Peter Ware Classical Composer

KABAH (string octet)
(Vln (4), Vla (2), Vlc. (2) 35')
"An exotically evocative piece, describing the atmosphere and spirit of the place with eerie harmonics, long-held notes and often sparse harmonies conveying a sense of vast emptiness and antiquity." -The Washington Post

"Peter Ware's 'Kabah' begins with a haunting, almost eerie prestissimo appassionato accented by sweeping strings and a bed of low notes under a single hanging violin line, creating a sense of awe and mystery. In the andante con mosso, low note clusters are again used to create that sense of weight, the weight of years. Maybe it's just the unsettling nature of the arrangement that makes presto con brio convey such a sinister feel." -The North Jersey Herald & New

"Kabah, inspired by a Mayan ruin in Mexico's Yucatan peninsular, is a forceful and intense piece that yields little to the narrative style." -Tim Panting, Classical Guitar magazine
Free MP3 of Peter Ware's String Octet Kabah

CHAMA "The Eagle and the Plumed Serpent"
(chamber music) (Vln/Fl., Gtr/Pn 14')
"Musical ideas are worked out in a very evocative way. Played properly this music will dazzle an audience and thrill the players." -Soundboard

"Chama began with a long lustrous flute solo, gradually growing more knotty." -New York Times

"It’s slow unfolding course, in predominantly long violin phrases, has a cobra-like power to hypnotise." -Allan Clive Jones, Classical Guitar

"Ware's style, inspired by North America's landscape and Indian heritage, has been described as 'paintings in sound.' Chama, "the Eagle and the Plumed Serpent", the opening composition, is exactly that. It evoked exotic imagery which produced a blend both surreal and dramatic." - Kitchener Waterloo Record
Free MP3 excerpt of Peter Ware's Chama from the CD Americas!

LIBERA ME DOMINE
(chamber music for saxophone and percussion
Two Saxophonists and Three Percussionists. 15')
"The mood is 'cool' and distanced, yet always the emotional tone is one of intense reverence" -St.Louis Post-Dispatch

LIBERA ME DOMINE
"Ware's textures are carefully calculated. Fragments of saxophone licks and jazz-like scales disappear into distant clouds of vibraphone trills, only to rematerialize and glide back." -The Cincinnati Enquirer
Free MP3 of chamber music for saxophone and percussion of Peter Ware's Libera Me Domine first movement excerpt

THE NIGHT RAINBOW (chamber music)
(Clt.,Vla/Hn, Pno 11')
“Night Rainbow finds the piano glistening as the clarinet and viola intone mysterious chants. Time is virtually suspended in Ware’s pieces, which are mesmerizing in effect.” -Akron Beacon Journal

THREE PIECES FOR VOICE,
CLARINET AND PIANO
(chamber music with voice)
(Sop, Cl., & Pn 6')
"Another work I enjoyed hearing again was Peter Ware's Three Pieces for Voice, Clarinet and Piano. It's a setting of three sparse 'cubistic' poems of e.e. cummings in which the music perfectly matches the wit and sonic playfulness of the text." -Musical America