Rituals (2021)

Triptych (2018)

Leanne Hampton, flute
Mark Hatlestad, viola

[paused] is a set of short pieces that depict imagined scenes from future video games, taken from the idea that the soundtrack continues over a snapshot while it is paused, becoming the main focus.

Games like Earthbound, LISA, and APE OUT both exemplify and forecast the growth of art music in the form, and this sampler platter for flute and viola invites the listener to imagine the bizarre game to which this would be the soundtrack.

[paused] (2019)

Bixby Kennedy, clarinet
Emily Brandenburg, viola

Drunken Boxing (2020)

Ariel Downs, soprano
Steven Kowaleski, electric guitar
Dan Bretz, percussion

Catherine Fletcher, poetry

Click here for text: https://burninghousepress.com/2019/09/26/prayer-for-validation-by-catherine-fletcher/

/**Prayer For Validation*/ (2020)

Heather Green, voice
Klaus Sallmann, piano

The Paddlers' Song
by Russell Edson

. . . Paddling for twenty years against the current. We haven't moved. If anything, we've lost.
      But the river closes the wounds of our displacements with neither scar nor pit.
      The shore was always there. We could have tied our boat and come as far.
      We might even have landed and put leaves together and had a roof, and watched the river with a pleasure grown aesthetic; the river that closes the wounds of our displacements with neither scar nor pit.
      We might have traveled inland to great cities to sit in drawing rooms; and against the mild baritone of cellos heard clever persons so describe the human condition as a place on a river, where men drown in the soft sounds of rushing water; the river that closes the wounds of our dis-placements with neither scar nor pit.
      We might even have 􀀁own (in the Twentieth Century men 􀀁ew), to see the river of our struggle as one more thread from the great head of oceans . . . River that closes the wounds of our displacements with
neither scar nor pit . . .

The Paddlers' Song (2021)

I. Left-Hand Path

II. Right-Hand Path

While noon sleeps,
the synthetic trees of electric forests
illuminate the fragile static
and begin the day our star neglected.

The artificial midnight suns
cast pale light on the crystalline expanse.
Devoid of life,
the frigid blanket crushes all things underneath
and buries the earth’s impurities.

But though this saccharine moat
keeps winter’s siege at bay,
The warmth passes through as a ghost –
Present
               but intangible
she haunts me –
                            – unaware, and unrepenting


The Ghost (2015)

5 Views Re/Dux
Poetry by Catherine Fletcher
 

Rippled Drum (Bard)

an instrument that makes waves
a drum with a vein of chocolate running through
wavy rolling tobacco
the inner ear drowning in cheap alcohol


Poor Holding (Vicar)

property of the indigent
bad grip
sickly footing
sad, misspelled Caulfield


Coated Macadam (Mender)

a Scot with thick skin
Mrs. Cadam in her outerwear
a muddy dam blocking a narrow creek
one of two Teds at a family reunion


As Spoken (Arrows)

ass poken
ass poke N.
like
like squares
like arrows 
 the way to Wales is west


Tar Rock (Mine)

a prehistoric reptile
an exclamation in Breton
asphalt on a hot day
a Cardiff street drug

Rachel Mikol, soprano
Alvin Ho, conductor
with Indiana University Concert Orchestra

5 Views Re:Dux - I. Rippled Drum (Bard)

Commissioned by The Detroit Composers' Project
Art by Lucy Brinckerhoff

Ben Rogers, cello
Wesley Hornpetrie, cello
Kellen Degnan, cello
Hanna Rumora, cello

Skyfishing is a term used to describe the act of searching the sky for extraterrestrial activity, however the piece has nothing to do with UFOs themselves. During the moment in between hearing the term from a friend and learning what it meant, I was taken to this mental snapshot of some guy sitting out in a field casting a fishing line up into the sky, and looking beyond the scene in front of him for his catch. This image is the starting and ending point of the piece, which is a landscape whose scale dwarfs our world, looking both at the idyllic scene that this guy is actively taking part in as well as what this guy must see beyond the limits of our sky. Coming from this place of wonder about and appreciation for the natural world in the grand scale, Skyfishing seeks to capture that magnitude of beauty and tranquility as a cosmic pastorale.

Skyfishing (2018)

III. bouncy, rugged, rhapsodic

II. wavy, calm, fluid

I. dance-like, playful, capricious

Leanne Hampton, flute
Mark Hatlestad, viola

III.

Will Rowe (b. 1992) is a composer of classical music from Oxford, Michigan. Early into his compositional career, his works are receiving performances both in the U.S. and internationally by such ensembles as the Camerata Silesia Katowice, ensemble mise-en, and the Seattle Metropolitan Chamber Orchestra. He is a graduate from Indiana University Jacobs School of Music’s M.M. in Composition program, and served as the Assistant Director of their New Music Ensemble during his time there. Currently, Will lives in New York City, where he curates risk-taking contemporary chamber music with Seth Boustead in their series, Concept Lab. In addition to his involvement in composition, Will is also an active cellist, specializing in the performance of new chamber music.

wrowe.music@gmail.com

Will Rowe - Composer

Pinned to spotlight

Popular tracks