Premiered by Charles Abramovic at the Old Library at Bryn Mawr College. 

The Periodic Table is a piece and a project dedicated to Nicholas Patruno and Primo Levi, two people, one who I knew personally as a teacher and one who I only knew through their writing.

This is a solo piano work inspired by Primo Levi’s book by the same name with its 21 chapters being recreated in 21 movements.  The format and structure of each movement is guided by Nicolas Patruno’s book, Understanding Primo Levi.  Throughout the piece there are references to books Levi read, ancestral migrations, modern collaborators, regional specifics, and more. There are themes running throughout the book of Levi as establishing his identity, the love of his work in the field of chemistry, the women he loved, and the Fascism he endured and fought against his entire life. Most importantly, there is the theme of memory; bearing witness for those lost and the continuation to speak the truth when people wish it suppressed.

Album Art by Becky Joy Art

The Periodic Table

A string quartet written for the 2022 Denver Botanic Garden's Landline Residency which examines seven natural features found in Colorado.

Performed by: The Playground Ensemble String Quartet
Recorded by: Mighty Fine Productions

Shades of Colorado

A research-rooted artistic collaboration between composer Jessi Harvey and choreographer Julynn Wildman, based on the mating songs and dances of the Japanese Rhino Beetle research performed at the Evolutionary Biology Lab at the University of Montana. Each movement corresponds to a different stage of the mating process and uses data to create the overall structure, tonality, motives, textures, and all other aspects of the music.

B-flat Clarinet: Elora Dawson
Bass Clarinet: Savy Holgate
Alto Saxophone: Owen Kirby
Tenor Saxophone: Verne Stimpfling
Marimba: Autumn Schenk
Mixed Percussion: Abi Tyler
Recording, Editing, Mixing: Dead Dino Productions

Scarabic Serenades

Written as part of the Open Air MT Residency as a collaboration with the Emlen Evolutionary Biology Lab which is doing research into the mating songs and dances of the Japanese Rhinoceros Beetle.  It uses the elements of the rhino songs as a basis for the structure, A - B - C(A+B).  The beginning only uses fragments of the songs of the rhino beetle, the middle section only uses instruments within Ableton, and the final section combines both.

Techno Rhinos

Premiered by Charles Abramovic at the Old Library at Bryn Mawr College.

Vanadium wrenches the past into Levi’s present with a series of exchanges with a figure Levi encountered in Auschwitz. As they write letters on both a personal and professional level, the performers hands again take each role, but this time remain apart with each register demarcating a level of communication. As the meeting between Levi and a former captor never takes place, so the two hands never meet.

Chapter 20 - Vanadium

Premiered by Charles Abramovic at the Old Library at Bryn Mawr College.

In the final chapter of our work stories, Uranium tells the odd tale of a client of Levi’s and the strange and rambling way he received a piece of Uranium. After his tale, Levi heralds back to his first forays into chemistry, calling back to Hydrogen and reliving the enthusiasm of his youth.

Chapter 18 - Uranium

Premiered by Charles Abramovic at the Old Library at Bryn Mawr College.

Nitrogen is a joyful movement about the search for chicken shit that starts in a sleazy place. After an interview with a questionable lipstick manufacturer given in a lush introduction, Levi and his wife take a quasi-holiday to the country to search for Nitrogen in a light and propulsive dance.

Chapter 16 - Nitrogen

Premiered by Charles Abramovic at the Old Library at Bryn Mawr College.

In another interlude duo of stories, Levi keeps finessing his storytelling abilities. In Sulfur, the tale of a would-be work catastrophe successfully solved and in Titanium, the magical abilities of a painted circle.

Chapter 13 - Sulfur

Premiered by Charles Abramovic at the Old Library at Bryn Mawr College.

Potassium begins the evolution of Levi’s relationship with Chemistry and ends, like Hydrogen, in an explosion. In the rise of Fascism, Levi begins to find fault with Chemistry and turns to Physics.

Chapter 5 - Potassium

Premiered by Charles Abramovic at the Old Library at Bryn Mawr College.

Iron is for Sandro and for the bearing witness. Sandro is a figure whose influence and sharing of different areas of knowledge, stayed with Levi throughout his life. Using a fragment of a folk song from the region Sandro alongside Levi’s own theme, creates this sharing, and emerges in various other movements.

Chapter 4 - Iron

Premiered by Charles Abramovic at the Old Library at Bryn Mawr College.

We continue to introduce motives in Zinc with the arrival of fascism and the lifelong influences it had on Levi. Here, he is starting to become isolated, and he comes to accept and embrace his role of the “impurity”, bringing the flavor and activity in life. He emerges with a victory with the hand holding of Rita, joining together so-called impurity and purity in a tender moment.

