Name: The Dark Glass Sinfonia (We See Through a Glass Darkly) by Sarah Wallin Huff
Duration: 7 min 40 s
Description: “We See Through A Glass Darkly…” The Dark Glass Sinfonia for symphony orchestra was written in 2017. Built upon an integrated set of hexachordal formulae, it blends the concepts of free atonality with modal harmony. In doing so, it is meant to represent the enigmatic and ongoing, emotional flux of the Soul.

Written in 2016, The Oracle was constructed from a framework of 50 randomly drawn tarot cards, lending the work both an element of chance — in that the process of drawing the cards and their placement in five tarot spreads was random — and an element of “foreordained knowledge” — or pre-compositional structure, based on interpretations of those their cards and their positions. Its distinct aural experience is the culmination of classic aleatorism and modern formula.

Each instrument of the quintet represents an important part of the tarotscape: the violin, cello, flute, and clarinet represent the elements of Fire, Water, Air, and Earth, respectively. Each element and its instrumental representative interact with each other in the same way that our desires, experiences, and moods interact within ourselves. The piano represents all the Major Arcana of the deck: the major milestones we encounter in each of our lives. Its octaves are segmented to represent different branches of the Kabbalistic Tree of Life where each card falls. In other words, the closer to the Divine Source a card sits, the higher on the piano its melody lies, and vice versa.

The Oracle has thus emerged as a multi-faceted, deeply layered, story-driven reflection of the human condition. It unfolds into an engaging tale of emotion, power, and character that may be interpreted in countless ways, according to the listener’s personal experience.

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The Oracle

Composed between 2019 and 2021 for violist Charlotte Goode, Nevermore is a gothic suite based on three classic works by Edgar Allen Poe:
II. “Annabel Lee”:
“…this maiden she lived with no other thought than to love and be loved by me.”

The movement begins with the pure innocence of childhood love, only to be confounded in the frustration of losing the beloved Annabel Lee, presumably to the jealousy of the angels above who saw the lovers’ happiness and killed the beautiful girl in retribution.

Nonetheless, “neither the angels in Heaven above nor the demons down under the sea can ever dissever my soul from the soul of the beautiful Annabel Lee.”
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A “Gothic Suite” based on poems by Edgar Allen Poe, Nevermore was composed for violist Charlotte Goode between 2019 and 2021. The first movement is “Raven”: A man pines for his lost lover, Lenore; a raven arrives and says the one word, “Nevermore,” mocking the narrator’s sorrow. The viola line is both long-breathed and longing; some gestures from Liszt’s dark side permeate the piano. The dedicatee is also the performer here, and Goode and Hagino work perfectly together. There is a real sense of illness to “Annabel Lee”; perhaps the reverb in the recording could have been a little less here, though. The purity of the bond between Annabel Lee and her lover is the subject of the angels’ jealousy (an interesting concept in and of itself), and the angels kill Annabel Lee, but the connection between the lovers remains. Good’s tuning is perfect, her phrasing eloquent and heartfelt. The final movement is “The Tell-Tale Heart,” and six significant moments from Poe’s tale are depicted in wordless music. (Colin Clarke, Fanfare Magazine)

Nevermore: II. Annabel Lee

*2nd Place winner of the 2024 American Prize Charles Ives Award for Vocal Chamber Music!!*
Completed in 2013, this work is a romantic expression based on King Solomon’s “Song of Songs.” Flirting with musical and dramatic elements of medieval Europe and ancient Greek theatre, Of Roses and Lilies features the solo soprano in the role of The Woman. She expresses her love, devotion, and delight toward her Lover while the Daughters of Jerusalem — portrayed by the women’s chorus, like that of the commentary of a Greek chorus — listen and engage with The Woman in her tales touting the glories of her Beloved.
The work unfolds in three sections: the first introduces the characters and their vivid emotions; during the second, The Woman shares a tale of her Lover calling her to escape with him into the night: “For the winter is past and the rain gone…” For a moment, she hesitates, she wonders if she is too late, only to find that he is still waiting for her, encouraging her with words of adoration; the third section returns to the original themes, yet gains an expression of great power and fervency as The Woman’s love for her Beloved utterly transforms her.

