The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows

Interview with composer Annika Socolofsky and pianist Nicholas Shaneyfelt on the creation and performance of Annika's piece, Rise, for alto saxophone and bowed piano.

You can find the video here: https://www.icareifyoulisten.com/2019/04/video-premiere-hulting-cohen-shaneyfelt-socolofsky-rise/

And the studio recording here, or most streaming sources: https://www.innova.mu/albums/jonathan-hulting-cohen/second-flight

Program Note 

“Rise” explores the numerous resonances and timbres of the alto saxophone in the way that a vocalist explores the nuanced vocal qualities and expressive micro-variations in sound color at the far reaches of their own voice. The piano serves to magnify these subtle color shifts by acting as a resonator for the saxophone. Much like the sympathetic strings on a Norwegian hardanger fiddle create a spectral sound bed for the fiddle, the pianist uses rosined bow hair to bow the strings of their instrument to timbrally support and conflict with the saxophone's vocal lines.

Interview: Annika Socolofsky & Nicholas Shaneyfelt on "Rise"

Jon Heilbron - double bass
Fredrik Rasten - e-bowed acoustic guitar, composition

Murmurations I (excerpt) - Arches - Jon Heilbron & Fredrik Rasten

Phosphorescent Devotion (2021), electro-acoustic composition for wavefield synthesis with 20 localized sound sources. (15:50)
This upload is a stereo mix-down.

Commissioned by the Earle Brown Music Foundation Charitable Trust in collaboration with the TIME:SPANS festival and EMPAC.

Premiered August 11 – August 16, 2021, DiMenna Center for Classical Music.

Phosphorescent Devotion (2021) [stereo version]

for clarinet, vibraphone, and fixed media 

Asher Harris, clarinet in b-flat
Reed Puleo, vibraphone

Ripple (2021)

Performed live by the Zöllner-Roche Duo at Unerhörte Musik in Berlin, Germany on November 9, 2021.

www.unerhoerte-musik.de
www.zoellner-roche.com

Commissioned by Gaudeamus Muziekweek for their 2021 festival.

Program Note:
The concept for this piece comes from The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows, a collection of words invented by John Koenig that “aims to fill a hole in the [English] language—to give a name to emotions we all might experience but don’t yet have a word for.” The title for this piece comes from the definition for “silience.”

This word is something I felt deeply following the King Soopers shooting in my town of Boulder, Colorado on March 22nd 2021. I remember that day vividly, as I was receiving my first COVID vaccination while the shooter was active at the grocery store down the road. As our community grieved the loss of ten lives, I witnessed an incredible spirit and strength in those around me. I was amazed by my students–by their ability to face the weight of this tragedy, and their ability to hold space for others. I truly believe that community, our collective strength and care, is the highest form of excellence human-kind has to offer. And while we're here: ban guns. 

silience, n. the kind of unnoticed excellence that carries on around you every day, unremarkably—the hidden talents of friends and coworkers, the fleeting solos of subway buskers, the slapdash eloquence of anonymous users, the unseen portfolios of aspiring artists—which would be renowned as master- pieces if only they’d been appraised by the cartel of popular taste, who assume that brilliance is a rare and precious quality, accidentally overlooking buried jewels that may not be flawless but are still somehow perfect.

The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows: silience (2021) // Zöllner-Roche Duo Live

written and co-produced by me
produced by @swazyhq and @impursuit
----------- 
used to be so caught up in you, oh,
i've given up and now i'm running to the hills, cause i've lost the thrill
stuck in a hole, i don't know what to do, oh
i try to numb and look for something new to feel, but there's nothing real, and now i'm

discombobulated
i kept my hand in the fire, and now i'm getting so tired of this, (i'm feeling jaded)
i guess i'll keep getting higher, cause now i know you're a liar 
and shit, i'm devastated
i'm stuck in my room alone, i wish you'd pick up the phone, 
i feel the patience dissipating and now,

the sparks gone, there's no song, you finally won 
it's not fun, i'm struggling, was it something i'd done?
i'm not strong, nothing inside, my heart you had robbed 
the songs of love that i had, don't mean a thing anymore 
x2

