Clifton Callender

composition, music theory, mathematics

Selected Compositions

Contact me for complete list, parts, click tracks, etc.


Dear Matafele Peinam for mezzo soprano and piano
Version premiered by Phyllis Pancella and Minyoung Rho.

Version of Dear Matafele Peinam for mezzo soprano and piano. See below for more details.


Dear Matafele Peinam for mezzo soprano and orchestra
Written for Phyllis Pancella and the Florida State University Symphony Orchestra with Alexander Jiménez conducting.


Dear Matafele Peinam is a setting of poet and climate activist Kathy Jetñil-Kijiner’s “Dear Matafele Peinam,” which was written for and first performed at the Opening Ceremony of the 2014 UN Secretary-General’s Climate Summit. (Performance begins at 33:45.) Program notes


à la manière de … for piano solo PDF
Written for David Kalhous


gegenschein for violin solo
Commissioned by Piotr Szewczyk for the Violin Futura project. Premiered at the 2015 FSU Festival of New Music.


Canonic Offerings for string quartet PDF
Written for the 2013 Bridges International Conference on the Arts and Mathematics, Enschede, The Netherlands, and premiered by Eleonora Matsuno, Peter Land, Adriaan Breunis, and Jur de Vries. Concert curated by Dmitri Tymoczko.

Canonic Offerings is based on my work with canons that have an infinite number of solutions. These are maximally self-similar melodic lines that can be combined successfully and performed simultaneously by any number of voices, each voice at its own tempo yielding either rational or irrational tempo ratios, with the melody moving either forward or backward. In Canonic Offerings I have selected a small number of these combinations based on three such melodies, attempting to give the flavor of the combinatorial possibilities within the context of a unified (and finite) composition.


elegy for violin and piano PDF
Premiered by Benjamin Sung and David Kalhous.


Hungarian Jazz for jazz combo PDF
Commissioned for the 2010 Bridges Conference on Mathematics and the Arts in Pécs, Hungary and premiered by the Áved-Fenyvesi Quartet—János Ávéd, Marton Fenyvesi, Balazs Horvath, and Ákos Benkó.


Metamorphoses II for violin and piano PDF
Commissioned by the Florida State Music Teachers Association and the Hanna-Yang duo. Premiered by Emily Hanna Crane, violin, and Hui-Ting Yang, piano. Recorded by the Hanna-Yang duo on Pendulum for Navona/Parma.


Reasons to Learne to Sing for SSSSAAAATTTTBBBB PDF
Commissioned by the College Music Society for their fiftieth anniversary. Premiered by the FSU University Singers, Kevin Fenton conducting.


Metamorphoses, Canon a 3 for solo cello and computer delay or three cellos PDF
Premiered by Evan Jones


Point and Line to Plane for solo piano PDF
Recorded by Jeffrey Jacob on Contemporary American Eclectic Piano Music Vol. 10, available from New Ariel Recordings. Premiered (and recorded below) by Hui-Ting Yang.


tre balli for alto and tenor saxophones and piano PDF
Written for Trio Bel Canto—Patrick Meighan, alto saxophone, John S. Moore, tenor saxophone, and Krista Wallace-Boaz, piano.


Patty, My Dear for solo piano PDF
Performed byWilliam Koehler. Recorded by Jeri-Mae Astolfi on Sonance for Capstone Records.


Luminous Signals for string quartet PDF
Premiered by the Pacifica Quartet.


reflections on the nature of light for solo piano PDF
Performed by Donald Berman at the 2013 FSU Festival of New Music.