Songs of the Wood
composed by J. A. Devor

dedicated to the performers: 
Strummer Steele - soprano
Aaron Hungerford - piano
© 2020 JDevor Music, LLC

George Washington Sears (aka. Nessmuk) was a sportswriter for Forest and Stream magazine in the late nineteenth century. He is still one of the most widely read authors in the American bushcraft community. In 1887, a few years prior to his death, he published a collection of poems entitled Forest Runes, celebrating the glory of living alone in nature. His poems often depict quirky or witty tales of specific animals or entities roaming through the woods and mountains.

I chose to set these four poems out of Sears' collection because of the direct and self-sustaining narrative written into each. Each poem addresses a contrasting relationship between an individual and the mindset needed to attain peace with the outdoors. “That Trout” tells the comedic tale of a narrator quasi-fighting with the outdoors, failing again and again to catch the piscatorial wonder. "Flight of the Goddess" is Sears' counterargument to an article in the October 1867 edition of Atlantic Monthly. Here, the narrator tells of an encounter with a Goddess who was previously living in the city, only to realize their relationship is eternally fleeting. Differing from the other three songs, "Disheartened" does not have a literal plot, but is an existential reflection of life's purpose if no one is ever truly honest with each other. “Isabel Nye” was a beautiful woman approached by several suitors during the autumn season, only to be won over by the Devil himself.

Songs of the Wood

Suite composed to accompany the Hartt Theatre's Spring 2023 production of Sarah DeLappe's play "The Wolves."

music composed and conducted by James A. Devor
recorded in The Hartt Recording Studio

clarinet - Paige Abramson
bassoon - Abigail Veilleux
piano - Chris Ramos
harp - Alyssa Hall
violin - Jorhendi Esquivel-Salazar
viola - Jian Xiong
cello - Andrew Gagiu

recording engineer - Ian Machemer
recording assistant - Emily Spence
producer - John Pike

Suite from "The Wolves"

from "Songs of the Wood"
composed by J. A. Devor

dedicated to the performers: 
Strummer Steele - soprano
Aaron Hungerford - piano
© 2020 JDevor Music, LLC

George Washington Sears (aka. Nessmuk) was a sportswriter for Forest and Stream magazine in the late nineteenth century. He is still one of the most widely read authors in the American bushcraft community. In 1887, a few years prior to his death, he published a collection of poems entitled Forest Runes, celebrating the glory of living alone in nature. His poems often depict quirky or witty tales of specific animals or entities roaming through the woods and mountains.

I chose to set these four poems out of Sears' collection because of the direct and self-sustaining narrative written into each. Each poem addresses a contrasting relationship between an individual and the mindset needed to attain peace with the outdoors. 

Differing from the other three songs, "Disheartened" does not have a literal plot, but is an existential reflection of life's purpose if no one is ever truly honest with each other.

Disheartened

from "Songs of the Wood"
composed by J. A. Devor

dedicated to the performers: 
Strummer Steele - soprano
Aaron Hungerford - piano
© 2020 JDevor Music, LLC

George Washington Sears (aka. Nessmuk) was a sportswriter for Forest and Stream magazine in the late nineteenth century. He is still one of the most widely read authors in the American bushcraft community. In 1887, a few years prior to his death, he published a collection of poems entitled Forest Runes, celebrating the glory of living alone in nature. His poems often depict quirky or witty tales of specific animals or entities roaming through the woods and mountains.

I chose to set these four poems out of Sears' collection because of the direct and self-sustaining narrative written into each. Each poem addresses a contrasting relationship between an individual and the mindset needed to attain peace with the outdoors.

"Flight of the Goddess" is Sears' counterargument to an article in the October 1867 edition of Atlantic Monthly. Here, the narrator tells of an encounter with a Goddess who was previously living in the city, only to realize their relationship is eternally fleeting.

Flight Of The Goddess

from "Songs of the Wood"
composed by J. A. Devor

dedicated to the performers: 
Strummer Steele - soprano
Aaron Hungerford - piano
© 2020 JDevor Music, LLC

George Washington Sears (aka. Nessmuk) was a sportswriter for Forest and Stream magazine in the late nineteenth century. He is still one of the most widely read authors in the American bushcraft community. In 1887, a few years prior to his death, he published a collection of poems entitled Forest Runes, celebrating the glory of living alone in nature. His poems often depict quirky or witty tales of specific animals or entities roaming through the woods and mountains.

