Quality Over Opinion

Laughing in Her Sleep

Recorded by the Stony Brook Symphony Orchestra on November 9, 2022; conducted by Alan Kay. Staller Center for the Arts, Stony Brook University. Soli Deo Gloria.

--

Program Notes:

To plod is "to move or walk heavily or laboriously" or "to work or act perseveringly or monotonously." In any kind of art, it's tempting to wait until inspiration strikes before we get to work, but for most of us, this would mean that we accomplish little at all. Most days, we need to get up, keep our noses to the grindstone, and hope something happens that's worth keeping. This piece is a meditation on the commitment to plod along in whatever work we have in front of us. One step at a time, often a laborious step, is all we can do, but we must persevere in the pursuit of beauty.

Plod — for orchestra (2022)

Harrietlehre for Orchestra (Excerpt)

Some Unused Songs

End of The Night

Disappear Again

nothing

High Five

A Pill in the Sea

You Belonged

It All Passes

This is an excerpt from my multimedia work, "Longleaf," that evokes a natural lightning burn of a longleaf pine forest. The longleaf pine forest is an ecosystem that was once spread throughout ninety million acres of the American Southeast including rural East Texas. Now, only five million acres remain, with under fifty thousand in Texas. It is a delicate ecosystem that must be maintained with frequent fires that clear out other species and create an open, majestic savannah habitat home to endangered species including the red cockaded woodpecker. Commissioned by Houston-based ensemble Loop38, this piece tells the story of this unparalleled tree: its flourishing through natural and indigenous manmade fires, its use to make turpentine during the early settlement days, its widespread destruction at the hands of the lumber barons and sawmills of the early 20th century, and its rebirth with the advent of responsible forestry and prescribed fires. The piece weaves together a tapestry of virtuosic brass features, ambisonic field recordings captured in longleaf forests, videos of longleaf habitats, found sounds, and historical photographs and videos from the East Texas Digital Archive, the Texas Archive of the Moving Image, and The National Archives. 

Brian Mangrum, horn
Alexander Ramazanov, trumpet
Cameron Kerl, trombone
Caitlin Mehrtens, harp
Graeme Francis, percussion
Jacob Schafer, violin
Cindy Ahn, violin
Sergein Yap, viola
Chris Ellis, cello
Max Winningham, double bass
Craig Hauschildt, conductor

Recorded in Cole Hall at Stephen F. Austin State University, March 8, 2024. Music recorded by Byron Reinhardt, Katharyn Phillips, Sophia Nunez, and Sound Recording Services at SFASU. Recording session assistance by Blake Buehler and JJ Bartley.

Environmental video and audio soundscapes recorded by Ben Morris using a Canon M50 and Zoom H3-VR at Roy E. Larsen Sandyland Sanctuary, Boykin Springs at Angelina National Forest, Kisatchie National Forest, Big Thicket National Preserve Sundew and Turkey Creek Units, and Stephen F. Austin State University Native Plant Center.

To order score and parts, please visit: https://www.benmorrismusic.com/longleaf

To watch a score video, visit here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=svNBxB8NcIA

To watch the entire video, visit here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNhlEgql4yA

Lightning Burn (from Longleaf)

Time Machines (2025) Live Performance
Commissioned by the Bowling Green University Wind Symphony

Premiered on April 17, 2025 by the BGSU Wind Symphony
Dr. Kenneth Thompson, Conductor
© 2025 Harriet Steinke

Time Machines (Live April 2025 @ Bowling Green)

Ben Morris is a composer whose music tells unconventional stories and crosses genre boundaries. He is Assistant Professor of Composition at Stephen F. Austin State University.

Lightning Burn (from Longleaf)

Ben Morris

Related tracks