms. Mr. Deak's orchestral fabric supported the goings-on efficiently.
Allan Kozinn, The New York Times
STRING ORCHESTRA
Quilting Frolic (1992) 5 min.
An arrangement of the 2nd movement of "The Headless Horseman of Sleepy Hollow"
SOLO INSTRUMENT(S) AND ORCHESTRA
Concerto for Contrabass and Orchestra (1991) 22 min.
("Jack and the Beanstalk")
Solo contrabass (amp.); 3 (picc.)/2/3 (b. cl.)/3 (cbn.); 4/2/3/1; timp., perc. (3), hp.; str.
Concerto for String Quartet and Orchestra (1991) 28 min.
("The Headless Horseman of Sleepy Hollow")
Solo string quartet; narrator; 1/1/1/1; 2/2/b. trb./0; perc. (2), kybd. synth; str.
Text based on "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" by Washington Irving adapted by the composer, with Scott Garlick.
The Wind in the Willows: Scene 7 (1989) 15 min.
Solo contrabass (amp.); 2 (picc.)/ 2/2/b. cl./2/cbn.; 4/2/3/1; timp., perc. (3), hp.; str.
Story adapted, in collaboration with Richard Hartshorne, from "The Wind in the Willows," by Kenneth Grahame. The conductor and/or the soloist may double as narrators with orchestra members also speaking a few of the words.
Reviews
Like many musicians of the New York Philharmonic, Jon Deak pursues a vigorous freelance career outside his orchestral duties.
But several facts separate Deak from his peers: He plays the contrabass, hardly the sort of instrument that lends itself to a solo career. And he is the composer of a unique brand of theater piece that combines narration, special musical effects and, most important of all, a childlike fascination with the world. not surprisingly, many of Deak's pieces feature a prominent role for the contrabass, for he is something of a one-man band, actor and instrumentalist all at once.
On Saturday, Deak took his act to the John Cranford Adams Playhouse of the Hofstra University campus, where he was the featured soloist with the Nassau Symphony in a program that offered the world premiere of his "The Wind in the Willows, Scene Seven."
The concert was by far the orchestra's finest of the season, and the Deak work was a slender classic. Taking its story from the Kenneth Grahame children's tale, "The Wind in the Willows, Scene Seven" relates the troublesome adventures of a trio of animals—Mole, Water Rat and Badger—who, in Deak's words, "march off to rescue Toad… from his latest madness: that new-fangled invention, the motor car."
Like Prokofiev in "Peter and the Wolf," Deak assigns a different member of the orchestral family to portray each animal, giving the prominent part of Toad, of course, to the solo contrabass. But the similarities with Prokofiev end there, for Deak incorporates a myriad of musical and narrative effects, and his score ranges in mood from Walt Disney fantasy to Stravinskian madness.
To quote the composer: "For mew, the spoken word, sound effect, natural sound, musical style, melody, harmony and rhythm are all regarded equally. In actual performance, this means that the conductor is not just a conductor, the musicians not just instrumentalists, and even the instruments themselves not just inert sound producing tools."
Indeed, in Deak's work, Nassau Symphony Music Director Andrew Schenk and the Nassau Symphony musicians shared much of the responsibility for the narration, while Deak "drove" his contrabass as if it were a motor car. The results were simply magical for children and adults. The work neither condescends nor seeks to find a moral. It is entertainment for entertainment's sake, especially when handled with the sensitivity and sparkle of Schenk and his orchestra.
Otherwise, Deak offered a short and loving transcription of Dvorkaks "Silent Woods," Op. 68, No. 5, and Schenk led a rousing though sometimes uneven reading of Ives' orchestral tone poem, "Washington's Birthday," from the composer's "Holidays" Symphony, as well as an intensely emotive performance of Sibelius' Symphony No. 5 in E-flat Major, Op. 82.
That the audience responded enthusiastically to all four pieces is perhaps a sign that the Nassau Symphony need not rely on war-horses to woo potential subscribers, and that Schenk has hit upon something in his first season aboard.
