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About Peter

Baltimore City

Described by the Baltimore Sun as having “a refined sense of melodic arcs and harmonic motion,” Peter Dayton “continually creates fresh and interesting sounds” (Opera News) in his compositions. His works have been performed around the world, primarily in the Americas and Europe. He hopes to engage with his community through concertizing and… more

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Album: Notes to Loved Ones, Music for Strings and Piano (2018, Navona Records)

Release Date: March 9, 2018

Up-and-coming composer Peter Dayton makes his Navona Records debut with the release of Notes to Loved Ones, an album of works for piano and strings. Dayton’s style of composition is heavily influenced by people with whom he is fascinated and their works of art.

These influences are the driving forces behind Notes to Loved Ones. Fantasy for viola and piano, is contemplative and collected. The composer, himself, likens its thematic content with “the continuity of a changing dream.” The string quartet Morceaux des Noces, is reflective of the Americana in early 20th century composition. Sonata “Los Dedicatorias,” for violin and piano is tentative, with the juxtaposition of the highest part of violin’s range against the warm, middle tones of the piano.

Messiaen lovers will enjoy Variations for string quartet, which is reminiscent of Quatuor pour la fin du temp and the ethereal qualities within it. About the rhapsodic Sonata for cello and piano Dayton reflects: “I drew upon [Shostakovich’s] emotional geography of cattiness and sarcasm as well as tragedy and pensive calm.”

Review by American Record Guide:

"This album of works by Peter Dayton (born 1990) show a composer whose heart and care are palpable. His melodic sensibilities are at center stage. It’s a collection of works whose main motifs you’re going to walk away from a performance singing. These works are often inspired by people or pieces of art, and that makes this album all the more like a personal tribute. These works practically hum with the intensity of love and life, and they are presented in sequence in a way that makes the process of listening to them feel like looking through a beautiful photo album. These performances are emotional and dedicated, and Dayton is a young composers who has a voice that deserves to be heard often." (American Record Guide, June 2018)

