One day in 2010, I was cycling home from work, sunset casting some of the year's longest shadows, new leaves tinting them green & gold, when a coyote stepped out into the bike path in front of me.

We both stopped and made a moment of eye contact; a timeless miniature universe lived and died; then the coyote moved on, and I thought three thoughts very close together:

1.  Does a dog have Buddha-nature?
2.  If a dog does have Buddha-nature, then did I just meet the Buddha on the road?
3.  If I just met the Buddha on the road, is that what it feels like to kill him?

And somehow this sparked a song.

By the time I got home, about 25 minutes later, I'd written the whole melody, but still had no idea what it was about. (The placeholder lyrics — "I met Coyote on the road one day / He loped across the bike path, headed north" — were kind of terrible.) So I worked on the piano part and thought cosmic thoughts.

It happened that I was rebounding pretty hard, that year: running from one long-term relationship and growing into another through a series of dysfunctional shorter ones. As the summer went on, and cosmic thoughts turned to embarrassed self-awareness, the song turned out to be called "Rebounding."

This home recording is from spring 2013.

Rebounding

This music was in my head when I woke up this morning, so I wrote it down.

In my dream it was sung by a five-part a capella choir, including a soprano who could sing that B-flat one ledger line above the grand staff, and a bass who could sing that A-flat three ledger lines below it.

In waking life I've scored it for two flutes, euphonium, contrabassoon, and a section of cellos instead.

The lyrics (of course there are lyrics) are not unbleak:

I'm over the stars
I'm safe behind bars
Expired expense account
I'm walking on air
One step off the stair
I'm tired

September 2021 Dream Music

A string quintet for two violins, viola, cello and double bass.

Violin II has the wackiest part.  Violin I probably has the hardest.  Double bass has the most repetitive.

The current version is as of February 22nd, 2014.

This is the first of twelve tracks on my (largely hypothetical) album "Onionskin."

The Angry Child

Work in progress, as of June 29, 2015.

This is the second of twelve tracks on my (largely hypothetical) album "Onionskin."  It's arranged for four voices, piano, organ, clarinet, trumpet, English horn, cello, electric guitar, electric bass, and drum kit. A quartet of artificial saxophones are currently covering the vocal lines.

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And now the other child
Has played the game, and knows the rules.
The silent things that make men fools:
These are the only tools he knows.

And now the meek and mild
Fantastic child, who stands alone,
Reflects the future, newly grown,
Unburdened by the stone he throws.

He remembers with eyes
Burning embers inside,
Recognizes his lies
As the prizes that died.
Who will console him?
What does he need?
No one will hold him,
Placate his greed.

And blinded by the wasted rain, he bleeds.
No Dorian Grey, at the end of the day, knows of his creed
As he throws away his rock of ages, turns the pages and pleads,
"Get me out of this skin!

"How do I know you at all?
And how do you know me?
Dreams that result in a fall:
There's nothing below me.
I have died before this day,
Coming to take me away from the pain…"

So if your helpless writing on the wall
Reminds a maelstrom packed with individuals
Their independence lies within your means,
You've but to pass control and seal the soul that screams.

You reach out for a new goal,
Spurred on by a new soul.
You'll be safe now:
No one knows you.
No one ought to care now.
So just beware now,
And don't be scared now
When you see we do.

Just take your instincts outside in the rain,
And let their insights sear you as you wield the pain.
And now the other child stands alone,
Reflects the future, newly grown:
Another circle ended here,
Another lifeline disappeared.
You're on your own now.

And now, deep within,
Another skin is breaking.
I begin to wonder who I'm in.
So very thin the layers—
Onionskin—
Conveyors of my whim,
Purveyors of my sins.

I believe in a unity,
A certain fundamental, overlying force,
And I say this with the impunity of circumstance,
Trapped inside my body while the coruscating circles dance a hymn:

"I am me, I am he, I am we,
I am understanding gravity.
I am!
We are not men, we are
Not soldiers of the war we are.
We are!

"That's all that we can say."
There are no players in my play.
"We are!
We've come to take you away from the fight, from the light,
Away from the pain, from the rain, from the stain,
For you, for you, we are, we are, we are, we are!"

Stand up! Face the rain!
Stand up! Take the reins!
Stand up! Start your reign!
Stand up! Start again:

Do you believe me? Do you know?
Do you respect me? Does it show?
Have you no mercy for the child,

Strangling slowly,
Living the only life she can?
There's nothing below me
Since dreams that could save my life began.

I am the prophet of a sacrifice that dreams of urban fantasies.
I am the saviour of a paradise transfiguring your destinies.
I am the priest of your derision and the substance of your doom.
I am the prisoner of thunderclouds by incandescent moon.

I am the power and the glory and the mighty and the lame.
I am the summoner of stories and the master of your game.
I am the follower of fools and the philosopher of lies.
I am the farmer and the farrier, the teacher and the knife.

Who am I to lead your sanity to pain?

There's nothing I can say to you,
And nothing I could ever do
Could make me into someone who inhabited this frame,
This lanky, crumbling, piecemeal name.

I, I, I am sane!
And now the other child has played the game.

Help me break out of my onionskin?
Help break me out of my onionskin?
Help me break out of my onionskin?

Help break me out of my onionskin?
Help me break out of my onionskin?
Help break me out of my onionskin?

Help me break out of my onionskin?
Help break me out of my onionskin?
Help me break out of my onionskin?

Help break me out of my onionskin?

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Music & lyrics: Karen Jessica New ©2015
Photo: Emily Fleck ©2015

Onionskin

"Change My Name"
Track #3 of 8

Harpsichord, cello, clarinet, two synthesizers, two guitars, electric bass, drum kit, and vocals

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Image by private commission

Change My Name

Lyrics from Rachel Hartman's "In the Serpent's Wake" (2022).

A swooping colonial island anthem, sung by settlers who've clearly never thought critically about its lyrics.

This is a MIDI instrumental rendition because, well, after two years of pandemic we're all too exhausted to sing.

St. Claresse

help

i think i just wrote a madrigal whose entire lyrics are "woo hoo, whoopie doo, woo merrily hoo, fa la la la la"

somebody please stop me

Woo Hoo: A Gratuitous Madrigal

A profane madrigal, as performed June 9th, 2019, by the QuasiModals.

Am I supposed to indicate explicit language anywhere? There's explicit language herein.

Voices [choral]

For Abby, May 2020.

Version 1.1.1, post-arrangement, pre-orchestration, subject to some questionable MIDI rubato choices.

Ten Years

I was challenged to arrange "Bohemian Rhapsody" as a round.

Not much else to say, really.

Bohemian Round

No, YOU'RE normal.

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Music & lyrics © 2012 Karen Jessica New. Originally composed in 1988.
Additional lyrics by Sam Dulmage.
Interpolates "Narwhal," lyrics by Karen Jessica New, music by Peter New.

Normal

For Abby, August 2010. A love song for a perfect first date.

0:00 - The True Name
0:42 - Little Blue Heron
1:21 - The Way East
2:25 - On the Stave

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Music © 2012 Karen Jessica New. Originally composed 2010.

Euphonium: AJ Andrien, Mythical Man
Viola: Genevieve MacKay

On the Stave

I was nineteen when I wrote this, and angry with most of the world.

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Music & lyrics © 2012 Karen Jessica New. Originally composed 1989.

Euphonium:  Mythical Man

Casting Out Gods

A love song that’s also a breakup song. An envoi.

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Music & lyrics © 2012 Karen Jessica New. Originally composed 2009.

Karen Jessica New

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