Charles Passy, New York Newsday
CHAMBER MUSIC
Bremen Town Musicians (1985) 19 min.
Woodwind quintet: flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, and horn
Score for sale (O5353)
Reviews
"The Musicians of Bremen," which had its Washington premiere Friday night at the National Academy of Sciences, may be the woodwind quintet's answer to "Peter and the Wolf." The latest work of Jon Deak, a New York composer who has also been performed here by the 20th Century Consort, compensates in vividness what it may lack in profundity.
The performers Friday night were the New York Woodwind Quintet, a virtuoso ensemble of the highest quality that brought to Washington a program well calculated to test and demonstrate its skills.
Deak's is the work likely to be remembered most vividly. The instruments brilliantly imitate the voices and physical actions of the donkey, hound, cat and rooster of the Grimm brothers' tale, producing descriptive grunts, squawks, chirps, squeaks and gargles that students spend years of hard work learning to avoid. The players also recite key parts of the story, solo or in harmony—a more challenging assignment for wind players than for pianists or cellists. It is wonderfully amusing and leaves one wanting to hear more samples of Deak's wild musical imagination.
Joseph McLellan, The Washington Post
Bye-Bye! (1987) 10 min.
Flute/narrator and piano/narrator
Dire Expectations (1976) 17-18 min.
A Gothic Melodrama in Five Acts
2 flutes, bass clarinet, bassoon, contrabassoon, 2 violins, viola, cello, contrabass
Reviews
Each of the three pieces on last night's N.Y. Philharmonic Prospective Encounter was built around a program, with the two most interesting works accompanied by an actual script. A moderate audience at the Great Hall of the Cooper Union responded favorably to all three, asking intelligent questions of the performers, composers and conductor, Pierre Boulez.
A brand new work opened the program, and it marked, according to Boulez, the first time the orchestra has played something composed by one of it's members, in this case Jon Deak, a principal double bass player. Called "Dire Expectations," the short work was extremely funny.
Deak is interested in "Sprechspiele," which means instrumental talking. Used frequently in jazz, "Speakplaying" is achieved by a pedal beside the wind, brass or string instrument wired to an amplifier which in turn is connected to a mike on the instrument.
The Pedal
The performer pushes the pedal up or down, so cutting off the higher or lower frequencies of the note he plays. This allows the sound to duplicate vowels or consonants, sometimes whole words.
For all the machines, the cartoony piece is quite musical. This listener cannot honestly say that the instruments' sound duplicated that of a drama involving a violin named "Cynthia," her boyfriend double bass called "Eli" and a wicked sorcerer-father cello, but the spirit of the words was conveyed.
Musically Deak used any style appropriate to his text, and for all the contemporary sound when the characters were supposed to sing a song, Deak showed he could write a lyrical melody.
Speight Jenkins, New York Post
This was a work that exploited the imitative possibilities of music. In addition to the simulated speech, there were imitations of bird calls, of a storm and of footsteps, the latter made by a percussionist drumming a pair of men's black shoes on a table. The solo instruments were electrified and fitted with controls to achieve approximations of human voice modulation. It was both clever and amusing and suggested that Mr. Deak is nothing of not thorough in his working out of a composition.
Allen Hughes, The New York Times
The Draperies (1979) 10 min.
String quintet (2 violins, viola, cello, contrabass) and photographic slides
Written as a companion piece to "The Fearsome Fate".
Eeyore has a Birthday (1991) 23 min.
Viola, contrabass and piano
 Recorded by The Apple Hill Chamber Players
Fundevogel: Act 1 (1988) 23 min.
String Quartet: 2 violins, viola and cello
Based on the Grimm's tale, a variation on the Hansel and Gretel story.
Greetings from 1984 (1983) 16 min.
Violin and piano
Three scenes from George Orwell's novel are used to create a tour-de-force for the performers who also narrate and coordinate sound-effects.Recorded by Kathryn Lucktenberg, violin and Victor Steinhart, piano
Reviews
The work opens with an eerie prelude, comparatively restrained, tentatively lurching between pairs of notes about an octave apart. With Jenner's first description of the departure of Orwell's hero Winston from his daily routine, sound effects begin decorating the text and interrupting the piano-violin dialogue.
