Speak to Us of Joy 
Composed By: Sami Anguaya
Text By: Kahlil Gibran
Performed By: The Concreamus Chamber Choir, December Concert 2022 

Text:

Then a woman said, Speak to us of Joy and Sorrow.
And he answered:
Your joy is your sorrow unmasked.
And the selfsame well from which your laughter rises was oftentimes filled with your tears.
And how else can it be?
The deeper that sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can contain.
Is not the cup that holds your wine the very cup that was burned in the potter’s oven?
And is not the lute that soothes your spirit, the very wood that was hollowed with knives?
When you are joyous, look deep into your heart and you shall find it is only that which has given you sorrow that is giving you joy.
When you are sorrowful look again in your heart, and you shall see that in truth you are weeping for that which has been your delight.

Some of you say, “Joy is greater than sorrow,” and others say, “Nay, sorrow is the greater.”
But I say unto you, they are inseparable.
Together they come, and when one sits alone with you at your board, remember that the other is asleep upon your bed.

Verily you are suspended like scales between your sorrow and your joy.
Only when you are empty are you at standstill and balanced.
When the treasure-keeper lifts you to weigh his gold and his silver, needs must your joy or your sorrow rise or fall.

Speak To Us Of Joy

Commissioned by the Modern Sound Collective, 2022
Composed By: Sami Anguaya
Text By: Sami Anguaya & Tom Robinson 
Performed By: The Concreamus Chamber Choir, April Concert 2023

Waiting: 

Rise the dream is over now
Come and face the light of day
Bright, Blinding 
Awakened dreamer, come and face the light 

In dreams I lie awake, waiting
Like a turtle on a deadhead just
Taking in rays, taking in rays 

Waiting
like a hummingbird at a feeder

Awake,
I lay low 
Waiting
like a fossil by a roadside
Waiting 
To be picked up

Lying Awake, Waiting

Matthew Emery - I.Love (from Two Pickthall Songs)

Music by Matthew Emery
Wind Band Transcription by E.K.R. Hammell

PURCHASE SCORE: https://www.ekrhammell.com/product-page/when-the-sun-comes-after-rain-full-set

When the Sun Comes After Rain is originally a choral motet written by Canadian composer Matthew Emery for the UBC University Singers in 2012, set to the Robert Louis Stevenson poem of the same name. The piece brings a freshnes as real as the smells after a summer rain and evokes themes of love, longing, and belonging.

This wind band arrangement was premiered December 3rd 2016 by the University of Toronto Wind Ensemble under the direction of Dr. Gillian MacKay.

December 3 2016

"When The Sun Comes After Rain" (for wind band) | Emery, arr. Hammell | UofT Wind Ensemble PREMIERE

Preview the score at www.daletrumbore.com/newlyfreed.

As Laura Foley's poem “Like Something Newly Freed” progresses, we shift from observing blackbirds at sunset to narrating from their perspective as we imagine ourselves among them. This setting of Foley's text attempts to capture that desire for freedom and flight in our own lives.
​
Like Something Newly Freed was commissioned by California ACDA for the 2017 California All-State Mixed Honor Choir (Dr. Amanda Quist, Conductor). Preview the score or purchase it for performance through MusicSpoke: bit.ly/newlyfreed.
 
TEXT
 
When you watch blackbirds flocking
in silhouette
against bare trees, against
a salmon sky, you wonder
at the sight, at the lift
you feel inside, the wings
and all that space.
As night begins,
you raise black wings
like leaves, like the lightness of a song.
As night hurries in,
you streak across the darkening sky
like something newly freed
and gaining, gaining on the sun.
​
—Laura Foley

ACDA All-State Honor Choir Concert 2

Like Something Newly Freed

Light Fragments (2017) 
for baritone, flute, violin, horn, percussion and piano

I. the light with night coming on
II. a filament of light
III. blind spot
IV. light laments
V. the light losing our words

Light Fragments is a five-movement song cycle for baritone and chamber ensemble, using poetry from Julie Joosten’s 2013 book Light Light. The text is taken from a chapter also titled Light Fragments, which explores light as a means of personifying the experiences and emotions of our world and collective lives. Light Fragments was written for the Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra as part of their 2017 What Next Festival.  

The first song, the light with night coming on, compares the ephemeral quality of a life to a storm. It balances the bright lightening and dark rumbling thunder as it approaches from the distance and then passes over as elusively as it arrived. 

The second song, a filament of light, is a tantalizing dissection of photosynthesis. The sole character of the movement comes from the single line “[…] an energetic discordance of vibrating cells”, inciting a constant murmur and tremor of energy throughout the entire movement. 

The third song, blind spot, contains no text other than the title. It is a commentary on all the things in our life that create “blind spots”, whether it is the lightless point of our retinas where the optic nerve enters, or gaps in our self-awareness as a society, or simply the visible obstructions that plague our driving.

The poem for the fourth song, light laments, was described to me by Joosten as the juxtaposition of the renaissance lament form with interjections of contemporary language from our time. Influenced by Joosten’s approach to this form, I chose to mirror her process by basing my musical language on simple and traditional harmonies, while simultaneously blurring the boundaries to create a seemingly suspended musical landscape. 

The fifth and final song, the light losing our words, returns to the similar ephemeral notions of the first poem, however with a new sense of warmth and hope. It recounts a long forgotten landscape, washed away by time, existing as only a fond memory.

