A piece written for and performed by yMusic.

If And Only If

Work for Balinese Gamelan (Samarandana keyboard layout)

Performed from memory by Gamelan Bintang Wahyu, Brigham Young University, 2015.

Asombak

Emily Dickinson's poetry is one of the pillars of 19th-century American literature, but it is never monumental. It maintains a cordial kind of self-control, often using the simplest of meters, but within this stricture Dickinson plays, reveling in ambiguity. She often deals with mystery and profundity with arrestingly commonplace imagery or a mismatched tone. Seldom is this more apparent than in her wealth of very short poetry. What could be more unexpected than a single couplet which ends in a slant rhyme? Here I have set a selection of texts, the longest of which is six lines. May the music not detract from their wit and power.

Gorgeous Nothings: Ten Short Poems by Emily Dickinson

A hypnagogic jerk is the involuntary twitch that happens just as you begin to fall asleep only to start suddenly with a jump. Scientists have no satisfactory answer for why this happens. Neither do I.

Hypnagogic Jerk

This piece is titled "Orogenesis" – a geological term for the processes that combine to build up mountains. I like the idea that a mountain is the aggregate of myriad continuous processes--erosion and upheaval, building up and breaking down–-but all we see is the deceptively static result. I grew up in the mountains and I've always found that the closer you look at them the more apparent these processes become and they are beautiful. My piece attempts to mimic this affect of competing processes producing a monumental result. 

We're all undergoing upheaval and erosion, at times tectonic collisions and volcanic eruptions. Each with goals of being something better, something taller, something more solid that that which we currently are. I hope we can understand these processes at work in the world around us, in others, and in ourselves in order that we may view one another more complexly--perhaps with the awe that accompanies the view of a mountain. 

Nathan Thatcher - 02/06/17

Orogenesis

Mezzo-soprano - Micaëla Aldridge 
Violin – Reuben Kebede
Cello - Julia Knowles
Harpsichord - Nathan Thatcher

This weirdly beautiful text is excerpted from Arnold Schoenberg's preface to the first edition Anton Webern's Six Bagatelles for String Quartet, Op. 9.

"Consider what moderation is required to express oneself briefly. You can stretch every glance out into a poem, every sigh into a novel. But to express a novel in a single gesture, a joy in a breath–such concentration can only be present in proportion to the absence of self-pity.

These pieces will only be understood by those who share the faith that music can say things which can only be expressed by music.

They can face criticism as little as this–or any–belief.

If faith can move mountains, disbelief can deny their existence. And faith is impotent against such impotence. Does the musician know how to play these pieces, does the listener know how to receive them? Can faithful musicians and listeners fail to surrender themselves to one another?

But what shall we do with the heathen? Fire and sword can keep them down; only believers need to be restrained. May this silence sound for them.

(Schoenberg is) Alive And Well, Mvt. I. The Heathen

Many thanks to 
Merryl Monard - flute
Bethany Lancaster - harp
Aimée McAnulty - viola

This piece is both inspired by the Huron river, which runs through Ann Arbor, Michigan, where the piece was written, and directly based on data of the river's discharge (total volume flowing through a cross-section of the river at a given moment) taken from one of the Ann Arbor measuring stations. 
The piece is made up of 26 sections of 21 beats each. Each section represents two weeks of the year. Within each section, the percentage of the 21 beats that is occupied (per instrument) with notes corresponds to the average discharge of the river during those two weeks of the year averaged over the last 100 years expressed as a percentage of the maximum average discharge. 

Thus, unlike a lot of "data-driven" music, in this piece the data determines elements of the form and not the content of the piece. The basic material of the piece comes from two quotations. The first is a children's song I grew up with: "Give Said the Little Stream." For me, this quite clearly emphasizes the eternally giving nature of the river. Although its discharge ebbs and flows, the Huron continuously provides Ann Arbor along with many other cities and countless plants and animals with drinking water. The second quote is from a Renaissance motet by Orlande de Lassus, "Eram quasi agnus," the text of which paraphrases several biblical passages and relates them to the innocent suffering of Jesus Christ. The river as well undergoes this kind of "holy" suffering. Although we abuse it and its health suffers it continues to give itself away.

Ebb And Flow

Psalm 8:4-5
"What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?

For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour."

Performed by Front Porch Ensemble
Karalyn Schubring - Piano
Benjamin Jackson - Violin
Matthew Wildman - Bassoon
Jacob Rogers - Percussion

Artwork by Samuel Evensen - www.samuelevensen.com/

A Little Lower Than the Angels

A Little Lower Than The Angels

Terms of Venery (2018) for Wind Quintet
I. Drift
II. Muster
III. Shrewdness
IV. Duel
V. Cast 
VI. Barren 
VII. Labor 
VIII. Dissimulation 
IX. Exalting 

Premiered by Emblems Quintet
MERRYL NEILLE  - Flute
ALEX HAYASHI  - Oboe/English Horn
CLARISSA OSBORN  - Clarinets
BRANDON RUMSEY  - Bassoon
CAROLINE STEIGER  - Horn

http://www.emblemsquintet.com/

Terms of venery are collective nouns used to describe groups of animals. Some of these are terms we all know and take for granted: a pride of lions, a herd of sheep, a flock of birds, a pack of wolves. We tend to know that these words aren’t interchangeable; it would sound silly to say a school of ducks. Some others exist more on the fringe of general knowledge, mostly specialized: a clutch of chickens, a pod of dolphins, a  bed of oysters. Still others are either entirely antiquated or too fanciful or particular to find a place in common  usage but are often strangely appropriate: a smack of jellyfish, a gaze of raccoons, a murder of crows, a siege of  herons, a parliament of owls, a phalanx of storks, a convocation of eagles.   