The bicycle horn, lion's roar, sandpaper, pop gun, bass drum, police whistle (among some 30 instruments and gadgets) predictably elicited giggles from the audience as they made their startling entrances. Oddly, this enhances rather than disturbs the work's sobering picture of life in a repressed society.
One was remind of Eliot's line in Portrait of a Lady: "My smile falls heavily among the bric-a-brac." In a more purposeful context, the composer's smile has the sardonic weight that lies rudely among the precious junk of 1984's world of deprivation.
The aim seems to be not mockery of the book, but a reinforcement of its underlying humanity. Threats to this quality are achieved symbolically by cluttering the musical surface. As performed expertly here, Greetings From 1984 is a manic divertimento in which violin and piano represent the persistence of civilized values despite a systematic depersonalization.
Jay Harvey, The Indianapolis Star
Jon Deak; remember the name—not that it's easy to forget. Deak is a member of the double bass section of the New York Philharmonic, a virtuoso player on that ungainly instrument and a composer-performer who has learned to make stringed instruments "talk" with an eerie quality reminiscent of human voices in states of emotional stress. His musical setting of the Dracula story, "Lucy and the Count," has been performed at least twice in Washington—most recently last week at the Dumbarton Avenue Church—and a newer opus, "Greetings From 1984," had a hilarious Washington premiere Saturday at the Hirshhorn Museum.
"Greetings From 1984," including readings from George Orwell's book with instrumental commentaries, was the most overtly political item in the Twentieth Century Consort's program, "Election Special."
Joseph McLellan, The Washington Post
Hyde and Jekyll: Chapter I (1983) 15 min.
Chapter II (1984) 14 min.
Flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, horn, 2 percussion, 2 violins, viola, cello, contrabass and photographic slides
A musical narrative written in mock heroic manner, emulating the style of Gothic horror novels.
Reviews
If there were any doubts that contemporary music has the capacity to entertain, they evaporated in the mirth of Jon Deak's "Hyde and Jekyll, Chapter II." In the ingenious piece, Dr. Jekyll, played by cellist Peter Wyrick, and Mr. Hyde, performed by Robert Ward on horn, consider the "elements of the human soul"—from innocence and kindness to madness, obsession (a turgidly repeated phrase), thrift (just a few notes) and sloth (low and inert)—wondering if the undesirable elements can be eliminated.
While the orchestra, making an array of extra musical sounds including bird calls, chatters away, cello and horn carry on their zany dialogue, their parts accented like human speech and for the most part matched note to syllable to projected supertitles. Not one of the musicians shorted the riotous fun of the piece, but Wyrick, whose every mercurial facial expression spells mischief, stole the show.
Timothy Pfaff, San Francisco Examiner
Iowa (1974) 10 min.
Flute, trombone, contrabass and percussion
A sound-effects scenario which uses the "sprechspiel" (speaking & playing) technique for the first time.
Lad, A Dog: A Trio (1991) 8 min.
Violin, clarinet and piano
Recorded by The Verdehr Trio
Lad, a Dog: a Trio, Part II (1999) 10'
vln.; cl.; pno.
Lady Chatterly's Dream (1985) 14 min.
Violin, viola, cello, contrabass and piano
Recorded by The Apple Hill Chamber Players
Reviews
All this might sound like a recipe for something unbearably arch, cute, and self-conscious—or just fun once, if even that. But take our word for it—Jon Deak is no slouch. For the very, very learned listeners among us, he fitted out the sex-hating Clifford's utterance, "The body is merely an encumbrance, you know," with, please note, a tone row. Then he had the instruments do some huffing and puffing and drooping—nastily rhythmic "factory" music, for voices and instruments both—to let us know that Clifford Chatterley wasn't your ideally enlightened mine owner. It sounded like hell.
