Derek Ganong — trumpet
Matt Castner — bari sax

Chills And Vapors

Performed by Corvus Ensemble:
Katie Cox — Flute
Mara Meyer — Bass Clarinet
Andie Tanning — Violin
Joe Bergen — Percussion

Recorded by Scott Hansen at University of Alaska Fairbanks as part of the Composing in the Wilderness Program

Denali Mosquito Dance

Original score for the documentary "American River" by Scott Morris.

Christopher Molina - shakuhachi
Conor Abbot Brown - clarinet
Max Wolpert, Sarah Hubbard - violins
Jack Bogard - mandolin and violin
Jake Saunders - cello
Ben Morris - piano and synths
Adam Hernandez - guitar
Dan Montgomery - bass
Evan Hyde - percussion
Daniel Whitworth - music copyist

Bridges

American River

Composed for the Rapido! Cycle Seven Composition Competition

Performed by the Atlanta Chamber Players:
Helen Hwaya Kim - violin 
Catherine Lynn - viola
Brad Ritchie - cello 
Elizabeth Pridgen - piano

Performed at the High Art Museum in Atlanta, Georgia on April 14, 2024.
Painting: "Dance on the Beach" by Edvard Munch

Hallingdal Freylekhs

Watch the YouTube video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNhlEgql4yA

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.

Additional archival footage and audio:
Smokey Bear PSAs from the U.S. Forest Service, released via the Internet Archive (archive.org) 
Selected bird calls from the Cornell Macaulay Library (https://www.macaulaylibrary.org/)
Historical logging footage from Texas Archive of the Moving Image (https://texasarchive.org/) 
Historical photographs from the East Texas Digital Archives at Stephen F. Austin State University (https://digital.sfasu.edu/) 
Pond5 and Adobe Stock

This project is generously funded by Mid-America Arts Alliance, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the states arts agencies of Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma, and Texas. Additional support from the Texas Commission on the Arts, The Nature Conservancy in Texas, Stephen F. Austin State University Cole Fine Arts Faculty Excellence and School of Music Professional Development Grants, The Aaron Copland Fund for Music, and the City of Houston.

Featuring Shawn Benedict and Pedro Hernandez of the Nature Conservancy’s Roy E. Larsen Sandyland Sanctuary.

Special Thanks to Jenny Sanders and the Texas Longleaf Team, MATCH (Midtown Arts and Theater Center Houston), and Nathan Nabb and Dean Gary Wurtz at Stephen F. Austin State University.

Arts and Culture Texas Feature: http://artsandculturetx.com/fire-music-loop38-makes-an-impact-with-new-music-for-our-times/

Longleaf

The Crone Speaks
text by Katharyn Howd Machan
music by Ben Morris
performed by Perri di Christina, mezzo-soprano and Brendon Shapiro, piano

FUSE: Collaborations in Song
May 31, 2024, 7:00pm
Edward H. Pickman Hall at Longy School of Music of Bard College

Co-commissioned by Boston Singers' Resource and Catalyst New Music

I. (Stories)

You want stories?
I will give you stories.

I am the woman of the deep wild woods.
My voice rises up, then sinks down, down.
Do you need to know me?
Are you very, very sure?
Then: STORIES!
Once upon and long ago…
You may find yourself within

II. (Welcome)

I am the witch inviting you in.
I am the gingerbread frightened to flee.
Count your blessings. Count your coins.
But never, never count on me.

Give me your golden hair to braid.
Allow me to change your arms into wings.
I’m the story of shadows and wells,
what wanting sweet berries in winter brings.

Call me Cinders. Call me the bird
that drops rich dresses down from above.
I’m the dark tree that will always give
the never-expected from deepest love.

III. (Hunger)

A bit of rampion, so fresh, so green,
positioned by the wall where right next door
a woman longs for it, the witch unseen
and listening to cries of “More! Please, more!”
The husband climbs again; he loves his wife
and yearns to hold the baby she will bear,
so foolishly again he risks his life
and finds his grinning neighbor standing there.
“You’ll give the child to me when she is born,
and I will be her mother, year to year.
My heart needs her; your tie to her is torn,
and I’ll protect her, vanquishing all fear.”
And so began the doorless tower’s tale.
The golden hair. The twisted love. The jail.

