Anwen Mai Thomas, harp

My seven years living in Guilford, Connecticut, perhaps the very quaintest of New England towns, made me eternally appreciative of the distinctness of seasons. Though I’ve a deep affinity for all of them (with the exception of wintry New England after several crippling feet of snow have descended) Autumn holds a special place in both my heart and my creative life. It is the time of year when, as others bemoan the end of summer, I feel myself paradoxically reborn, overwhelmed with expressive energy, gratitude, and an appreciation for the sheer splendor of the natural world. This work for harp sits quietly in its own reflective and meditative realm, a space accentuated by flurries and gusts that seek to capture the essence of my most treasured autumnal memories, from Kyoto to Kiama, and from Guilford to Nashville.

Autumna

Matthew Shorten, Tenor 
Gabriel Hoe, Piano
Premiered at the National Gallery Singapore.
Video recording: https://youtu.be/sbI0NCsrZC8
***

Desert Pools
By Sara Teasdale

I love too much; I am a river
   Surging with spring that seeks the sea,
I am too generous a giver,
   Love will not stoop to drink of me.

His feet will turn to desert places
   Shadowless, reft of rain and dew,
Where stars stare down with sharpened faces
   From heavens pitilessly blue.

And there at midnight sick with faring
   He will stoop down in his desire
To slake the thirst grown past all bearing
   In stagnant water keen as fire.

"Desert Pools" from Three Seasons in New England

Schubert: Nacht und Träume, D. 827

Matthew Shorten, Tenor

Red Dot Baroque
Alan Choo, violin
Zoi Yeh, cello
Christopher Johann Clarke, theorbo

G.F. Handel: "Lascia la spina" from Il Trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno - Matthew Shorten, Tenor

Composition by Matthew Shorten.
Commissioned and recorded by the VOCES8 Scholars at Minnesota Public Radio.

White Fog by Sara Teasdale

Heaven-invading hills are drowned
In wide moving waves of mist,
Phlox before my door are wound
In dripping wreaths of amethyst.

Ten feet away the solid earth
Changes into melting cloud,
There is a hush of pain and mirth,
No bird has heart to speak aloud.

Here in a world without a sky,
Without the ground, without the sea,
The one unchanging thing is I,
Myself remains to comfort me.

White Fog

Premiered by chatterbird at the W.O. Smith Community Music School in Nashville, TN on April 18th, 2019.

Three Etchings for String Quartet

Premiered by Performance Fellows at the Cortona Sessions for New Music in June, 2019.

Flute, Clarinet in Bb, violin, and marimba.

Chrysalis

matthewshorten.com

Tenor & Artistic Co-Director @ Cantus | cantussings.org

Tenor | Composer | Conductor | Educator

Matthew Shorten

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