Jake Runestad, composer

"Cello Songs." Jake Runestad, composer. Todd Boss, poet. Performed by St. Charles Singers. Jeff Hunt, conductor. Cameron Grimes, cello. Stephen Uhl, piano. More info: http://jakerunestad.com/store/cello-songs

On my living room wall, I have a letterpress broadside of the poem “Cello” by Dorianne Laux. Its central image is a dead tree, fallen into the arms of a living one. As years pass, it “…rubs its fallen body / against the living, building / its dead music / making its raw mark, / wearing the tough bough down / as it moans and bends, the deep / rosined bow sound of the living / shouldering the dead.”

Todd Boss, a frequent collaborator of mine, has created a new, four-movement text inspired by Dorianne’s poem. Intended as love songs, the texts use the seasons as a structure to examine how the cello might come to mean very different things to us as we progress through the beauty and complexity of our lives.

Cello Songs (choir, cello, piano)

"Alleluia" by Jake Runestad. Performed by the Salt Lake Vocal Artists at the 2014 Western ACDA Division Conference. Purchase scores: http://jakerunestad.com/store/alleluia

Alleluia (SATB choir)

"Earth Symphony" - music by Jake Runestad, libretto by Todd Boss. More info: http://earth-symphony.com

Performed by the Bilbao Orkestra Sinfonikoa (Spain) - Nacho de Paz, conductor, and San Juan Bautista Abesbatza Choir, Basilio Astulez, conductor. 

Performed live on October 5, 2023 in Bilbao, Spain.

Earth Symphony - 5. Recovery (Live, Bilbao Symphony)

Earth Symphony - 4. Lament (Live, Bilbao Symphony)

Earth Symphony - 3. Destruction (Live, Bilbao Symphony)

Earth Symphony - 2. Ambition (Live, Bilbao Symphony)

Earth Symphony - 1. Evolution (Live, Bilbao Symphony)

"Becoming the Ocean" by Jake Runestad. Performed by the RCC Chamber Singers. John Byun, conductor. More info: http://jakerunestad.com/store/becoming-the-ocean

Becoming The Ocean

"Let My Love Be Heard" by Jake Runestad. Recorded by the Bob Cole Chamber Choir at Cal State Long Beach. Jonathan Talberg, conductor. More info: jakerunestad.com/store/let-my-love-be-heard

Let My Love Be Heard (SATB choir) by Jake Runestad

"Come to the Woods" by Jake Runestad. Performed by the Georgia State University Singers. Deanna Joseph, conductor. Purchase scores: jakerunestad.com/store/come-to-the-woods

Famed Scottish-American naturalist and conservationist John Muir had a giddy, child-like excitement for the natural world. After a youth spent in Scotland and Wisconsin, he found himself transformed by his first visit, around age 30, to California’s Yosemite Valley. With the vast mountainous landscape and the surreal size of the sequoia and redwood trees, these woods captured him and became his playground, his classroom, and his sanctuary.

Muir was an avid “saunterer” and a profound thinker who would venture into the woods for days with a bit of food and a book of Emerson poetry in hand. Inspired by the beauty of the wilderness and a lifelong love for words, Muir penned a vast collection of eloquent and vivid writings. In one quintessentially Muirian account, he is so fascinated by a storm that he climbs up a tall Douglas Fir to experience it more intensely.

“Come to the Woods” explores Muir’s inspirations and the transporting peace found in the natural world. Using a collage of fragments from Muir’s writings, the work ventures from the boisterous joy of a “glorious day,” to the quiet whispering of wind, to the rejuvenating power of a storm, to the calming “amber light” when the clouds begin to clear. I hope it captures the self-discovery and sustenance one encounters while exploring the outdoors and its vital importance in our lives. As Muir writes, “I only went out for a walk, and finally concluded to stay out till sundown, for going out, I found, was really going in.”

Come To The Woods (SATB & piano, Georgia State)

"Climb" -- music by Jake Runestad, text by Todd Boss. Performed by the Larimer Chorale & Orchestra. Jake Runestad, conductor. More info: jakerunestad.com/store/climb


CLIMB
by Todd Boss

So lowly are we born, 
torn from mud and blood and pain, 

and when we die 
we are so lowly laid to rest, 
ash to ash and dust to dust, 

we may see only lowliness—
no grade, no slope, no hope of a view, 
the body laden, 
the soul a burden, 
the heart unheard in sorrows deep, 

but we are asleep. 
We must awaken. 

Just as Earth in faulted fountains
draws itself up into mountains
so are we, in lowly places
soaring into godly spaces. 

Climb, then! Climb!—

Where we are broken 
let us rise to the sublime!—

Let us lift our weary gazes to the skies. 

The sweep of the ocean 
and curve of the earth
and all of the glories of being alive
shall fill our eyes 
when we climb to where our faults give rise!—


Music © 2017 Jake Runestad. Text © 2017 Todd Boss. All rights reserved.

