Fire Birth Promenade
Fire Birth Promenade is an immersive musical experience depicting the celebration of a birth in a symbolic inferno.  A bell sounds twice.  Once: to signal that the being is born.  The mass of malignant spirits begins its spastic celebration.  Twice: to unleash this mass on the world.  


Stephen Medlar - Fire Birth Promenade - Stereo Mix

Extinction
Extinction is a five-movement cycle for mixed chamber ensemble.  The music unfolds an apocalyptic series of events that lead to the end of humanity. 
I. A Philanthropist – Drain the Ocean introduces a man that has been thriving in a world with no law or industry – a skilled veteran of murder and cannibalism.  The man has a vision and realizes his purpose – to persuade the hidden and few remaining world leaders that overpopulation is the cause of the current state of the world.  He will insist that the numbers must be dramatically reduced.  The movement concludes with his proclamation, “I will be a hero!”

The remaining movements are currently in the process of composition and will be premiered in the Fall of 2016. 

Extinction, I. A Philanthropist - Drain the Ocean

The Green Ballet is a painting (oil on canvas) by Everett Shinn. It resides in the Westmoreland Museum of Art in Greensburg, PA, USA. The painting is from 1943 and is still under copyright protection, but is still legally viewable with a basic internet search. It is highly recommended that the performer and/or listener view this painting carefully and critically. The different moods represented in the music are inspired by the painting as a trajectory from left to right.

The Green Ballet

Terrarium
Terrarium is a first person monologue from an entity that sees itself as a pollutant upon an environment.  The narrative begins with the being arriving at a new target and proclaiming plans of infiltration and devastation.  The entity soon turns inward and comes to the realization that this environment will not be destroyed – it is too substantial, too powerful.  With that realization comes an epiphany - nothing is changed directly by only one, but rather is marked for future objects to continue the infection.
It should be noted that the two voices are not in a dialogue with each other, but rather combine to create the voice of the one entity.


Terrarium

Asylum for Saxophone and Piano
Asylum is a musical excursion through a mind that begins in madness, endures catastrophic treatment, and ends in total loss.
I. Walls Made of Mattress introduces a mind that bounces to a non-symmetrical pulse and uncontrollably fires multiple thoughts at the same time.  Despite this affliction, this mind is content, grooving to an unpredictable rhythm and experiencing the beauty that exists within its own confines.
II. Electroconvulsive Therapy revisits this mind after a plummeting descent.  The mind is no longer happy – it is in a perpetual coil of writhing lunacy.  The body housing this mind is strapped down, and the mind is attacked with electricity – a treatment that results in a full system reset.
III. Sedation – the Sun through the Clouds accompanies the drugged and damaged mind as it begins an aimless and apathetic drift.  Apathy is soon replaced by flashes of memory, and the mind begins fighting, longing with all of its power to remember.  The clouds open up, the sun shines through, and the mind experiences the most beautiful of all memories – pure joy.  But just as wondrously as the memory arrived, it fades – and the mind continues to reach for the moment that it can’t retrieve.  The mind surrenders to the clouds.


Stephen Medlar - Asylum, III. Sedation - The Sun Through The Clouds

Stephen Medlar - Asylum, II. Electroconvulsive Therapy

Stephen Medlar - Asylum, I. Walls Made Of Mattress

Extinction is the instrumental tale of how humanity’s time on earth comes to an end. Each movement represents a specific, significant event along the course to conclusion.

The story is set in a terrible version of earth. A world where education has fallen, economy has fallen, society has fallen. A world wretchedly overpopulated and violent, where ignorance has overpowered intelligence with sheer numbers. A world that becomes less futuristic every day.

This story is a warning of where the long path leads when the intellectual environment of humanity turns toxic.

Extinction, III. Death March

Shawna Pennock - DMA chamber recital - 10-31-2016 

Extinction, II. Blind Eyes

Extinction, I. A Philanthropist

Stephen Medlar is a craftsman and story-teller – a composer. His music is driven by two distinct relationships and the interactions between them – his relationship with genuine human emotion, and his relationship with the natural world. He has the artistic empathy to appreciate humanity at its highest levels of compassion and beauty, as well as the courage to explore humanity at its most violent and horrible.

Mr. Medlar is a doctoral student in Composition at the University of Oregon and the artistic director of ECCE – the Eugene Contemporary Chamber Ensemble. He holds a masters degree from the University of Georgia, where he was the Vice President of the Student Composers Association, and a teaching assistant. Mr. Medlar completed his bachelors degree at Armstrong State University with a dual concentration in Music Composition and Percussion Performance. His music has been performed in multiple states throughout the U.S and is self-published with Contemporary Art Metal Publications.