Light Fragments: V. the light losing our words

This is just a thing I made using a theme from Garnet's songs in Steven Universe. I was messing around on piano last night and found some chords I like, and then added some embellishing tones to the melody.

The actual recording of this was done in Cubase, and it was my first time using it, so I didn't want to do anything crazy. I used 'INIT - Spark' from 'Spark' in Reaktor5, and used a Keystation Mini for input. It was also my first time doing much with the Keystation Mini, so my rhythm is a bit shaky.

I said I wouldn't go home until I uploaded something tonight, and it is now 12:37AM, so this is what I've got! It's just something to break the ice, because my perfectionism gets in the way of actually starting things... but I need to start somewhere, and now that I've recorded one thing, it will be less intimidating to record more adventurous things.

(image was not made by me, I got it here:http://vignette1.wikia.nocookie.net/steven-universe/images/a/a7/Ruby_%26_Sapphire_by_Colin_Howard.png/revision/latest?cb=20150313125018) When I start making bigger projects, I'll probably make my own art to go with it as well... maybe. :)

Garnet Melody

A short fanfare written for trumpet ensemble (minimum of 6 trumpets)
https://www.stephensonmusic.com/product/gilded-fanfare/

duration: 1’30

Notes from the composer:

“Gilded Fanfare” was written for James Olcott, in honor of his retirement, and to be premiered at the Ohio International Trumpet Guild (OITG) conference in March of 2012. I feel fortunate to have been included amongst 9 other composers, all hand-selected by Jim for the occasion. “Gilded” has a double-meaning in this case. The title is a pun on “Guild” (from International Trumpet Guild), but also refers to being “covered in gold” – i.e. one’s retirement years being the “golden years”. Musically, the pedal B-flat (concert-pitch) – passed around to all players – remains constant until roughly the point where the “golden-mean” occurs. Spiky jazz chords and crunchy harmonies are interspersed among a rather cheerful melody, and a driving 7/8 rhythm is the moving force behind this short fanfare. The groove is paramount, and I would suggest careful rehearsal to ensure that the eighth note pulse never waivers.

There is an optional upper octave for Trumpet 1, measures 65-68. If piccolo trumpet is used for this (which would be fine) – then an option is to give measure 53 to trumpet 6, to allow time for the instrument switch.

Jim Stephenson – December, 2011.

Gilded Fanfare

For more information about this piece or to preview the score, visit daletrumbore.com/perhaps.

Perhaps sets an excerpt from the Artistic Director's Note of Choral Arts Initiative's April 2016 program. CAI's conductor, Brandon Elliott, didn't originally intend for his program note to be set to music, but it beautifully captures what musicians express through our compositions and performances. "Perhaps we may live an answer or illuminate a story," he writes; "Perhaps we may not." The last sentence quotes a line from Edna St. Vincent Millay's poem “To Kathleen."
 
This recording features Choral Arts Initiative, and Perhaps is dedicated to Brandon and CAI in celebration of their 5th Season. 

PERHAPS

In our lifetime, we will undoubtedly have so many questions left unanswered.
So many stories will be left untold.
Perhaps we may live an answer or illuminate a story.
Perhaps we may not.
So we turn to the security of constancy as dependable as the sea,
nature full of beauty and peace,
music that can teach and inspire.
Perhaps all we can do is seek comfort
in such things as flowers, and song, and you.
 
—Brandon Elliott

Perhaps

"Resurgam" for choir and double wind quintet. Commissioned by Exultate Chamber Singers and Toronto Winds.

Toronto Winds & Exultate Chamber Singers
Conducted by Dr. Hilary Apfelstadt
Premiered April 6th, 2018.
Saint Thomas's Anglican Church, Toronto, ON

https://www.exultate.net/
https://www.dylanrookmaddix.com/torontowinds-concerts
https://composermatthewemery.com/2018/04/07/resurgam/

photo: Weathered-Structure-Green-Bay- (ned pratt)
audio recorded by the composer.

Resurgam for Choir and Wind Tentet

PROTUS is an a cappella chamber vocal ensemble comprised of choral artists from Louisville Kentucky. Formed in January of 2014 by artistic director, Richard Burchard, the group is dedicated to the research and performance of lesser-known choral repertoire from the Middle Ages through the Renaissance and occasionally newly composed works. The group's repertoire includes music for mixed choir as well as pieces for "low-voice" ensemble that extends into ranges below and above most modern day TTBB works. PROTUS is a Greek word for "first" and is used in Medieval western music to identify the first pair of melodic church modes more commonly known as Dorian and Hypodorian.

https://composermatthewemery.com/2016/03/04/sleep-now/

Sleep now, O sleep now, O you unquiet heart! A voice crying ‘Sleep now’ Is heard in my heart. The voice of the winter Is heard at the door. O sleep, for the winter Is crying ‘Sleep no more!’ My kiss will give peace now And quiet to your heart – Sleep on in peace now, O you unquiet heart! (james joyce)

11.18.18.Protus.St.Brigid.06

Sleep Now (Protus Vocal Ensemble and PROTEAN STRING ENSEMBLE)

Website: https://ekrhammell.com/
Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/ekrhammellmusic/
Youtube - Evan Hammell

"When The Sun Comes After Rain" (for wind band) | Emery, arr. Hammell | UofT Wind Ensemble PREMIERE

ekrhammellmusic

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