IV. (In That Cozy House in the Woods)

Was she girl? Was she fox?
Ruddy-Fur or Goldilocks?
Certainly the smallest bear
lost his little wooden chair
and Mama found her porridge spoiled
after all the time she’d toiled
and Papa cried out, “There’s our bed
no one’s troubled since we wed!”
Was she fox? Was she girl?
That glowing spine. That gleaming curl.

V. (Cloak)

Did it cover her face?
Did it tickle her legs?
Did it warm her small arms?
Did it drape on the basket?
Did it brush against trees?
Did it choke tender breath?
Did it snap mushroom stems?
Did it drag upon moss?
Did it blow widely open?
Did it hang like a shroud?
Did it tangle her ankles?
Did it crumble the cake?
Did it smell of old lavender?
Did it pinch at her cheeks?
Did it hide frightened eyes?
Did it call to a wolf,
to a wolf with rough fur,
to a wolf who was destined
to make story with her?

VI. (Farewell)

Now I have shared myself with you.
Do you know me? Do you know me well?
Never forget that every story
is one person’s heaven, another’s hell.

A raven’s wing may boast bright feathers.
A toad may offer topaz eyes.
Who are you to be so certain
your heart’s courage deserves a prize?

May your road extend before you.
May your sea know windy sails.
You, too, might one day find
you are the teller of these tales.

DOWNLOAD PROGRAM HERE: https://tinyurl.com/5p22jas6

The Crone Speaks

Commissioned and premiered by David Bernot
Recorded at the University of Northern Colorado, April 16, 2024

Convergent Evolution

Performed by the Resound Duo, October 27th, 2014
http://resoundduo.com/resoundduo.com/Welcome.html
Jennifer Voigt - Soprano
Tyson Voigt - Percussion

Recurrent I. Pursuing the Horizon

This is an excerpt from my multimedia work, "Longleaf," depicting a dawn chorus in 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 the entire piece on YouTube, visit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNhlEgql4yA

Dawn Chorus (from Longleaf)

Subpar Parks is a series of miniatures loosely inspired by Amber Share’s poster art featuring negative reviews of the American National Parks.  There are seven movements, each based on a negative review from Yelp, Google, and other online platforms. In each movement, I depict the comedic character of each review and at times blend in and contrast my own personal experiences with the beauty of these parks. The piece reflects humanity’s ability to be bored by even the most magnificent sights but encourages the listener to go deeper and find unexpected beauty in the seemingly mundane. The piece was commissioned by the Houston-based contemporary music group Musiqa for their 2024-2025 season.

Premiere September 28, 2024 at the Midtown Arts and Theatre Center (MATCH) in Houston, TX

Garrett Hudson — flute
Yevgeny Dokshansky — clarinet
Astrid Nakamura — violin
Chris Ellis — cello
Chelsea de Souza — piano

Video courtesy of Full Media Jacket and Musiqa. Audio courtesy Francis X. Schmidt and Musiqa.

Subpar Parks

Dr. Bob Eason, soprano saxophone
Dr. Tamey Anglley, condutor
Stephen F. Austin State University Wind Ensemble

I. Light (Prelude) (00:00)
II. Bison (02:22)
III. Timber (06:27)
IV. Water (10:52)
V. Fuel (15:59)
VI. Light (Postlude) (18:59)

The title of "The Myth of Inexhaustibility" is derived from the notion that our natural resources will never run out. The piece explores the overexploitation of our natural resources through four movements: Bison, Timber, Water, and Fuel, that are bookended by a prelude and postlude, Light. Each is a resource that has been historically overharvested in American history. The work takes inspiration from the sounds of agricultural and industrial expansion with an Americana flavor in the harmonic, rhythmic, and melodic language, covering a broad range of emotions, from frantic development to despair to glimmers of hope, with challenging material for the saxophonist soloist. The piece exists in both soprano sax and wind ensemble AND soprano sax and piano or fixed media versions.

Join the consortium here: https://www.benmorrismusic.com/mythconsortium

YouTube video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TmisvDmG5Y8

The piece exists in both soprano sax and wind ensemble AND soprano sax and piano or fixed media versions.