Later on, as you remember, "with a wild little laugh," Ms. Chatterley "slipped off her clothes and ran out, spreading her arms, running blurred in the rain with the eurythmic dance movements she had learned so long ago." Depicting this, composer Deak first starts out with something very salon-brillante and genteel (Hummel, maybe?), but then, by turns, the music becomes, as they used to say, "suggestive." The next bit of text reads, "Mellors jumped out after her."
Jon Deak is obviously a composer with technique to burn. If "Lady Chatterley's Dream" gets away with murder, well, more power to him. Performers and audience were having a wonderful time, and it was being mentioned that (for another piece) Jon Deak (b. 1943) may be up for a Pulitzer.
Richard Buell, Boston Globe
Quilting Frolic (1992) 5 min.
An arrangement of the 2nd movement of "The Headless Horseman of Sleepy Hollow"
String Quintet: 2 violins, viola, cello and contrabass
Rapunzel (2000) 35'
narr.; ob.; vn., va., vc., pno.
Sinister Tremors (1977) 14 min.
Clarinet, percussion and prerecorded tape
Text from the journal found on a victim of the Klondike Gold Rush of 1898
Vasilisa of a Young Girl Meets Baba-Yaga (1994) 15 min.
Flute, oboe, violin, viola, cello, and piano
The Wager at the Eldorado Saloon From "The Call of the Wild" (1993) 15 min.
Violin, contrabass and piano
Recorded by Kathryn Lucktenberg, violin; Victor Steinhart, piano; Jon Deak, double bass
Yamamba, or the Mountain Goddess (2006) 16 min.
Flute, Harp, Viola, Contrabass.
Commissioned by William Blossom. Inspired by the classic Noh drama of Zeami (12th century Japanese.)
Recorded by William Blossom and the Cicada Chamber Players.
CONTRABASS WITH CHAMBER ENSEMBLE
The Fearsome Fate (1977; rev., 1980) 10 min.
Solo contrabass (with "sprechspiel"); 5 contrabasses and photographic slides
The Fearsome Fate (1977; rev., 1979) 10 min.
Solo contrabass (with "sprechspiel"); 2 violins, viola, cello and photographic slides
Lucy and the Count (Love Dreams from Transylvania) (1981) 17 min.
Solo contrabass; 2 violins, viola and cello
A three-movement work featuring the solo bassist in a dramatic, virtuoso role
Recorded by Richard Hartshorne, contrabass and The Audobon String Quartet
Reviews
Jon Deak's amusing "Lucy and the Count: Love Dreams from Transylvania," gives the performers, especially bassist Richard Hartshorne, a chance to ham it up; half the fun is following the story in the music. each instrument (string quintet) is a character from Dracula's tale, with the bass as the vampire Count. The instruments portray speech (the Count's Transylvanian-accented "Good evening" is rendered with perfect syllabic stress and intonation), nervous laughter, coffins opening, etc., yet the piece makes musical sense as well.
Heidi Waleson, New York Post
Jon Deak's delightful "Lucy and the Count" ended the program. A theater piece in three scenes for string quartet and double bass, played by the composer, tells the Dracula story. The instruments "speak," create sound effects, and in third scene, do some fine quintet playing. Deak is an Edward Gorey of music, able to wed art and image, and preserving each.
Ed Mattos, The Washington Post
The Ugly Duckling (Part II) (1981) 10 min.
Solo contrabass, soprano voice; 2 violins, viola and cello
Reviews
In his 1981 chamber work, "The Ugly Duckling," Jon Deal accomplishes what very few composers have: He has written apiece of music both accessible and intelligent, hilarious and touching, and --best of all--one that appeals to adults, children and poultry lovers alike. Not since Saint Saens' "Carnival of the Animals" or Prokofiev's "Peter and the Wolf" has a member of the animal kingdom been given such a clear musical persona.
