I really enjoyed this, especially the sparse use of spoken and semi-spoken parts.  Did you have a system for choosing your pitches?

@derekjasnoch: Really appreciate it! Thanks for listening

Red state butt rock meets hip hop for only the beefiest of television programming.

Power Surge

HARRIETLEHRE for orchestra

Performed on December 9, 2021 by the Yale Philharmonia
Ryan Tani, Conductor
© 2021 Harriet Steinke

Album art features original prints by Muriel Steinke / www.murielsteinke.com

Harrietlehre for Orchestra

Performed by soprano Regina Ceragioli

“The World Will End In Fire” was commissioned by soprano Regina Ceragioli. The idea was to take a series of poems she was constructing and fashion them into a set of art songs. However, the second poem could not seem to be written. So instead, I decided to string the outer movements together with a piano solo acting as the blank second, a kind of palate cleanser. The piece stands as this, three separate ideas connected by motif and mood.

i. Supernovae

Far away, the sun gives birth to a trillion bursts of flame.
Leap through the galaxy.
Taste the Milky Way
Stars join in fiery exultation as planets are swallowed whole,
And the atmosphere dances to the silent music of the end.

ii.

iii. Jubilation

Feel the tremors building beneath your feet
Hear the thunder as lava is thrust from the ground.
Rivers of fire blindly taste the earth’s face
Poison fills the air like a noxious perfume
All the while,
Ashes float from the sky 
Like discolored snowflakes
In an endless effort 
To bury the land below

Photograph by Juskteez Vu (www.500px.com/juskteez)

The World Will End In Fire

Raymonde, ou l'évasion verticale

Raymonde (générique de Fin)

Epitaph,(2019)
Text: Seiklos Epitaph, trans. Kalcheim

As long as you live, Shine!
Do not grieve at all. 
Life is but for a short while;
Time demands your end.

Alison Kaufman, soprano
Grant Mack, Piano

University of Oregon School of Music and Dance
October, 2019

Epitaph (art song -- 2019)

TOO BRIGHT TO SEE for string quartet

Live Performance on November 6, 2020

Performed by the Omer Quaret
Mason Yu, violin 
Erica Tursi, violin
Jinsun Hong, viola
Alex Cox, cello

© 2020 Harriet Steinke

too bright to see (Live Performance)

Marlen Nahas — Luz
Katerina Burton — Jenny
Sam Weiser — Ésteban/Gary
Conducted by David Neely

Read at the 2021 Washington National Opera American Opera Initiative Workshop, April

Las Auténticas

Dakota Corbliss — Horn
Matt Castner — Saxophone

Outdoor Warnings

as winged branches adrift, apart (2020)

premiered in Tokyo, Japan, July 2020
Thomas Piercy, clarinet
Schoichiro Tanaka, piano

Written for Tokyo to New York's "Moments in this Time" benefit concert for musicians affected by the 2020 pandemic. 

Program note:
As its title suggests, winged branches aims to give rise to deeply rooted material while it reaches further into a parallel universe. A sense of hopeful longing accompanied the writing of this piece and is reflected in imploring gestures and ambiguous harmonies.

as winged branches adrift, apart

Stick Together

John Albert Harris is a composer, producer, and creator of cinematic graphic novels. He is based in New York City.

The World Will End In Fire

John Albert Harris

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