Richard Bruner’s Masters Composition Recital
California State University, Northridge
Between Worlds: Multi-Genreism in Music
Full Program Notes
Click Here for a printable PDF program. Livestream available here.
I’ve always loved music. My parents tell of a time when I was two years old and got up on a stage at a fair to dance with the musicians, and of me identifying instruments by name from the radio around that same time. I started violin lessons when I was 3, piano at 6, and learned many other instruments over the years since. I’ve floated between worlds all along - I’ve played both orchestral music and fiddle since age 8, wrote my first fiddle tune at age 9, and had my first formal classical world premiere in 8th grade. At Berklee College of Music, I studied film scoring and performed across many genres of music. More recently, I added viola to my performance practice, an instrument that itself often sits between the world of the violin and that of the cello, drawing the music together. I’ve composed music in the worlds of classical art music, world folk music, and electronic music over the years. Tonight, we celebrate the things that can’t be assigned one label, and explore the world of Music through original composition. I hope you enjoy the evening as much as I’ve enjoyed putting it together!
Notes for the Pieces:
The Wailing Air Set (The Wailing Air / March of the Students / Journeyman’s Jig / The Master’s Reel) (2024): Written for this recital and for the Scottish Fiddlers of Los Angeles 2025 concert. A striking opening set for this show, with the haunting wail of the Irish pennywhistle to kick things off in a cinematic manner. Followed by a Scottish-style march, jig, and reel, all based off of variations of the same tune and building in energy. Full ensemble, feat. Richard Bruner, Pennywhistle.
Dark of the Night (2024): A classical-style piece for solo viola and piano. The viola begins with a bit of a tantrum coming off the Wailing Air before discovering a new melody. From there, the piece develops passion and depth before winding back down again. Richard Bruner, Viola; Phil Cunneen, Piano.
Violas in Paradise (2025): The viola has been a neglected instrument in the classical tradition, a situation that has improved in recent decades but still has a ways to go. This trio adds to the repertoire in a fun, upbeat, “poppy” direction with an island feel, with three violas trading off playing strummed chords, bass lines, and solo improvisation. Richard Bruner, Patrick Marsh, and Luigi Ito, Viola.
Looming, Skipping Jump (2025): A quartet for a probably unique ensemble, featuring a hammered dulcimer, two violas, and cello. This piece explores dance music of another region, getting into odd meters with an Eastern European influence. The technical version is that this is a cross-rhythm of 9/8, indicated as 3/8+3/4 (switching to 7/8 near the end). Richard Bruner, Hammered Dulcimer; Patrick Marsh and Luigi Ito, Viola; David Aks, Cello.
The School Set [Final Exam Jig / Summer Break Jig] (2024): Two jigs I wrote during finals week my second semester (Spring 2024) at CSUN. You can tell I’ve been tutoring too many undergraduate harmony classes when I start using augmented 6th and Neapolitan 6th chords in my fiddle tunes! Full ensemble.
Groove Quartet (2023): A string quartet exploring connections between classical sonata form and jazz head form, with the idea that in both cases there is some initial material presented, it is developed (by modulation and fragmentation in sonata form, by solos on the chord progression in jazz), and then the original material is presented again but is received differently by virtue of its development. Two themes are presented in the “exposition” here, developed through solos, and then presented again at the end in the “recapitulation”. This piece is featured in my thesis paper for my degree. Joyce Pan, Violin 1 [solos]; Scott Johnson, Violin 2; Richard Bruner, Viola [solos]; David Aks, Cello.
Lament for a Lost Age (2020/2024): This is my favorite of the tunes I wrote during COVID lockdown in 2020. Originally intended as an elegy for the people and the lifestyle lost during the pandemic, music is a universal phenomenon. Given recent events in California and around the world, and possibly in daily life, may this be of solace when life turns dark. In the style of a Scottish Lament. This arrangement develops the tune in a classical manner while preserving the fiddle quality of the tune. Full ensemble, feat. Joyce Pan, Fiddle.