  • Fantasy, for Viola & Piano
    Fantasy, for Viola and Piano Total duration ca. 4’30” Published 2009 by Peter Dayton Music (ASCAP) Single-movement work Premiered on Nov. 4, 2015 in Nashville, TN By Emma Dansak and Peter Dayton The Fantasy’s name adequately expresses its formal freedom: a harmonically lush exploration of different moods, colors, meters, and tempi. New material follows new material as if in a dream, though continuity is maintained through an arcing melodic gesture that builds itself into the fabric of the Fantasy. At the end, the Fantasy slowly recedes from the audience, fading away as if we are waking unwillingly from it.
  • Morceaux des Noces: I. Allegretto Fluente
    Morceaux des Noces, for String Quartet Total duration ca. 22’30” Published 2013/2014 by Peter Dayton Music (ASCAP) Three movement work I. Allegretto fluente II. Adagio semplice III. Andante amoroso – Allegro animato Premiered on Jul. 18, 2013 in Cincinnati, Ohio By Joshua Ulrich, Rachel Frankenfeld, Stephen Goist, Laura Jekel This quartet began as simply one “Morceau”, the first movement: a commission from my fellow Blair School of Music graduate Sarah Wood for her wedding in June of 2013. The first movement was composed in the fall of 2012, the second, dedicated to my parents and in honor of their nearly quarter-century marriage, was composed over the change of the year, and the final movement was composed in 2013.
  • Morceaux des Noces: II. Adagio Semplice
    Morceaux des Noces, for String Quartet Total duration ca. 22’30” Published 2013/2014 by Peter Dayton Music (ASCAP) Three movement work I. Allegretto fluente II. Adagio semplice III. Andante amoroso – Allegro animato Premiered on Jul. 18, 2013 in Cincinnati, Ohio By Joshua Ulrich, Rachel Frankenfeld, Stephen Goist, Laura Jekel This quartet began as simply one “Morceau”, the first movement: a commission from my fellow Blair School of Music graduate Sarah Wood for her wedding in June of 2013. The first movement was composed in the fall of 2012, the second, dedicated to my parents and in honor of their nearly quarter-century marriage, was composed over the change of the year, and the final movement was composed in 2013.
  • Morceaux des Noces: III. Andante amoroso
    Morceaux des Noces, for String Quartet Total duration ca. 22’30” Published 2013/2014 by Peter Dayton Music (ASCAP) Three movement work I. Allegretto fluente II. Adagio semplice III. Andante amoroso – Allegro animato Premiered on Jul. 18, 2013 in Cincinnati, Ohio By Joshua Ulrich, Rachel Frankenfeld, Stephen Goist, Laura Jekel This quartet began as simply one “Morceau”, the first movement: a commission from my fellow Blair School of Music graduate Sarah Wood for her wedding in June of 2013. The first movement was composed in the fall of 2012, the second, dedicated to my parents and in honor of their nearly quarter-century marriage, was composed over the change of the year, and the final movement was composed in 2013.
  • Violin Sonata "Los Dedicatorias": II. Vicente & Fernanda
    Sonata, “Los Dedicatorias,” for Violin and Piano Total duration ca. 18’30” Published 2016 by Peter Dayton Music (ASCAP) Four movement work I. Fernando de Szyszlo y Lila II. Vicente y Fernanda III. Manuela y Noelle IV. Adam George y Cristina Espejo Fernando de Szyszlo’s paintings have inspired me since 2011, generating four compositions and a lasting correspondence and friendship with the artist. After several years of contact with the esteemed Peruvian painter, I decided to accept the generous offer of hospitality extended to me, and I went down to Lima to visit the Szyszlo family. Over four days I met four generations of de Szyszlos, spending a substantial amount of time with each of the members of the family. The movements of this work each take as their musical material a transformation of the names of members of the Szyszlo family.
  • Violin Sonata "Los Dedicatorias": III. Manuella & Noelle
    Sonata, “Los Dedicatorias,” for Violin and Piano Total duration ca. 18’30” Published 2016 by Peter Dayton Music (ASCAP) Four movement work I. Fernando de Szyszlo y Lila II. Vicente y Fernanda III. Manuela y Noelle IV. Adam George y Cristina Espejo Fernando de Szyszlo’s paintings have inspired me since 2011, generating four compositions and a lasting correspondence and friendship with the artist. After several years of contact with the esteemed Peruvian painter, I decided to accept the generous offer of hospitality extended to me, and I went down to Lima to visit the Szyszlo family. Over four days I met four generations of de Szyszlos, spending a substantial amount of time with each of the members of the family. The movements of this work each take as their musical material a transformation of the names of members of the Szyszlo family.
  • Variations, for String Quartet
    Variations, for String Quartet Total duration ca. 11’30” Published 2012 by Peter Dayton Music (ASCAP) Single-movement work, continuous variations Premiered on Jul. 18, 2013 in Cincinnati, Ohio By Joshua Ulrich, Rachel Frankenfeld, Stephen Goist, Laura Jekel This quartet was composed in the spring of 2012, following an exchange program with the Royal Academy of Music in London and the Kreutzer Quartet. Rather than moving in a slow gradation of change away from the source material, each variation addresses the original theme through contrasting styles and treatments, often moving directly between polar opposites. The work was premiered at Grace Episcopal Church in Cincinnati, Ohio in 2013 by members of the Price Hill String Quartet at a benefit concert for the marriage equality group Freedom to Marry Ohio.
  • Cello Sonata: I. (With urgency and forward motion)
    Sonata, for Violoncello and Piano Total duration ca. 9’ Published 2014 by Peter Dayton Music (ASCAP) Two movement, continuous work I. [with a sense of urgency and forward motion] II. Stark, Percussive Premiered on Jul. 18, 2015 in Valencia, Spain By Mayte García Atienza and Carlos Amat of NOMOS This Sonata was composed as part of an interdepartmental collaboration at the Peabody Institute in the fall of 2014. A work conceived to be performed either with bassoon or violoncello and piano, this Sonata explores extremes in emotional, and registral, territory in two movements. From catty, sarcastic repartees and high anxiety in the first movement, to the tragedy and introspective melancholy of the second, the work’s tenor came from a desire to compose a piece that explored emotional boundaries that I felt were underrepresented in the bassoon’s solo repertoire. The Sonata’s emotional geography also draws from my close contact with Dmitri Shostakovich’s Viola Sonata, Op.
  • Cello Sonata: II. Stark, percussive
    Sonata, for Violoncello and Piano Total duration ca. 9’ Published 2014 by Peter Dayton Music (ASCAP) Two movement, continuous work I. [with a sense of urgency and forward motion] II. Stark, Percussive Premiered on Jul. 18, 2015 in Valencia, Spain By Mayte García Atienza and Carlos Amat of NOMOS This Sonata was composed as part of an interdepartmental collaboration at the Peabody Institute in the fall of 2014. A work conceived to be performed either with bassoon or violoncello and piano, this Sonata explores extremes in emotional, and registral, territory in two movements. From catty, sarcastic repartees and high anxiety in the first movement, to the tragedy and introspective melancholy of the second, the work’s tenor came from a desire to compose a piece that explored emotional boundaries that I felt were underrepresented in the bassoon’s solo repertoire. The Sonata’s emotional geography also draws from my close contact with Dmitri Shostakovich’s Viola Sonata, Op.
  • Notes to Loved Ones Album Cover
    Notes to Loved Ones Album Cover
    Release Date: March 9, 2018
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    • Project: MAY SHE | SHE MAY, A Chamber Opera in One Act (2016)