Of Roses and Lilies

The aesthetic and metaphysical ideals that Japanese wabi-sabi encapsulates include simplicity, naturalness, and an acceptance of reality. This string quartet seeks to illustrate the overall nature of wabi-sabi.
At both the beginning of Movement 1, “Emergence,” and the ending of Movement 3, “Entropy,” notes are thought of as specks of Potentiality that are randomly evolving from or devolving to Nothingness. Movement 2, “Evolution,” at the center point of this universal journey, expresses a concerted effort of diverse elements to create structure and meaning.

The three movements carry the listener through the wabi-sabi experience in the following ways, as expressed by Leonard Koren in “Wabi-Sabi for Artists, Designers, Poets, & Philosophers.”
I. “Emergence”: “Wabi-sabi acknowledges that just as it is important to know when to make choices, it is also important to know when not to make choices: to let things be.”
II. “Evolution”: “…nothingness itself—instead of being empty space, as in the West—is alive with possibility. In metaphysical terms, wabi-sabi suggests that the universe is in constant motion toward or away from potential.”
III. “Entropy”: “…you must pay maximum attention to everything happening at this very moment: be here now.”

Ideally, every single performance should be different from the last and contain various elements of surprise to even the performers. The composer hopes that musicians will enjoy the challenge, the individual freedom, and unexpected moments ready to be discovered again and again in Wabi Sabi.

Wabi-Sabi: II. Evolution

Composed between 2019 and 2021 for violist Charlotte Goode, Nevermore is a gothic suite based on three classic works by Edgar Allen Poe:
I. “The Raven”:
“Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary… Eagerly I wished the morrow;—vainly I had sought to borrow, from my books surcease of sorrow—sorrow for the lost Lenore— For the rare and radiant maiden whom the angels name Lenore— Nameless here for evermore… Is there—is there balm in Gilead?—tell me—tell me, I implore! Quoth the Raven ‘Nevermore.’”
The Raven arrives and seems to mock our narrator’s sorrow—that of seeking after his long lost Lenore—and it drives him further mad with every answer from the Raven being “Nevermore.”
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A “Gothic Suite” based on poems by Edgar Allen Poe, Nevermore was composed for violist Charlotte Goode between 2019 and 2021. The first movement is “Raven”: A man pines for his lost lover, Lenore; a raven arrives and says the one word, “Nevermore,” mocking the narrator’s sorrow. The viola line is both long-breathed and longing; some gestures from Liszt’s dark side permeate the piano. The dedicatee is also the performer here, and Goode and Hagino work perfectly together. There is a real sense of illness to “Annabel Lee”; perhaps the reverb in the recording could have been a little less here, though. The purity of the bond between Annabel Lee and her lover is the subject of the angels’ jealousy (an interesting concept in and of itself), and the angels kill Annabel Lee, but the connection between the lovers remains. Good’s tuning is perfect, her phrasing eloquent and heartfelt. The final movement is “The Tell-Tale Heart,” and six significant moments from Poe’s tale are depicted in wordless music. (Colin Clarke, Fanfare Magazine)

Nevermore: I. The Raven

A funky solo for flute with piano accompaniment, this intense and spastic work exploits various manipulations of a 12-tone row — dodecaphony — and sets the serial melody to a backdrop of hard bop and swing. While it is a flurry of virtuosity, DodecaFunky nonetheless convinces itself not to be taken too seriously.
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There is no doubt that Dodecafunky is a great title. Scored for flute and piano, Sarah Brady and Yuko Hagino have a ball; effects on the flute are delivered with more than a touch of a sense of fun. The “funk” element is rhythmically garlanded, so there is the impression of a level of extra complexity. The piano break around three minutes in is guaranteed to raise a smile, being compositionally cheeky and offering pianist Yuko Hagino the chance to shine (as she does). Brady is a fine flutist, a true mistress of her instrument, not least in the multiphonic moment. Wallin Huff’s sense of lightness is the mark of a versatile composer. This piece represents a nexus between hard bop, swing, and dodecaphony. (Colin Clarke, Fanfare Magazine)

DodecaFunky

Composed between 2019 and 2021 for violist Charlotte Goode, Nevermore is a gothic suite based on three classic works by Edgar Allen Poe:
III. “The Tell-Tale Heart”:
Each section of Movement Three depicts a graphic moment from this harrowing tale:
Intro and A: “I loved the old man. He had never wronged me… I think it was his eye! Whenever it fell upon me, my blood ran cold…”

B: “I undid the lantern cautiously…And this I did for seven long nights…but I found the eye always closed; and so it was impossible to do the work; for it was not the old man who vexed me, but his Evil Eye.”

