Once in a Lifetime - Talking Heads (arr. Jack Frerer)

The text taken from the first two stanzas of Longfellow's poem of the same name. For soprano, string orchestra and percussion. Composed in 2015. Performed by soprano Elizabeth Sywulka and the Biola University Orchestra.

Tell me not, in mournful numbers,
Life is but an empty dream!
For the soul is dead that slumbers,
And things are not what they seem.

Life is real! Life is earnest!
And the grave is not its goal;
Dust thou art, to dust returnest,
Was not spoken of the soul.

Psalm of Life

A setting of William Blake's poem "Eternity" for tenor and piano. Composed in 2016. Performed by tenor Evan Abeling and Pianist Brian Pezzone.

He who binds to himself a joy
Does the winged life destroy;
But he who kisses the joy as it flies
Lives in eternity's sunrise.

Eternity

Pulse was premiered by the Contemporary Directions Ensemble under the direction of Oriol Sans at the University of Michigan on the inaugural concert of the 2017 Midwest Composers Symposium. 
 
 My conception of Pulse began as a contemplation of daily life as humans know it, combined with thoughts of the many life forms in nature. It is truly fascinating how we as human beings get so caught up in the daily tasks in our society that we lose focus of the great natural wonders that are taking place simultaneously as we rush to pay our bills, feed ourselves and our families, put gas in our cars and try to make it to work on time. All the while, there are creatures abundant and full of life, seeking to devour in order to survive.  Natural phenomena such as the weather, gravitational forces, light, and energy are all working together to sustain the various habitats of everything we know. This work is to highlight the very fact that everything, not only on Earth, but in the universe, has a rhythm to sustain its being. Everything has a PULSE.

Pulse for large chamber ensemble

Composed in 2017. Performed by students of The Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre.

Sinfonietta

The first glance at season 2 of Salty - Seven Deadly Sins
 
I’m proud to announce that this season will feature music by Child of Child and Chantelle Paredes. Find more music on SoundCloud! 

So much more to come, so if you’re not subscribed on Apple Podcast or Soundcloud, get it done.

Seven Deadly Sins

Premiere performance by conductor Jiannen Cheng and the CCM Concert Orchestra at Patricia Corbett Theater, College-Conservatory of Music, University of Cincinnati on April 10, 2019. 

Commissioned by the CCM Concert Orchestra for the 2018–2019 season as a result of winning the CCM Orchestral Composition Competition in 2018.

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PROGRAM NOTES:

For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, 
    and as a root out of a dry ground: 
he hath no form nor comeliness; 
    and when we shall see him,
    there is no beauty that we should desire him.

He is despised and rejected of men; 
    a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: 
and we hid as it were our faces from him;
    he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

Surely he hath borne our griefs, 
    and carried our sorrows:
yet we did esteem him stricken, 
    smitten of God, and afflicted.

But he was wounded for our transgressions, 
    he was bruised for our iniquities: 
the chastisement of our peace was upon him; 
    and with his stripes we are healed.

He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, 
    yet he opened not his mouth: 
he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, 
    and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, 
    so he openeth not his mouth.

—Isaiah 53:2-5, 7 (KJV)

Tenebrae for Orchestra is an extended meditation on the above text as well as on the beautiful Gregorian setting of it in the plainchant "Ecce vidimus eum," from the Tenebrae service of Maundy Thursday during Holy Week (listen to the chant here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8pMTcwfSa2w). 

The text speaks of a “lamb who opened not his mouth,” which I found evocative musically, and I was particularly drawn to the connection between scourging and healing. The whip strokes violently interrupt the music several times until being subsumed into a slow, upward ascension to heaven. The piece is a long, darkness-to-light sort of journey, the darkest F phrygian eventually to E minor and finally E major. I was captivated by the picture of Jesus still there, innocent, silently enduring the beating and the whipping and the oppression and hatred and scorn, still there despite the worst, never opening His mouth, receiving it all fully, but with an inner light that the darkness can never reach and which eventually triumphs over it.

My grandfather—we called him Nandy— died last year, and his favorite passage was always this one: “and by His stripes, we were healed.” This work is dedicated to his memory.

2019-04-11 CCM Concert Orchestra

Tenebrae

Garrett George is an American composer of concert music. He has written music for orchestra, choir, string quartet, art song, solo piano, chamber ensembles, and electronics.

Tenebrae

Garrett George

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