“The murder ballads witness that Appalachia, specifically in the 19th-century period of industrial change, was defined by essential tensions between cultural traditions of the past and emerging notions of American modernism. This tension is met in the songs with responses of violence against women whose life situations—marked by sexual freedom—are the very depiction of a new cultural modernism that threatens the hegemony of the past." - Christina Ruth Hastie

The femicide murder ballad repertoire is still a widely performed part of the folk music canon, a subgenre that spans across many traditions and languages. This piece references three traditional murder ballads (“Knoxville Girl,” “Banks of the Ohio,” and “Omie Wise”) as well as Woody Guthrie’s “Bad Lee Brown” and Tanya Tucker’s “No Man’s Land.” Why do we still sing these songs? Why do we continue to perpetuate the tale of woman as victim—woman who needs protecting?

Premiere performance by Quince Ensemble at the University of Washington on November 7, 2022.

Commissioned by Quince Ensemble.

Copyright (c) Annika K. Socolofsky 2020. ASCAP. All rights reserved.

her lover's hand: IV. Banks of the Ohio (2020) // Quince Ensemble

her lover's hand: III. She Knows (2020) // Quince Ensemble

her lover's hand: II. Knoxville Boy (2020) // Quince Ensemble

her lover's hand: I. These Songs (2020) // Quince Ensemble

This song was written in dedication to two of the most important matriarchs in my life: my late grandmother Emma Jenkins Kale and my late great aunt Edith Jenkins Shear, also known as ‘The Twins.’ I wrote this song after my great aunt’s passing and before my grandmother’s passing. This song was an attempt to come to terms with life in a world in which only one of The Twins were living.

While the music for this song is original, the text for this song includes forgotten text from “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star,” as well as the line “to light its earthly sister all through the night” from the original Welsh text of the hymn “Ar Hyd y Nos” (All Through the Night), which honors of our family’s Welsh roots and was sung at my Great Aunt Edie’s funeral.

Light the way for those in your life who need a guiding light. Light the way for those who were never given that light. Light the way for your sister, your mother, your loves, yourself.

- Annika Socolofsky, 2019

Text
When the blazing sun is gone,
When he nothing shines upon,
Then you show your little light,
And you twinkle, twinkle, all through the night.
Light your earthly sister, all through the night.

- Text by Jane Taylor and John Ceiriog Hughes

Performed April 14, 2024 by Elizabeth Swanson and CU Boulder Choirs

Like a diamond (2019, arr. 2023) // University of Colorado Boulder Choirs

Ellis – Disk
c. 2015

The harp has over 2,000 moving pieces.  Most of the time, harpists strive to make sure that it does not actually sound like we have over 2,000 moving pieces.  It would have to be a very odd rendition of the Waltz of the Flowers harp cadenza to leave audience-goers thinking, “Wow, can you believe all those mechanical moving parts?”  Traditionally, harpists place the mechanics of the instrument in the background.  Instead of keeping these moving parts behind-the-scenes, Disk brings the mechanics to center stage.  In particular, the piece highlights the movements of the tiny disks on the harp.  The harp has seven foot pedals that control the harp’s sharps and flats through moving these disks at intervals of half-steps.  However, harpists can manipulate the pedal so that the disk is near the string, but not fully fretting it.  This results in the string rattling between the two prongs of the disk.  The thickness of the string and the exact rotation of the prongs shifts the rattle’s timbre.  Disk uses this expanded vocabulary of timbres as the piece’s building blocks.


Disk by Jennifer R. Ellis - Live recording at Stamps Auditorium

Innovative new music for harp
www.harpellis.com


Disk by Jennifer R. Ellis - Live recording at Stamps Auditorium

harpellis

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