Imagine looking at snapshots in a scrapbook....
"Snapshots" is a three-movement work for guitar and wind quintet (flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, and horn). 

1st Movement: Protests
This photo is of a rally, perhaps for a political or social concern. The marchers carry signs and shake their fists with passionate expressions. You remember being part of the march - the comparatively low key start, the moments of intense camaraderie, and the tension when your group clashed with the counter demonstration.

Snapshots  1. Protests

Imagine looking at snapshots in a scrapbook....
"Snapshots" is a three-movement piece for guitar and wind quintet (flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, and horn).

3rd movement: "Carnival"
This snapshot records a day you spent on the midway with your friends. It was a good day - at least, at first. The carnival seemed delightfully warped; you and your friends spun giddily through the rides and games. But then, out of the blue, you ran into your former lover - the one in the second snapshot. For a moment, you were caught in that same old melancholy as you saw the person who had meant so much to you with a new partner. But then the mania of the midway seized you and whirled you away once again.

Snapshots  3. Carnival

In the early 1990s, I wrote a novel called "The Eros Variations". Because the main character, Kelden Scott, is a concert bassoonist, and the novel covers a little over a year in his life, I divided the manuscript into four sections, which I referred to as "movements". It only made sense to write a companion symphony to accompany the novel.

The first movement introduces some of the main themes of the symphony, as well as the overall mood. Titled "Rigid, but threatening to lose control", it is an aural picture of Kelden ("Kel"). The opening bars are intended by be vague in meter and key. The bassoon solo represents Kel.

Symphony #1 (The -Kelden- Symphony) - Movement 1

The second movement of the "Kelden"  Symphony (Symphony #1) corresponds to the second section of the novel "The Eros Variations". Titled "slightly maniacal", this scherzo represents Kel Scott's life as it begins to spiral out of control.

Symphony #1 (The -Kelden- Symphony) - Movement 2

In the third section of my novel, "The Eros Variations", Kel Scott is beginning to face the consequences of his rapidly deteriorating life while examining his relationship with those he considers his friends (and, maybe, more). The slow movement of the symphony, titled, simply, "contemplative, but intense", reflects this inner struggle, while finally allowing some true beauty into the mixture.

Symphony #1 (The -Kelden- Symphony) - Movement 3

A lullaby to be sung to the infant Christ that foreshadows the crucifixion.

Lullaby For A Savior

In the early 1970s, I was attending Illinois State University. A friend and I toyed with the idea of creating a musical. This was the only music that we worked on, and we soon abandoned the idea. I took the few bars that we had written, and turned it into a song for a Christian chorus, the Sonrise Singers, of which we were members. The lyrics explored what might happen after the return of Christ. I am searching for other lyrics that would not put this song into such a narrow niche. (By the way, my co-composer for this song was Marvin J. Carlton, who has a number of his own compositions on Soundcloud. If you compare what each of us has written in the ensuing decades, you will realize that he and I have travelled some very different paths!)

Lament For The Last Days

An early work, from my college days - an assignment to write a piece in the Impressionistic style. This is the first of three movements, all under the overall title "Three Antique Dances".

Gavotte of the Nymphs (Piano)

Movement 2 of the "Three Antique Dances", an early work from my college days, from an assignment to write something in an Impressionistic style.

Arabesque of the Sybils (piano)

The third of the "Three Antique Dances", based on a college assignment to write a piece in the style of the Impressionists.

Waltz of the Gladiators (piano)

In this final movement, everything hits the fan. Subtitled "Driving", this movement brings back the main themes of the previous movements, while reflecting the ultimate turmoil in Kelden's life. The symphony was finished before the novel; at the time, I was going to leave Kelden's life in uncertainty. Thus, the symphony ends in ambiguity. However, when I finally got to writing the end of the novel, I realized that Kelden - and the reader! - deserved to experience redemption. However, I liked the end of the music so much that I left it as is.

Symphony #1 (The -Kelden- Symphony) - Movement 4

Stephen M. Larson was born in Chicago in 1952 and has lived in central Illinois since 1970. A graduate of Illinois State University with a degree in music composition, he has had several diverse jobs in his lifetime, including church janitor, carnival worker, busboy, radio announcer/engineer/programmer/producer, factory worker, school bus driver, and department store sales associate. He has been writing for as long as he can remember, and has completed a number of short stories and novels. For one of his novels he has written a companion symphony, and has illustrated many of his own works.

Stephen M Larson

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