Chapter 3 - Zinc

Premiered by Charles Abramovic at the Old Library at Bryn Mawr College. 

Hydrogen sets the stage for Levi’s relationship with chemistry and work. Using the idea of Prometheus in a setting of a slightly off-kilter Bach prelude, here we have the youthful passion for chemistry, learning to understand the makeup of the world, and the sometime unfortunate results when experiments go wrong.

Chapter 2 - Hydrogen

Premiered by Charles Abramovic at the Old Library at Bryn Mawr College. 

Argon is where we start our tale, with the stories of Levi’s ancestors and their very particular quirks and stories. They emerge from the misty past, with their tales passed down through generations, becoming clearer as we move forward through history. Here is the musical family tree with each family member listed, ending with the introduction of Primo Levi within a background that has motion but is still inert.

Chapter 1 - Argon

It is a lively beast, darting out from its perch in the top of oaks at the slightest provocation. 
- J. A. Allen

The first movement of Shades of Colorado, a string quartet written for the 2022 Denver Botanic Garden's Landline Residency.  

Based on the Colorado state insect, the Colorado Hairstreak Butterfly, who spends its entire life upon a single Gambel Oak.  The viola and cello act as the tree with the violins as territorial butterflies who battle each other, spiraling upward.

Performed by: The Playground Ensemble String Quartet
Recorded by: Mighty Fine Productions

I. A Life In Place

Within moments, the eeriness gives way to terror as the locusts begin to descent on the family’s homestead.
- Jeffrey A. Lockwood describing Laura Ingalls Wilder

The second movement of Shades of Colorado, a string quartet written for the 2022 Denver Botanic Garden's Landline Residency.

Using Jeffrey A. Lockwood’s Locust as a guide, this improvised movement also has a structure of a book with 9 chapters.  Each chapter has inspiration from a separate stage of infestation that roams from the clouds of locusts drawing near, the panic and fear with the realization of the locust, and the despair of watching the feeding frenzy that follows.  It ends with the question of the legacy of the locust and the possibility that what was devastation for the new settlers on the frames was also catastrophic for the health of the Great Plains.

Performed by: The Playground Ensemble String Quartet
Recorded by: Mighty Fine Productions

II. Dark Clouds

The third movement of Shades of Colorado, a string quartet written for the 2022 Denver Botanic Garden's Landline Residency.  

The Colorado River Compact established in 1922 was based in a miscalculation of the average water flow divided the water to 7 states and Mexico.  Each instrument takes the role and percentage of two of its dividends and is taken away.  The Colorado River has been listed multiple times in the “10 Most Endangered Rivers” List and at the time of writing the movement, no longer reached the end of its path, the Gulf of California. 

Performed by: The Playground Ensemble String Quartet
Recorded by: Mighty Fine Productions

III. A River At The Edge Of Extinction

Live in the twilight between life and death…
- Thomas Pakenham

The fifth movement of Shades of Colorado, a string quartet written for the 2022 Denver Botanic Garden's Landline Residency.  

Based on the Bristlecone Pine, one of the oldest trees in the world with the oldest in Colorado being roughly 2,500 years. They live in one of the most extreme environments in the world, battling against constant wind and weather. The oldest trees are mostly dead but are sustained by a single strip of bark from roots to branch. This movement places the patient song of the tree in the face of endless wind. 

Performed by: The Playground Ensemble String Quartet
Recorded by: Mighty Fine Productions

V. In Defiance Of Wind

The fourth movement of Shades of Colorado, a string quartet written for the 2022 Denver Botanic Garden's Landline Residency.

The Montezuma Orchard Restoration Project is dedicated to the preservation and continuation of Colorado’s Heritage Apples.  Of the over 500 varietals available in 1922, 196, less than 50 percent, remain in the state. This movement celebrates, and lists, those 196 varietals.

Performed by: The Playground Ensemble String Quartet
Recorded by: Mighty Fine Productions

IV. 196 Flavors

The life history of many of our common plants, birds, insects, and mammals yet remains to be truly written.
- William Gibson

The sixth movement of Shades of Colorado, a string quartet written for the 2022 Denver Botanic Garden's Landline Residency.  

Exploring different types of plant and insect relationships, this improvised movement in the style of a 3rd grade presentation calls back to the roles of the first movement with the violins acting as insects and the viola and cello playing plants.

Performed by: The Playground Ensemble String Quartet
Recorded by: Mighty Fine Productions

VI. On Relationships

The greatest thing a human soul ever does in this world is to see something…
- John Ruskin

The seventh and final movement of Shades of Colorado, a string quartet written for the 2022 Denver Botanic Garden's Landline Residency.