    Single-Act Chamber Opera

    Premiered on Apr. 25 in Baltimore, MD
    By Tirzah Hawley (Gertrude)
    Young Eun Lee (May)
    Katharine Estes (Mabel)
    Hanna Shin, Piano
    Mari Takeda, Percussion
    Aaron Thacker, Harpischord
    Peter Dayton, Composer, Librettist, Conductor


    This work was composed as part of the Opera Etudes collaboration program at the Peabody Institute, the premiere directed by Roger Brunyate. It concerns one of the pivotal relationships in the life of the famous writer Gertrude Stein. At the age of 20 (1900), a medical student at the Johns Hopkins University, Stein finds herself unhappy in her work and in the misogynistic hostility from her teachers and colleagues. She also finds herself attracted to one of the women in her circle of friends, May Bookstaver. In discovering a side of herself that she had not before acknowledged, Gertrude Stein undergoes an experience which will change the course of the rest of her life. Some of her earliest fictional writings are conspicuously drawn from this experience, including Q.E.D. (which addresses this same love affair) , Melanctha from Three Lives, and The Making of Americans. 

    • MAY SHE | SHE MAY: A Chamber Opera in One Act (Concert Performance)
      MAY SHE | SHE MAY: A Chamber Opera in One Act (2016) Music & Libretto by Peter Dayton 1. Narrazione 1 (“Radcliffe graduate Gertrude Stein…”) – Mabel 2. Scena 1 (“It is just unjust…”) – Gertrude & Mabel 3. Narrazione 2 (“May B, May Bookstaver…”) – Mabel 4. Scena 2 – (“Miss Stein, your morals…”) – May & Gertrude 5. Narrazione 3 (“She may wonder about May…”) – Mabel & Gertrude 6. Scena 3 (“When we first met…”) – Gertrude & Mabel 7. Narrazione 4 (“The rose is gripped by its thorns…”) – Mabel 8. Aria – (“May I explain? May I try, May, may I…”) – Gertrude 9. Narrazione 5 (“Now they do not…”) – Mabel 10a. Scena 4: Ariette Appaiate (“Dear May, dear me…”) – Gertrude & Mabel 10b. Scena 4 / Narrazione 6 (“Gertrude, you may…”) – May & Mabel 11. Scena 5 (“Come in, Gertrude…”) – May, Gertrude, Mabel 12.
    • MAY SHE | SHE MAY.jpg
      MAY SHE | SHE MAY.jpg
      Portrait of Gertrude Stein by Pablo Picasso (1906), Metropolitan Museum of Art
    • MAY SHE | SHE MAY - Finale
      The final scene from the world premiere of MAY SHE | SHE MAY, a one-act chamber opera about Gertrude Stein's first love affair, at the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University in 2016.
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    • Project: An American Mass: A Collection of Settings of Modern American Poetry for Mixed Chorus (2013-present)

    "An American Mass" is a series of choral settings of modern American poetry that examine transcendent themes through a secular lens. The texts that I set in these choral compositions deal with questions of how humans relate to one another, how we see the world around us, how eternal an instant can feel, the joy of sensual pleasure, the desire for things to be what they seem, the desire and frustration for the betterment of our own human nature. An ongoing project, "An American Mass" was originally intended to be a ten movement work. It is really more of a choral songbook or collection of pieces, which can be performed individually, grouped into suites, or performed altogether, and as time passes the "Mass"will no doubt continue to grow as well. A work that is attempting to increase the repertoire of spiritual but secular choral music, "An American Mass" subscribes to no dogma, hence the freedom with the way the movements can be programmed or grouped.

    Works:

