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.

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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

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)

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

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.

The Myth of Inexhaustibility

Ben Morris

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