"Duckling," which opened the Twentieth Century Concerts Saturday afternoon concert at the Hirshhorn Museum Auditorium, employs an unlikely instrument, the contrabass, as the voice and the waddle of the poor misunderstood bird. Deak, a principal contrabassist of the New York Philharmonic (and a charming actor as well), was on hand to bring the character to life, and to provide other sound effects as well—eggs hatching, doors creaking and the like. Lucy Shelton sang the role of the duck's bewildered mom, various cruel birds, a dog, a tomcat and a hen, and also served as narrator of the tale. And about midway into the work, the American String Quartet entered the fray, rather like the chorus of a melodramatic operetta.
Pamela Sommers, The Washington Post
FromFaure and Verlaine to the childlike fun of "The Ugly Duckling," a charming tour de force for soprano and double bass, was a great leap, sure-footedly made. Mr. Deak, who plays the double bass in the New York Philharmonic, is a composer who enjoys making
affectionate fun of his stately instrument. In this piece it is clearly identified with the duckling, a creature unfairly despised by fowl friends. Richard Hartshorne's deadpan performance on the bass made a perfect counterpoint to Miss Upshaw's vivacious and
virtuosic telling of the tale, which ends with the duckling's escaping fromhis tormentors.
Donal Henahan, The New York Times
SOLO CONTRABASS
Audition (1972) 5 min.
Solo contrabass (may be transcribed by performer for any other instrument)
For Sale (FE235)
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes: The Hound of the Baskervilles (1984) 23 min.
Contrabass/narrator (or violoncello/narrator)
Based on an adaptation, by Richard Nartshorne, of the original story by Arthur Conan Doyle.
Recorded by The Apple Hill Chamber Players
Reviews
Composer Jon Deak shared the program with Beethoven and Dvorak Saturday night at the Dumbarton Street United Methodist Church. Deak's "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes" lacked some of the lyric grace of Beethoven's Piano Trio in G, Op. 1, No. 2, or Dvorak's Quintet in A, Op. 81, for piano and strings, which were played with great gusto and emotional involvement by the Apple Hill Chamber Players. But it was, in many ways, the most memorable event on the season's first program of the Dumbarton Concert Series.
Deak, a double bassist with the New York Philharmonic, is also a prolific composer, with more than 100 works to his credit. In pieces previously performed in the Washington area—notably "Lucy and the Count," a setting of the Dracula story for solo double bass and narrator—he demonstrated that his instrument can imitate such things as bats (the kind with wings) and the squeaky hinges on a poorly oiled door or coffin lid. In "Sherlock Holmes," narrated and played by contrabassist Richard Hartshorne, Deak significantly enlarged the instrument's repertoire of sound effects.
Reciting a tense, mystifying script drawn (with slight modifications) from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Hartshorne played all the roles, male and female, young and old, aided by a monocle and hats that identified the various characters. Some hats were two-sided, so that he could switch characters quickly by turning the hat around. Each character had a leitmotif played on the bass, but the most striking parts of the evening were the sound effects generated by the instrument: various kinds of footsteps, mist creeping over the moors, doors and windows opening and shutting, a death by heart attack, even the clouds of tobacco smoke filling Holmes's room. Most haunting of all was the often-repeated, distant, disembodied but reverberant howling of the hound of the Baskervilles.
Joseph McLellan, The Washington Post
THE most striking piece on Gregory Fulkerson's recital Tuesday night at Alice Tully Hall was the first performance of Jon Deak's "Greetings from 1984." In a sense, this is a score for violin and piano, just what one might expect at a violin recital. But Mr. Deak, who is associate principal bass of the New York Philharmonic, is a composer who likes to frustrate common expectations. He also likes to illustrate extramusical ideas with what amount to sound effects, and both those tendencies were fully audible in
this new piece.
"Greetings from 1984" takes three sections from early in George Orwell's "1984" and sets them to music. What that meant was that Mr. Fulkerson narrated as he played, with some secondary voices fromhis willing accompanist, Robert Shannon. Both men - in addition to their main tasks at the violin and piano - were also called upon to play percussion and to provide other effects; Mr. Shannon,
thumping on a foot-pedal bass drumand whacking and whistling on an array of ancillary instruments, was a veritable one-man band.
