The title of this piece (which translates as …with numb fingers) comes from the opening stanza of Wilhelm Müller’s poem, Der Leiermann, which Schubert set as the last poem of his song cycle Winterreise. The poem describes an old Hurdy-Gurdy player, cold, hungry, and penniless, playing his songs for apathetic people and snarling dogs. The poet decides his place in life is alongside this feeble man.

Schubert’s song is suitably austere. A droning fifth runs throughout, with only simple harmonies and melodic lines accompanying and setting the words.

…mit starren Fingern takes its source material from Schubert’s song. His harmonies and melodies are fragmented, expanded, deconstructed, and reconstructed over and over again. The piece uses these reconstructions to explore form as a means of frustration, to find momentum in stasis, to find contrast where there is none, and, if not to embrace, then to grudgingly accept the immutable futility of existence.

Performed by the UISO and conducted by Matthew Sheppard.

...mit starren Fingern

Purchase eBook and music at: https://seanharold.bandcamp.com
Ondes Martenot performed by Suzanne Farrin

Kinderstück is a multidisciplinary children's book which combines visual art, text, and music. This video is only the score and music, not the illustrations or text.

At the heart of Kinderstück is a children's story about loneliness and coping with loss. Presented as a six-part poem, the narrative follows a girl who hates noise but loves her mother's voice. When the girl loses her mother's song, she must find a new way forward.

Each stanza of the tale is accompanied by a full page illustration by Yoko Furusho. Alive with texture, Furusho's whimsical but heartfelt illustrations perfectly complement the earnest nature of both the poem and the music.

Musically, Kinderstück is based on Anton Webern's short piano piece of the same name. As the title implies, Webern's piece was written for children to perform. This short, aphoristic piece was composed using Webern's familiar 12-tone style, but as with many of Webern's works from this period, there is a clarity and succinctness which set it apart from the dodecaphonic works of his contemporaries.

Sean Harold's Kinderstück, written for ondes Martenot and electronics, deconstructs and re-imagines Webern's composition. Harold's piece is no longer intended for a child to perform. Instead, it's written as if remembered by a child. Half dream-like, half in awe, the new composition reflects a child's love and the unique struggle of being confronted with loss at a young age.

Kinderstück

This piece is consists of three reinterpretations of a well known Japanese lullaby (the fourth, and final, movement is simply a transcription). Each of these reinterpretations relies on the source material to build its harmonic and melodic content, while filtering the lullaby through different forms as a means by which to de-, and re-, contextualize the song.

The content of the story stays the same, but the contradictions overwhelm the narrative.

Performers:
Melody Chua, Allison DeFrancesco, flute
Sunjae Kang, clarinet
Aaron Romm, trumpet
Eliana Park, violin

Edo Lullaby Movement III: Hocket

Available for download / purchase here: https://nothankyourecordings.bandcamp.com/album/the-yellow-fades-from-red-to-green-compositions-for-solo-piano

"The yellow fades from red to green" is based on the slow movement of Mozart's Sonata No. 2, K. 280. It was written as a study / precursor for another piece of mine, "Du rouge au vert tout le jaune se meurt..." for violin, gamba, and harpsichord. The latter work took Pärt's "Mozart -- Adagio" (which is based on the same Mozart piece) as its ostensible starting point. As such, the idea was to write this piano piece, then use it as the foundation for the baroque trio in the same way Pärt had used the Mozart as the foundation for his piano trio.
Within the piece, each movement of this composition deconstructs a section of Mozart's work, rebuilding it and re-imagining it from a different vantage point.

Tomoko Ono premiered this piece at our concert in February, and plays on this recording. She is the tops.

The yellow fades from red to green IV

The yellow fades from red to green III

The yellow fades from red to green II

The yellow fades from red to green I

Available for download / purchase here: https://nothankyourecordings.bandcamp.com/album/the-yellow-fades-from-red-to-green-compositions-for-solo-piano

…with crystal finger is based on Bach's Ricercar a 6. With this piece, the intent was to tackle Bach's work in five distinct ways. As such, each movement takes a different approach to building both form and content, passing Bach's deconstructed materials through the lens of Georg Trakl's prose poem Verwandlung Des Bösen (from which the title of the piece is taken). The result is a work in which historical forms and Bach's fugue are first broken down, and then rebuilt as disquieting aphorisms.

This piece was premiered and recorded by Tomoko Ono for our concert commissioned by the 21st Century Piano Competition.

...with crystal finger

This piece is based around the poem "recited" in the latter half of the work, and uses the overtone series for its seed material. The composition, like the poem, centers on frustration and collapse. Over the course of the performance, harmonic clarity interweaves with noise and manipulation. As such, the guitar falls out of tune, and the overtone series becomes more and more distorted.

I originally wrote this piece about 4 years ago for a concert in Illinois. Recently, at the ACA in Florida, I edited the piece fairly heavily, and premiered the new version at the closing event. I'd like to thank everyone at the ACA for opportunity to work there, and especially the other artists I met there for often making it a beautiful experience.

This is a studio recording. A live recording from Florida can be found here (the audio is so-so, but hey): https://youtu.be/EgYZWPsOttE

, . . , - … , , .

Based on 'Louange àl’Eternitéde Jesus' from Messiaen's 'Quatuor pour la fin du temps' using text from The Book of Revelation.

Commissioned and performed by the Phoenix Quartet:
Violin: Charlotte Munn-Wood
Clarinet: Kevin Tang
Cello: Maria Hadge
Piano: Jason White

scellé de sept sceaux

This piece was created for Emma Sulkowicz's solo exhibition "The Floating World" at The Invisible Dog (up 03/10/18-04/22/18), and draws on the thematic elements found in the exhibition. The installation centers around the term Ukiyo, or “the floating world.” This term describes the hedonistic culture of Japan’s Edo period, but it is also homophonous with the Buddhist term for “this world of sorrow and grief.” As Sulkowicz describes it:
The Floating World is an exploration of the meaning of support.  When people experience pain or trauma, their loved ones “hold them together” and “lift them up.”

The original iteration of the work is cyclical, and played on a loop during the exhibition. This version of the piece is slightly altered so that it has a distinct beginning and end.

More info: http://theinvisibledog.org/the-floating-world-by-emma-sulkowicz/

The Floating World

Written for Ensemble x.y's micro concert.

Bass: Gwen Reed
Cello: Cecilia Bignall
https://www.ensemblexy.com/

For Jimmy Garrison

Sean Harold loves the X-Files. Some of his favorite episodes are (in no particular order): Bad Blood, Jose Chung’s From Outer Space, Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose, and Monday. He really hopes they make another movie or even just bring the series back, but only if Monica Reyes isn’t in it. She was just awful.


NOTE: This bio was written before the return was announced. As such, I'm taking full credit for the X-Files coming back. You're welcome.

Sean Harold.

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