    • A Name For All (2017), text Hart Crane (SATB)
    • THIS (2017), text by A. R. Ammons (SATB)
    • The Weight Of The World Is Love (2017), text by Allen Ginsberg (SSATBB)
    • The Answer (2016), text by Robert Creeley (SATB)
    • The Tree That Plucks Fruit (2015), text by Vicki Hearne (SATB)
    • Midsummer (2015), text by William Bronk (SATB)
    • By Disposition of Angels (2014), text by Marianne Moore (SATB)
    • The Core (2013), text by Ronald Johnson (SATB)
    • I Will Be Earth (2013), text by May Swenson (SATB)
    • Just Walking Around (2013), text by John Ashbery (SATB)
    • By Disposition of Angels, text by Marianne Moore
      By Disposition of Angels, text by Marianne Moore for SATB Chorus Total duration ca. 5’ Published 2014 by Peter Dayton Music (ASCAP) Single-movement work Marianne Moore’s By Disposition of Angels is nebulous in both senses of the word: asking questions of and about the stars and our relation to them and each other. In all of these categories, “mysteries expound mysteries,” it is a poem of questions that simply meditates on the beauty of both our own humanity and the enduring stars “aquiver forever.” Permission for the use of "By Disposition Of Angels," written by Marianne Moore in 1945 and re-published in The Collected Poems of Marianne Moore is granted by the Literary Estate of Marianne C. Moore, David M. Moore, Administrator, Literary Estate of Marianne Moore. All rights reserved.
    • The Tree that Plucks Fruit, text by Vicky Hearne
      The Tree that Plucks Fruit, text by Vicki Hearne, for SATB Chorus Total duration ca. 3’30” Published 2015 by Peter Dayton Music (ASCAP) Single-movement work Vicki Hearne’s poem has a simple vocabulary that masks the difficult of the concepts she is illustrating. Paradoxes are heaped one upon the other, but presented in a matter-of-fact fashion. Still, her concise use of this simple vocabulary provides a key: the tree, the air, the truth, the stars, and, most importantly, words. The role words and manmade concepts play in forming our existence and experience of the world is the heart of the poem. The tree/orchard is the world, and our lives are the fruit, clearly the product of the world, and yet somehow we consider ourselves formed separately from it, as if plucked from the air. Numbers are conceptual, yet these and other concepts uphold the world. We are caught in this tension between the real and the conceptual, epitomized by the word, which is only symbolic of actual thought.
    • Midsummer, text by William Bronk
      Midsummer, text by William Bronk, for SATB Chorus Total duration ca. 4’45” Published 2015 by Peter Dayton Music (ASCAP) Single-movement work Midsummer is one setting in a series of choral settings of modern American poetry that examine transcendent themes through a secular lens. I have been composing since 2013, a collection I have entitled An American Mass. A poet of particular conceptual inventiveness, like Wallace Stevens, Bronk in this poem contrasts the painting-like tranquility of his ‘green world’ with some startling language and images: Someone looking into a mirror and seeing their own back, and Bronk’s desire preserve the serene moment’s immediacy with the same intensity “as much as if an atrocity had happened”.
    • Just Walking Around, text by John Ashbury for Tenor & SATB Chorus
      Just Walking Around, text by John Ashbery, for SATB Chorus Total duration ca. 6’15” Published 2013 by Peter Dayton Music (ASCAP) Single-movement work Premiered on Jun. 6, 2015 in Baltimore, MD By Joshua Glassman and the Mt. Vernon Consort Ashbery’s poem begins with a profound question: how do the few words we take on as a name describe our essence? The poem meditates on our feelings of connection and otherness, whether that between connection to others or otherness from ourselves. After following this looping train of thought, Ashbery’s ruminations conclude in part by throwing the question out the window, sidestepping these labels “now that the end is near,” and wishing simply that he and the one he addresses be near each other, whomever they each are or whatever they are called. “Just Walking Around” from A WAVE by John Ashbery. Copyright © 1981, 1982, 1983, 1984 by John Ashbery. Reprinted by permission of Georges Borchardt, Inc., on behalf of the author. All rights reserved.
