"The Raven"
Written by Edgar Allan Poe
Read by Alex Mumford

This recording features only solo voice.
I have also posted a video of this recording on youtube with musical excerpts from 'The Whispered Knell' and artwork by Anna Hewett: 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HJH2oDBWytc 

Photo - A public domain photo found at: http://www.publicdomainpictures.net/view-image.php?image=25540&picture=raven 

The Raven

"I Only Meant To" is a virtuosic vocal piece whose range spans over 2.5 octaves (from G2 to D5). This song also explores the lowest register of the piano – where even a major chord will lose its brightest quality. The heavy, incessant pulse of the piece sets the mood to a funeral-like march as the narrator discovers that he should no longer live. The main compositional idea revolves around the preparation and treatment of re falling to do – which is achieved near the end of the piece; yet when re-do does arrive, it falls over a dissonant chord leaving the vocal line unresolved to a suspended conclusion. 

Ben Bartels - Vocals
Alex Mumford - Piano

You lay warm yet still. No rise, no fall. In you, I see us both: Her blood, My blood. With the time you have, always be an artist. On the stars beyond me, rise my artist… But my child, you stir no more. Pallid are your lips. It’s my turn… I must forfeit my right to– I only meant to love you… I never meant to break you… I never meant to– I only meant– I never meant to destroy you! Forgive me! Forgive me! Forgive me! You are beautiful! But I have failed you… I now forfeit my right to love!

Composed by Alex Mumford, 2014. 
Lyrics by Alex Mumford, 2014.
Artwork by Egon Schiele

I Only Meant To (Live) feat. BEN BARTELS

On this work and how I battle the automaton within:

Burdened by alienation and isolation
I found myself behind a harpsichord
From which this work was given life
But composing music can be like unprotected sex
There I bore a child into the world that day
Like an unsuspecting parent I thought to myself
Oh, shit
And carried the responsibilities that any decent person would have for their child
Then, after recovering from bafflement and confusion
I one day turned to my child and said
I love you
Now let me show you the way

This piece of music has grown up
Ready and eager to show itself to you and the world
Where everything it is bears the mark of my influence:
My torment, my frustration, my loneliness and vulnerability
My awareness, my love, my thoughtfulness and sensitivity
But the point is not my mark left within the waves that flow through your ears
But rather – your curiosity
All curiosity
For it is this that sparks expeditions
Of all the fantastic, beautiful, and terrifying wonders
To occur here in this world

Composed by Alex Mumford, 2014.
Alex Mumford – Harpsichord and Vocals
Artwork by Odilon Redon

.n.Atural.a.Rtificial.i.Ntelligence. – Lament Of Mechanical Man

This piece of music and sound collage came to life while under the limitation of using field recordings as source material for composition and features a software instrument I created from a modified acetylene torch sample. Nearly all of the sounds were recorded using my iPhone at J.D. Fontanella’s workshop as traditional instruments and vocals were not used. Many of the recorded samples were then altered to achieve the quality present in this work. The result has been tailored to evoke something fragile, shimmering, and tormented. 

Composed by Alex Mumford, 2014.
J.D. Fontanella – Performer, Operator, and Tinkerer of Toys, Tools, and Machinery
Artwork by Egon Schiele



Beckoning Unbeknownst

Commissioned and performed by Palladium Percussion Quartet at Pulsing & Shaking concert series on February 24th, 2015 at Frederick Loewe Theatre, New York City. 

Palladium Percussion Quartet are:
Greg Auffredou - Marimba
Russell Fisher - Vibraphone
Adam Holmes - Marimba
Luis Jacome - Vibraphone

Music composed by Alex Mumford, 2014.
Artwork design by Alex Mumford (assembled from edited stock photos in the public domain).

"On becoming" are two words which comprise this work's central theme. Through a lens zoomed in at the micro-level, Flesh-Smitten Amniotic Fluid illustrates the birth and development of consonant and dissonant musical morphemes through the use of local signifiers which prepare the signified change. During the nine months it took to construct this work, I began with a strict set of rules which were gradually morphed into guidelines as the music needed to embody something that felt truly natural, somehow familiar, yet unpredictable – akin to the human experience of life, persistence, and death. The instruments themselves; the timbres of the marimba and vibraphone; and the dichotomy between wood and steel served as the right kind of limitation to sonically demonstrate these ideas. This work is dedicated to Palladium Percussion Quartet – who are fine examples of masterful, dedicated musicians as well as genuine, sweet people.

