big incredible piece! loved the pizz sections

Premiered by Alarm Will Sound at 2021 Mizzou International Composers Festival
"Sweeping and Weeping" was written in April 2020, when the pandemic hit and everything was canceled, postponed, or shut down. In an effort to find something positive, I initially thought of “sweeping” as a representation of the virus storm that took over our lives in the most unexpected ways. “Weeping” represents my reaction to the devastating loss that so many experienced. Like most of my pieces, "Sweeping and Weeping" began from these initial impressions, but the music itself navigated a way out with its own logic. The work explores rhythmic drive, lyrical tension, and release, with different timbres and colors. The music alternates between fast and slow passages that ultimately mingle into one.

Sweeping And Weeping

Premiered by Greater Hartford Youth Wind Ensemble
James Minnix, conductor
May 1, 2022

Stacking

Erika Boysen, flute
Joshua Anderson, clarinet
Christina Adams, violin
Allan Hon, cello
Mi-Eun Kim, piano

Sentient Serenade is a portrait of a day in compressed time, manifested through the voices of animals and their choruses. It begins with morning birds, moves to midday amphibians, and ends with nocturnal insects. It was inspired by seeing a spectagram of these sounds in nature at a museum in the Ozarks, which caused me to listen to my environment more carefully. Three times a emotive occurs which is different from the others, and which represents the human Observer. There is no literal mimesis of the animal songs; all motives are just the composer’s evocation thereof.

Sentient Serenade - Robert Carl

Commissioned and premiered by Women's Wind Ensemble at University of North Carolina, Greensboro, October 28, 2021. In tribute to Rosa Parks (1913-2005).

Tim Hagen, flute
Mary Ashley Barret, oboe 
Kelly Burke, clarinet
Ab Pack, horn 
Rebecca Libera, bassoon

Back of the Bus

For solo bassoon
Commissioned and premiered by Marissa Olegario

After Rain

Four Corners Ensemble, "Migration" concert, OPERA America, New York, Nov. 23, 2019.

Erika Boysen, flute
Joshua Anderson, clarinet
Christina Adams, violin
Horacio Contreras, cello
Annie Jeng, piano

Program notes:
Four Many life moments are universal, and sharing emotions through storytelling is a valuable tool for bringing people together and making us feel like we’re not alone. The Hero’s Journey, also known as the monomyth, was a story-structure that was first popularized by Joseph Campbell. He noticed that many myths, not all, follow a similar pattern of events. In the same way that many stories share similar events and structures, people react with similar emotions when confronted with big life moments. Through this piece, name;known, I wanted to explore the universality of emotions within storytelling while using the monomyth as a guide.

"Crossing the Threshold" follows the growing anticipation of entering into that something new. The music is constantly unsettling and reaffirming itself as the harmonies and rhythms reach arrival points and then immediately change. The movement, while energetic and exciting, is anxious in nature.

"Abyss" is the emotionally lowest point of the piece. You just hit rock bottom. The slow-moving and transparent textures create a sense of hopelessness and fear; that whatever your goal was, it is now futile and impossible. However, the movement ends with a quote from the first movement and reminds the listener that the original call to action is still meaningful.

"Arrival Dances" explores both the euphoria of having accomplished something as well as the uncertainty that follows the completion of that task. The movement follows a rondo form, bringing back and venturing into different sections while never allowing the celebratory main theme to take hold for too long.

While we’re experiencing this journey, we feel anxiety, fear, and nervousness all with a fear of the unknown, but the knowledge that these experiences are universal is inherently comforting.

Sawyer Harrington-Verb - name; known

Founded in 2017, the Four Corners Ensemble (4CE) consists of 8 top-level emerging musicians originating from 7 Countries (Australia, China, South Africa, South Korea, France, Italy & USA) on 4 Continents (Asia, Australia, Europe & America) and trained by 3 world-class musical institutes (Juilliard, Yale, & University of Michigan); 4CE will have a residency base in 2 cities: Ann Arbor and New York; with 1 founding principle that music is a rare and precious thing: an international birthright we can all claim, and that to make the music of the future, the music makers must have a truly global, diverse heritage.

Sawyer Harrington-Verb - name; known

Four Corners Ensemble

Recent comments

June Violet

Related tracks