    • I Will Be Earth, text by May Swenson
      I Will Be Earth, text by May Swenson, for SATB Chorus Total duration ca. 2’20” Published 2013 by Peter Dayton Music (ASCAP) Single-movement work Premiered on Jun. 6, 2015 in Baltimore, MD By Joshua Glassman and the Mt. Vernon Consort Swenson’s ecstatic words, elaborating the permeable barrier between love and lust, emotional and physical connection, tumble over each other, breaking conventions of punctuation, grammar, and syntax. In the first stanza, Swenson assigns her and the poem’s addressee the roles of complementary objects, interlocking pieces. In the second stanza, she latches onto the maritime imagery that ends the first stanza, transubstantiating the ground to a flood, roots to oars, describing an endless rocking of pleasure and almost dangerous, animal desire. The musical setting reprises the first stanza, with even more clamorous tumbling of amorous voices. “I will be earth” by May Swenson. Used with permission of the Literary Estate of May Swenson. All Rights reserved.
    • The Core, text by Ronald Johnson
      The Core, text by Ronald Johnson, for SATB Chorus Total duration ca. 2’15” Published 2014 by Peter Dayton Music (ASCAP) Single-movement work Premiered on Jun. 6, 2015 in Baltimore, MD
By Joshua Glassman and the Mt. Vernon Consort This short poem by Johnson addresses, in mystical tones, the desire for clarity, transparency, equivalency between perception and reality, so that words themselves have a physical quality of realness “you can put your foot through.” The Core, in aching brevity speaks to our search for truth, with the past tense “wanted” suggesting that this poem comes at the end of a long search, still not fully completed. "The Core," by Ronald Johnson, from Poetry magazine, June 1972, used by permission of the Literary Estate of Ronald Johnson.
    • Just Walking Around, text by John Ashbury (live premiere performance)
      Recording by Arts Laureate American Masses, An Evening of American Choral Music was conceived and presented by composer Peter Dayton and tenor/conductor Joshua Glassman. Through a kickstarter campaign, Dayton and Glassman were able to raised over $4,500 to pay their local Baltimore ensemble: the Mt. Vernon Consort. The program features a diversity of American spiritual music, ranging from Sacred Harp arrangements and African American Spirituals to Barber's Agnus Dei and the world premiere of a new work by composer Peter Dayton: "Light and Mystery, Suite from An American Mass." Solo: Drew Belsinger The Mt.
    • I Will Be Earth, text by May Swenson (Live Premiere)
      Recording by Arts Laureate American Masses, An Evening of American Choral Music was conceived and presented by composer Peter Dayton and tenor/conductor Joshua Glassman. Through a kickstarter campaign, Dayton and Glassman were able to raised over $4,500 to pay their local Baltimore ensemble: the Mt. Vernon Consort. The program features a diversity of American spiritual music, ranging from Sacred Harp arrangements and African American Spirituals to Barber's Agnus Dei and the world premiere of a new work by composer Peter Dayton: "Light and Mystery, Suite from An American Mass." The Mt.
    • The Core, text by Ronald Johnson (Live Premiere)
      Recording by Arts Laureate American Masses, An Evening of American Choral Music was conceived and presented by composer Peter Dayton and tenor/conductor Joshua Glassman. Through a kickstarter campaign, Dayton and Glassman were able to raised over $4,500 to pay their local Baltimore ensemble: the Mt. Vernon Consort. The program features a diversity of American spiritual music, ranging from Sacred Harp arrangements and African American Spirituals to Barber's Agnus Dei and the world premiere of a new work by composer Peter Dayton: "Light and Mystery, Suite from An American Mass." The Mt.
    • American Masses Kickstarter Pitch Video
      Kickstarter Pitch Video for the concert that hosted the world premiere of 3 choral pieces from the American Mass project. Video by Claire Weber Music by Peter Dayton and Joshua Bornfield
    •

