Performed by Isabelle "Izzy" O'Connell on the bitKlavier piano at Princeton University.

Held

A moody ambient track for a hypnotically dreary day. Some trippy visuals here: https://youtu.be/SVdGVZ5PiWQ

Grey Space / Saturated Field

Written for the Argus Quartet in Fall 2017 for performance at Princeton University.

"No doubt that is true. Our dream of life will end as dreams do
end, abruptly and completely, when the sun rises, when the
light comes. And we will think, All that fear and all that grief
were about nothing. But that cannot be true. I can't believe we
will forget our sorrows altogether. That would mean forgetting
that we had lived, humanly speaking. Sorrow seems to me to
be a great part of the substance of human life."
- Marilynne Robinson, Gilead

When the Light Comes

On Shelter

You can write on a wall with a fish heart, it's
because of the phosphorus. They eat it. There
are shacks like that down along the river. I am
writing this to be as wrong as possible to you.
Replace the door when you leave, it says. Now
you tell me how wrong that is, how long it
glows. Tell me.

- Anne Carson, Plainwater

Long It Glows

SLEEPCHAINS

Who can sleep when she - 
hundreds of miles away I feel that vast breath
fan her restless decks.
Cicatrice by cicatrice
all the links
rattle once.
Here we go mother on the shipless ocean.
Pity us, pity the ocean, here we go.

- Anne Carson, "Sleepchains" from Decreation

Live performance by Bearthoven
Karl Larson, piano
Pat Swoboda, bass
Matt Evans, percussion
http://www.bearthoven.com

Sleepchains

Four arms, two necks, one wreathing, 
Two pair of lips, one breathing.
Fa la la. 
Two hearts that multiply
Sighs interchangeably.
Fa la la.

The thought of this confounds me,
And as I speak it wounds me. 
Fa la la.
It cannot be express'd,
Good help me while I rest.
Fa la la.
- Thomas Weelkes

Performed by Modern Medieval
https://www.modernmedieval.org

While I Rest

Live performance by Alarm Will Sound at Princeton Sound Kitchen, conducted by Alan Pierson.

Accidentally Witnessing Rain

Performed by Latitude 49 at Princeton University.

Until You Are In The Dark

Hi and thanks for listening. Please feel free to contact me: jennymbeckcomposer@gmail.com

Jenny Beck, composer

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