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A Dance
  with Crooked Steps (5 min.)
2002

Piano -- Jesse Sprole

A dance with crooked steps is a piece for solo piano based on the ostinato form. Looking back to the roots of the form, the ostinato figure itself is reminiscent of a Baroque ostinato; consisting of an eight-note descending line that uses mostly chromatic motion.

To counterbalance the reoccurring and predictable pulse created by the repeating ostinato, the right-hand melody has phrasing and rhythmic devices that are independent of the left-hand figure. This melody, also like those of the Baroque, is long, has a complex contour, and, except for certain motivic ideas that reoccur, has very little repetition. The shape of the piece is structured around the gradual disintegration of the ostinato figure until it is stripped down to its simplest causal shape.
On Untitled Green
Painting #1 (2 min.)
2001

Piano -- Mark Leonard; French Horn -- Jim Baynes

The first of three pieces based on a painting by Douglas Czuszak, this piece is for french horn and piano. By using unrelenting imitation, usually at either unison and semitone intervals between the voices, this short piece reflects the tight and limited material used in the painting, while allowing a diverse range of emotions. Like the other two pieces of the set, this one follows a 3 part structure with slow, dissonant, and sparse; quick and violent; and slow and dramatic sections.
On Untitled Green
Painting #2 (3 min.)
2001

Electronic Media

The second of three pieces based on a painting by Douglas Czuszak, this one is for electronic media. Underneath its strict linear qualities, the painting has a sense fluidity, layering, and depth which made me feel as if it depicted an underwater scene viewed from above in which the crisscrossed lines are blurred and filtered by the water.

The music reflects these qualities by presenting very straight linear material (the first half of the piece uses only two pitch classes) but fluctuating the envelope of the instrumentation that is applied to the lines; sounds with sharp attacks appear to break through the muffled timbre of the rounder sounds.
On Untitled Green
Painting #3 (3 min.)
2001

Violonello -- Patrick O'Donnell

This is the third of three pieces based on a study of a painting by Douglas Czuszak. The composer attemped to recreate the mood set by the painting1s use of open space and its minimal amount of material.
Beethoven’s Centenary (7 min.)
2003

Mezzo-Soprano -- Dr. Patricia J. Corron; Vibraphone -- Kyle Price

A hundred years ago, a crusty old bachelor
so deaf that he could not hear his own music,
yet still able to hear thunder,
shook his fists at the roaring heavens
and died as he had lived,
challenging God and defying the Universe.

No other composer ever melted his hearers
into complete sentimentality
by the tender beauty of his music
and then suddenly turned on them and mocked them
for being such fools.
Millions of musical novices
will hear the music of beethoven for the first time
with their expectations raised to an extraordinary pitch
by hundreds of newspaper articles
piling up all the conventional eulogies
that are applied indiscriminately to all the great composers.

And like his contemporaries they will be puzzled
by getting not only a music they did not expect
but often an orchestral [jumble]
that they may not recognize as music at all.
-Bernard Shaw (1927)
Esas Quejas
del Piano... (5 min.)
2003

Piano -- Thomas Foster; Voices -- Katherine Thornton, Amalia Nagel, Alexis Beck, Alison Schmitt, Angel Acosta, Tara Thompson, Jacob Milicic, Joseph Flaxman, David L'Hommedieu

Originally composed in 2001, this piece was composed for the Ripley High School Chorus, and was performed by them under the direction of Mrs. Kathleen Bohlen in November of 2002. The text, from Rimas y Legendas, was written by Gustavo Becquer, a 19th Century Spanish poet. The piece is dedicated to the memory of my grandfather, Enrique Davidenko.

Text:
Esas quejas del piano
A intervalos desprendidas,
Sirenas adormecidas
Que evoca tu blanca mano,
No esparcen al aire en vano
El melancólico son.

Pues de la oculta mansión
En que mi pasión se esconde
A cada nota responde
Un eco en mi corazón.
-Gustavo Becquer

 Translation:
Those laments of the piano
At disparate intervals,
Dormant sirens
Evoked by your white hand,
Do not scatter through the air in vain
The melancholic song.

For in the occult mansion
In which my passion hides
To each note responds
An echo in my heart.
Violin - Owen Kelly

The title of this piece, Mosaic for Solo Violin, reflects the way short, distinct musical fragments make up the coherent whole of the work. Each of these fragments has a unique rhythm, mood, and stylistic tendency, but the harmonic language, the nature of dissonance resolution, and the basic motivic elements remain consistent throughout.

The piece might suddenly change from a romantic, lyrical lament to a light, playful dance and then be interrupted by sharp, violent screams. However, the regular pulse of tension and release, the recurrence of moods, chords, and melodic motives, and the consistency of pitch organization all work to harmonize the sundry fragments into a musical mosaic.
String Quartet(7 min.)
2007

Violin - Sara Silva, Tucker Callandar; Viola - Alyssa DiRienzo; Cello - Julie Chase

This string quartet in one movement suggests an unsettled tone. Beginning with a complex argument between a repeating melody and unreleased tension, it proceeds to long, slow phrases that struggle to find a comfortable place to rest. Held together by consistent rhythmic shapes and harmonic grammar, the quartet explores a wide range of moods.
all music and lyrics by diego davidenko ©2001, 2002, 2003, 2004
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Dialogue
(4 min.)
2005

Voice -- Amanda Carnie; Flute -- John Oberbrunner; Clarinet -- Bruce Keplinger; Cello -- Gina Gilbert

This piece was written for a benifit concert ending a week long event honoring Zen Master, calligraphist, painter, and peace poet Kazuaki Tanahashi. The music attempts to emphasize the differences between the poem's characters. The child is angry and frustrated in his complaints while the father is more calm and accepting. The music parallels these moods through use of the voice's register and through orchestration.

Text:
When I was ten years old, I said to my Old Man,
"Dad, you know nothing."
Looking confused, my Old Man said,
"Are you sure that I know nothing?"

I was eleven years old when I said to my Old Man,
"Dad, you are stupid."
Looking puzzled, he said,
"Didn't you know that?"

At age twelve, I said to my Old Man,
“Dad, you can’t even talk.”
Rolling his eyes, my Old Man said,
“Isn’t that convenient for you?”

At age thirteen, I said to him,
“Dad, you are lazy.”
Half asleep, he said,
“Lazy people build civilization. Don’t you think so?”

-Kazuaki Tanahashi