    • Grounds and Lands, Music Written in Correspondence with John Hitchens

    I was drawn to the artwork of John Hitchens through the work of his father, celebrated British painter Ivon Hitchens. In soliciting permission to reproduce the images of his father's work, I discovered John Hitchens's own, magnificent work. His more recent work has taken on the almost textile quality of an aerial photograph, repeating lines and textures with reddish, warm earth tones, and his "From Sombre Lands" painting inspired a new composition. This began a friendship and correspondence that has lasted years, voyages and visits, which was the inspiration for the string orchestra piece "Grounds." In response to my orchestral rendering of "From Sombre Lands," Hitchens created a new, large painting, visible on his website (johnhitchens.com). In response to this new painting, I composed a new, large work for orchestra; I am hopeful this creative tit for tat will continue for many years.

    Featured Works:
    - Open-Air: Four Landscapes in Paintings by Ivon Hitchens, for Oboe/English Horn and Violin (2012)
    - From Sombre Lands, after paintings by John Hitchens, for Piano/Orchestra (2013)
    - Grounds, for String Orchestra (2014)
    - Symphonic Poem - From Forgotten Lands, after a painting by John Hitchens (2017)
    • Grounds, for String Orchestra (Live Performance), Peabody Symphony
      Live performance on Feb. 28, 2017 by the Peabody Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Alan Buxbaum The title of the work, Grounds, touches several different points of reference, some musical, some poetic, some personal. ‘Ground Bass’ forms such as the Passacaglia and the Chaconne feature contrapuntal interaction with recurring or ostinato bass-lines, and in its unfolding Grounds makes use of, or recalls, the ‘Ground Bass’ idea in several places. In a more evocative sense, the pastoral associations of the title suggest a journey through an aural landscape, with particular motivic or gestural figures serving as landmarks, rather than sections of a conventional form, which we may recognize as we pass by a second time or double back.
    • Open-Air: Four Seasons in Landscapes by Ivon Hitchens, for Oboe/English Horn and Violin
      Open-Air: Four Seasons in Landscapes by Ivon Hitchens, for Oboe/English Horn and Violin Premiered on Mar. 19, 2012 in Nashville, TN By Lindsey Reymore and Caroline Hart Inspired by the paintings of British landscape artist Ivon Hitchens, this duet unfolds over the course of four movements, each inspired by a painting of a different season, and each followed by an interlude (and finally a postlude) called Winds, indicating a change of seasons. This piece came together partially as the result of a collaborative project with the Royal Academy of Music. It is dedicated to the participants in this project: Shelby Flowers, David Gorton, Caroline Hart, Midori Komachi, Carly Lake, Chris Redgate, Lindsey Reymore, Michael Alec Rose, Peter Sheppard-Skærved, Michael Slayton, Ruta Vitkauskaite, and Agatha Yim. The friendship I have sustained with the son of Ivon Hitchens, John, began with this work, a friendship that has gone on to inspire large scale works including From Sombre Lands and Grounds.
    • From Sombre Lands, after a painting by John Hitchens, for Orchestra
      I had originally conceived From Sombre Lands (2013) as a work for solo piano. It was requested by a dear friend and fellow composer for a recital which would connect Rachmaninoff’s Etude Tableau in D Minor Op. 33, No. 4 and Chopin’s Nocturne in B Major Op. 62, No. 1 on her program. I turned to the work of British semi-abstract landscape artist John Hitchens for inspiration, as works inspired by or responding to pieces of visual art have figured largely in my creative impetus, and I had already composed a piece based on the paintings ofJohn’s father, Ivon Hitchens, himselfa well-respected modern landscape artist. While the painting was integral in beginning the piano composition, upon completion it seemed that the work had taken a different direction.
    • Grounds, for String Orchestra
      The title of the work, Grounds, touches several different points of reference, some musical, some poetic, some personal. ‘Ground Bass’ forms such as the Passacaglia and the Chaconne feature contrapuntal interaction with recurring or ostinato bass-lines, and in its unfolding Grounds makes use of, or recalls, the ‘Ground Bass’ idea in several places. In a more evocative sense, the pastoral associations of the title suggest a journey through an aural landscape, with particular motivic or gestural figures serving as landmarks, rather than sections of a conventional form, which we may recognize as we pass by a second time or double back.
    • Symphonic Poem - From Forgotten Lands, for Orchestra.pdf
      This work is the latest addition to a growing catalogue of letters, works of music, paintings, and visits that constitute my friendship with the British artist John Hitchens and his wife Rosy. In response to John's large three-panel painting "From Sombre Lands," I composed a piano work, which I then orchestrated. Inspired to this orchestration, John completed a large painting in 2015. This new piece is in response to that latest painting in our chain of creative correspondence. The title comes from what I suppose is a misreading of one of the captions to a photograph of the painting in progress, which John included in a letter to me. It is perfectly fitting, though. Landscapes have been the primary subject of John's career, first in a loose painterly style like his father Ivon Hitchens, and then in a more geometric, abstracted style, with paintings resembling the patterning and texture of aerial photographs of landscapes.

    • Interdisciplinary Project: Extraño Lugar, Music Inspired by Paintings by Fernando de Szyszlo (2011-present)

    The surrealist and primitivist works of the late Fernando de Szyszlo have served as an ongoing inspiration for many years. His dark, lush, symbolic paintings have inspired numerous compositions for solos and duos. In personal correspondence about these tributes de Fernando de Szyszlo's work, de Szyszlo writes: "Thanks to you for the pleasure you have given me with your music and for understanding what I search for in painting." Joining these pieces inspired by his paintings is a more recent work that pays tribute to my visit to Perú, where I met and stayed with the artist and his family.

