Adagio For PianoTrio

I wrote the words several years back to enter in a local poetry contest. (My poem did NOT win anything.) I am setting them to music as an art song. This is the third full draft.This is a Finale realization. From previous experience, it will sound more musical when played by a real pianist and sung by a real singer instead of the samples. 

Once the river was alive
Womb of the world
Mother of creatures
Swimming, crawling, flying
Father of floods 
Preparing the fertile land
That waited for the people to arrive 

Once the river was sacred
Ancient ancestor
Honored, respected, tended
Gracious giver
Revealing the Great Spirit
That is the source of all 

Then came those who could not see beneath the surface
Or sense the spirit
To know the river alive and sacred
Stripping away the magic
They left it bare and naked

Now the river was a road
Current of commerce
Moving, shaping, remaking
Pulsing with power
Slave to human purpose
That was the illusion we believed our progress showed

Once the river was
Way of wonder
Father, Mother, Giver
Sacred Spirit
Once the river was
Can we yet let it be?

Once The River Was

From The Four Winds - II West Wind: Mega Minimal March & Minuet V11

Beneath The Great Tree

piccolo, flutes 1-4, alto flute, bass flute, contrabass flute

Arc, for flute ensemble

File: 20230810 Luck13 Mix.01.limited
Composed: 1981
This version copyright 2023
Style: 70s-80s jazz fusion (essentially in 13/4)
Solos Joel Tucker, Garrett Fasig, Joseph Trahan, Sam Butler, Alex Wignall, Brendan Keller-Tuberg

Lucky 13 (From "Big 80's Suite")

Trying to get a version of this ready for a standard orchestra instrumentation.

Ice Flow Adagio V6.5&v10 For Playback

Work in Progress - This is the beginning of a 4 Horn chart for a recital - I still need to add solo backgrounds and details.

Schizofunk In C Minor V2 For Playback

File: 20231122 SimplyStuffAndNonsense Mix.01
Composed: 2022
Copyright 2023
Style: Uses some material removed from Simple Song, offers a reprise of the melody including a samba canon (we may shorten this to about 2 minutes)
Soloists: Joel Tucker, Francis Basset-Dilley, Garrett Fasig, Chance Davis, Leah Warman, Marcell Penzes

Simply Stuff And Nonsense

Access to score and parts:
http://www.jomarpress.com/munn/munn.html
Access to CD:
http://www.navonarecords.com/catalog/nv5991/

I like the way “cascade” is used in electronics — a series of networks, each having an output that serves as the input for the next. This image gets at the deep connectedness between distinct sections that I was striving for in Cascade. But the several long, descending gestures in Cascade draw on another sense of cascade — a series of waterfalls over steep rocks.
Performers: Sandra Jackson, Timothy McAllister, David Jackson

Cascade, for clarinet, alto sax, and trombone

Access to CD: Centaur
http://www.centaurrecords.com/store/albums/contemporary/zae-munn-libero-arbitrio.html
Access to score and parts: 
http://www.jomarpress.com/munn/munn.html

   Seven Short Rhapsodies for Oboe and Bassoon is a series of seven very short, expressive musical statements, each about 30 seconds long, and each using closely related pitch material, but with contrasting characters.  All but two are duets for oboe and bassoon.   The third rhapsody is a solo for oboe, and the fifth rhapsody assigns the same solo material to the bassoon.
    Seven Short Rhapsodies for Oboe and Bassoon was written in 2003 for Douglas Spaniol, bassoon, and Alicia Cordoba Tait, oboe.  They premiered it in the summer of 2004 at the International Double Reed Society Conference in Australia.  Published by JOMAR Press.


Simply Stuff And Nonsense

Tom J Johnson

Related tracks