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Lean Back and Release was written in the winter of 2013 in New York City, and was first performed professionally on the 2014 Bang on a Can Marathon. Upon starting the work, I knew that I wanted to create a very gradual descent for the violin in range that drives the whole piece. I imagined the violinist gradually “leaning back” and finally “releasing” the distinct low register of the violin. Therefore, I also wrote two accompanying violin tracks in order to propel this descent. The two accompanying tracks were previously recorded by the violinist and subsequently processed electronically with delays and distortion.

Lean Back and Release is dedicated to Adrianna Mateo, and special thanks also to Andrew McKenna Lee for recording and mixing.

Lean Back and Release

Commissioned and performed by Hope College Wind Ensemble, conducted by Gabe Southard.

Up and Down

More info + score purchase: https://www.mollyjoyce.com/store/p/anatomy-is-destiny

Anatomy is Destiny was composed for physically-disabled musicians Adrian Anantawan (violin) and Leigh McAllister (piano). As a disabled musician myself, it is rare to find collaborators that have such shared experiences, in attempting to navigate our different physicality and musicality. Therefore with this work, I explored the violin and piano parts progressing from restricted to free and open material. To me this represents the gradual embrace of disability, especially physical, as something that can be viewed as restrictive and evolving into embracive. Additionally, the piano eventually takes over the beginning intervals in the violin, representing the continual intertwining and shared experience of physical disability despite the innate divergences.
Anatomy is Destiny was commissioned by Adrian Anantawan and Live Arts Boston, and written in the Winter/Spring of 2022 in Omaha, NE. The work premiered in April 2022 at Shalin Liu Performance Center at Rockport Music.

Anatomy Is Destiny

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Imperfection seeks to explore and highlight supposed “perfections” and “imperfections” of string instruments. As a disabled musician, I have always been fascinated by many musical obsessions with “perfection,” either with tuning, structure, performance, and so on. Therefore with this work, I sought to explore what perfection and imperfection might mean with string instruments and within the context of the string quartet. Therefore the work explores various techniques on the instruments and specifically the range from open to closed/muted sound.

Imperfection was commissioned by Music Academy of the West for their 75th Anniversary Season, and premiered in July 2022 at the Academy by the Crimson Quartet.

Imperfection

More info + purchase link: https://www.mollyjoyce.com/store/p/into-the-light

Into the Light

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Created in collaboration with playwright Christopher Oscar Peña, director Austin Regan, and pianist Patrick Jones, YousaidShesaidHesaid juxtaposes modern perspectives with Schubert’s masterpiece song cycle Die Schöne Müllerin. Written to be performed in rep with the classic work, YousaidShesaidHesaid traces the same timeline as Schubert’s work, but from the experience of the other character in the story, who until now has historically had no voice – the “girl of the mill” herself. Composed for a single female voice and the same period instrument used in Die Schöne Müllerin, the new work will also incorporate electro-acoustic elements and use sampling, live processing, and other digital technology.

Selections from Yousaid were previewed at HERE Arts Center in March 2014 and at VisionIntoArt's 2015 FERUS Festival. Special thanks to vocalist Kendal Hartse, and engineers Shaun Barlow and Andrew McKenna Lee for their involvement in this recording.

Text:

when i go to bed 
i think to myself
tomorrow will be different
i think to myself
tomorrow i will not be afraid
when i go to bed
i dream about all the possibility
when i go to bed
i dream that i am something 
more than this
more than this

aimless
with nothing to say
no words dying to fly
telling you who am i
who am i
who am i

what is my favorite color
who was the first to say my name
to break my heart
to kiss my face

what is my favorite movie
the first song i heard
first time i cried
tell me

cuz i don’t know
i don’t know
does anyone

tonight i will go to bed
who am i 
who am i
and why

YousaidShesaidHesaid - One

more info + buy score: https://www.mollyjoyce.com/store/p/out-of-the-box

commissioned by Gregory Feldmann, Nathaniel LaNasa, and Cynthia Tobar for the American Icons project, with support from the Brooklyn Arts Council

text by Marco Grosse

FP: Mar. 12, 2023 by Gregory Feldmann and Nathaniel LaNasa in Brooklyn, NY

Out of a Box (Live Recording)

Playground (MIDI Recording)

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Glow was commissioned by The New York Virtuoso Singers, and written in the summer of 2014 in New York City, Princeton, and Pittsburgh. The text was originally written in collaboration with writer Caitlin Kenzie Scott for a band that I frequently perform in, Wily Fire. Together with Caitlin, the band and I tried to create a text that would lend itself naturally to melody and also reflect the band’s aesthetic that involves vintage chord organ, cello, and live beat-boxing. Although we weren’t able utilize the text in full, I knew that I wanted to somehow make use of it in my own compositions. Therefore when starting this piece, I realized that this text extended itself naturally to the material I wanted to create.

Special thanks to Harold Rosenbaum and The New York Virtuoso Singers for commissioning the work, and for promoting new choral work by young composers.


