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)

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

Composed by Annika K. Socolofsky with interpolations by Iarla Ó Lionáird

This work was composed through a HARVEST Commission, an initiative of Copland House’s CULTIVATE emerging composers institute. It was written for and premiered by the Music from Copland House ensemble, and is made possible by generous support from Leslie Cecil and Creighton Michael.

This piece features electronics samples of my own hardanger fiddle and accordion playing, and more prominently recordings by Irish sean‐nós singer Iarla Ó Lionáird. For this collaboration with Iarla, I wrote several original melodies and recorded myself playing them on the piano. I then sent these piano recordings to Iarla in Ireland for him to learn by ear. Iarla then added Irish lyrics to the melodies and recorded them in his own magnificently Iarla way—complete with gorgeous inflections, delicate ornamentation, and a free‐flowing meditative sense of time. At that point, I got to work composing and orchestrating musical textures for Music from Copland House to perform with these recordings. I hope I did these recordings justice!

The text for this piece comes from an old spiritual poem “Caoin ar dtúis do pheachaidhe féin,” or “Lament your own sins.” I am so thankful to Iarla for his heartfelt performance in this piece, and for years of wonderful friendship that lead to this piece. A more astounding musician I have never met.

to sing of sins (2021) - EXCERPT // Iarla Ó Lionáird & Music from Copland House

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

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.

to sing of sins (2021) - EXCERPT // Iarla Ó Lionáird & Music from Copland House

Annika Socolofsky

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