What started out as four randomly selected interviews became the historical journey you hear now.  The internet is an overwhelming fountain of perspectives, but I was surprised to see how much really did flow together.  This is my first try at a "podcomp", so all feedback is greatly appreciated!


Here's the sources of the audio in order of appearance:

Reactions to death of Malcom X https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EGbQopBZHkc

Malcom X: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eqjMzzUS38w

Amiri Baraka (LeRoi Jones) on Merv Griffin Show:  http://teachrock.org/lesson/say-it-loud-the-rise-of-black-pride/

RFK announcement of Dr. King’s Death: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BCrx_u3825g

Dr. King’s speech on Vietnam: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I6N9rFcTG2Y

Harry Belafonte on Merv Griffin Show: http://teachrock.org/lesson/say-it-loud-the-rise-of-black-pride/

LA Riots: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c1eE9Z43q2I
	         https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YqA1Qj2MAu0

Tupac Interview (1994): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aMXzLhbWtmk

NBC coverage of Alton Sterling: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1kosmUsmExE

NBC coverage of Dallas: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5_2X85rNlQ

Jesse Lee Peterson Radio Show “Jesse Proves Racism Doesn’t Exist”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9JTcd_8Kym8

Maya Angelou (2002) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AsLfW2nGhEU
		
Charlottesville https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IuI5kfSFAJc

Quinyetta McMillon https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=urLybnPRLcI

Susan Bro https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-uf2dSN4aYw

Angela Davis at Women of the World Festival 2017: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BMUskpoNdIc

Jones Victory News https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0bdJVotHYDg

Jones: “Thank you!” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TME0GrHdZzM

Maya Angelou on CNN: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UxkTd6BFL1o

Who Are You? Who Am I? ; podcomp

My awkward introduction to Kaleidoscope: A Senior Recital

Kaleidoscope: A Senior Recital

Intro

Who are we?; for 8 voices
Composer: Stephanie Fischer (b. 1996)
Performers: Jasmine Ying Miller, soprano; Audy Mulia, soprano; Olivia Fritz, alto; Maya Ganesan, alto; David Lorenzo López, tenor; André Saunders, tenor; Elekos Praxis, bass; Alex Zaheer, bass

Artwork: Jihee Hwang

---

After some experimenting with my radio and science communication experience, I was led to something I call a “podcomp:” a work that’s both a podcast and composition.  My first podcomp connected interviews of famous African-American figures from different decades, revealing a plethora of perspectives on what it means to be black in America (Hear it here: https://soundcloud.com/caffeinequeen29/who-are-you-who-am-i).  I wrote the music as a means to empathize with each speaker, and to document my own reflections and discoveries.
 
One of the lessons I’ve learned from journalism is that it’s impossible to be truly unbiased, especially when there’s overwhelming amounts of information.  After I completed this story, I realized that my moral compass shaped the podcomp’s structure very similarly to the stages of grief.  For this piece, I wanted to expand upon this particular theme from the podcomp.  Much like the process of grieving, the musical material does not develop linearly, but simply “feels”, and tries to make sense of itself.

Who Are We? ; for 8 voices

Foiled Unity; for string quartet
Composer: Stephanie Fischer (b. 1996)
Performers:  Andrew Kirjner, violin 1; Praveen Pallegar, violin 2; Phoebe Yao, viola; Ellen Roper, cello

Artwork: Jihee Hwang

---

Inspired by some false dichotomies that I’ve encountered in my life, I wrote this piece in effort to sort out my own understanding of binaries and why they might exist.  A double fugue seemed the best way to do this because it allows the musical material to pave its own journey, rather than the composer dictating its every move.  

The two subjects were composed to be diametrically opposed to each other --via rhythm, contour, and other musical characteristics.  The dramatic irony is that they are both born from the same 9-note scale, or in another sense, these subjects are character foils to each other.  The process of the fugue allowed me to see how these opposing forces converse and how their relationships may change over time.

Foiled Unity; for string quartet

Explosion; for live solo voice + 8-channel track (consolidated version)
Composer: Stephanie Fischer (b.1996)
Text: Delmira Agustini (1886-1914)
Performer: Stephanie Fischer, voice

Artwork: Jihee Hwang

---

Delmira Agustini’s poetry shone through a male-dominated space in 20th century Latin America. At age 21, this Uruguayan poet published her first book, El libro blanco (Frágil),which was very well received by other important poets of the time.  Unfortunately at 27 years old her life was tragically cut short, but her accomplishments can be seen as kindling for the feminist movements that would follow.  
 
One of her most famous poems from her first book, “Explosión”, has always been particularly striking to me. Its multivalent use of time elicits a heightened sense of healing, and demonstrates the speaker's journey towards exuberance.  In this piece, I strive to comment further on her interweaving of the past and present, yet emphasize the timelessness of Agustini’s words—ones that remind me of wisdom that has been passed down to me.  Because of my ancestors’ resilience, hope, love, and strength, I am able to both overcome the adversities of the present and bask in its glory, and I look forward to passing on this legacy to future generations.  I honor these often unsung heroes with this piece today.