    • Extraño Lugar, Elogía Fantasmagorica, for Accordion and Guitar Quartet (2018)
    • Sonata, "Los Dedicatorias," for Violin and Piano (2016)
    • Sol Negro, for 2 Guitars (2014)
    • Cello Suite, Los Visitantes de la Noche (2012)
    • Mar de Lurín, for Oboe and Guitar (2011)
    • Recinto, for Double Bass (2011)
    • Mar de Lurín, after paintings by Fernando de Szyszlo (art&music)
      Mar de Lurín, after paintings by Fernando de Szyszlo for Oboe and Guitar Total duration ca. 5’ Published 2011 by Peter Dayton Music (ASCAP) Single-movement work Premiered on Oct. 23, 2011 in Nashville, TN By Lindsey Reymore and Professor Joshua McGuire The paintings of Polish-Peruvian artist Fernando de Szyszlo (b. 1925) were introduced to me by Dr. Michael Alec Rose in the Spring of 2010. I was transfixed by the vibrant, saturated colors that Szyszlo used, and by the mysteriously ancient quality and subject matter of his art. In a manner analogous to music, Szyszlo's artwork is pervaded by motifs that gain their own significance both within each painting and a universal significance within Szyszlo's œuvre. His paintings of Lurín from (a coastal city in Peru) are some of his most beautiful and sensuous works. This composition was the winner of the 2012 Blair School of Music Composition Competition and is dedicated to Lindsey Reymore and Professor Joshua McGuire.
    • Mar de Lurín, after paintings by Fernando de Szyszlo (live performance: Stevenson-Brennan)
      Mar de Lurín, after paintings by Fernando de Szyszlo for Oboe and Guitar Total duration ca. 5’ Published 2011 by Peter Dayton Music (ASCAP) Single-movement work Premiered on Oct. 23, 2011 in Nashville, TN By Lindsey Reymore and Professor Joshua McGuire The paintings of Polish-Peruvian artist Fernando de Szyszlo (b. 1925) were introduced to me by Dr. Michael Alec Rose in the Spring of 2010. I was transfixed by the vibrant, saturated colors that Szyszlo used, and by the mysteriously ancient quality and subject matter of his art. In a manner analogous to music, Szyszlo's artwork is pervaded by motifs that gain their own significance both within each painting and a universal significance within Szyszlo's œuvre. His paintings of Lurín from (a coastal city in Peru) are some of his most beautiful and sensuous works. This composition was the winner of the 2012 Blair School of Music Composition Competition and is dedicated to Lindsey Reymore and Professor Joshua McGuire.
    • Mar de Lurín, after paintings by Fernando de Szyszlo (live performance: Qiao-Wang)
      Mar de Lurín, after paintings by Fernando de Szyszlo for Oboe and Guitar Total duration ca. 5’ Published 2011 by Peter Dayton Music (ASCAP) Single-movement work Premiered on Oct. 23, 2011 in Nashville, TN By Lindsey Reymore and Professor Joshua McGuire The paintings of Polish-Peruvian artist Fernando de Szyszlo (b. 1925) were introduced to me by Dr. Michael Alec Rose in the Spring of 2010. I was transfixed by the vibrant, saturated colors that Szyszlo used, and by the mysteriously ancient quality and subject matter of his art. In a manner analogous to music, Szyszlo's artwork is pervaded by motifs that gain their own significance both within each painting and a universal significance within Szyszlo's œuvre. His paintings of Lurín from (a coastal city in Peru) are some of his most beautiful and sensuous works. This composition was the winner of the 2012 Blair School of Music Composition Competition and is dedicated to Lindsey Reymore and Professor Joshua McGuire.
    • Mar de Lurín, after paintings by Fernando de Szyszlo (live performance: Duo Confesso)
      Mar de Lurín, after paintings by Fernando de Szyszlo for Oboe and Guitar Total duration ca. 5’ Published 2011 by Peter Dayton Music (ASCAP) Single-movement work Premiered on Oct. 23, 2011 in Nashville, TN By Lindsey Reymore and Professor Joshua McGuire The paintings of Polish-Peruvian artist Fernando de Szyszlo (b. 1925) were introduced to me by Dr. Michael Alec Rose in the Spring of 2010. I was transfixed by the vibrant, saturated colors that Szyszlo used, and by the mysteriously ancient quality and subject matter of his art. In a manner analogous to music, Szyszlo's artwork is pervaded by motifs that gain their own significance both within each painting and a universal significance within Szyszlo's œuvre. His paintings of Lurín from (a coastal city in Peru) are some of his most beautiful and sensuous works. This composition was the winner of the 2012 Blair School of Music Composition Competition and is dedicated to Lindsey Reymore and Professor Joshua McGuire.
    • Mar de Lurín, after paintings by Fernando de Szyszlo (live performance: world premiere)
      Mar de Lurín, after paintings by Fernando de Szyszlo for Oboe and Guitar Total duration ca. 5’ Published 2011 by Peter Dayton Music (ASCAP) Single-movement work Premiered on Oct. 23, 2011 in Nashville, TN By Lindsey Reymore and Professor Joshua McGuire The paintings of Polish-Peruvian artist Fernando de Szyszlo (b. 1925) were introduced to me by Dr. Michael Alec Rose in the Spring of 2010. I was transfixed by the vibrant, saturated colors that Szyszlo used, and by the mysteriously ancient quality and subject matter of his art. In a manner analogous to music, Szyszlo's artwork is pervaded by motifs that gain their own significance both within each painting and a universal significance within Szyszlo's œuvre. His paintings of Lurín from (a coastal city in Peru) are some of his most beautiful and sensuous works. This composition was the winner of the 2012 Blair School of Music Composition Competition and is dedicated to Lindsey Reymore and Professor Joshua McGuire.
