The Room is Dark and Silent (2018) is a musical realization of dramatic descriptions that I wrote out before making the piece. The first two lines went something like this, "The room is dark and silent. Out of the silence, comes high wispy sounds and it is hard to tell if they are actually there or not." It continues in this esoteric manner as the music fulfills these ideas of being alone in the dark. 

I had the opportunity to write for a reading by the Beo String Quartet during my first school year at UNCG and was initially planning on writing a piece in a similar sort of stylistic vein to this work but I was introduced to "Different Trains" by Steve Reich and I ended up making some sketches that quickly got out of hand and ended up being the piece. So, I was very excited to have had the opportunity to write this work and for the Beo Quartet to play it.

This recording is of the Beo String Quartet in 2018.

The Room Is Dark And Silent (2018)

Building Blocks was made originally for a reading done at East Carolina University. The idea behind the piece was to make something based on a single motive, but to not reveal the motive until the very end, which is played alone by the clarinet. The motive is a descending minor 7th, from D to E. Because the motive is an inversion of a whole step, much of the pitch material is whole-tone.

​The piece starts with a bombastic opening, leading to a quick, 16th note figure, which becomes a prominent feature of the piece. In the music that follows, there are sections that creep along with motoristic ostinatos, sections that are more songlike, and there is use of various textures, incorporating the full ensemble, to utilizing as few as one player. The music builds excitingly to the very end until the motive is revealed in a strikingly more introspective mood.

Building Blocks [2016]

Isaac Ward is a musician–composer, multi-instrumentalist (including guitar, bass, drums, piano, ukulele, mandolin, voice, banjo, french horn, trumpet, etc.) –currently based in Greenville, North Carolina. In 2017, he double majored, receiving bachelor’s degrees in music composition and horn performance from East Carolina University. Ward also graduated from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, obtaining a master’s degree in music composition in 2019.

He has had pieces performed by groups, including Hypercube, Quintet Sirocco, a subset of the Beo Quartet, and the Domino Ensemble. Additionally, Ward has had pieces read by multiple groups and soloist, such as Miranda Cuckson, Loadbang, Yarn/Wire, Roomful of Teeth, Michael Lowenstern, Sharon Harms and Steve Beck, the Dorian Wind Quintet, and the Meridian Arts Ensemble, and others.

In his works, Ward strives to make dramatic and expressive music with timbral interest and idiomatic instrumental writing. He draws inspiration from everything he experiences. Ward is a co-winner of the 2021 Arcady-RBC Emerging Artist Composer’s Competition, which he submitted “Sketch for Soprano and Piano” to. He also collaborated with Julian Ward where they co-composed, produced, and engineered the music and sound-effects for two educational videos by the North Carolina 4-H (2021). He also had his piece “Motivational Speakers” performed at the NYCEMF 2022. He also was one of the winners of the Beth Ratay 2022 call for Mezzo-Soprano works, but the piece isn’t supposed to be played until sometime in 2024.

He also has a website you can check out:
https://isaacwardmusic.wixsite.com/mysite?fbclid=IwAR18_6wgh2lLgtrUb2K3nlEwatiZ6kIOXbX N_3SwJ8gAZg182JSHnjStR-w

Isaac has worked with Julian Ward and continues to do so, on a band project called “Trying to Understand,” which includes musical pieces composed by each individual member of the band, but also some collaborative compositions.

You can find the band here: https://www.youtube.com/@tryingtounderstand/videos

Also Isaac has worked with Julian Ward on another Youtube channel, which is generally more based in comedy, called “No Humor is Good Humor,” which also includes music in some of the videos they individually composed or collaborated on in the composition process. No Humor is Good Humor recently was amongst the winners for the Global FIlm Exhibition, for a video they made called “May I Go to the Restroom?”

“May I Go to the Restroom?:” https://youtu.be/at6-O-unvQ0?si=P0DN3qeiFkeZznzn 

No Humor is Good Humor: https://www.youtube.com/@nohumorisgoodhumor

Building Blocks [2016]

Isaac Ward

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