...at times Mr. Deak would relax his otherwise tight synchronicity of word and sound and let the music bloom. And his dramatic touch at the end, with rising violin figures leading to Julia's first declaration of love, with the "I love you" left hanging in mid-air, was a real stroke of music theater. Mr. Deak clearly has inclinations in the direction of opera; perhaps he has held back because his social and professional connections lie in the world of symphonies and recitals. But he would probably be better off simply capitulating to his theatrical instincts, instead of foisting themon violinists like Mr. Fulkerson.
John Rockwell, The New York Times
B. B. Wolf (an Apologia) (1982) 8 min.
Contrabass/narrator (text by Richard Hartshorne)
For Sale B3397
Reviews
Mr. Premo also had an animal in mind during Jon Deak's "B. B. Wolf." Running through this fitful fantasy for solo bass is an impish monologue by a misunderstood wolf (Mr. Premo sporting wolf's ears and tail), who complains of the injustice of being hunted down for chasing little piggies and such.
Anthony Tommasini, The New York Times
A Flatlander in Colorado (1976) 13 min.
Solo contrabass (doubling on harmonica, melodica and foot percussion)
Moody Melody (1995) 5 min.
Solo contrabass; based on required solo piece for International Society of Bassists 1995 Competition
Readings from Steppenwolf or The Private Life of Harry Haller (1975; rev., 1982) 10 min.
Solo contrabass/narrator
A sound effects satire of the Herman Hesse novel, written in collaboration with Jim Burton
Recorded by Jon Deak, double bass
Reviews
Good composers don't need festivals; festivals need good composers. One such composer is Jon Deak with his composition "Readings from Steppenwolf" performed by double bassist Robert Black on a late afternoon Center for the Fine Arts program. It was a work composed with precision and also performed with precision. Black mesmerized all witnesses with his means of narration, his use of assorted props (including eggs and sneakers and his unparalleled command of his instrument. Yes, it was theatrical, it was humorous, it was true to the eccentric nature of the text, but not without depth. A bassist himself, Deak revealed aspects of the instrument rarely heard, and perhaps never heard before. Equally impressive was his handling of pacing and proportion, his ability to build to a moment without disappointment. For Deak, the use of a text assisted in solving the puzzle of form. Combine prewritten words with music, and the text can, and usually does, dictate the form of the composition. It makes one eager to hear what his purely instrumental works are all about.
Sidney Friedman, New Music Chicago
In Jon Deak's "Readings from Steppenwolf," Black had to recite from the Herman Hesse novel while playing lots of tricky stuff, manipulating props, and doing a little mugged-up acting. He carried it off impressively, somehow managing to make real music while timing the jokes neatly.
Deak satirizes musical and theatrical literalism and Hesses' overheated existential psychodrama. He aligns certain words and ideas with musical cliches: A descending sigh of a glissando inevitably accompanies the word "despair." As Black reads about wiping sweat from the brow, he does just that and slides a moistened finger across the back of the bass to elicit a nice long squeak. Deak and Black have a million of 'em folks, and they pile up fast and furious. There's no time to groan.
Tom Strini, Milwaukee Journal
Sad Waltz from Street Music (1977) 10 min.
Solo contrabass doubling on harmonica and foot percussion
Sherlock Holmes in "The Speckled Band." (2010 - 11) 26 min.
For solo Contrabass, performer doubling as narrator.
A sequel to "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes: The Hound of the Baskervilles." (1984). Commissioned by Tod Leavitt.
Surrealist Studies (1970) 6 min.
Solo contrabass, with optional photographic slides
Five short pieces on specific surrealist paintings.
The Ugly Duckling (Part I) (1980) 9 min.
Contrabass and soprano voice
The Wonderful World of Language (1980) 8 min.
Contrabass/narrator (or any other string instrument)
SOLO INSTRUMENTAL
Metaphor (1980) 10 min.
Solo cello/narrator
Based on a passage from the novel "My Antonia" by Wila Cather.