Thank you to Stephen Lias and Nathan Stansbury for recording video, and Byron Reinhardt, Stephen Bacarisse, and Hugh Taylor for audio and technical assistance.

The Myth of Inexhaustibility

Rose Kearin, soprano
Maggie Hinchliffe, piano
Mark Sanders, poetry

performed 4/11/25 on "No More Walks in the Wood" at Stephen F. Austin State University

The trees know.  Ask the pine, ask the oak.   
Before the storm, they are aware and prepare. 
Sometimes, the ground is not enough to hold onto. 

They roll their shoulders, breathe in ease and coat
themselves in calm though the nervous sky is reckless.
The trees know.  Ask the pine, ask the oak

how they wait upon the weather’s weight, the pipers 
of tortured music they must dance for, storm and stress.
Sometimes, the ground is not enough to hold onto.

You have seen them, (have you not?), waltzing 
like metronomes, then throwing themselves ardent to the air.
The trees know.  Ask the pine, ask the oak,

whose art it is to resist the storms, to disparage
the torrents and trouble the black skies as certain.
But—.  Sometimes, the ground is not enough to hold onto,

and the most determined things rent leaves, limb, and root.
Have you not seen the sublime in colossal wreckage?
The trees know.  Ask the pine.  Ask the oak.
Sometimes, the ground is not enough to hold onto.

The Trees Know, from Two Sanders Songs

Dr. Brad Meyer, percussion

"clear and calm pools of tremendous depth" is a phrase I found in the park map of Yellowstone National Park describing the park’s signature hot springs. When visiting the springs, I was struck by the vivid turquoise color of the water and how deep these springs went down; seeing the surface triggered my imagination about what the channel looked deeper into the earth. This piece depicts submerging oneself into the clear blue spring and sinking down into the bottom, hundreds or thousands of feet down. Improvisatory percussion grooves and gestures integrate freely with samples from hot springs, boiling water, mysterious, unidentified deep ocean sounds, and other found sounds from the park.

Video available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VHQl2Yn_x8Q

clear and calm pools of tremendous depth

Rose Kearin, soprano
Maggie Hinchliffe, piano
Mark Sanders, poetry

performed 6/22/25 on "No More Walks in the Wood" at MATCH - Midtown Arts and Theater Center Houston

The man, gray-flannel shirt lifted overhead
shielding him, strides long, alone in the blow--north
then south, cold then hot. Who would think
to count the rain, weightless, infinite, like slivers.

He yells and whistles silence against the howl
at six horses hunkered under oaks at pasture's end.
All around the woods groan, their bones pop.
The sky churns blackening butter.

Waist-deep grass underfoot rolls flat
as by waves upon a long shore. A loblolly pine
collapses, its root ball like a molar;
a wire tangle blossoms barb and spark.

The horses circle upon the circle of themselves.
He stands at their nervous center, an eye. Easy now,
he coos, and slips the halter upon the oldest head,
the one to lead the rest to shelter.

Now unhurried nudge through rivers in air,
as in the plodding cadence of high terrain,
the rocky switchback. Pitch and plunge
looming above them, clouds like cliffs ascend.

—Mark Sanders (2009)

In Hurricane, with Horses, from Two Sanders Songs

Performed by the BMI Jazz Composers Orchestra at the 2025 Summer Showcase concert, June 20, 2025 at Symphony Space, New York City. 

Soloists:
Steve Kenyon, alto
Sebastian Noelle, guitar

Dust Storm

Performed by James Sullivan and commissioned by the Robert Black Foundation and New Music on the Point for their 2020 commissioning project.

Scree Scramble

For Nancy Schetlick (1954-2015)

Matt Morris - Cello
Ben Morris - Piano

“My, how foolish I am! You know what I've always thought? I've always thought a body would have to be sick and dying before they saw the Lord. And I imagined that when He came it would be like looking at the Baptist window: pretty as colored glass with the sun pouring through, such a shine you don't know it's getting dark. And it's been a comfort: to think of that shine taking away all the spooky feeling. But I'll wager it never happens. I'll wager at the very end a body realizes the Lord has already shown Himself. That things as they are, just what they've always seen, was seeing Him. As for me, I could leave the world with today in my eyes.

