Alex Chadwell - Composition, Lap steel guitar, 12 string guitar, Hammond organ, Prophet 08, engineering, mixing
Jake Fewx - Tuba (sample from "Our heartbeats would kill us")

My thinking on arts and literacy centers around the concept of literacies and artmaking as both sense-making and meaning-making processes that organically and inevitably overlap, intersect, and reciprocate. Compositionally, "What is me and what is not me" is a sound collage of sorts (there is no staff notation for the piece and I'd be unable to duplicate it exactly)that abstractly and aurally represents the relationships between literacies and artmaking.

This piece was created as part of the Arts Education Partnership and Education Commission of the States’ Arts and Literacy Thinkers Meeting Series. It is published in The Arts and Literacies resource (https://www.aep-arts.org/the-arts-and-literacies/) that explores literacy development ― beyond just text-based literacy ― across arts disciplines and other areas.

What is me and what is not me

This is one of my most traditional text-settings in a while; no amplification, no processing, no strange subject matter, and not my own text nor contemporary poetry. It's a setting of Paul Verlaine's poem, "Il pleut doucement sur la ville" which struck me as a blunt, yet poetic portrayal of depression. (Whether or not it is about or attempts to depict depression is unclear and personally unimportant). 

Soprano - Caitlin Mead
Double Bass - Nick Dunston
Recording, Mixing, Mastering - Zac Smith

Il pleut doucement sur la ville
(ARTHUR RIMBAUD.)

Il pleure dans mon coeur
Comme il pleut sur la ville,
Quelle est cette langueur
Qui pénètre mon coeur?

Il pleure sans raison
Dans ce coeur qui s'écoeure.
Quoi! nulle trahison?
Ce deuil est sans raison.

C'est bien la pire peine
De ne savoir pourquoi,
Sans amour et sans haine,
Mon coeur a tant de peine!

- Paul Verlaine (1844 – 1896)

Il pleut doucement sur la ville (2017)

I. My heart is where it belongs.
II. My heart is no longer where it belongs.
III. My heart is once again where it belongs.

Program Note:

The 9th century Zen Buddhist monk, Qingyuan Weixin, described the process of religious study in the following manner:

“Before I had studied Ch’an [Zen] for thirty years, I saw mountains as mountains, and rivers as rivers. When I arrived at a more intimate knowledge, I came to the point where I saw that mountains are not mountains, and rivers are not rivers. But now that I have got its very substance, I am at rest. For it’s just that I see mountains once again as mountains, and rivers once again as rivers.”

Piano - Beyza Yazgan

My heart is once again where it belongs.

My heart is no longer where it belongs.

My heart is where it belongs.

Voice - Caitlin Mead (www.caitlinmead.com)
Guitar/Electronics - Alex Chadwell

Recorded and Produced by Alex Chadwell

Photo by Kelly Mead

Dream Myself

Flutes - Jackie Traish
Artwork - Stephen Michael Haas

EVERYTHING WILL BE TAKEN AWAY - SIDE B

EVERYTHING WILL BE TAKEN AWAY - SIDE A

Our Heartbeats Would Kill Us - Demo

Violin - Katherine Gilger
Violin - Elaine He
Viola - Jean Ryoo
Cello - Stacy Cho
Conductor - Yue Bao

Recorded and Mixed by Alex Chadwell

I Am The Weeping

Performed by MOD Brass
Recorded by Nathan Prillaman at St Matthew Roman Catholic Church (Brooklyn, NY)

Am I A Flower? (MORNING PRAYER) Demo

I am a musician, composer, teaching artist, facilitator, and administrator originally from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania and currently based in Lexington, Kentucky.

My work as a composer is centered around the notion of “genre-fluid” music. The musical structures, harmonic language, instruments and technology I use come from a wide array of genres which allows for the creation of hyper personal music. My music integrates non-musical and pre recorded sounds, innovative production methods, and storytelling.

As a teaching artist, I have designed and facilitated residencies and classes with Bethel Woods Center for the Arts, Brooklyn Arts Council, the Center for Arts Education, Central Kentucky Youth Orchestra, Highbridge Voices, the New York Philharmonic's Very Young Composers program, PrimeLife Arts Learning, and St. Nicks Alliance. In the summer of 2021, I was selected to participate in the Arts Education Partnership's Arts and Literacy Thinkers Meeting Series and currently participate on their Equity Working Group.

In my current position as the Learning and Partnership Programs Manager at the Lexington Philharmonic, I am developing and implementing programming that is centered around the belief that all people should have opportunities to be invited and supported in individually and collaboratively creating art that examines and/or reflects their experiences, values and perspectives.

Prior to joining the Lexington Philharmonic, I worked as an administrator at The New School's College of Performing Arts.

I am currently a Civic Saturday Fellow at Citizen University.

Alexander Chadwell

Popular tracks