Text:
by Caitlin Kenzie Scott and Molly Joyce

Your flesh is made of memory and names

I felt our souls these little fragile lights
and pushing through the shadow of the night

Did your father ever teach you games
To speak past time
and feel for the dead

Like humming birds beating in my ribs
They suck the sweet marrow out of nectar

All evil and ignorance are no longer
forgive the dead their mute, their still, their floating dreams

They are looking through a telescope of shadow
and we are a lens of bone
looking through a telescope of shadow

I feel the whole earth
listening
Like humming birds beating in my ribs

Glow for choir

Above and Beyond was written for the Hypercube ensemble, and seeks to highlight free-flowing melodies passed throughout the ensemble along with a driving pulse throughout. Additionally, the work was written to incorporate sound descriptions, which describe aural content for accessibility and artistic purposes. As a disabled artist, these facets are important to integrate, and this piece specifically features descriptions by blind media artist Andy Slater.

More info: https://www.mollyjoyce.com/store/p/above-and-beyond

Above And Beyond

Jess - Relationships

Fresh was written with memories of performing in a high school marching band, and how thrilling and yet exhausting of an event it always was. I had recently been having many recollections of performing in the marching band, and in particular the powerful aspect of the drumline section. Therefore my memories of the dominant drumline motivated the idea of having the orchestra gradually take over the rhythm from the percussion section throughout the piece, to lead the strong percussion rhythm to hopefully new directions and always be “fresh.”

Fresh is also dedicated to the New York Youth Symphony and Joshua Gersen, and was written in the summer of 2014 in New York City and Pittsburgh.

Fresh

More info + purchase link: www.mollyjoyce.com/store/p/connectivity

Connectivity

Two Lives One Body was inspired by my experience of late pregnancy and the anticipation of becoming a mother. The piece is not meant to literally depict the physical aspects of pregnancy, but rather to offer an artistic reflection on the surreal yet deeply holistic experience of carrying two lives within one body—and the gradual transition of letting go, as those two lives become physically separate.

I began the piece in the summer of 2024 during the final months of pregnancy, and returned to it in the winter of 2025 after parental leave. Throughout its development, the work became an evolving meditation on the merging and eventual parting of two beings.

Musically, this is expressed through two distinct harmonic layers that persist throughout the piece—sometimes in dissonance, sometimes in consonance, echoing the push and pull of togetherness and separation. My large ensemble compositions have often centered on melody and rhythm, but with this piece I wanted to shift the focus, allowing harmony to lead the musical narrative.

Two Lives One Body

More info/score purchase: https://www.mollyjoyce.com/store/p/purifier

Purifier was written for organist Evalyn Cogswell, and seeks to highlight a progression on the pipe organ from a full, broad range utilizing the full registral capacity of the organ and eventually by the end diminishing to a more limited range. I have always loved the pipe organ as an instrument, continually awed my its ability to capture so many colors and textures yet at the same time have a very distinct sound and timbre. Therefore with this work, I hoped to capture at least some of the organ’s power through  starting from full capacity and eventually thinning out to smaller textures.

Purifier (live recording, performed by Evalyn Cogswell)

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Commissioned by Joshua Spaulding, In Between the Cracks was written in the summer of 2013 in New York City. My main idea behind the piece was imagining the marimba a mini-sidewalk, in which the cracks of the sidewalk are the resonances of the marimba. I therefore strived to gradually reveal these "cracks" throughout the piece, and eventually have them take over the musical material.

Special thanks to Josh for all of his great work put into learning and recording the piece.

In Between The Cracks

Vintage toy organ improv for visual artist Alteronce Gumby's final review at Yale School of Art. May 2016.

Toy Organ Improv

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Commissioned by the Resonant Grounds Initiative, Black and White was premiered by Robert Fleitz and David Nagy in Copenhagen in June 2015.

Black And White (live recording)

Winner of ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composer Award, Leo Kaplan Award.

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Scored for organ and orchestra, Over and Under explores the possible uniform and divergent relationship between such immense instrumental bodies. This relationship evolves so that by the end of the piece, the organ and orchestra have ultimately switched roles, and in order to reach this outcome the two instrumental bodies must begin in contrasting positions and gradually progress to replace one another.

Special thanks to organist Weston Jennings, conductor David Yi, and the Yale Philharmonia for realizing the work, it is a truly dream of mine to write a piece for organ and orchestra, specifically with the Woolsey Hall organ, and I couldn’t be more grateful.

Over and Under

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Written for flutist Martha Cargo and cellist Ben Larsen, Compare and Contrast was written in the summer/fall of 2016 as part of the duo’s “Pieces of Eight” project, which commissioned eight composers to write new works for flute and cello.

With this work, I aimed to simply have the cello and flute switch roles by the end of the piece, so could essentially one could compare and contrast their ever-changing personalities, highlighting the numerous differences and similarities between the two instruments.

Special thanks to Martha and Ben for all of their efforts towards the new commissions and project as a whole.

Compare and Contrast

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High and Low sets out to exploit how high is high and how low is low on the piano, and everything in between. I specifically wanted to challenge the traditionally two-handed texture to one that expands to as many as five layers at a time, and in essence one that is beyond the physical nature of the piano itself.

