This is a collaborative work co-composed and created with Hayley Abramowitz and Al Rise.

Kenlon: strings, section trombone, voice, mix/audio, harmony
Abramowitz: text, voice, melodies
Rise: trumpet, horn, melodies
(with guest Chris Brosius, solo trombone)

"Hereupon" is made up of composed harmonies, improvised melodies, and fragments of text borrowed from Sarah Williams, e e cummings, Margaret Atwood, Pablo Nedura (trans. Robert Bly), and Theodore Roethke. The aesthetic of the work was heavily influenced by visual artists Wassily Kandinsky and Zdzisław Beksiński as well as aerial photographs of Jupiter. Hopefully the collage we have created sparks some of the same reactions in our listeners that these works of art spark in us.

Spring 2021

Hereupon (3-26-21)

Attics are often the sites of discarded or neglected items: old toys, boxes of photographs, trophies from sports no longer played, obsolete household goods. Rummaging through an attic is thus often a sojourn through distant memories brought back by sights and scents that dwell far from quotidian access. This piece seeks to evoke such a journey by moving an economy of musical material in and out of focus, between foggy, diffuse chords and sharply defined linear clarity.

To intensify these contrasts, I ask that the performers play from three stations: one set of music stands as far from the audience as possible, with instrument bells facing away from the audience; another set of stands mid-stage, slightly farther away than a group would typically play; and a third station as close to the audience as is practical.

Memory Attic was commissioned by hornist Anne Howarth for a subset of her quintet, Vento Chiaro, who premiered the work at Tufts University in February of 2019.

Spring 2019

Memory Attic, Op. 75

These three movements, following a basic fast-slow-fast map, are largely independent but are united by a vague feeling of being “just off” from what one might expect musically. In the first movement, we travel at an exponentially accelerating rate through the circle of fifths from the C major pitch collection to C#, then back again somewhat more abstractly around the flat side. (This is perhaps the most uncanny of the movements, with its alternation between cold, digital, binary pairs of eighth notes and more organic material.) In the second movement, three short motives are introduced, abandoned, and then gradually rediscovered in various contexts. In the third movement, a sort of musical anemia is introduced by exploiting the trombones’ glissando abilities; straightforward harmonic formations (borrowed from the first two movements) are repeatedly made borderline unrecognizable by ever-collapsing pitch centers.

Uncanny Valley was commissioned by Daniel Wood and premiered at the University of Missouri–Kansas City Conservatory in April 2022.

E-mail william@williamkenlon.com if you're interested in perusal score  & parts.

Spring 2022

Uncanny Valley, Op. 86: III. (4-23-22)

Uncanny Valley, Op. 86: II. (4-23-22)

Uncanny Valley, Op. 86: I. (4-23-22)

Taking its title from a term in urban planning and landscape architecture, "Desire Paths: Chamber Symphony for Double Wind Quintet and Piano" is an original musical work that explores the ideas of resistance, resilience, and adaptation, primarily through the recurrence of a central theme in each of its five movements. It spans approximately 30 minutes in performance.

The first movement may be considered a "title track" of sorts, as it is also called "Desire Paths." Beginning with a twelve-tone row that is gradually deconstructed, the main melody of the work first arises about halfway through this first movement.

The second movement, "Sirens On the Stern," takes some inspiration from Greek mythology in its title and in its formal concerns. The English horn and bass clarinet are cast as the titular sirens, intoning delicate lines decorated with beguiling arabesques.

The third movement introduces a discreet textual source. "The Dream with the Magnolia Tree" is in sound and expressive intent a response to Pablo Neruda's forty-sixth love sonnet, "De las estrellas que admiré..." ("Of all the stars I have admired..."). The rhythm and lilt of that Spanish text informs the melodic material unique to this movement, while the main theme is presented in an abridged form.

More insistent and aggressive in character than the preceding three movements, "Wem das Schicksal schlägt" ("When fate strikes") pits original melodic material against fragments taken from Leoš Janáček's 1919 song cycle "The Diary of One Who Disappeared."

The fifth and final movement, like the third, is in large part an instrumental setting of a textual source. A passage from author Jeannette Winterson's 1993 novel Written on the Body provides both the melodic material and the quiet ecstasy of the fifth movement, entitled "Let Loose in Open Fields."

I am deeply grateful to my collaborators on this 2022 recording, the premiere of the work that I wrote in 2016-2017 as my dissertation at the University of Maryland, College Park:

IGNIS Quintet
Danielle Kim (fl/picc)
Nathaniel Wolff (ob/EH)
Kyle Glasgow (cl)
Zachary Miller (horn)
Christian Whitacre (bassoon)
 
Pressez Sextet
Matthew Ober (fl)
Stephanie Treat (ob)
Casey Schreck (cl)
Ally Happ (horn)
Makayla Bowen-Longino [dress rehearsal] and Alex Wiedman [performance] (bassoon)
Maggie Johns (piano)

Desire Paths, Op. 69: V. Let Loose In Open Fields

Desire Paths, Op. 69: IV. Wem das Schicksal schlägt

Desire Paths, Op. 69: III. The Dream With the Magnolia Tree

Desire Paths, Op. 69: II. Sirens On the Stern

Desire Paths, Op. 69: I. Desire Paths

In "Three Frozen Sketches," I seek to address different types of stasis through subtle entropic processes in each movement.  The first movement, "Cold Rush," while titled with playful contrarianism, is inspired by a tempo marking first used by Messiaen, "infinitely slow," as if underscoring the movement of a glacier.  The second movement, "Last Known Photo," addresses the concept of being frozen in celluloid, and the impact that this phenomenon has upon popular recognition of a person or place: an initial "reality" is presented by the ensemble and then subjected to rhythmic and tonal distortions based upon recollections of only a few stable aspects of its actual initial presentation.  The third movement, "Trauerstarrt" (a contraction of the German term for “grief-stricken”) is a feature for the flute wherein blithe melodic material is stopped in its tracks by devastating interruptions from the remaining instruments, which then re-cast the flute's jaunty material through conventionally tragic musical tropes.