I chose to set these four poems out of Sears' collection because of the direct and self-sustaining narrative written into each. Each poem addresses a contrasting relationship between an individual and the mindset needed to attain peace with the outdoors. 

“That Trout” tells the comedic tale of a narrator quasi-fighting with the outdoors, failing again and again to catch the "piscatorial wonder."

That Trout

Contemplative Contemplation - for symphony orchestra

composed by J. A. Devor
performed by the Hartt Orchestra under the direction of Maestro Edward Cumming on 16 November 2021

Copyright © 2020, rev. 2021 JDevor Music, LLC

Contemplative Contemplation brings a spacious, youthful energy to traditional “good” classical music. The piece combines new age unfolding rhythms with semi-tonal jazz and post-twentieth century harmonies. Focused on the act of reflection, Contemplative Contemplation demands that the audience listen to the overlapping waves of sound. New and diverse sounds are created via timbre and feel, as opposed to a strong rhythmic pulse or dissonant sonorities. Contemplative Contemplation exemplifies the linear histographic process of studying music in an academic landscape. The piece only takes a singular theme, and presents this information continuously, often without alteration. Each new take on this snippet of music allows the listener to recontextualize the theme, creating new perspectives inspired by similar musical material. Finally, the last thought is a peaceful unison note, in reflection.

Contemplative Contemplation

A Service - in two parts - for voice and piano
soprano - Olivia Capozzi
piano - Alexander Woods

text from: "From the Flutes of Our Bones" by Mary Moore Easter

Watch the video performance here: https://youtu.be/iarBcP9vgA0

Mama 1
Quick lipstick in the drivers seat
blot at stop
on rummaged envelope
red print DNA
day after day
every crease and smile
repeated in my hand
memory of fresh grief.

Mama 2
She’s all over
his funeral program
music that honored those gathered
her description
of the inside of a man
not his trappings and medals
what others might deem worthy
but what he could do with being human
that others could not.
She was all over it
so, he was not gone.

Recorded Live at Source Song Festival by Wild Sound Recording Studios

A Service

Onward Great Maintainer - for percussion and amplified double bass
composed 2023 by J. A. Devor
written for and commissioned by Lucas Conant

double bass - James Devor
percussion - Lucas Conant

Recorded at the Hartt Recording Studio
engineer - Koby Nelson
editor/mixer - Rob Brown
special thanks - Ben Toth, Hartt professor of percussion

Inspired by the cyclical notion of rhythm, especially in aural musical traditions, "Onward Great Maintainer" combines and assortment of metals, rattles, and basslines with pounding additive rhythms unevenly separated. Opening with reoccurring crystalline harmonics, the heaviness of the forward onslaught breaks the listener away from any sense of fragile sound.
The maintainer's job is the keep in existence to preserve what has been. At what point does maintaining prove futile, but then again, what other options do we as individuals have?

video on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ca-eaHrPD9I

Onward Great Maintainer

Time - Out

I Live In A Yogurt - Part 3

I Live In A Yogurt - Part 2

I Live In A Yogurt - Part 1

Orange Slices - Part 3

Orange Slices - Part 2

Orange Slices - Part 1

She Had An Abortion - Part 2

She Had An Abortion - Part 1

Overture

Speckled Lens - for flute, clarinet, and violoncello
composed 2024 by J. A. Devor
written for the 2024 Gabriela Ortiz Composing Studio

flute/piccolo - Chelsea Meynig
clarinet in A/Eb sop. - Sean Bailey
violoncello - Tom Kraines

recording engineer/mix by Sean Bailey

Program Note:

Speckled Lens was composed for the 2024 Gabriela Ortiz Composing Studio after working closely with performers Chelsea Meynig, Sean Bailey, and Tom Kraines. The piece seeks to musically demonstrate how to keep moving in a forward direction, even when specks, whether they be personal, political, or societal, blur our own lenses.
A lens is an object which modifies the direction of movement and focus of a particular medium. Like all inefficient devices, Speckled Lens becomes blurry, disoriented, and easily distracted. The piece is a series of repeated attempts to focus clearly on a singular musical idea, but is continually unsuccessful. Instead, Speckled Lens is reduced to an array of jarring, reoccurring blips, before finally giving up.

