Produced and Performed by Chance The Rapper, Nate Fox, Donnie Trumpet & Peter Cottontale, for Social Experiment

Vocal Arrangement by: Chance The Rapper & Donnie Trumpet for Social Experiment

Mix by: Jeff Lane at CRC Studios

ChanceRaps.com


Chance The Rapper & The Social Experiment - No Better Blues

Blessings (feat. Ty Dolla Sign)

I thought this photo of me taken when I was 26 years old (!) in the role of a 90 year old Chess Player in Menotti's NBC-TV Opera 'LABYRINTH' --{Make-up took 3 hours to apply and/or remove!!!}-- would be perfect to convey the feelings of loss and loneliness portrayed in this gorgeous song by Carrie Jacobs-Bond in the early 1900s.  The words and music are extraordinarily moving, conceived in utmost simplicity.  Have a listen!!  ROBERT WHITE 

Just a’wearyin' for you
All the time a’feelin' blue
Wishin' for you, wonderin' when
You’ll be comin' home again
Restless don’t know what to do
Just a’wearyin' for you

Morning comes, the birds awake
Used to sing so for your sake
But there’s sadness in the notes
That come trillin' from their throats
Seem to feel your absence too
Just a’wearyin' for you

Evening comes I miss you more
When the dark gloom’s round the door
Seems just like you ought to be
There to open it for me
Latch goes tinkling, thrills me through
Sets me wearyin' for you

08 Just A - Wearyin' For You

At the end of Henrik Ibsen's classic play "A Doll's House," Nora has an epiphany that her husband Torvald has never treated her as an equal.  As she confronts him about this, it occurs to her that this is the first "serious conversation" they've ever had in 8 years of marriage.  "Why, my dearest Nora," he says, "what have you to do with serious things?"

This is her response.  

Performed by the LUNA Duo (Jordan Roulo, soprano and Emily Sprague-Klein, piano) and Clark Carruth, viola.

what have you to do with serious things?

for solo viola. dur: 8'.  played by the wonderful Carrie Frey, violist.

When I started this work, I initially did not have a title-- so, to amuse myself, I put in a dummy title-- "liminal rat bath."  This title is in no way relevant to the work, but I enjoyed it so much that I couldn't bear to retitle it before the premiere performance.  However, as the work lives on, it has become clear that it needs a new title-- so I'm calling on YOU, listener, to help me!  What should I title this piece?

Please leave your suggestions in the "comments" section of www.zacharygreenmusic.com/music/solo-viola, and feel free to like each others' comments to vote for your favorite title!

Program Notes: 
The music of this work was derived from rhapsodic, improvisatory variations on a single motive.  These variations coalesce as a dialogue between two narratives: one fast and insistent, and one more slow and yearning.  Over the course of the piece, these two narratives grow ever more apart until they arrive at a chorale-like section that wrangles both narratives together and eventually overtakes them.

Composer Concert 10/17/2016

sans serif

This work was written in loving memory of Brittany Musumeci, a dear friend of mine.  Brittany epitomized the spirit of music-- was someone whose life was changed by music, and who changed others' lives with her spirit.  This piece cannot hope to represent her, but is rather a letter to her expressing my feelings.  
Played by Manami Mizumoto and Adam Rothenberg, violin and piano.

For Brittany

Indiana University Concert Orchestra; David Dzubay, conductor

more info: http://www.robertrankinmusic.com/full-fathom-five

Program Note: 

The title, Full Fathom Five, comes from a song sung by the siren-like spirit Ariel from Shakespeare’s The Tempest. In its context of the play, Ariel sings out a haunting poem which refers to a storm, a shipwreck, and the eventual drowning, in water about 30 feet (ﬁve fathoms) deep, of the father of the character to whom the lines are addressed. Though my work is, in essence, a tone poem depicting and reacting to this episode in The Tempest, the initial inspiration came from Jackson Pollock’s 1947 painting also entitled Full Fathom Five. Pollock’s dark and brooding painting, which includes nails, tacks, and cigarette butts, suggested a perhaps more violent and sinister take on Shakespeare’s take. Both of these sources proved vital in creating my own speciﬁc take on Ariel’s song.

Full Fathom Five opens with a rapid descent from the top range of the orchestra to the lowest. The music continues to spiral downward as an English Horn sings out “Ariel’s Song”, a menacing yet somewhat seductive, melismatic lyrical line. Low churning gestures in the cellos and basses begin to gain traction, eventually launching the piece into a much faster section, “Storms & Spells”. Here, bursts of Ariel’s sorcery, a flash of high woodwinds and bells, create violent and rapid changes in the orchestra. The music eventually works its way to the highest and loudest possible register before plunging back into the dark, murky world of the opening. The concluding section “Ariel’s Final Song” brings back the English Horn, this time playing a more melodic line which, as before, is swallowed up by a series of churning gestures in the orchestra. The piece concludes with one ﬁnal rapid descent into the turbulent depths of the ocean.

Full Fathom Five: for orchestra (2018-19)

The Australian based Ensemble Connect's recent recording of Ryan's free-wheeling and athletic piece for Bass Clarinet and (electric) guitar!

Introduction and Scherzo for Bass Clarinet and Guitar

Introduction and Scherzo for Bass Clarinet and (Electric) Guitar

Proudly hailing from Madison, WI, composer Zachary Green is a graduate student at the Juilliard School and the founder/director of the Madison New Music Festival.  As a writer, Zachary has interviewed musicians such as Huang Ruo, Leon Fleisher, and Leonard Slatkin for The Juilliard Journal.  As a teacher, Zachary has served as an Ear Training Teaching Fellow at Juilliard, a Morse Teaching Artist Fellow in New York City’s P.S. 11, and has taught theory at the Brevard Music Center.  His compositions have been performed in New York by organizations such as Periapsis Music and Dance, The Phoenix Concerts, and The Lotte Lehmann Foundation, and around the U.S. by the harp/organ ensemble Duo Mango, pianist Robert Fleitz, and The Seasons Festival in Yakima, WA.   He currently studies with Dr. Robert Beaser, and has previously studied with Samuel Adler, Eric Ewazen, Daron Hagen, Behzad Ranjbaran, and Christopher Rouse.  He will receive his Master of Music degree in 2017.

what have you to do with serious things?

Zachary Green

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