Three Frozen Sketches, Op. 51: II. Last Known Photo

Three Frozen Sketches, Op. 51: I. Cold Rush

This piece freely develops themes from an earlier song cycle alongside new material inspired by "Sonnet XLII" from Pablo Neruda's "Cien Sonetos de Amor" (hence the title).  It was a pleasure to revisit this soundworld two years after I wrote the original songs, and to work with the UMD Symphony Orchestra in this May 2014 reading session.

Neruda Epilogue [reading]

Written for any combination of high and low instrument, this collection of short pieces is heard here in its second performance, featuring Alison Lowell (oboe) and David Young (bassoon) of the District5 wind quintet.

Four Duos And Two Solos, Op. 56: I. Gelato (10-12-14)

Four Duos And Two Solos, Op. 56: V. I Dare You (10-12-14)

Emily Riley, soprano; Jenny Lehtonen, flute; Lauren Arel, oboe; Adam Trinkoff, clarinet; David Young, bassoon; Kristin Bakkegard, violin; Jessica Albrecht, cello; Misha Tumanov, piano; William Kenlon, cond.

Performed December 2, 2014, Gildenhorn Recital Hall, University of Maryland College Park.

Sunflower Poem, Op. 54

"Lyric Suite For English Horn," Op. 49 by William Kenlon.  These five pieces, based on the poetry of Jacques Prevert, feature Jennifer Slowik as soloist in the premiere performance with Chuck Furlong, Eve Boltax, and Caitlin Cawley.

Lyric Suite For English Horn: V. Chanson Du Geôlier

Lyric Suite For English Horn: IV. Le Bouquet

Lyric Suite For English Horn: III. Alicante

Lyric Suite For English Horn:  II. Chanson

Lyric Suite For English Horn:  I. Dejeuner De Matin

Sarah Best (mezzo) and Sarah Barham (piano) in the world premiere of "Little Dream Pieces, Vol. 5" by William Kenlon: five aphoristic songs on texts describing odd dreams.

Fall 2016

Little Dream Pieces, Vol. 5, Op. 65: XI. Gary (11-29-16)

"Longfellow Mosaic," Op. 67 by William Kenlon, performed by Hayley Abramowitz, soprano; Cris Dohler, flute; Alex Gehring, bass clarinet; Haley Dietz, violin; Katie McCarthy, cello; Justin Fitch, piano.

As part of an interest in diversifying the sources and formats of texts in my vocal works, I elected to excerpt lines from about 45 different poems by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–1882). The poems harvested or this piece span decades of his career, and all can be found in the anthology of his verse collected by Anthony Thwaite (Phoenix, 2003).  Although I wouldn't characterize the form of the piece as a mosaic, the text is certainly that: each line is a sort of tile which may have had an original meaning or purpose entirely different from how it serves the narrative here. (I've been somewhat liberal with changing pronouns and tenses to suit my own narrative ends.)

More info and perusal scores: http://www.williamkenlon.com/

Spring 2018

Longfellow Mosaic: I.

Commissioned and premiered by Jennifer Hayman and the choir of All Souls Church, Unitarian, Washington, DC, "Whitman Mosaic" pieces together various strains of text from Walt Whitman's landmark 1206-line poem "Song of Myself":

A child said "What is the grass?" fetching it to me with full hands;
How could I answer the child? I do not know what it is any more than he.
This is the grass that grows wherever the land is and the water is,
The smallest sprout shows there is really no death.
I believe a leaf of grass is no less than the journey-work of the stars,
I hear you whispering there O stars of heaven,
O suns—O grass of graves—O perpetual transfers and promotions,
I bequeath myself to the dirt to grow from the grass I love,
I stop somewhere waiting for you.

This piece is now available for purchase and performance by any choir - if you're interested in a perusal score, let me know!

Recording is from the premiere of the work at the Kennedy Center's Millennium Stage, May 14, 2019.

Whitman Mosaic, Op. 77

A collaboration between me and DC-based woodwind artist Dan Janis. I recorded everything but the saxophone in 2009 (!) and Dan laid down tenor sax in 2020. Check out Dan's real band here: https://www.bakedgoodsofficial.com/

Photos: Eric Snoza (L) & Good Foot Media (R)

Purple-Toothed Demon

Dr. William Kenlon (b. 1983), based in Washington D.C., is a composer specializing in music for chamber, choral, and jazz ensembles. Described as "pointed and groovy" (New Music Box), Kenlon's music has garnered praise for its "lyrical personality that is original and strong" (Boston Musical Intelligencer), and for its sophisticated tonal explorations: "solid without being dense, clear without being sparse, and ever-changing without being random" (ibid). Alongside composing and performing, he has taught at several universities in the Mid-Atlantic region, and is currently the coordinator of music theory and composition at Howard University.

William Kenlon

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