other instrumental works
an assortment of solo and chamber works
Sojourn
for solo piano
There are a few on this earth whose hearts are seized by an unquenchable desire to travel. They seek a country which others claim does not exist, but which they upon arrival hope to claim as their own. Until that time, they will consider themselves aliens and strangers to all other countries. No matter where they settle, these sojourners know their stay is only temporary, for what they seek cannot be found in the material world. They long to see sights which they have heard about but can scarcely begin to imagine; their souls ache for communion with a kindred spirit who understands them and who will never be separated from them, not even by death. The sojourner leads ·a peculiar life. He lives under the influence of two different cultures and must come to grips with the conflicts which arise from considering himself a resident of one though a citizen of another. The demands of the one may be immediate; the demands of the other, though less pressing, may be of greater significance. His mind may be filled with thoughts of the future, it may be fixed upon the things that are eternal, and yet he is forced to live within the confinements of time. His life full of contradictions, he seeks a time when they will all be resolved.
Intarsia I
for solo violin
“John F. Paul’s Intarsia I [is] a bright and attractive five-minute work for solo violin. Interspersing vibrant, slashing dissonances with impetuous scale figures, Paul leads the listener through a clearly stated musical discourse.” (Joshua Kosman, San Francisco Chronicle)
“John Paul’s Intarsia I reaches back to the Old World to pay homage to the demonic fiddlers of the Gypsy camps who contributed a fierce virtuosity to Western music. It is a highly concentrated work [that] spins out its thematic content in rapid sequence, then circles back to embellish and develop it with artificial harmonics and double stops. It generates quite a lot of excitement in the process.” (Richard Chon, Buffalo News)