Finale (2025): A slow air features the cello, getting developed into a string quartet with counterpoint, which leads to a quasi-string orchestra action groove with textural free improvisation for the ensemble in the middle. Full ensemble, feat. David Aks, Cello.
Ensemble:
Joyce Pan: Violin 1*
Scott Johnson: Violin 2
Richard Bruner: Viola 1 (Pennywhistle, Hammered Dulcimer)*
Patrick Marsh: Viola 2
Luigi Ito: Viola 3
David Aks: Cello*
Phil Cunneen: Piano*
*Member, Scottish Fiddlers of Los Angeles
Recording services provided by Jeremy Davalos
Recital Abstract:
This Spring 2025 recital for the MM in Music Composition at California State University, Northridge explores the meeting of several avenues in the wider world of Music. It is an art music project, with heavy influences from popular music styles, in particular Celtic folk music and jazz. One piece in particular, currently titled “Groove Quartet”, shows relationships between classical sonata form and jazz head form including improvised solos. This particular piece is examined in more detail in a paper that goes along with the recital.
Improvisation has been a lost tradition in the world of classical music, and there have been recent efforts to bring improvisation back into the classical tradition. This project contributes to these efforts in several different ways, including Celtic improvised ornamentation and melodic variation, jazz-style soloing on chord progressions, and full ensemble free improvisation in different pieces and sometimes in the same piece.
The instruments used in this recital are largely traditional, but the precise make up is less common. It will feature 2 violins, 3 violas, 1 cello and piano, with several pieces featuring subsets of the ensemble, including a viola trio, solo viola+piano, and standard string quartet. The viola is featured heavily throughout. It is a somewhat neglected instrument in the overall repertoire, though it has also received more attention in recent decades. Two less common instruments that also make an appearance are the pennywhistle from Ireland, and the hammered dulcimer, found in a variety of cultures throughout history.
Cross-discipline studies have gained popularity in recent years, and this recital crosses boundaries of composition, performance / improvisation, and multiple genres to present a distinct look into the world of Music.
Richard Bruner Biography:
Originally from Wilmette, IL north of Chicago, Richard Bruner has been a musician his whole life. He started violin lessons at age 3, piano at age 6, and began composing his first tunes at age 9. His first classical premiere was his String Quartet No. 1 when he was in 8th grade. He learned a variety of additional instruments, focusing on instruments used in the music of Ireland and Scotland, such as the pennywhistle and hammered dulcimer featured in this program.
Richard attended Berklee College of Music, graduating summa cum laude in 2012 with a BM in Film Scoring. While at Berklee, Richard played violin, fiddle, tin whistles, and viola with the Berklee Contemporary Symphony Orchestra, the Berklee Contemporary Fiddle Club, and over 60 student film scoring recording sessions in addition to writing and conducting his own sessions.
Upon graduating, Richard moved to Los Angeles, CA, where he now resides. He has worked professionally in the commercial and film music industries as a composer, production music library manager, music copyist, and studio tech.
He also actively performs around Los Angeles as a violinist and violist with several community and semi-professional symphony orchestras, including the Symphony of the Verdugos and San Fernando Valley Symphony Orchestra; and has been playing viola in the CSUN Symphony Orchestra for the past two school years. Richard also writes for and plays fiddle and whistles with the Scottish Fiddlers of Los Angeles, and several other performers on stage tonight also perform with the SFLA. Richard has placed twice in the Scottish Fiddle Revival’s (Scottish F.I.R.E.) national composition competition.
Richard has returned to school at the California State University, Northridge to earn his Master of Music degree in Composition, studying with Dr. Patrick O’Malley and Dr. Liviu Marinescu. He is planning to move into teaching college music theory, composition and music production, and to that end has enjoyed working with the undergraduate students at CSUN as a Music Department Music Theory and Musicianship Tutor over the past two school years.
Read more about Richard’s musical philosophy, which he calls “Capital-M Music”, on this website.