losing a pulse, i need to take a breath, oh 
feel a convulsion running through my chest again, haven't slept again 
drowning my paper in a pool of lead, oh
pull me around like i'm a marionette, again
do you remember when you and me would 

stay up late, we're singing 
you said that i misconstrued it, you didn't think when you threw it away, 
my head is ringing, 
and now i'm feeling so stupid, i wish i hadn't went through it 
but hey, i'll stick to drinking 
the bottles always my friend, i know i'm drowning again 
but it's better than remembering, now it's different because

the sparks gone, there's no song, you finally won 
it's not fun, i'm struggling, was it something i'd done?
i'm not strong, nothing inside, my heart you had robbed 
the songs of love that i had, don't mean a thing anymore 
x2

feresy

for flute and piano
Roberta Michel, flute. Mirna Lekic, piano

Lacquer and Grit

Performed by the Irish National Symphony Orchestra
Chief Conductor Jaime Martín

To Come Back To Earth

As a vocalist, I have long been obsessed with the nuanced resonance of the human voice, and in particular the timbral variation and inflection inherent to many folk vocal traditions. These highly expressive micro-variations deliver intense pangs of emotion that can be sung in the subtlest of ways. They are distilled, fleeting moments of suffering and joy that fall between the cracks of melody and harmony. This piece is about the music that exists between the notes.

One wish, your honey lips (2016) // Emissary Quartet

Music Copyright (c) Annika K. Socolofsky 2018. ASCAP. All rights reserved.

Recorded by So Percussion at Princeton University in February 2019.

The concept for this piece comes from The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows, a collection of words invented by John Koenig that “aims to fill a hole in the [English] language—to give a name to emotions we all might experience but don’t yet have a word for.” The title for this piece comes from the definition for “ambedo.”

This piece was premiered by Liz Karney, McKayla Philips, Nick Martinez, and Lauren Molloy at the 2018 So Percussion Summer Institute Princeton PhD Concert, and is dedicated to them.

ambedo
n. a kind of melancholic trance in which you become completely absorbed in vivid sensory details—raindrops skittering down a window, tall trees leaning in the wind, clouds of cream swirling in your coffee—which leads to a dawning awareness of the haunting fragility of life, a mood whose only known cure is the vuvuzela.

http://www.dictionaryofobscuresorrows.com/

The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows: ambedo (2018) // So Percussion

Song for the Lichen

Commissioned by X4 Percussion Quartet: SHELL was inspired by the work of photojournalist Seph Lawless who has traveled across the United States capturing images of abandoned shopping malls. There’s a certain feeling evoked from places that should be full of people but are now empty and decaying. Before online shopping, these were vibrant communal places, now the emptiness is amplified.

https://www.x4percussionquartet.com 

Performed By:
Shane Jones
James Pendell
Dan Piccolo
Ji Hye Jung

SHELL

The concept for this piece comes from The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows, a collection of words invented by John Koenig that “aims to fill a hole in the [English] language—to give a name to emotions we all might experience but don’t yet have a word for.” The title for this
piece comes from the definition for “the meantime.”

the meantime
n. the moment of realization that your quintessential future self isn’t ever going to show up, which forces the role to fall upon the understudy, the gawky kid for whom nothing is easy, who spent years mouthing
their lines in the wings before being shoved into the glare of your life, which is already well into its second act.

This piece was commissioned by the Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival for the Callisto Quartet, who premiered the piece at St. Hugo of the Hills in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan in June 2019.

This recording features the Aizuri Quartet, recorded by Andrés Villalta at Princeton University in November 2020.

The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows: the meantime (2019) // Aizuri Quartet

Annika Socolofsky is a composer and avant folk vocalist. Described as “unbearably moving” (Gramophone) and “just the right balance between edgy precision and freewheeling exuberance” (The Guardian), her music erupts from the embodied power of the human voice and is communicated through mediums ranging from orchestral and operatic works to unaccompanied folk ballads. She is Assistant Professor of Composition at the University of Colorado Boulder and holds her PhD in Composition from Princeton University.

The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows: ambedo (2018) // So Percussion

Annika Socolofsky

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