Bitterness For Three Sleepwalkers

For electric guitar, piano, violin, violoncello, percussion and electronics

Commissioned and premiered by Wild Rumpus!

Though atypical in many ways, this piece is in fact an overture for my opera Pedr Solis. For one thing, it will probably never be heard in front of the opera as the instrumentation is quite different. It was also written before the opera, and thus acts as more of a sketch pad than a summation of primary themes. The material types and the melodic fragment toward the end of this piece do play key roles in the larger work however, which had been under development for some time when the overture was composed.

The opera chronicles the fictionalized tale of an actual Norwegian author, Pedr Solis, whose work was best known in Scandinavia during the 60s and 70s. Solis wrote only two novels, the most famous of which is Stillaset, published in 1970. It is perhaps the most extreme example of literary modernism to emerge from Norway, and, as with many of his writings, takes literary modernism itself on as a subtext. A third, still unpublished novel was apparently well underway when Solis disappeared from the public eye. Many speculate that he isolated himself in the far north of Norway, though this was never officially confirmed. The libretto for the opera, by Paul Schick, draws upon this account of Solis’ life, as well as von Hofmannsthal's play The Tower.

The melodic fragment heard toward the end of the overture in the strings is a modified version of a traditional Finnish song reminiscent of a joik, the traditional song form of the Sami people of northern Scandinavia. The song is Kuu kulta kivestä nousit as performed by Me Naiset. Regarding the electronics, though all the instruments are amplified their sound receives no further processing. The piece does include electronic sounds though, all of which are pre-recorded and played back by laptop onstage. 

This piece is dedicated to Wild Rumpus. 

Solis Overture

Unedited board rip of the SEAMUS 2016 performance at Georgia Southern University (Concert 11: Saturday, February 13th).

Maxxx Dennis: Oboe
Stephen Hennessey: Guitar

Sorrows Weep Not - SEAMUS 2016 Board Rip

In memory of the victims of Isla Vista Shooting, 2014

(Section 1) - 	        A breath of joy, me
(Section 2)  -	The experience of belonging
(Section 3)  -	 Alone is departure, silence
(Section 4)  -	Together is a mirror, sound
(Section 5)  -	The absence of air, noise
(Section 6)  -	 A bond of hope, us
(Section 7)  -	 Memory is strength.

Viola 1 - 	Jordan Warmath
Viola 2 - 	Carson Rick
Alto Flute - 	Adriane Hill
Cello - 	Kathryn Carlson

de la ausencia, la esperanza, de la esperanza, la fortaleza

For trumpet, violin and electronics
Violin: Laura Thompson

John Mallia - VOID

Performed by the Bowling Green Philharmonia, Alexander Popovici, conductor. 

The Location of Lines was inspired by the results of the conceptual compositional techniques of painter Sol LeWitt (1928-2007). I was amazed at LeWitt's early conceptual experiments with all drawing that would become his legacy. In several of these pieces, LeWitt prescribed fragile and delicate pencil lines to create a grand, yet understated design that becomes integrated with the architecture of the space. In this way, I have attempted to expand out from a single monophonic line across the orchestra. This line is never stated singularly, but is self-reinforcing and unfolds into orchestra, creating a larger architecture. The soft, understated dynamics, the blurred articulations, and kaleidoscopic harmonic language that is developed by this melodic line is intended to parallel LeWitt's prescriptions in a sonic environment. A sonification of space, here relates to the scale of LeWitt's work; where in scale, visual art becomes a temporal experience itself. The title of this piece is derived by a 1975 series of etchings by LeWitt of the same name (imaged here). This piece was partially written while i was artist in residence at Arts Letter & Numbers, and the Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts.

The Location Of Lines

Chroma

performed by: Sara Constant (piccolo, flute)- http://saraconstant.ca/

premiere: June 28, Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, MI

This piece is largely built upon various field recordings that Sara and I took with the goal of representing public and private spaces which we frequent on a regular basis. I have always cherished photography (and more recently field recording) as a means of documenting valuable times and places—with the hope that it will assist me in recalling and more deeply appreciating them after the fact. However, these never tend to satisfy their intention—rather appearing as something that is at once less and more real than the initial experience that I am attempting to save. I cherish the distanced perspective to reflect, but miss the quality of the initial experience—regardless of its significance. Creating a musical work with this underlying dynamic present allows for an interesting condition: the ability to aesthetically appreciate this echo of reality while contributing a new structure to engage the subjective factors of this perhaps distant memory. In this instance of composition and performance, we find new angles to engage with the distance of this initial act of documentation.

Thanks to Sara for her expertise, enthusiasm, and work, SPLICE Institute 2019 for facilitating this collaboration, Elainie Lillios for artistic guidance, Carter Rice for live sound, and Christopher Biggs for making the recording!

photo: Stephen Hennessey

here (5): a hyperdocumentation, for flute and fixed media [Sara Constant]

Written and performed by the Aspen Contemporary Ensemble at the 2019 Aspen Music Festival.

August 9, 2019

Timothy Weiss, conductor
Mehrdad Gholami, flute
James Gilbert, clarinet
Nathan Lowry, violin
Catherine Chen, viola
Evan Kahn, cello
Derek Wang, piano
Matthew Stiens, percussion

Favorite Sunshine

Recorded by: Ensemble Mise-En
Recording Engineer: Christopher Jacobs
Mixing/Mastering: Tyler Adamthwaite
Recorded at: Lippes Concert Hall, University at Buffalo, Buffalo NY

Sorrows Weep Not - SEAMUS 2016 Board Rip

Stephen Hennessey

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