C: “Upon the eighth night…a simple dim ray, like the thread of the spider…fell full upon the vulture eye. …for some minutes longer I refrained and stood still. But the beating grew louder, louder! I thought the heart must burst.”

D: “I then smiled gaily, to find the deed so far done… He was stone dead. His eye would trouble me no more. I dismembered the corpse. I then took up three planks from the flooring of the chamber, and deposited all between the scantlings.”

E: “There entered three men, who introduced themselves…as officers of the police…It was a low, dull, quick sound… Why would they not be gone? I paced the floor to and fro with heavy strides…”

F: “I foamed –I raved –I swore! I swung the chair upon which I had been sitting, and grated it upon the boards, but the noise arose over all and continually increased. And still, the men chatted pleasantly, and smiled.”

G: “They were making a mockery of my horror!- this I thought, and this I think. But anything was better than this agony! I could bear those hypocritical smiles no longer!… I admit the deed! –tear up the planks! here, here! –It is the beating of his hideous heart!”
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A “Gothic Suite” based on poems by Edgar Allen Poe, Nevermore was composed for violist Charlotte Goode between 2019 and 2021. The first movement is “Raven”: A man pines for his lost lover, Lenore; a raven arrives and says the one word, “Nevermore,” mocking the narrator’s sorrow. The viola line is both long-breathed and longing; some gestures from Liszt’s dark side permeate the piano. The dedicatee is also the performer here, and Goode and Hagino work perfectly together. There is a real sense of illness to “Annabel Lee”; perhaps the reverb in the recording could have been a little less here, though. The purity of the bond between Annabel Lee and her lover is the subject of the angels’ jealousy (an interesting concept in and of itself), and the angels kill Annabel Lee, but the connection between the lovers remains. Good’s tuning is perfect, her phrasing eloquent and heartfelt. The final movement is “The Tell-Tale Heart,” and six significant moments from Poe’s tale are depicted in wordless music. (Colin Clarke, Fanfare Magazine)

Nevermore: III. The Tell-Tale Heart

Wabi-Sabi: III. Entropy

“We See Through A Glass Darkly…” The Dark Glass Sinfonia for symphony orchestra was written in 2017. Built upon an integrated set of hexachordal formulae, it blends the concepts of free atonality with modal harmony. In doing so, it is meant to represent the enigmatic and ongoing, emotional flux of the Soul.

The Dark Glass Sinfonia (We See Through a Glass Darkly)

Wabi-Sabi: I. Emergence

Sarah Wallin Huff has enjoyed her work as a composer for concert halls and soundtracks since 1993. Her original compositions have been performed throughout the States and abroad, including the Exeter Phoenix Auditorium in Devon, England; the Mosman Art Gallery in Sydney, Australia; the Zipper Hall in Los Angeles; and the National Opera Center in New York City. As a violinist, violist, and 6-string electric violinist, she has extensive experience playing with diverse ensembles, as well as performing on various recording projects, large and small.
- Multiple GMA medal award winner
- Second-place winner of the Charles Ives Award (The American Prize)
- "Her music positively buzzes with energy…There is no doubting that Sarah Wallin Huff has a distinctive voice that is well worth hearing..." (Fanfare Magazine)
- "Her music is quite complex and unusual and yet…very easy to absorb and appreciate. There’s a lot to take in here…" (Baby Sue)
- "Sarah’s music has a classy, understated sound, yet it is baroque and ornate" (Artist Rack)

The Dark Glass Sinfonia (We See Through a Glass Darkly)

Sarah Wallin Huff

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