Speckled Lens

A Service - in two parts - for voice and piano
soprano - Lauren Auge
piano - Matteo Generani

performed live at Come As You Are at Lyric Opera of Kansas City on 15 June 2024
sponsored by no divide kc and Lyric Opera KC

text from: "From the Flutes of Our Bones" by Mary Moore Easter

Program Notes:
A Service details one’s response to grief and how it can differ. The two poems, written by Mary Moore Easter, each give a brief glimpse into the life of a women, implied to be a mother, and showcase how the outward expression of grief wildly swings back and forth from numb to dramatic depending on location and context. The piece explores how grieving individuals are often prejudiced against, with onlookers deciding how they think the grieving person should act, as well as hoping the audience finds deeper meaning with privilege and prejudice, as any cause of death and background of the narrator is implied and vague enough to apply itself in multiple scenarios. It does however, make us reflect on what demographic of mothers are most likely to lose their sons at a young age.


A Service - CAYA Live Recordings

Three Views on Baldness
composed by James A. Devor (https://jdevormusic.com)
text by Philip Venzke

mezzo-soprano: Jeanette Lee
piano: Jing-Fang Huang

performed live at the 7th Annual Minneapolis songSLAM on31 January 2025 at Icehouse MPLS

Program Note:
Three Views on Baldness is an extended metaphor traveling through three generations. Inspired by a conversation the Wisconsin poet, Philip Venzke, had with his grandfather, Three Views on Baldness engages the serious implications of aging with humor and wit, which was used to create the musical setting.

Three Views on Baldness

Two Love Songs
composed by James A. Devor (https://jdevormusic.com)
text by Alicia Schmitt

soprano: Yue Yin 
flute: Brittney Patterson
oboe: Michelle Vigneau

performed live at NACUSAfest Memphis on 23 February 2025 at Beethoven Club Memphis
written for the NeoMosaic Ensemble (https://neomosaic.nacusamusic.org)

1. Sand in Our Blood
2. Thief

Program Note:
Two Love Songs are settings of two poems from "many little things" by Wisconsin poet Alicia Schmitt. While not an eternal love, Schmitt’s depiction of love is one of a multitude of snapshots, singular evocative moments encapsulated in words. The work presents two of Schmitt’s instances as traditional romantic songs, albeit tainted by contemporary life.

Two Love Songs

Runaways
for electric double bass and ChucK software
composed by James A. Devor (jdevormusic.com)

composed 2018
performed live by the composer at West Chester University of PA on 8 May 2018

One of my earliest electroacoustic pieces, "Runaways" was an experiment combining my first academic forays in composition and bass performance. I was recently going through some files, found that I still had a recording of me playing this piece, and realized I never actually had posted it anywhere.

Runaways

from "Songs of the Wood"
composed by J. A. Devor

dedicated to the performers: 
Strummer Steele - soprano
Aaron Hungerford - piano
© 2020 JDevor Music, LLC

George Washington Sears (aka. Nessmuk) was a sportswriter for Forest and Stream magazine in the late nineteenth century. He is still one of the most widely read authors in the American bushcraft community. In 1887, a few years prior to his death, he published a collection of poems entitled Forest Runes, celebrating the glory of living alone in nature. His poems often depict quirky or witty tales of specific animals or entities roaming through the woods and mountains.

I chose to set these four poems out of Sears' collection because of the direct and self-sustaining narrative written into each. Each poem addresses a contrasting relationship between an individual and the mindset needed to attain peace with the outdoors. 

“Isabel Nye” was a beautiful woman approached by several suitors during the autumn season, only to be won over by the Devil himself.

Isabel Nye

Composed 2020

Coming Together for solo double bass and electronic media. 

Coming Together is a piece representing the culmination of the double bass. Being the most versatile of the instruments, the bass has a high level of potential in modern music. Coming Together merges the benefits and capabilities of the acoustic double bass with the electric, resulting in a sort of bass introspection and contemplation. All sounds throughout the entire work are derived only from the double bass and the composer. 

Performed by James Devor at Ware Family Recital Hall, West Chester University of PA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-inTeM4V9z0

Coming Together

James A. Devor (b. 1998) is an American composer, sound artist and double bassist whose styles pulls from a diverse array of musical backgrounds. His music grapples with rapidly-changing human emotions and attempts to sort through the natural chaos of the world. When writing, he focuses on the act of collaboration which occurs between the composer, performers and audience.

Contact me via my website or email at jdevormusic@gmail.com for scores, commissions or collaborations.

James Devor

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