Check out these Spring 2024 performances and composer visits around the United States!
Shelter Song, commissioned by the Ramona Convent Secondary School Choirs, directed by Ruth Ballenger, sets the charming text by Libby Weber about the joy of adopting a rescue animal. The text playfully explores the different decisions required when adopting a pet, such as choosing which animal to adopt (the Sopranos want to adopt a Cat, while the Altos prefer a Dog) and what to name them! The poem also features a few moments of overlapping texts, which create funny new phrases between the Soprano and Alto lyrics (“I want them all” at mm. 34-35 and “OMG!” at mm. 39-45).
The music has historical influences reminiscent of J.S. Bach’s keyboard stylings, Baroque arias, and opera-like recitatives for dramatic and comedic effect. There is also a bit of G. Rossini’s famous Duetto Buffo di due Gatti (Comic Duet for Two Cats) and the music of comedian Peter Schickele’s fictional Baroque composer, P.D.Q Bach.
There is a customizable NAMES section (Rehearsal Letter E) where directors and choirs may choose to replace any of the names (except the last name of each line, in order to maintain the rhymes) with pet names meaningful to them or the community.
The hope of this piece is to foster awareness of the importance of adopting rescue pets and treating our furry friends with the love they deserve. It would be wonderful to encourage donations to a local animal shelter or animal-oriented charity at any concert or event featuring this piece.
This piece is suitable for any Treble Choir and would fit well on a concert about animals or nature.
Check out these Spring 2024 performances and composer visits around the United States!
The music and lyrics of Songs of Hope in Strange Times: In Times of Stasis was written during the COVID-19 global pandemic of 2020-onwards and was commissioned by Westminster High School, directed by Kelly Ann Self. The overall song cycle is five movements long, with each movement reflecting on how to find hope and meaning during strange and unknown times of life. In Times of Stasis, the third movement of this song cycle, represents the sense of stasis deep in the waiting period of the pandemic. Without being able to observe the normal markers of time passing, such as birthdays, school years, or holidays, time seemed to stand still as each day blended into the next. This sense of moving neither forward nor backward is reminiscent of walking in the ocean tide, where one wave is crashing on shore and another is receding, creating the sense one is simply standing still. While it can be hard to find meaning in these static times, perhaps just being alive and present in this moment is in itself enough.
This movement could be performed as a stand-alone piece or as part of the entire Songs of Hope in Strange Times song cycle.
See other movements:
I. In Times of Descent
II. In Times of Hibernation
IV. In Times of Re-Emergence
V. In Times of Rising
I am very thrilled to share this brand new recording of my piece Shadows for SSSAA Choir & Singing Bowl, which sets the gorgeous poem by my late aunt Susan Jordan. A huge thank you to A.J. Teshin & The Teshin Company for recording, mixing, and bringing this piece to life. The Teshin Company · … Continue reading June 22nd, 2022
The music and lyrics of We Have a Choice were composed as a reaction to the COVID-19 crisis. The piece explores aleatoric and performer-based textures that can be sung remotely through video conferencing platforms, such as Zoom, or in live settings. The text explores our ability to choose our own paths and reactions in every situation, hopefully ultimately choosing to embrace the story with love, joy, hope, and peace.
The piece alternates between mostly-unison chant-like textures and aleatoric branching textures, in which the performers may choose their own path.
This piece is suitable for any Treble-Voice Choir interested in exploring virtual singing and limited- aleatoric textures that give performers ownership of the material. The piece may be sung in virtual or live settings as circumstances allow.
I Celebrate Life (the second and last movement of the Light Cycle suite), commissioned by Jennifer Gaderlund for the Graham Middle School Choirs, sets the beautiful poem by Rhoda Gordon, the composer’s late grandmother, for SATB (orig. SSA) Choir and Piano. The piece opens with an excited yet hushed ostinato in the Piano. The choir sings the first four lines of the poem by repeating the beginning line and adding the next line until it is complete, utilizing the modern technique of additive processes popular in Minimalism. In the more pensive middle section, the ostinato transforms into a more poignant texture as the Choir “realizes the joy of being through seeing the glorious creation” that they are a part of. The ostinato then speeds up and returns to the hushed excitement heard in the opening. The piece concludes with the Choir building up to the most important line of the text: “The most powerful light to celebrate by is love.”
