Album Leaf

Album Leaf No. 5

Written Mar 26th 2014 - Premiered Nov 18th 2014

Piano - Ryan Wight
Violin - Robyn Whitmore
Cello - Jake Saunders 


Photo: Flora Koenig

Piano Trio in F - III. Reflection

Continuities 

Rachel Becker, oboe
Lukas König, piano

Nothing is ever really lost, or can be lost,
No birth, identity, form—no object of the world.
Nor life, nor force, nor any visible thing;
Appearance must not foil, nor shifted sphere confuse thy brain.
Ample are time and space—ample the fields of Nature.
The body, sluggish, aged, cold—the embers left from earlier fires,
The light in the eye grown dim, shall duly flame again;
The sun now low in the west rises for mornings and for noons continual;
To frozen clods ever the spring's invisible law returns,
With grass and flowers and summer fruits and corn.
–Walt Whitman

Recorded 6 June 2024 at St. Michael's in Boise, Idaho.
Song originally for soprano and piano, written for Rachael Gunning 2019.

Continuities

Improv No. 5  "Wings"

Improv No. b

Tess Gregg Worstell, mezzo-soprano
Luke Koenig, piano

Performed live April 19, 2015

Drift off into the night
Inviting the shadows of uncertainty
To disappear behind the
Veil of dreams.
Lost in a world
Surprisingly more unpredictable
Than the one we live.

Drift off into the Night

Tess Gregg Worstell, mezzo-soprano 
Luke Koenig, piano 

Performed live April 19, 2015 

Fleeting, a fleeting, a fleeting the wind
Which carries the board to the end of our dreams.
Stealing our sails
Away from our whims.
And searching out nothing
For frivolous fiends.

My mind is set,
The port draws far.
I wish I could return,
But we, too far.

Goodbye I guess, for that is the last.
A place in my heart will longingly
Shelter my mast.

photo: Flora Koenig

The Ship has Sailed

Muir Ingliss, bass-baritone
Luke Koenig, piano

Performed live May 14th, 2016

It troubled me as once I was— 
For I was once a Child— 
Concluding how an atom—fell— 
And yet the Heavens—held—

The Heavens weighed the most—by far— 
Yet Blue—and solid—stood—
Without a Bolt—that I could prove— 
Would Giants—understand?

Life set me larger—problems— 
Some I shall keep—to solve 
Till Algebra is easier—
Or simpler proved—above—

Then—too—be comprehended— 
What sorer—puzzled me—
Why Heaven did not break away— 
And tumble—Blue—on me—

Emily Dickinson, No. 516

It troubled me as once I was; Dickinson Songs

Marisol Ortiz, mezzo-soprano
Luke Koenig, piano

Performed live May 14th, 2016

Dust is the only Secret.
Death, the only One
You cannot find out all about 
In his “native town.”

Nobody knew “his Father”— 
Never was a boy—
Had’nt any playmates,
Or “Early history”—

Industrious! Laconic! 
Punctual! Sedate! 
Bold as a Brigand! 
Stiller than a Fleet!

Builds, like a Bird, too! 
Christ robs the Nest— 
Robin after Robin 
Smuggled to Rest!

Emily Dickinson, No. 166

Dust is the only Secret; Dickinson Songs

Performed live November 22nd, 2016

Hannah Baird, mezzo-soprano
Vitalis Im, tenor
Muir Ingliss, bass-baritone
Labeeby Servatius, violin
Matthea Rile-Schmidt, viola
Andrew Flores, double-bass
Jackson McKinnon, piano

6th movement of "Devotional"

From the Writings of the Bahá'í Faith:
Whatever is done in love is never any trouble, and—there is always time. -‘Abdu’l-Bahá

Is there any Remover of difficulties save God? Say: Praised be God! He is God! All are His servants, and all abide by His bidding! 
-The Báb