Beneath a Canopy of Wings for flute and clarinet was inspired by Norman Finkelstein’s poem Exile.  He writes: “A song hovers above the trees, settles in the branches, turns into a bird.”  At times the music is contemplative, almost whispering, full of secret longing.  Or, it is shrill and wild, brimming with restless energy.  It was written for Duo Cylindre’s Lizzy Darling and Andrea Vos-Rochefort.  Every note they play, whether delicate or forceful, is expressive and moving.  They sing together like birds in flight.

I.	The Nightbird’s Song 
II.	The Piper at the Gate of Dawn 
III.	A Thousand Farewells

In the first movement, the silvery flute dances and flutters around the darker, somewhat mournful clarinet as it sings its plaintive, mysterious song.  In the second movement, the musical voices, or birds if you will, converse with each other and display greater contrast of character than previously.  They are quite independent until they unite about two-thirds of the way through and then share fragments of their earlier songs as their conversation resumes.  The third movement is an elegy for an elderly friend.  The repeated tones prevalent throughout its musical ideas flatten their melodic contour and add a somber weight to its expression of grief.  

Beneath a Canopy of Wings was the winner of the 2021 Flute New Music Consortium Competition for Flute Plus One.

Beneath A Canopy Of Wings

Give Up the Ghost (2016) for Pierrot ensemble+ Percussion 

Conductor:  AikKhai Pung 

Flute: Kenneth Cox
Clarinet: Harrison Burks
Violin: Kanako Shimasaki 
Cello: Caitlyn Chenault
Percussion: Carlos Camacho 
Piano: Harrison Scheckler 

Give up the Ghost

Ellen Ruth Harrison’s music is “stunning” and full of “sophisticated ensemble writing . . . “
            - Allan Ulrich, The San Francisco Chronicle, February 8, 2001
 
“It has a very, very quick series of contrasting moods and atmospheres, which gives it a lot of texture and beauty, and it has a deep sonic realm.”
Jane Ring Frank, artistic director of the Boston Secession in theBoston Globe (September 30, 2004)
 
The music of American composer Ellen Ruth Harrison has received numerous honors and awards from organizations such as the American Guild of Organists, the Fromm Music Foundation, the IBLA European International Music Foundation, the International League of Women Composers, the Ohio Arts Council, the Rebecca Clarke Society, SPECTRI SONORI, and UC Berkeley.  Her works have been widely performed both in the United States and abroad by a diverse range of performers such as the Cincinnati Symphony Chamber Players, concert:nova, Earplay, the Empyrean Ensemble, Left Coast Chamber Ensemble, the Lydian String Quartet, Octagon, Parnassus, and the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players.
 
Harrison was born and raised in Streator, Illinois and is currently Adjunct Instructor of Composition at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music.  She is also chair of music theory and composition in CCM’s Preparatory Department.  As a recipient of a Jacob K. Javits fellowship, she earned her doctorate in composition from the University of California, Berkeley, where her teachers included Edwin Dugger, Richard Felciano, Andrew Imbrie and Olly Wilson.  She spent two years studying in Paris supported by U.C. Berkeley's Prix de Paris, and attended composer workshops at IRCAM.  She also studied with Milko Kelemen at the Musikhochschule in Stuttgart, and with Thomas Frederickson and Paul Zonn at the University of Illinois. 
 
Penned for instrumental and vocal ensembles of various sizes, Harrison's compositions are inspired by diverse experiences and circumstances.  Echoing her evocatively titled movements, her music at times seems to dip into distant and antique sonic realms to portray a series of contrasting moods and atmospheres.  At other times the tone is more jocular as she juxtaposes impetuous activity with infernal calm at multiple levels, presenting an extraordinary variety of textures, melodic materials, and expressive gestures.
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This artist was awarded an Ohio Arts Council Individual Excellence Award for 2014
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Beneath A Canopy Of Wings

Ellen Ruth Harrison composer

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