Kyle Bruckmann  |  oboe
Mckenzie Lagenfeld  |  vibraphone
Jennifer Ellis  |  harp

This piece is a setting of Dorraine Laux's 2017 poem "Under Stars." The poem is not sung in my setting, however—it is  used as a dramatic guide, for both me as a composer and (hopefully) for the performers. I originally intended to set Ray Bradbury's 1947 short story "I See You Never" based on its title alone, but its words failed to sufficiently inspire. I found that title, however, to be poignant, especially in the quarantines of 2020-21 that have kept me physically very far from people I love. So I kept it.

The idea of setting an unsung text comes from the instrumental jazz tradition of playing standards. A pianist, for instance, might internalize the lyrics of a song and communicate them not through singing, but through playing.  —D.G.

Painting: Kay Sage, "On The Contrary" (1952)

I See You Never (2021) for oboe, vibraphone, and harp

Spencer Krug - Red Dress

Regularly Scheduled Programming

Tintoretto, It's For You

Eat the Wine, Drink the Bread

Live recording by the New Conductors Orchestra, Eric Juneau, conductor. 11 February 2023, New York City. 

Winner of the 2019 UC Davis Symphony Orchestra Composition Competition. Premiered 1 June 2019, Christian Baldini, conductor.

Cathedral Grove (2019) for orchestra

recorded by Ying Quartet and Xavier Foley at the University of Maryland 
Robin Scott, violin
Janet Ying, violin
Phillip Ying, viola
David Ying, cello
Xavier Foley, bass

Folded Strata (2024) for string quintet

Performed by Spektral Quartet. 
Taproot New Music Festival, 31 January 2020. 

—NOTE: This work is best viewed with its accompanying video. A link to that, and also a perusal score, can be found here:
http://danielgodsil.com/de-rerum-natura

PROGRAM NOTE:  “But it always happens that we hear the sound of the thunder some time after we perceive it lighten, because objects, which affect the hearing, always come more slowly to the ears, than those, which affect the sight, arrive at the eye. This you may easily understand from the following instance. If you observe a man at a distance cutting down the trunk of a tree with an axe, you will see the stroke itself before the noise of the stroke makes any sound in the air.”   Lucretius, De Rerum Natura e. vi. 160-184 (translation by John Selby Watson)    

The video for this work is an assemblage of public domain science and art film clips. The music is designed to react to onscreen events, but almost always after these events have occurred. No click track is used, so the interaction is deliberately intended to be volatile and change from performance to performance. I loosely used dactylic hexameter (the poetic meter of Lucretius’ epic De Rerum Natura) as a guide for timing the video editing and, therefore, the accompanying music. —D.G.

de rerum natura I "el leñador" (2019) for amplified string quartet + video

Villancico De Navidad - Barrios

Siento que concentrarme en el sonido de las cuerdas abiertas de mi cello me dejan meditar, le hace bien a mi y a él. Espero que esto que hice les ayude pausar a ustedes también.

MEDITACIÓN SÓNICA

Sean Klink is a composer and educator currently pursuing his DMA at the University of Maryland.

Email: seanmichaelklink@gmail.com

Folded Strata (2024) for string quintet

Sean Klink, composer

Related tracks