This classical art song sets Robert Frost's poem "Nothing Gold Can Stay" for tenor voice and piano, expressing a hidden meaning in seemingly negative situations - the inherent orders of nature bless us with greater enlightenment. The apparent fall of humanity is paradoxically an entry into a more fulfilled live, as the concept of temporary bliss is replaced by the more complete, all-inclusive human existence.

"Nothing Gold Can Stay" - Robert Frost

Nature’s first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf’s a flower;
But only so an hour.

Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.

Josh Seo, tenor
Victoria Mariconti, piano

Nothing Gold Can Stay

Nicole Shorts, mezzo soprano
Kangmin Shin, piano

This song is a setting of Sara Teasdale's poem, "Morning", and it won the Sixth Biennial Art Song Competition at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.

The poem describes a transformative experience that takes place on one spring morning. Incidentally, Teasdale wrote it in 1915, and this setting was composed in 2015, making for an nice and even century between the two.

Morning

I went out on an April morning
   All alone, for my heart was high,
I was a child of the shining meadow,
   I was a sister of the sky.

There in the windy flood of morning
   Longing lifted its weight from me,
Lost as a sob in the midst of cheering,
   Swept as a sea-bird out to sea.

                                     Sara Teasdale, 1915

Morning - for mezzo soprano

"Going Home" for violin and piano
In Memory of Richard Jaramillo

Juliann Eldridge, violin
Julie Hinck, piano

Going Home

Performed by the San Francisco Conservatory Orchestra, conducted by Scott Sandmeier

High Spirits - for orchestra

12/12/2015: Beijing, China
National Center for the Performing Arts Orchestra
Tan Dun, conductor
Zhang Meng, didgeridoo

2/14/2016: Melbourne, Australia
Melbourne Symphony Orchestra
Tan Dun, conductor
Shane Charles, didgeridoo

3/19/2016: Boston, MA
Boston Philharmonic Youth Orchestra
Kristo Kondakçi, conductor
Guo Yazhi, didgeridoo

5/13/2017: Shanghai, China
Shanghai Philharmonic Orchestra
Tan Dun, conductor
Zhang Meng, didgeridoo

1/10/2019: Shenzhen, China
Shenzhen Symphony Orchestra
Tan Dun, conductor
Zhang Meng, didgeridoo

11/19/2019: Emporia, KS
Emporia Symphony Orchestra
Ramiro Miranda-Rio, conductor

Nanyin, literally the "sound of the South," is a Minnan musical tradition with roots in Tang Dynasty court music. Its dreamy and timeless qualities captivate me and bring me back to Fujian, my ancestral home.

My fascination with nanyin's relationship with time inspired me to write this piece. The didgeridoo solo represents me-- it seeks for the dreams of nanyin, which lie far away, across vast Asian seas. The dream-searcher at first timidly converses with the orchestra; the melodic threads of nanyin are then found, inspiring the didgeridoo to sing along. Gradually, it gathers courage and integrates into the musical tapestry, emboldening the orchestra to imagine a nanyin of the future.

In dreams, pasts and futures can be one and the same; in music, dreams come true.

Nanyin, Water Silk Road (2015/6): for didgeridoo and orchestra

Tinker, for solo flute (Performed by Robin Kani)

Sacramento State Symphonic Wind Ensemble; Dr. Robert Halseth, conductor.

Reflections explores different musical meanings of its namesake. Emotional connotations of the word such as meditation, introspection, and reminiscence, as well as more physical ones like brilliance, reverberation, inversion, and retrograde all served as inspiration. The music is held together by the interval of a falling seventh, introduced by solo trombone in the opening and permeating throughout. The orchestration aims for spaciousness and transparency, highlighting tone colors of individual instruments. The texture is also quite fragmentary, like a mosaic, and musical materials are "reflected" across different timbres. Percussion and piano play a special role in simulating resonance and reverberation. Ultimately, all instruments converge in a celebration of fireworks and lights.
 
The piece was commissioned by Dr. Robert Halseth, Director of Bands Emeritus, in appreciation for all the dedicated, courageous musicians in Symphonic Wind Ensemble (1993-2016) on the occasion of his retirement from California State University, Sacramento.

Reflections (2015)

SQ1+Marimba, for string quartet and marimba
Composed in 2016

SQ1+Marimba

Performance by the International Orange Chorale of San Francisco, Zane Fiala, director
3rd place winner in 2016 Composer Competition
May 13, 2017, Freshly Squeezed Concert Series

For more info, visit http://www.bryanlinmusic.com/strings-in-the-earth-and-air.html

Text:
from “Chamber Music”

I.
Strings in the earth and air
Make music sweet;
Strings by the river where
The willows meet.
 
There's music along the river
For Love wanders there,
Pale flowers on his mantle,
Dark leaves on his hair.
 
All softly playing,
With head to the music bent,
And fingers straying
Upon an instrument.
     - James Joyce (1907)

Strings in the earth and air - for SATB choir

The world has become a fracturing land. A land of desolate plains and jagged mountains. A land of bottomless fissures and blazing skies. A land of anxiety and boredom and broken resolutions. A land where life and reason cling to existence, screaming defiantly in the face of an overwhelming darkness.
"Into this Fracturing Land" (2020) musically invokes this dystopian world as a summary of many of my thoughts and experiences over the last year and half. What does it mean to fail? What does it mean to collapse? Can we undo the fracturing that has been set in motion?

Into this Fracturing Land utilized a tuning system in which the octave is divided into 31 equal steps, instead of the 12 steps used in most modern Western music.

Composed, performed, recorded, and mastered by Nicholas Denton Protsack. Album artwork created using "Artbreeder" AI neural network image processor.

Purchase on Bandcamp

Into this Fracturing Land

Performed by NOW Ensemble live at the Red Note New Music Festival
2/11/20

"for Ellis and the chaotic joy you will bring"

Program Note:

The mind wanders was written during a time of significant transition and excitement in my life. As my wife and I await the birth of our first child, I find that I am struggling to focus. My mind wanders towards thoughts of anticipation, joy, nervousness, and an ever-present urge to get up and do something to prepare. This is not a mindset compatible with the slow, contemplative compositional process to which I am accustomed. I decided to accept that, and let the little bursts of creative energy I had be valid on their own and disregard their relation to previous materials. More importantly, I allowed myself to disregard how my initial plan disagreed with whatever was coming to me in the moment. I think that disregarding my plans in favor of being present in the moment will be a continued allowance in this new chapter.

The mind wanders

Composer and conductor Bryan Lin (b. 1991) uses political and social commentary to smear the boundaries of musical genres and traditions, exploring the complexity of the human condition and seeking beauty in unconventional places. Subject matters for recent works have ranged from climate change denial (It’s just weather, 2020), to the vanity of self-promotion on social media (I’m so excited, 2019). Past collaborations include Musaics of the Bay, Guerrilla Composers Guild, Choral Chameleon, soprano Naomi Columna, San Franciso Choral Artists, Lehigh University Philharmonic Orchestra, and Monocacy Chamber Orchestra.

Bryan received his M.M. in Composition at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, studying in the studio of David Garner. He also holds two degrees from Lehigh University — a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering and a B.A. in Music — where he studied composition with Paul Salerni and Steven Sametz. Further composition studies include instruction from David Conte, Sven-David Sandström, and Narcis Bonet. In 2016, he attended the European American Musical Alliance in Paris, receiving distinctions in harmony, score-reading, and counterpoint. His conducting mentors include Vince Peterson, Matthew Oltman, Jacques Desjardins, and Steven Sametz.

Strings in the earth and air - for SATB choir

Bryan Lin - composer

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