Hi, I’m composer John Carmella, a New York City resident since 1988. In my musical works, I like to combine popular and classical elements.

In 2004, I embarked on a new musical journey, composing the first 6 of what I decided to call reveries. Mostly based on unusual musical scales (or modes), these reveries are fanciful character pieces for piano. By the end of 2009, I had completed 3 volumes of 31 reveries. It is to these reveries that this entire website is dedicated. Herein I describe each one in some detail, sharing any background stories relating to their origins, revealing the methods and modes employed in their creation, recounting how the titles were decided upon, what the inspirations were, etc.

I was born in 1957, raised in Piscataway, New Jersey, until the age of 5 and, after that, in Roselle Park, New Jersey. I grew up loving the Beatles after seeing them perform on the Ed Sullivan Show in 1964. During my early teens, I was crazy about the progressive rock music of ’70s groups such as Yes, Jethro Tull, Emerson Lake and Palmer, and The Who. In my later teens, I came under the spell of the great American songwriters: Irving Berlin, Richard Rodgers, Cole Porter, Jerome Kern, and most especially, George Gershwin. I was a music major for four years at New Jersey’s Kean College (now Kean University) where I studied trumpet, music theory, music history, counterpoint and composition, receiving my BA in 1979. During my college years, I fully immersed myself in the music of the European masters, especially Bach and Beethoven. Many years later, during my early 40s, I went through a big Kurt Weill phase.

Brassworks 4, a New Mexico-based publisher and ensemble, has published several brass sextets of mine, including Prelude and Fugue in D minor, Military Scherzo and The Big Apple Grind. San Francisco's illustrious ensemble, Bay Brass, gave the world premiere of Prelude and Fugue in D minor at their annual Grace Cathedral Christmas concert of 2003, while The Big Apple Grind was premiered five months later by Brassworks 4 in the group's home state.

Earlier compositions of mine include a pop song called Love Comes Quietly with lyrics by singer-songwriter Mardi Jayde. I also have an unpublished collection of around 20 short classical pop pieces for piano and other instruments. Three pieces from this collection, Fugue in F, In Just Spring and Early Flowers have been performed several times since 2005 by such ensembles as The Con Grazia Wind Quintet and Sirens of Portland, Oregon, The Miami Wind Quintet of Oxford, Ohio, and The Forsyth Wind Quintet of Atlanta, Georgia. In addition, a recording of a live performance of In Just Spring by Sirens was broadcast Sunday evening, August 9, 2009 ( rebroadcast 02/14/10) on Portland’s classical FM radio station’s Played in Oregon program hosted by Christa Wessel


Warmest regards,
John Carmella