This piece is suitable for any Mixed-Voice ensemble.
Light in the Darkness, commissioned by and dedicated to Dr. Mary Breden, sets the Christmas poem “Light in the Darkness” by poet Norval Clyne (1817-1888). The bright and bell-like piano accompaniment, although sometimes also quiet and pensive, reflects the simultaneous darkness of winter and the shining hope that the Savior’s birth brings the world on Christmas morning. Steadily building in intensity throughout the piece, the choir proclaims the coming great Light that is about to shine. The piece also features surprising modal shifts, harmonic progressions, and modulations.
This carol would fit well in any holiday-themed concert, Festival of Lessons and Carols, or sacred Christmas and/or Epiphany service.
The piece was premiered by the LMU Concert Choir, conducted by Dr. Mary Breden, on December 6th and 8th, 2018 at Sacred Heart Chapel at Loyola Marymount University.
She Speaks is a choral song cycle composed by Alice Dryden and Amy Gordon, which sets the text by Sharon Goldstein. It weaves together the experiences and voices of different women, both artistically and literally. The text and the music were a result of a close collaboration among the composers and the poet. The cycle is a progression through generations of strong women. Each woman throughout history has been able to build on the strength and courage of her ancestors.
Movement 1, She Is Silent, represents a past generation that endured hardship and suppression for the sake of the next generation. The thread from the woman’s sewing machine becomes the motivic thread that weaves throughout the other movements, anchoring future generations in her quiet resolve.
In Movement 2, She Dreams, the next generation spends her days trapped, speaking other people’s words and ideas. Yet inside her, she holds dreams of her own stories and her own identity, and being recognized for her own worth.
Movement 3, She Speaks, explores vocal percussion and extended vocal techniques. The women gradually find their voices and speak out, with difficulty and first but with increasing confidence- This. Is. Wrong! This movement honors those who would no longer stay silent in the face of injustice.
Movement 4, She Rages!, is the most specific and direct response to current events. The voices of women, silenced for too long, break free- and they are furious! Each voice demands to be heard as they build on one another. The movement transitions into a triumphant march honoring the women that came before them, referencing each of the previous movements in both text and music.
The ending, co-written by both composers, ties off the thread that wove through each movement. All the voices, men and women, speak together to convey one unified message: It is more important now than ever to find the courage to listen and to speak out.
Mars in Retrograde, commissioned by Kat Anderson and dedicated to The Los Angeles Belles, is a 3-part vocalise for SSA and Piano based on planetary motion and gravitational orbits. The voices represent the orbits of the planets (S1 as Venus, S2 as Earth, and Alto as Mars) around the sun, which is represented by the Piano. Each planet (voice) has a distinct repeating rhythmic pattern whose length corresponds to each planet’s sidereal period (how long it takes the planet to fully orbit around the sun). The repeating rhythmic pattern uses the musical technique of isorhythm, where a repeating rhythmic pattern (called the talea) is combined with separate pitch material (called the color). Venus’s sidereal period is roughly .616 Earth years, corresponding to a 7.5 measure talea. Earth’s sidereal period is 1 Earth year, corresponding to a 12 measure talea (based on the 12 months in a year). Mar’s sidereal period is roughly 1.9 Earth years, corresponding to a 22.75 measure talea. The rhythmic activity increases until the mid-point of each talea, after which the rhythmic value decreases again. This represents how planets increase in speed as they approach their closest point to the sun (perihelion) and decrease in speed as they approach the farthest point from the sun (aphelion).
The entire piece is tuned to the fundamental of Bb, as the lowest recorded note in the universe is a black hole that vibrates at a Bb 57 octaves below Middle C. The piece exclusively uses the Bb Lydian Dominant scale, also referred to as the acoustic scale, which can be created by assembling the first 12 partials of the overtone series based on the fundamental of Bb.