    • Recinto, for solo double bass, after paintings by Fernando de Szyszlo
      Recinto, for Double Bass, after paintings by Fernando de Szyszlo Total duration ca. 7’ Published 2011 by Peter Dayton Music (ASCAP) Single-movement work Premiered on Apr. 7, 2011 in Nashville, TN By Brycen Ingersoll This work was composed after the premiere of my Sonata for Solo Violin in the winter of 2011 at the request of Brycen Ingersoll. Its title comes from Peruvian painter Fernando de Szyszlo's Recinto, or 'Enclosure,' series. The windows and staircases clearly visible in these paintings raise the question of whether the enclosure is figurative or literal, and, if figurative, if the enclosure is a voluntary or involuntary state. Either way, the presence of what appears to be a sacrificial table tells us that the enclosure is a dangerous place.
    • Cello Suite: Los Visitantes de la Noche, after paintings by Fernando de Szyszlo
      Cello Suite: Los Visitantes de la Noche after paintings by Fernando de Szyszlo Total duration ca. 10’30” Published 2012 by Peter Dayton Music (ASCAP) Five movement, continuous work I. Primer Visitante (Slow and menacing) - II. Segundo Visitante (Fast and aggressive) - III. Tercer Visitante (Medium slow, lyrical and elegant) - IV. Cuarto Visitante (Very fast, brutal) - V. Abolición de la Muerte (Medium slow, with anguish) Premiered on Mar. 18, 2014 in Nashville, TN By Justin Goldsmith The Cello Suite responds to the paintings of the Polish/Peruvian painter Fernando de Szyszlo. Hermetically symbolic, sensuous, primordial, Fernando de Szyszlo’s work often takes the forms of series of paintings on a single subject. Los Visitantes de la Noche takes its inspiration from a collection of paintings, based primarily off the figures in the eponymous triptych. The figures appear singularly in paintings entitled Visitante and several of them appear together in Abolicion de la Muerte.
    • Sol Negro, after paintings by Fernando de Szyszlo, for 2 Guitars
      Sol Negro, after paintings by Fernando de Szyszlo, for 2 Guitars Total duration ca. 6’30” Published 2014 by Peter Dayton Music (ASCAP) Two movement work I. Preludio II. Sol Negro Premiered on Mar. 14, 2014 in Baltimore, MD By Eric Meier and Thomas Morgan Clippinger Fernando de Szyszlo’s paintings have inspired me since 2011, having been the genesis of four pieces of mine to date. De Szyszlo, influenced by Incan artwork and symbolist poets, draws the sol negro image, the black sun “of melancholy,” from a Gérard de Nerval poem. In de Szyszlo’s paintings, the sun hangs ominously: a brooding the first movement expresses, a menace that I attempt to manifest in the second. De Szyszlo’s black sun also touches the Incan image of the apocalyptic black rainbow (another painting title: Arco-iris negro). The second movement takes its tone from this apocalyptic image in a series of bursts of destructive energy that consume even themselves.
    • Mar de Lurín, after paintings by Fernando de Szyszlo (Figments, Vol 2. recording)
      "In his 'Mar de Lurín' for oboe and guitar, Peter Dayton imbues the lyrical oboe lines with vibrancy and mystery." American Record Guide Mar de Lurín, after paintings by Fernando de Szyszlo for Oboe and Guitar Total duration ca. 5’ Published 2011 by Peter Dayton Music (ASCAP) Single-movement work Premiered on Oct. 23, 2011 in Nashville, TN By Lindsey Reymore and Professor Joshua McGuire The paintings of Polish-Peruvian artist Fernando de Szyszlo (b. 1925) were introduced to me by Dr. Michael Alec Rose in the Spring of 2010. I was transfixed by the vibrant, saturated colors that Szyszlo used, and by the mysteriously ancient quality and subject matter of his art. In a manner analogous to music, Szyszlo's artwork is pervaded by motifs that gain their own significance both within each painting and a universal significance within Szyszlo's œuvre. His paintings of Lurín from (a coastal city in Peru) are some of his most beautiful and sensuous works.
    • Mar de Lurín, after paintings by Fernando de Szyszlo (Vanderbilt Virtuosi recording)
      Mar de Lurín, after paintings by Fernando de Szyszlo for Oboe and Guitar Total duration ca. 5’ Published 2011 by Peter Dayton Music (ASCAP) Single-movement work Premiered on Oct. 23, 2011 in Nashville, TN By Lindsey Reymore and Professor Joshua McGuire The paintings of Polish-Peruvian artist Fernando de Szyszlo (b. 1925) were introduced to me by Dr. Michael Alec Rose in the Spring of 2010. I was transfixed by the vibrant, saturated colors that Szyszlo used, and by the mysteriously ancient quality and subject matter of his art. In a manner analogous to music, Szyszlo's artwork is pervaded by motifs that gain their own significance both within each painting and a universal significance within Szyszlo's œuvre. His paintings of Lurín from (a coastal city in Peru) are some of his most beautiful and sensuous works. This composition was the winner of the 2012 Blair School of Music Composition Competition and is dedicated to Lindsey Reymore and Professor Joshua McGuire.
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