Flesh-Smitten Amniotic Fluid

'Annabel Lee' consists of two parts – 'I. Before' and 'II. The Words', which use the text of Edgar Allan Poe’s final poem of the same name. 

'I. Before' uses classical form as a tool to construct and arrange field recordings and voice recordings/readings I recorded via iPhone and snipped from YouTube respectively. After processing these recordings and twisting the rhythmic patterns found within the poem, I had formed a haunting and desolate sound-world intended to depict the grieving, tormented mind of a man longing for the love of his dead lover. 

'II. The Words' is the logical conclusion to which 'Annabel Lee' is read in its original form. There is no music accompanying this reading. 

This work was premiered at the Composers' Collective Fall 2015 Concert in NYC. 

Music composed by Alex Mumford
Annabel Lee read by Alex Mumford
Written by Edgar Allan Poe

Special thanks to other Annabel Lee readings by:
ASMRBebexo
Dearstarchaser
SugarMeetsSpice

Artwork by Kamille Freske


ANNABEL LEE
    – by Edgar Allan Poe

It was many and many a year ago,
   In a kingdom by the sea,
That a maiden there lived whom you may know
   By the name of Annabel Lee;
And this maiden she lived with no other thought
   Than to love and be loved by me.

I was a child and she was a child,
   In this kingdom by the sea,
But we loved with a love that was more than love—
   I and my Annabel Lee—
With a love that the wingèd seraphs of Heaven
   Coveted her and me.

And this was the reason that, long ago,
   In this kingdom by the sea,
A wind blew out of a cloud, chilling
   My beautiful Annabel Lee;
So that her highborn kinsmen came
   And bore her away from me,
To shut her up in a sepulchre
   In this kingdom by the sea.

The angels, not half so happy in Heaven,
   Went envying her and me—
Yes!—that was the reason (as all men know,
   In this kingdom by the sea)
That the wind came out of the cloud by night,
   Chilling and killing my Annabel Lee.

But our love it was stronger by far than the love
   Of those who were older than we—
   Of many far wiser than we—
And neither the angels in Heaven above
   Nor the demons down under the sea
Can ever dissever my soul from the soul
   Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;

For the moon never beams, without bringing me dreams
   Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;
And the stars never rise, but I feel the bright eyes
   Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;
And so, all the night-tide, I lie down by the side
   Of my darling—my darling—my life and my bride,
   In her sepulchre there by the sea—
   In her tomb by the sounding sea.


Annabel Lee - I. Before, II. The Words

Featuring David Weiss on flute. 
This is a companion piece to "If I Said" written for the Five Penance Opera.
Composed and engineered by Alex Mumford. 
Copyright 2015. 
Artwork by Raphael Kirchner. 

If you said “I love you”
Would I hate you
For stripping 'way all mystery
If you said “I love you”
Would it haunt me
Keeping you away from me?
Sweetest friend, 
If you said…
–No!
If it were I that said that I–
Would you love me too?
Would you
If I said that I–?



If You Said

Arranged and performed by Alex Mumford.
Song written by K. Gannon, B. Ram, W. Kent © 1943.

I'm dreaming tonight of a place I love
Even more then I usually do
And although I know it's a long road back
I promise you...

I'll be home for Christmas 
You can plan on me
Please have snow and mistletoe
And presents beneath the tree

Christmas Eve will find me
Where the love light gleams
I'll be home for Christmas
If only in my dreams

Christmas Eve will find me
Where the love light gleams
I'll be home for Christmas
If only in my dreams...
...If only in my dreams

I'll Be Home For Christmas (Arrangement and Cover Version)

Matthew Lau - Vibraphone

As the shimmer of life slowly fades from his child, a sorcerer tries in vain to save her... 
This piece begins with the theme of the dying child. Her father, a sorcerer, offers words of encouragement as he concocts his most powerful elixir. In the second phase of the piece, the sorcerer feeds his child the potion using his remaining energy to augment the potion with a spell. The effects of his efforts look promising, but they fail to persist. These events lead us to the final phase of the piece, upon which the theme of the dying child returns, as the failure of both the elixir and spell becomes realized. The sorcerer helplessly looks upon his child as she breathes her last breath... a whispered knell.

Composed by Alex Mumford, 2012. 
Artwork by Christian Mumford - "Incubus Waiting"

The Whispered Knell

Alex Wong - Viola
Alex Mumford - Piano

Composed by Alex Mumford, 2013. 
Odilon Redon - "Der Wagen des Apolls"

Aria

Artist and Composer. 
Specialized in Sound and Music for Concert, Film, Song, and Interactive Entertainment. 