SPANISH:
Si la vida es amor, bendita sea!
Quiero más vida para amar! Hoy 
siento
Que no valen mil años de la idea
Lo que un minuto azul del 
sentimiento.
 
Mi corazón moría triste y lento…
Hoy abre en luz como una flor febea;
La vida brota como un mar violento
Donde la mano del amor golpea!
 
Hoy partió hacia la noche, triste, fría
Rotas las alas mi melancolía;
Como una vieja mancha de dolor
En la sombra lejana se deslíe…
Mi vida toda canta, besa, ríe!
Mi vida toda es una boca en flor!

ENGLISH:
If life is love, how blessed it is!
I want more life so to love! Now 
I feel
A thousand years of ideas 
are not worth one blue minute of 
sensation.
 
My heart was dying sadly, slowly…
Now it opens in light like a Phoebean flower;
Life surges forth like a turbulent sea
whipped by the hand of love!
 
Now towards the night, sad and cold,
my melancholy departs with its broken wings;
Like a painful old scar
In the distant shadow it dissolves…
All my life sings, kisses, laughs!
All my life is a flowering mouth!

Explosión; for solo voice + 8-channel track

Driven To—; for solo clarinet
Composer: Stephanie Fischer (b. 1996)
Performer: Diego Hernandez, clarinet

Artwork: Jihee Hwang

---

Something I catch myself saying a lot is: “I’m not good with words; that’s why I’m a musician.”  This piece was a first, conscious attempt to help bridge my gap between language and music.  I found theater to be an effective means to connect them, and a way to express urgency in a cloud of inarticulateness.

With rhetoric ruled by musical models instead of grammar, I wrote the score as if it was a script.  The audience, however, only hears one character’s dialogue in this story.  I invite the listener to imagine what may provoke the protagonist’s speech and articulation, and to reflect on how that dialogue may resonate with them.

DrivenTo— ; for solo clarinet

Calibrate; for wind quintet
Composer: Stephanie Fischer (b. 1996)
Performers:  Tiffany Jiang, flute; Momo Hoshi, oboe; Joy Yuzuriha, clarinet; Jake Gold, french horn; Eve La Puma, bassoon

Artwork: Jihee Hwang

---

I have many memories of growing up playing with kaleidoscopes, or creating them if I couldn’t find one.  I always found so much beauty in the temporal unfolding of the patterns, how they were always changing, and never the same.  When I was granted the opportunity to write for Stanford’s Wind Quintet, I knew this was the perfect instrumentation to begin the first (of many, I hope) trials of creating aural kaleidoscopes.  
 
This piece was influenced by Snell’s Law and my color associations with sound.  I thought of each instrument as a particular color, corresponding to a particular motive, which is developed by reflective and/or refractive properties.  The instruments go through these processes at different rates for a majority of the piece. There is an ebb and flow between the formulaic and the organic as the “colors” continue to unfold and blend.

Calibrate; for wind quintet

Tsubasa wo Kudasai (翼をください),(Please Give Me Wings);
for Stanford Taiko and Stanford Talisman
Lyrics: Michio Yamagami (山上路夫); Melody: Kunihiko Murai (村井邦彦)
Arrangers: Stephanie Fischer, Zach Isaac, Hannah Williams

Artwork: Jihee Hwang

---

It has been a great experience composing collaboratively with Zach and Hannah on this piece.  The process of working across different musical perspectives, rather than a solitary composer, was a wonderful way to better understand what the piece needed, musically and emotionally.  In addition, writing a piece for our respective groups/communities made the experience all the more rewarding.  Talisman has always provided me a space to feel whole and to find my voice—a space that this piece itself is searching for, and eventually finds.  
 
This collaboration begins with a meditative introduction, composed with fragments of this well-known Japanese melody; originally composed by Kunihiko Murai  (村井邦彦). While Taiko explores the tensions of rhythmic ratios, Talisman journeys through dream-like harmonies.  Eventually both groups work towards a climactic ending, in which the union of this popular melody and the harmony is finally achieved.

JAPANESE
Ima watashi no negai kotoga kanaunaraba
tsubasa ga hoshi,
Kono senakani tori noyouni shi ro i tsubasa
tsukete kudasai
Kono o zorani tsubasa wo hiroge tonn de
yukitai yo.
Kana shiminonai, jiyuna sorae tsubasa
hatameka se yukitai.

ENGLISH
If my wish were to come
true right now,
I would want to have white wings on
my back like a bird.
I would fly through the skies, flapping
these winds.
Without sadness, I would go on a ride in
the free and open skies.

Stephanie Fischer

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