Commissioned and Performed by the Peabody Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Joseph Young

Wraith Weight

Every Recording of Gymnopédie 1

buy the vinyl

After Berklee and The Boston Conservatory begun discussing plans to merge last year, it quickly became clear that synergies between the two institutions had been building for many years. Students, faculty, and alumni have often collaborated, and several faculty members can say that they have worked for both Berklee and the Conservatory.

One such example is Jonathan Bailey Holland, who is currently a professor of composition at both institutions. Holland studied composition with Ned Rorem at the Curtis Institute of Music and later received a Ph.D. from Harvard University. His works have been commissioned and performed by the Atlanta, Baltimore, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Colorado, Dallas, Detroit, Indianapolis, Memphis, Minnesota, National, Philadelphia, San Antonio, St. Louis, and South Bend symphony orchestras, as well as several other ensembles. He has received honors from the Fromm Foundation, American Academy of Arts and Letters, American Music Center, ASCAP, the Presser Foundation, and more. He has served as composer-in-residence for several major orchestras and ensembles. He is also a founding faculty member in the low-residency MFA in Music Composition program at Vermont College of Fine Arts.

Recent highlights include the premiere of Equality for narrator and orchestra for the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, using the poetry of Maya Angelou. Listen below to this week's featured podcast selection, Dark Flowers, a two-movement piece written by Holland for the CD, Four Prayers, featuring Christopher Chaffee on alto and bass flutes, and Josh Nemith on piano.

Learn about the Berklee-Boston Conservatory merger:
https://www.berklee.edu/berklee-boston-conservatory

Jonathan Bailey Holland, "Dark Flowers"

Project 132

Bjork played backward holding down the search button, lovin' it,

Vsepertine

backward skipping Bjork song "Undo"

Music for speakers and sine tones

Performed by 3 transducers, two tape recorders, two radios, one piano, one gong, and a powered speaker. No digital effects were used.

Acousmonium I

Performed by the Aspen Contemporary Ensemble, directed by Timothy Weiss

Mehrdad Gholami - Flute
Juan Gabriel Olivares - Clarinet
Seohee Min - Violin
Ben Wagner - Viola
Richard Narroway - Violoncello
Hannah Weaver - Percussion
Andrew Zhou - Piano

The tarot, also known tarocchi or les tarots, is a deck of cards that dates back to the fifteenth century. Used to play a variety of games, the tarot in some ways resembles a standard fifty-two-card deck with four suits known as the Minor Arcana. The tarot is more widely known for its twenty-two-card trump suit, the Major Arcana, which features highly stylized cards depicting figures such as the High Priestess, the Devil, and the Fool. In the eighteenth century, the tarot became increasingly associated with cartomancy and divination. A tarot teller, or cartomancer, would use the cards to predict an individual’s future by arranging the trump suit in a variety of patterns. The order in which the cards are dealt may portend events, obstacles, or love interests for those having their futures read.

Tarot Teller for chamber ensemble taps into the symbolism and patterning of the tarot, as well as its supernatural overtones. Certain passages are associated with cards from the Major Arcana such as the Hermit, the Hanged Man, and the Magician. The seven instruments play into the layout of tarot readings, in which commonly seven cards are dealt at a time, sometimes until all twenty-one cards (the Fool stands apart) are present. Tarot Teller reflects these various layouts with an assortment of instrumental textures that fluctuate throughout the work. The supernatural elements of the tarot as a tool for divination are highlighted in passages that incorporate frequency-based harmonic structures.

Tarot Teller was loosely inspired by the poem “Tarot-teller” by Nathaniel Mackey, which appears in his first collection of poems from Eroding Witness (1985). The piece was commissioned by the Aspen Music Festival and School for the Aspen Contemporary Ensemble’s 2018 First Glimpse concert series.

Tarot Teller

Wopanaak Songs - Choir

Yeji Kim, Claire Hebeisen - Violins
Josef Fischer - Viola
Olivia Rainoff - Cello

Project 132

John Murphree

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