Live performance

Ekmeles, directed by Jeffrey Gavett
Moore Musical Arts Center, Bowling Green State University, Ohio
22 November 2021

Madrigal book in 31-TET (2012-16) after Nicola Vicentino
Texts adapted from Jacques Arcadelt's Primo Libro de' Madrigali (1539)

Primo Libro

Choirland is a published and recorded collection of 15 pieces by Irish composers for unaccompanied mixed choir. The music ranges in difficulty from the simple to perform, to the more challenging. From arrangements of traditional melodies to new settings of familiar texts and strikingly original works, the selection encompasses a wide array of styles which illustrate the diversity and vibrancy of Irish choral music. Each piece is presented with performance notes designed to aid conductors and singers alike, and the book includes a CD recording of the music by the National Chamber Choir of Ireland conducted by its Artistic Director Paul Hillier.

Choirland is published by the Contemporary Music Centre and has been produced in partnership with the Association of Irish Choirs and National Chamber Choir of Ireland with funding from The Arts Council/An Chomairle Ealaíon.

To purchase the full publication and recording: http://cmc.ie/shop/title_detail.cfm?pubID=42

chOirland by David Fennessy

Live recording of the premiere of "Traced Upon Cinders".  Either/Or Ensemble, conducted by Richard Carrick, and the DiMenna Center for Classical Music, Cary Hall. (April 12, 2014 - recorded by Ryan Streber).

"Traced Upon Cinders" is a partner piece to my percussion sextet "Etched in Sand" (2013).  The notes to "Etched in Sand" read:

“To etch is to cut, carve, or engrave a text or design onto a surface (traditionally metal, glass, or stone).  This process leaves a permanent design on the original surface.

“I recall going to the shore as a child and spending hours etching designs into the wet, hardened sand at the threshold of beach and sea.  With the sun on my back I would revel in the glory of these beautiful and ephemeral pieces of art that I created using the sand as my canvas and a stray seashell as my stylus.  As evening encroached, the tide would slowly come in, its regular cycles of crashing waves a whispering reminder of the passing of time.  The gently lapping water would inevitably creep towards my etchings, and as it neared I waited, in tense anticipation, for the arcs of water blindly reaching up the beach.  As the first finger of water washed over my design, the image began its transformation into a subdued echo of itself.  For a short time – an eternity – I would solemnly watch my day’s work gently fade away into the original blank canvas.”

As an adult, I often look back to memories of moments from my childhood.  I trace these images over and over again in my mind, seeking new meanings and connections.  But as time passes their fidelity erodes; they are now cinders of the burning moments they once were, and quickly they do fade.

"Traced Upon Cinders" was written for the Either/Or Ensemble.

-Nina C. Young

Traced Upon Cinders (2014) for 13 musicians

"Post tenebras spero lucem" 
(After darkness, I hope for light)

Recording of the premiere performance.
Yoonhee Lee, violin; Tim Hansson, viola; Oskari Holopainen, violoncello; Eirik Fosstveit, piano.

Creative Dialogue VII, February 7, 2015, Helsinki Music Center Organo Hall (Musica Nova Helsinki).



Spero Lucem (2015) for piano quartet

Webern - Langsamer Satz

with poet felicia klingenberg, contralto Lynne McMurtry and pianist Alison D'Amato. Performed on June 5th, 2015 in Pyatt Hall, Vancouver, B.C. as part of Art Song Lab 2015.

Love Suite

If one were to ask my grandmother to talk about her life, she’d choose to narrate it by walking through her home telling the story of how she and my grandfather found each antique, trinket, and piece of furniture that completes their life together. One piece she particularly treasures is her grandfather clock; and an especially meaningful moment in my life was when she asked my husband to wind the clock for her, as I had seen my grandfather do countless times before. "Talking to the Time" introduces motives and melodies throughout the piece that build upon each other the way one tells a story. Each new melody or section has come from something that has previously occurred as it develops further into the piece. Just as my grandmother walks through her house telling her life story, each piece inspiring a different chapter, so too does this music continuously build on its own narrative.  
 
I died happy in my sleep…
Our children around and you looking down
from heaven's a julep on the porch…
You and me rocking the grandfather clock is tick tick talking
to the time we used to wind it

-Punch Brothers


Talking To The Time

"Manarah," (2015) [excerpt] for two digitally processed antiphonal trumpets and orchestra, by Saad Haddad

Perusal Score, Program Notes, and Purchase/Rental Information: http://www.saadnhaddad.com/manarah.html

American Composers Orchestra conducted by George Manahan
April 1, 2016; world premiere live recording
Carnegie Hall
New York, NY
www.americancomposers.org/

Manarah [excerpt]

Rehearsal recording of first half - May 2017. American Composers Orchestra; David Tinervia, baritone.

Part 1: Into the Weddell Sea
Part 2: Trapped in Pack Ice 

Music composed by: Nina C. Young
Text written by: Nina C. Young and David Tinervia
Optional Generative video by: R. Luke DuBois

"Out of whose womb came the ice" creates a sonic and visual glimpse of a segment of the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition (1914-17).  In August 1914, at the onset of WWI, polar explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton gathered a crew of 27 men and set sail for the South Atlantic.  They were in pursuit of the last unclaimed prize of the Heroic Age of Exploration: to be the first to cross the Antarctic continent by foot.  Upon entering the Weddell Sea, they encountered unusually foul weather.  Weaving south through the treacherous seas of ice, their ship, the Endurance, became trapped only 85 miles from their destination.  After months of waiting for the ice to break, the ship was crushed and sank, leaving the crew stranded upon the ice floes without any means of contacting the outside world.  In pursuit of survival, Shackleton and his crew endured 22 months traversing ice floes up the Antarctic Peninsula.  The final leg included a deadly 800-mile open boat journey in their lifeboat, the James Caird, in hopes of reaching South Georgia Island.  The crew was rescued on 30 August 1916; everyone survived.  Though this expedition failed, it remains one of the most miraculous stories of polar exploration and human survival.

"Out of whose womb came the ice" looks at the expedition from the time they enter the Weddell Sea (December 1914) to the sinking of the Endurance (November 1915).  The vocal and orchestra music focuses on the crew’s perception of the Endurance in relationship to their surroundings.  She goes from being simply a ship, to a lifeline and memento that connects them to the world they left behind.  Once she sinks, they are truly left alone.  The visuals and electronics offer narrative elements drawn directly from documents of the journey: journal entries of the crew and images by expedition’s official photographer Frank Hurley.

Out of whose womb came the ice (excerpt) for baritone voice, orchestra, and electronics

For violin, cello, and piano (2018)
Clara Kim, violin
Joann Whang, cello
Karl Larson, piano

Air, Ear, Ire, Hour Aura [excerpt]

Ta Entos

PRISM saxophone quartet

(Score available from Radnofsky-Couper Editions at http://www.rceditions.com/)

Air, Ear, Ire, Hour Aura [excerpt]

A.J. McCaffrey, composer

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