Tiny Child, is a Christmas season, choral work for TTBB a cappella choir & Woodblock, published by GIA Publications - http://www.giamusic.com/search_details.cfm?title_id=20404. This recording features the Morehouse College Glee Club, under the direction of Dr. David Morrow. CHECK IT OUT...Let me know what you think!!!!!!

Tiny Child

Songs of Nature is cycle comprised of three songs for Mezzo-Soprano, Flute, and Cello. The songs are settings of poems based on some aspect of nature, and are performed in the following order: Snow by Edward Thomas, the Wind by Christina Rossetti, and now Silence by Nicholas Kilmer.  My program note reads:
   I have always admired the beauties of Nature. As I grow older, God’s creations have become one of the main subjects for my most favorite hobby, photography.  The imagery in the following poems fueled my creativity, as I captured the child’s temper tantrum that resulted from the “killing of a white bird” in “Snow,” and the sound of the air rustling through the leaves in the “Wind.”
   Although “now Silence” is last in the set, it was written first. This song was my answer to one of Indiana University’s most dreaded graduate-level assignments, the “24-hour Document.” This task, designed especially for composition doctoral majors, requires the setting of a poem in a 24-hour period. My goal, in “now Silence,” was to capture the preeminence of God’s Will over the seeming randomness of Nature. From the chirping of birds and the roaring of wild beasts to the soaking rains that replenish the earth, the hand of God silences them all.



2 THE WIND-Songs of Nature

Sleep is an a cappella setting of Langston Hughes' poem for SATB choir.   I chose this poem because Hughes is one of my favorite poets, and also because of its content.  The poem struck me with its simplistic, poignant beauty.  As I composed the music, my main goal was to create a sound that would match the poem’s sensual nature.  

SLEEP

Survival Songs features 2 Spirituals, Gospel Train & I want My Lord to Walk with me, arranged for Mezzo-Soprano & Cello. My arrangements are described in the following program note:
     A typical arrangement of The Gospel Train is upbeat and light.  Many primary music educators use its melody to demonstrate syncopated rhythms, and its text to illustrate the hidden messages, or innuendos, with which slaves used to communicate covertly.
     As I composed my arrangement, I considered how the text points to the mindset of the American slave. I thought about the possible mental games in which they engaged to endure one minute, hour, month, year of existence in captivity. What must it have been like to never have the opportunity to rest and appreciate the here and now? How does one exist with a state of mind wrought with the constant pressure to think about a better future, possible only by means of a dangerous escape or death? 
     I captured my thoughts with the cello’s lopsided bass line. Sometimes an ostinato (a short repeated pattern), and other times not, its uneven rhythmic and melodic motion represents, to me, the mental state of a slave. The bass line is reminiscent of an out of control train jumping its tracks.  This is much like the leap in and out of sanity that slaves must have suffered. 
     Beautiful, sweet, simplistic, sincere……I Want My Lord to Walk with Me, was the plea, prayer, and answer on which most slaves relied.

SURVIVAL SONGS

LIVE LIFE LOUD is a work for concert band based on the following program note:
   The title, Live Life Loud, is a tribute to the lives of my grandfather, William A. Fowlkes (b. October 2, 1914 - d. December 21, 2008), my dear friend, Wandra C. Hunley (b. September 26, 1974 - d. March 26, 2009), and my father, James Marion Harrison (b. July 24, 1940. - d. June 19, 2009). Each one had a profound impact on my life, by showing me, in their own way, how to LIVE LIFE LOUD!!!

Live Life Loud

a Near Distant Place from You is written for chamber orchestra. The music is based on the following personal quote and program note:

"The greatest irony of time spent away from those we love is the miserable delight from the arrival of letters, e-mails, and phone calls reminding us of how near our love ones are to our hearts, but how far they are away from our reach…………"

A Near Distant Place from You (thoughts of times away) was inspired by he two-month teaching experience I had while working as a theory/composition instructor at the Interlochen Arts Camp located in Interlochen, Michigan during the summer of 2004, followed by the eight months I spent abroad after being chosen to study as a visiting student of composition at the Royal Academy of Music in Stockholm, Sweden from September 2004 to May 2005.


a Near Distant Place from You

Black is one of three poems penned by my late good friend, Wandra C. Hunley (1974 - 2009), as part of an arts education collaboration. I miss my friend! I am thankful to have received her permission to perform her poetry in this manner just days before her death. 

BLACK

Dr. Greg Kostraba, Program Director for WBAA-FM, played Tiny Child on his radio show on Friday, August 10, 2012. This is a clip from the radio show. The last few seconds of the clip feature me screaming, "Yaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyyyyy," and giggling with glee!

Tiny Child - Radio Play!!!

Mary's Psalm, is a Christmas season, choral work for SSAA, Soprano Solo & Organ. It is a choral setting of Luke I:  45 - 49.  This recording features the Spelman College Glee Club, under the direction of Dr. Kevin Johnson. 


MARY'S PSALM

DREAMS COLLECTED

Tiny Child, is a Christmas season, choral work for TTBB a cappella choir & Woodblock, published by GIA Publications - http://www.giamusic.com/search_details.cfm?title_id=20404. This recording features the Washington Men's Camerata under the direction of Frank Albinder. 

Tiny Child - performed by the Washington Men's Camarata

This is an arrangement of the hymn, Near the Cross. I wrote it for Soprano, Mezzo Soprano, Violin, and Piano.

Marian Harrison

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