Recorded by Steven Pologe, cello
Metaphor (1991) 10 min.
(transcribed and edited by the composer with Tina Pelikan)
Solo viola/narrator
Based on a passage from the novel "My Antonia" by Wila Cather.
Shiver Me Timbers! (1987) 10 min.
Solo piano/narrator
Based on a chapter of the novel "Treasure Island" by Robert Louis Stevenson.
Recorded by Catherine Kautsky
Three Traveling Tunes (1975; rev., 1984) 7 ½ min.
Solo trumpet with tape (performer pre-records accompaniment tape; five live trumpets may replace tape)
VOCAL MUSIC
Daphne Finds True Love (1981) 14 min.
Soprano solo; flute/tenor saxophone, trombone, percussion, violin, cello and contrabass
The Fearsome Fate (1977) 10 min.
(original version)
Soprano solo (with noisemakers); prerecorded tape, organ (or piano), piano, contrabass and photographic slides.
Owl in Love (1985, rev. 1989) 30 min.
Soprano solo; Flute, 2 Vlns, Va, Vc, Cb
In five scenes. Commissioned by L'Ensemble, The Grand Teton Music Festival and the Lincoln Center Institute.
Suitable for school interactive events or adult concerts. It was used in NYC public schools by the Lincoln Center Institute for a number of years. Owl In Love is based on a Haitian folk tale collected by Diane Wolkstein in "The Magic Orange Tree," Shocken Books, NY, NY 1978. Copyright Diane Wolkstein, used by permission of and participation with the Author.
Reviews
The least familiar music on the program the New York Philharmonic Chamber Ensemble played at Merkin Concert Hall Monday night was a set of three scenes from Jon Deak's "Owl in Love,"
For the last several years, Mr. Deak has been experimenting with a musical syntax built around a wide variety of sound effects and actual, out-and-out instrumental imitation of human speech. "Owl in Love" is the latest piece in a series of quasi-theatrical works by Mr. Deak, and it proved a defiantly silly narrative, scored for soprano, flute, string quartet and double bass; at times it reminded one of "Pierrot Lunaire" as it might have been fashioned by Maurice Sendak.
Sound effects aside, the score was a compote of cabaret song, film music and a wide variety of avant-garde stylings. Like most of the similar works this listener has heard from Mr. Deak, "Owl in Love" was more gratifying as theater than as music; still, I suspect that when Mr. Deak finally evolves his idiom the results may be startling, possibly even revolutionary. Lucy Shelton sang the soprano role with skill and humor; Mr. Deak played the bass.
Tim Page, The New York Times
Sin City (1988) 9 min.
Soprano solo or mezzo-soprano or tenor) with piano accompaniment
A love story of a lounge lizard and a sex kitten.
The Passion of Scrooge (1997-8) 59 min.
chamber Opera in Two Acts, for Baritone solo, 2 Vlns, Va, Vc, Cb, Fl, Cl, Hn, Harp, Percussion.
Commissioned by Jack and Linda Hoeschler and the 21st Century Consort. Text based on "A Christmas Carol" Charles Dickens, libretto by the composer and Isaiah Sheffer.
Recorded by Aaron Engebreth and the Firebird Ensemble (2007) and 20th Century Consort, Christopher Kendall, Director (2000)
True Intimate Confessions (1977) 15 min.
1. "When My Husband's Away, I Play with the Guy Next Door"
2. "Oh God, Please Take Back Our Little Girl"
3. "30 Days without Sex"
Voice and piano
The Ugly Duckling (Part I) (1980) 9 min.
Soprano solo and contrabass
Recorded by Lucy Shelton, sporano; Richard Hartshorne, contrabass
The Ugly Duckling (Part II) (1981) 10 min.
Soprano solo, contrabass solo; 2 violins, viola and cello
The Andersen Fairy Tale, set lightly but sincerely, in a manner suitable for young people.
Recorded by Aaron Engebreth and the Firebird Ensemble (2007) and 20th Century Consort, Christopher Kendall, Director (2000)
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