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

Little by little, things empty, like those large bones
we come upon in summer on the beach — bones of horses
or prehistoric animals; they lose their inner stuff, the marrow;
only a solid white remains, like lack of color, with invisible holes,
like that color of rooms in winter, when outside
it's raining hard. At such times, you hold the handle of the door or the handle
of the teacup, not knowing whether you are holding them or they are holding you
or whether they or you can be held. And suddenly, as you try
to drink your tea, you see the porcelain handle between your fingers
by itself — the teacup's missing; you examine this handle: so white,
so weightless, almost like bone — and you find it lovely, shaped
like a half-nought — it seeks its complement, while opposite, on the wall,
from a deep fissure, rises the warm steam of the tea you did not drink.
Yannis Ritsos, "Departures III" from χειρονομίες (1969-70)
Translated by N.C. Germanacos

pgblu - Departures (for Simon Howard)

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.

Kinderstück

Sean Harold.

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