The music of Alan Beeler is frequently a compact, tightly focused one, presenting sharp contrasts of color and mood in the context of clear, direct...

The music of Alan Beeler is frequently a compact, tightly focused one, presenting sharp contrasts of color and mood in the context of clear, direct compositional structures. Although noticeably influenced by artistic movements in Europe and America during the first half of the 20th century, Beeler’s musical voice is an identifiable one – crisp, bold, and pointedly quirky. The Sutton Songs sets the poetry by Dorothy Sutton, Beeler’s former colleague at Eastern Kentucky University. Angular melodies and tart harmonies are effectively juxtaposed against gentle, lilting duets in this 7-movement work. Symphony No. 3 is an orchestral and choral exploration of well-known Shaker hymns as experienced through Beeler’s own musical prism. The piece is an earnest, plaintive treatment of these cultural touchstones, given a reading filled with both force and grace by the orchestra and choir.+ Beeler’s works have a “rigorously mathematical underpinning … belied by their emotional vividness” (Lucid Culture)