Premiered at Dudley Hall by the Moores School of Music Chamber Orchestra conducted by Marcos Rangel

Sometimes So By Chance

An Iberian Fanfare

Premiered at the Bulgarian Embassy as part of the Bulgarian Concert Evenings in New York City, New York 
Hyojin Ellen Kim, violin, Joseph Staten, cello, Lora Al-Ahmad, piano

Piedra y Arena

From the album 'HOMMAGES', available on double LP at Bandcamp, and streaming everywhere.

Holly Roadfeldt - Piano

Hommage a Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179) – The music of Hildegard has always amazed and inspired me.  Well, EVERYTHING about Hildegard has amazed and inspired me—the things that she composed, wrote, built, and accomplished—especially in an age when women were completely oppressed.  She is quite simply one of the greatest geniuses this world has ever produced, and it’s criminal that she’s not as well known as other male geniuses from her time (or later).  When I was thinking about this Hommage, I wasn’t sure how to approach it.  Then, one day (July 11th, 2018), I was doing some completely unrelated work, and out of nowhere, the entire piece came to me all at once, as in a vision.  Yeah, I know how that sounds, especially given Hildegard’s history, but that’s what happened.  The piece was written in one afternoon.

Hommage a Hildegard von Bingen

Pilas are public spaces in rural Central America where people go to wash clothes and socialize together. Significant relationships are built here, thus making pilas an important location in their community. Sandra Tirey and Jan van Lohuizen’s newly built home, dubbed “Geezerville”, reflects the ancient roots of pilas in a modern way, through their creation of mutual spaces to be shared with their neighbors. In the same way that their home will become the central meeting space for their community, LAS PILAS combines several ideas that coalesce in the end to form a unified whole in celebration of Geezerville’s birth.

LAS PILAS was commissioned by Sandra Tirey and Jan van Lohuizen and premiered by MUSIQA.

Las Pilas (2013) - string trio

THREE SONGS FOR THE DAY OF THE DEAD were commissioned by the River Oaks Chamber Orchestra (Houston, TX) for their annual concert to celebrate Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead). The first two songs, As She Looked Around (2012) and Death Goes Before Me (2013), were written for bass-baritone Timothy Jones, and the last song, Exultation (2011), was written for soprano Karol Bennett and arranged for bass-baritone for this cycle. A version of this work scored for baritone, clarinet, violin, and cello is also available.


TEXTS – Three Songs for the Day of the Dead

I. As She Looked Around (1847) – Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882)
an excerpt from Part II, section 5 of “Evangeline: A Tale of Acadie”

And, with light in her looks, she entered the chambers of sickness.
Many a languid head, upraised as Evangeline entered,
To gaze while she passed, for her presence
Fell on their hearts like a ray of the sun on the walls of a prison.
And, as she looked around, she saw how Death, the consoler,
Laying his hand upon many a heart, had healed it forever.

II. Death Goes before Me (1920) – Yvor Winters (1900-1968)

Death goes before me on his hands and knees,
And we go down among the bending trees.
Weeping I go, and no man gives me ease
I am that strange thing that each strange eye sees;
Eyes of the silence, and all life an eye,
Turn in the wind; and always I walk by.
Too still I go, and all things go from me
As down far autumn beaches a man runs to the sea.
My hands are cold, my lips are thin and dumb.
Stillness is like the beating of a drum.

III. Exultation (1860) – Emily Dickinson (1830-1886)

Exultation is the going
Of an inland soul to sea,
Past the houses, past the headlands,
Into deep eternity!
Bred as we, among the mountains,
Can the sailor understand
The devine intoxication
Of the first league out from land?

Three Songs for the Day of the Dead - III. Exultation (text: Emily Dickinson)

THREE SONGS FOR THE DAY OF THE DEAD were commissioned by the River Oaks Chamber Orchestra (Houston, TX) for their annual concert to celebrate Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead). The first two songs, As She Looked Around (2012) and Death Goes Before Me (2013), were written for bass-baritone Timothy Jones, and the last song, Exultation (2011), was written for soprano Karol Bennett and arranged for bass-baritone for this cycle.

A version of this work scored for baritone, clarinet, violin, and cello is also available.

Three Songs for the Day of the Dead - I. As She Looked Around (text: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow)

This piece was written for, and dedicated to my wife, Jennifer.  I tried to create a story - a journey through music that followed and complimented this charming and evocative poem.

The players:

Jennifer Lanman: Voice 
Anthony Joseph Lanman: 8-String Electric Guitar
Paul Bro: Alto Saxophone
Nathan Rainey: Horn
Ted Piechocinski: Accordion
Beverley Simms: Piano
Sharilyn Spicknall: Violin
Kurt Fowler: Cello
Todd Gallagher: Contrabass
Jimmy Finnie: Vibraphone, Glockenspiel, Steel Drums, Suspended Cymbal, Cajon
Roby George: Conductor

Recording Engineers: Matthew Pauley and Don Arney
Mixed and mastered by Don Arney

Instructions (on How to Survive a Fairy Tale)

Chaw refers to something that is chewed or the act of chewing something that is not to be swallowed, such as a wad of tobacco. The American Minstrel song "Ching-A-Ring-Chaw" (1833), one of the songs Aaron Copland arranged in his "Old American Songs", is "chewed up" in order to create this energetic and virtuosic work. The original tune, presented in the violin at the start, comes in and out of focus throughout. Chaw was written for Music from Copland House, who premiered the work in February of 2012.

Chaw (2012) for flute, clarinet, violin, cello & piano

The innovative and highly energetic music of Rob Smith is frequently performed throughout the United States and abroad. He is an Associate Professor of Music Composition and director of the AURA Contemporary Ensemble at the University of Houston’s Moores School of Music.  Boosey & Hawkes, Carl Fischer, Southern Music, C-Alan Publications, and Skitter Music Publications publish his music.

Three Songs for the Day of the Dead - III. Exultation (text: Emily Dickinson)

Rob Smith, composer