Film Music to "Visual Persistence"

For Brandon and Jessi McKinnon's 10 year wedding anniversary
"We decided on forever, and the journey has only begun"

Recorded by Brian De Young, piano in April 2024

TASCAM DR-22WL

Anniversary

A setting of a text by Aldo Leopold about the extinction of the passenger pigeon.

On a Monument to the Pigeon

A collection of works for piano and toy piano by 20th and 21st century composers including world premieres by Minnesotan composers.

Nathan Froebe - Nocturnes - No. 1 rumination, No. 2 gossamer, No. 5 obsidian


“Prairie Smoke” Geum triflorum [Spring]
“Wild Blue Phlox” Phlox divaricata [Spring]
“Purple Prairie Clover” Dalea purpurea [Summer]
“Wild Lupine” Lupinus perennis [Summer]

Premiered by Washburn Faculty Reed Trio
Friday, November 8, 2024

Trio No. 2 from "A Musical Field Guide to Minnesota Wildflowers" for Fl, Ob, Bsn

An improvised jazz exploration of five poems by 13th century Japanese poet Musō Soseki.

Premiered March 13, 2025 at Zion Community Commons, Saint Paul, Minnesota as part of Experimental Jazz on Lafond

Sun at Midnight - Improvised Jazz Inspired by Musō Soseki

Recorded at Zion Community Commons, August 21, 2025

Laura Harada, violin
Aaron Kerr, cello
Rebecca Hass, piano

About “Ad Parnassum” (Ad Parnassum, 1932)
The dark outline of a pyramid-shaped mountain glows beneath a warm orange sun while an open archway invites the viewer to take the first step on their journey towards enlightenment. Inspired by the pyramids and temples of Egypt, Paul Klee’s pointillistic masterpiece from 1932 is built from contrasting blocks of color built up brick by brick in a style that he called “divisionism.” In the same way, the music takes the form of a rondeau as repeated musical progressions are developed through textural variations. In Greek mythology, Mount Parnassus is associated with Orpheus and the home of the nine muses and “a step towards Parnassus” (gradus ad Parnassum) came to define the gradual process of pursuing mastery in scholarship or the arts through diligent, repeated practice. The climb towards any summit begins with a single step and although that journey can be defined as a series of steps towards a goal, there is no guarantee that the path will be straightforward. The path may be winding, or may double back on itself, or seem to disappear altogether – it is built from small victories, epiphanies, frustrations and defeats – and by the end you have come full circle, stepping through the door towards Parnassus once again, both an exit and an entrance.

Clarinet Quartet in D Minor

Emily Boyajian