Climb (choir & orchestra)

"Into the Light" by Jake Runestad. Valparaiso University Chorale, Bach Chorale, & Orchestra. Christopher Cock, conductor. More info: http://jakerunestad.com/store/into-the-light

Text:

I. THE UNIVERSE OF LIGHT
Come out into the universe of light.
Everything in the universe is yours,
stretch out your arms and embrace it with love.
(Swami Vivekananda)

You are a product of your thoughts. What you think, you become.
(Gandhi)


II. THE LIGHTLESS DARK
The only lightless dark is the night of ignorance.
We differ from one another, not in our senses,
but in the use we make of them.
(Helen Keller)


III. THE WARM FOGS OF FEAR
The ice under us is very thin, and is made weak by the warm fogs of fear.
(Frederick Douglass)

We are driven by love or by fear.
I fear you, for I do not know you.
(After Martin Luther King Jr.)

There is no fear in love, but perfect love drives out fear.
(John the Evangelist)


IV. FLOWER INTO KINDNESS
The soul is made of love and must ever return to love.
There is nothing so wise,
nor so beautiful,
nor so strong as love.
(Mechthild von Magdeburg)

Above all, love.
(Peter the Apostle)

I shed my words on the earth
as the tree sheds its leaves.
Let my thoughts unspoken
flower into kindness.
(Rabindranath Tagore, adapt. Runestad)


V. INTO THE LIGHT
We are not yet what we shall be,
but we are growing toward it.
(Martin Luther)

Come out into the universe of light.
Everything in the universe is yours,
stretch out your arms and embrace it with love.
(Swami Vivekananda)

Into the Light

Into The Light - Jake Runestad (Chorus & Orchestra)

"Proud Music of the Storm" by Jake Runestad for chorus & orchestra. Performed by the Dallas Symphony Chorus & Orchestra. Joshua Habermann, conductor. More info: jakerunestad.com/store/proud-music-of-the-storm

Text:

Proud Music of the Storm
by Walt Whitman

Proud music of the storm!
Blast that careers so free, whistling across the prairies!
Strong hum of forest tree-tops! Wind of the mountains!
Blending, with Nature’s rhythmus, all the tongues of nations;
You undertone of rivers, roar of pouring cataracts;
Trooping tumultuous, filling the midnight late, bending me powerless,
Entering my lonesome slumber-chamber–Why have you seiz’d me?

Ah, from a little child,
Thou knowest, Soul, how to me all sounds became music;
My mother’s voice, in lullaby;
The solemn hymns and masses, rousing adoration,
All passionate heart-chants, sorrowful appeals,
Song of lost love–the torch of youth and life quench’d in despair,

The measureless sweet vocalists of ages,
Of winds and woods and mighty ocean waves;

Give me to hold all sounds,
Fill me with all the voices of the universe,
The tempests, waters, winds—operas and chants—marches and dances,
pour in–for I would take them all.

Then I woke softly,
And pausing, questioning the music of my dream,
I said to my silent, curious Soul,
Go forth,
Cheerfully tallying life, walking the world, the real,
What thou hast heard, O Soul, was not the sound of winds,
Nor dream of raging storm,
But, to a new rhythmus fitted for thee,
Poems, bridging the way from Life to Death,
vaguely wafted in night air, uncaught, unwritten,
Which, let us go forth in the bold day, and write.

Proud Music of the Storm (Choir & Orchestra)

"Rivers of Air" by Jake Runestad. Performed live by the Capital University Symphonic Winds. Dr. Jeffrey Gershman, conductor. More info: jakerunestad.com/store/rivers-of-air

Capital University

Rivers of Air (wind ensemble)

"Ascent" by Jake Runestad. Performed by the Atlanta Youth Wind Symphony. Dr. Scott Stewart, conductor. More info and purchase scores and parts: jakerunestad.com/store/ascent

12 2 19 concert (unedited)

Ascent (wind ensemble)

"Love After Love" by Jake Runestad, poem by Derek Walcott. Performed by the Macalester College Concert Choir, Dr. Mike McGaghie, conductor. More info and purchase scores: https://jakerunestad.com/store/love-after-love/

Love After Love

Official Website:

http://jakerunestad.com


About Jake:

Award-winning composer Jake Runestad (b. 1986) is noted for his versatility and wide range of expressive capabilities with music driven by soaring melodies, driving rhythms, and lush textures. Considered “highly imaginative…with big ideas” (Baltimore Sun) and “stirring and uplifting” (Miami Herald), Jake has received commissions and performances from leading ensembles such as Seraphic Fire, the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra, VocalEssence, the Master Chorale of Tampa Bay, the Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra, the Cincinnati Vocal Arts Ensemble, Cantus (Minnesota), and the Rockford Symphony Orchestra.

Jake Runestad holds a Master’s degree in composition from the Peabody Conservatory of the Johns Hopkins University where he studied with Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Kevin Puts. He has also studied extensively with acclaimed composer Libby Larsen. Mr. Runestad currently lives in Minneapolis, MN and his music is published by Boosey & Hawkes and JR Music. Find out more at jakerunestad.com

Jake Runestad

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