The work was commissioned by my best man, best friend, and one of my favorite collaborators, Robert Fleitz. It was premiered in April 2017 at The Juilliard School in New York, NY, and written in the spring of 2017 in New Haven, CT.

High and Low

Purchase link: https://mollyjoycemusic.com/product/light-and-dark/

Light and Dark attempts to explore and reject pre-conceived notions of the elements “light” and “dark” in relation to the duo instrumentation of flute and percussion. I had the mission of having both performers switch roles, so that by the end of the piece they have supplanted each other, thus assuming unexpected yet fortuitous positions.

Light and Dark was written in the winter of 2017-18 in Krems an Der Donau, Austria and Water Mill, New York, and is commissioned by and dedicated to The Midnight Sun Two: Kathryn Hendrickson and Christopher Eagles.

Light and Dark

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All or Nothing enacts a progression from attack to sustain, highlighting the process’ consistencies and inconsistencies, and asking if the concept of having “all” or “nothing” is desired. The inquiry stems from recent research into social uniformity and particularly through the social model of disability, which states that people are disabled by barriers in society rather than by impairment or difference. Therefore by asking if all or nothing is desired, I hope to illuminate overriding challenges in such a polarizing categorization, as well as utilize the singular body of the symphony band, an optimal instrumentation to execute such differences.

 All or Nothing was commissioned by and dedicated to Ball State Symphony Band and Dr. Caroline Hand, made possible by the ASPiRE Junior Faculty Creative Arts Award.

All or Nothing

I was a figure

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Dew of the Moon, for solo alto saxophone, was written in the fall of 2012 in New York City and was commissioned by saxophonist Don-Paul Kahl. 

When I first received the commission from Don-Paul in the summer of 2012, I was currently studying composition in Berlin, and one of my composer colleagues there had presented a piece of hers in which she had set the poem The Land Which is Not, by Edith Södergran. I quickly fell in love with the poem and the sense of longing and ambiguity that it exudes, specifically the line “in the dew of the moon.” I thus decided to take the idea of the “dew of the moon,” and whatever that may mean, as inspiration for the piece. As I thought about it more, I realized that for me the “dew of the moon” could possibly be a dance floor, and therefore I decided to try to translate whatever this dance floor with people dancing on it might be to shape the music for the saxophone.

Dew of the Moon is also dedicated to Don-Paul Kahl, who I am so grateful to have met as a colleague, friend, and future collaborator.

Dew of the Moon

Video link: https://youtu.be/Ctdl48hTKO4

Shot for the Campfire Poetry Project
An Original Dance Performance based on a poem by Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson

Performed by Kingsley Ibeneche
Directed by Katie Sadler
Cinematography by Carissa Henderson
Original Music by Molly Joyce
Voiceover by Carol Hendrickson
Produced by Max Rothman, Du’Bois A’Keen, and J.Y. Chun

Secret Love [Campfire Poetry Project]

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For prepared vibraphone (with foil) and cymbals (one player), performed by Scott Christian, Assistant Principal Timpanist and Section Percussionist with the National Symphony Orchestra.

Purity seeks to play with the pure sound of the vibraphone and specifically through prepared notes with foil which gradually enter. The vibraphone has traditionally been one of my favorite percussion instruments to write for in chamber and large ensemble contexts, however this was my first time writing it for a solo player. I thus wanted to highlight my love of the vibraphone’s pure, pitched sound but also explore the varying additional timbres it offers, such as with the sustain pedal and with preparation of aluminum foil under and/or around the keyboard bars. Therefore through incorporating, I hope to add a visual element to vibraphone playing of the seen/unseen and the sound one expects to hear from such, as well as truly amplifying and distorting such pure sound to new possibilities.

Purity was commissioned by Bang on a Can with support from Raulee Marcus, and written for and dedicated to David Cossin.

Purity (performed by Scott Christian)

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Sit and Dance, for baroque cello and pre-recorded electronics, was written in the summer of 2012 in New York City for cellist Paul Dwyer. In 2012 he started a great project of commissioning composers to write new pieces for the baroque cello, and I thought it would be an interesting and fun challenge to write new music for a very old instrument.

When I first decided to write a piece for Paul, one of his preferences for the new pieces was to have a ground bass line from the 17th century era somehow included in each piece. Therefore when I first started writing the piece, I was immediately very anxious about how to include the ground bass line that I had chosen, and in general how to write for the baroque cello and make it hopefully effective. I thus decided to have the piece turn into a piece for live baroque cello and multiple pre-recorded cello tracks that are processed electronically. This way I feel that I was able to base the music completely off of the ground bass but at the same time hopefully take the ground bass in unexpected directions. 

Sit and Dance is also dedicated to Paul Dwyer.

Sit and Dance

Live audio excerpt from Breaking and Entering - an evening-length collaborative work from dancer Jerron Herman and composer/performer Molly Joyce. Premiered at Danspace Project in New York, NY in November 2019.

Molly Joyce

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