…And when that happens, I know it. A message saying so merely confirms a piece of news some secret vein had already received, severing from me an irreplaceable part of myself, letting it loose like a kite on a broken string. That is why, walking across a school campus on this particular December morning, I keep searching the sky. As if I expected to see, rather like hearts, a lost pair of kites hurrying towards heaven.”

-Truman Capote

A Lost Pair of Kites

Performed by Ensemble PART at Shepherd King Lutheran Church in San Antonio, Texas, 8/14/25

Evelin Degen — flutes
Matthias Geuting — organ
Peter Eisold — drums
Carter WIlliams — viola d'amore
Jennie Boultbee and Mateusz Bogdanowicz — dance

The Last Mammoth of Wrangel Island

Recorded by Unheard-of//Ensemble in San Antonio, Texas, August 2025.

Ford Fourqurean — clarinet
Matheus Souza — violin
Iva Casian-Lakoš — cello
Daniel Anastasio — piano

Sculpture Inspiration: Stomping Ground, by Orly Genger

Stomping Ground is based on Orly Genger’s sculpture at the McNay in San Antonio. Genger fabricated the sculpture out of brightly colored recycled lobster rope and fashioned them into large mounds with which you can climb over, sit on, and physical interact. This piece takes inspiration from the kinetic, extroverted, and playful quality of the sculpture and references its construction material with field recordings of lobsters communicating, underwater soundscapes, stomping, balls and other objects bouncing, children playing, and vibrant synths and groovy percussion intermingling with the live instruments. The sculpture’s inventive world captured my imagination; in building a sonic corollary to the sculpture, I fashioned a mystical and wild narrative path with which the listener can freely associate elements of their experience viewing and interacting with the sculpture.

Stomping Ground

Performed February 8, 2025 at the Festival of Contemporary Artists in Music, Washington State University, Pullman, WA

Aaron Hill, tenor sax

Andrew Pedersen, Nils Aardahl, Kathryn Bradley, Mas Podgorney, Charles Paul - double basses

Written for Composers' Forum at Rice University, November 24th, 2015. Winner of the 2016 International Society of Bassist's Composition Competition

Bright Light at Russell's Corners

Purchase score here: https://www.benmorrismusic.com/purchase-scores

Tonya Burton, viola
Wesley Ducote, Piano

Performed 2/11/16, Duncan Recital Hall

Aromatic

Conducted by Jebat Kee and performed by members of the Shepherd School of Music orchestra. Recorded on 10/23/16.

Beltway 8

Samples of my original score for the documentary "Saving the Great Swamp - The Battle to Defeat the Jetport" by Scott Morris. 

Dan Egan - Trumpet
Thomas Frey - Clarinet
Kyle Comer - Guitar
Joanna Duncan, Emmy Tisdel - Violin
Tonya Burton - Viola
Fanny Spangaro - Cello

Skyline

Performed on the Hear and Now Rice Composer's Concert, April 22nd, 2017

Giancarlo Latta - Violin
Thomas Frey - Clarinet

Giverny, Sunrise

Performed by the Aspen Contemporary Ensemble on August 2nd, 2018 in Harris Hall as part of the Aspen Music Festival. 

Mehrdad Gholami, Flute and piccolo
Juan Gabriel Olivares, Clarinet and bass clarinet
Seohee Min, Violin
Ben Wagner, Viola
Richard Narroway, Cello
Andrew Zhou, Piano
Hannah Weaver, Percussion
Tim Weiss, Conductor

Jejuholmen

In Norse mythology, Ymir is the primordial giant whose body makes the universe.  From his flesh comes the earth, from his blood comes the ocean, from his hair the trees, from his brains the clouds, from his skull the heavens, and from his bones come the mountains.

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R0PBTbUnsu4

Ymir's Bones

Performed by the Shepherd School of Music Symphony Orchestra on March 22nd, 2019. Conducted by Ben Manis.

House of Stairs

A (Short) Story of Earth

Maria Long — horn
David "Buddy" Deshler — trumpet
John Fabius Solari — piano

Performed for livestream, 4/26/20 at the Arizona State University Katzin Concert Hall

Colorado Quandary

John Boggs — Baritone
Kenneth Johnson — Bass Trombone
Devin Guerrero — Upright Bass

Text by Laura Jane Numeroff

If You Give a Moose a Muffin

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.

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