Terms of venery originated in French courtly traditions where they were used in the nobleman’s passtime of  hunting. Many of these terms have made their way into modern English via a book published in 1486 called  “The Boke of Seynt Albans” by British noble-born nun and sportswoman Juliana Berners. The book includes an extensive list she calls “The companyes of bestys & foules.” The names of the movements of this piece come from her list.  
		 	
a Dryfte of tame swyne 				
a Mustre of pecockys 				
a Shrewdenes of apys (apes) 				
a Duell of turtylles 				
a Cast of hawkis 				
a Barren of mulys 				
a Labor of mollys (moles) 				
a Dyssymulacon of byrdes 				
an Exaltynge of larkys   

Following the Norman conquest of the British Isles, the French language and customs infiltrated the formerly-Saxon English society. That is, they infiltrated the culture of the gentry and upper class. It  became possible to distinguish those of high and low birth by the words they used. The proper use of terms of  venery remained a marker of “education” into the 19th century; to refer to a number of pigs as a “herd” instead  of a “drift” was, to some, uncouth.    
The words we use are important. Words can distinguish the objects we refer to, but can also divide us, the speakers. What words do we use to label our fellow-beings?

Terms Of Venery (World Premiere)

Text: 
1 Nephi 9:6 
Latin translation by Justin Barney

At Dominus Scit Omnia

From the Top
Freedom from the Anxiety of Influence

If I were asked to list my influences, I would produce a list that would likely be more performative than it is true. This piece is an honest look at my musical influences and personal musical landscape. It is filled with strange juxtapositions and heavy repetitions—truly great favorites and tracks I downloaded for free when I was a teenager and don't really remember—Bach, Mozart, Xenakis, John Zorn, The Beatles, Wilco, Radiohead, Enya, film scores. I am interested in the extent to which we choose our influences. Surely what we choose to repeatedly listen to influences us most, but it seems to me a nature vs. nurture question. The playlist I used for this piece, chosen genuinely at random, takes something like an objective view. 

Of course, this isn’t science. This is art. In fairness, the contents of my iTunes library is a bit of a time-capsule given that I stream much of the music I listen to now and don't "own" it. That said, the influence of what I chose to spend money on at one point or another can't be minimized.

One of the most satisfying things for me about this piece is that the specific interactions of the different musical samples that I used were unplanned and yet come together in wonderful ways. The piece is structured systematically and any samples could have been used. Just after minute 8 in my piece there is this moment that is always a little sublime to me in which over this looping progression by Doveman [ I - V6 - iv - iii - IV - I - ii - V ] we begin to hear the opening of this John Zorn violin solo which, though atonal itself, hangs on a high E-flat and G (scale degrees 1 and 3 in the Doveman song). I remember listening through the whole piece the first time and being struck by the beauty of this serendipity and the beauty of overlaying John Zorn and “singer-songwriter” material with a mild cacophony in the background.

How it was made:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/15ER0G7r7kdpKhZ3P3M39h1ktVaMi1FB3YNc-5uLd8vM/edit?usp=sharing

Samples used:
Two Studies for Organ, II. Coulée (1969) by György Ligeti
Golden Sand by The Republic Tigers (live radio session)
Nocturne from String Quartet #2 in D by Alexander Borodin
“Porgi, Amor” from Le Nozze di Figaro by Wolfgang Mozart
All You Need is Love by The Beatles
1.36 by Coldplay
If I Needed Someone by The Beatles
Less Than You Think by Wilco
“Drive to the Cottage” from the film Finding Neverland by Jan A. P. Kaczmarek
If You Wait a Little Longer by Nico Muhly and Teitur
Sonatina, I. Andante by Jerome Moross
La Dousa Votz by Bernart de Ventadorn
Apophthegms ix by John Zorn
Grow Till Tall by Jónsi
Angel’s Share by Doveman
 Please Be Patient With Me by Wilco
Allemande from Suite #4 in A Major BWV 1010 (ed. Lippel for guitar) by J.S. Bach
Miss Clare Remembers by Enya
Rebonds, Part A by Iannis Xenakis
Exile by Enya
Date of Execution February 11, 2004 by Cory Dargel
Either Way by Guster
One Million Miles by J. Ralph
Pyramid Song by Radiohead
“Caras Galadhon” from the film The Fellowship of the Ring by Howard Shore
Puspanjali - by Nyoman Windha
People Keep Coming Around by Tindersticks
Albion Voice by Bishi

Nathan Thatcher

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