While at the Denver Botanic Gardens, I asked people I encountered what word they would use to describe the gardens.  The word which stuck with me most was “hope”. This movement calls back to the previous six to learn from history, study the present, and work toward the future. 

Performed by: The Playground Ensemble String Quartet
Recorded by: Mighty Fine Productions

VII. The Work Of Hope

After securing a feeding territory, beetles release an aggregation pheromone that attracts potential mates, but this also attracts competitive males. 
-
Based on the research into the mating songs and dances of the Japanese Rhino Beetle done at the Evolutionary Biology Lab at the University of Montana. Each movement corresponds to a different stage of the mating process and uses data to create the overall structure, tonality, motives, textures, and all other aspects of the music.

Performed, recorded and edited by students at the University of Montana in September 2023. 

B-flat Clarinet: Elora Dawson
Bass Clarinet: Savy Holgate
Alto Saxophone: Owen Kirby
Tenor Saxophone: Verne Stimpfling
Marimba: Autumn Schenk
Mixed Percussion: Abi Tyler
Recording and Editing: Matthew Knight

Pheromones in the Night

As competing beetles meet, they go through a ritual series of movements which gradually escalate as they determine hierarchy.
-
Based on the research into the mating songs and dances of the Japanese Rhino Beetle done at the Evolutionary Biology Lab at the University of Montana. Each movement corresponds to a different stage of the mating process and uses data to create the overall structure, tonality, motives, textures, and all other aspects of the music.

Performed, recorded and edited by students at the University of Montana in September 2023. 

B-flat Clarinet: Elora Dawson
Bass Clarinet: Savy Holgate
Alto Saxophone: Owen Kirby
Tenor Saxophone: Verne Stimpfling
Marimba: Autumn Schenk
Mixed Percussion: Abi Tyler
Recording and Editing: Matthew Knight

The Six Week Battle

After winning a grueling battle, male rhinoceros beetles go through a series of sounds and movements to appease their female mates and convince them to mate. Despite their efforts, males are often unsuccessful and the process restarts.  
-
Based on the research into the mating songs and dances of the Japanese Rhino Beetle done at the Evolutionary Biology Lab at the University of Montana. Each movement corresponds to a different stage of the mating process and uses data to create the overall structure, tonality, motives, textures, and all other aspects of the music.

Performed, recorded and edited by students at the University of Montana in September 2023. 

B-flat Clarinet: Elora Dawson
Bass Clarinet: Savy Holgate
Alto Saxophone: Owen Kirby
Tenor Saxophone: Verne Stimpfling
Marimba: Autumn Schenk
Mixed Percussion: Abi Tyler
Recording and Editing: Matthew Knight

Some Sort of Love Song

Suite 1, Pheromones in the Night

Suite 2, The Six Week Battle

Suite 3, Some Sort of Love Song

Structured by the semidiurnal tidal patterns of the Puget Sound, it is a tribute to the memory of a friend and mentor evoking the sound of waves breaking on the rocks and half-heard melodies in the wind.

Premiered on April 6, 2018 at the Chapel in the Good Shepherd Center on THINGS THAT BREAK. 

Bathsheba Marcus, piano.

Photo credit: Sonya Harris.

Song For A Harbor

An exceeding aggressive piece about daisies, specifically, their roots. Each instrument embodies a different aspect of the plant and we start as a single seed falls to the ground and the rhizome begins to spread. With a brief reprieve for the beauty of the flower, the rhizome is ever growing until being dealt with by a shovel to which the rhizome quietly, determinedly comes back and fades into the distance.

Recorded and performed for the Waterloo Region Contemporary Music Sessions. wrcms.org

Bailey Finley, flute; Caitlin Beare, b-flat clarinet; Alex Hecker, bass clarinet; and Caitlin Frasure, piano. 

Recording & Mixing: James O'Callaghan.
Assistant Engineer: Elizabeth A. Baker.

rhizome

An exceeding aggressive piece about daisies, specifically, their roots. Each instrument embodies a different aspect of the plant and we start as a single seed falls to the ground and the rhizome begins to spread. With a brief reprieve for the beauty of the flower, the rhizome is ever growing until being dealt with by a shovel to which the rhizome quietly, determinedly comes back and fades into the distance.

Live at the Music by Women Festival.  Performed March 9, 2019.

Cassie Lear, flute; Olivia Valenza, b-flat clarinet; Alexandra Hecker, bass clarinet; Caitlin Frasure, piano.

rhizome - Live at the Music by Women Festival 2019

Also known as George. A Montana-born freelance composer and teacher; gardener and reader; thinker and walker. 

Photo Credit: Sonya Harris

Jessi Harvey

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