BLACK COMPOSER MINIATURE CHALLENGE
An anthology of 30 second pieces for piano, viola, and viola-piano duo by 18 Black/African Diasporic composers.
A Note About Performance Rights
Should you perform and/or record any of the works included in this Anthology, please contact the composer directly as performance rights and/or other licensing fees may apply.
Special Thanks
Many thanks are due to Ahmed Alabaca for engraving these scores, Jonathan Bailey Holland for printing limited edition publications, and all the contributing composers for their creativity and fellowship.
About Castle of our Skins
Born out of the desire to foster cultural curiosity, Castle of our Skins is a concert and educational series dedicated to celebrating Black artistry through music. From classrooms to concert halls, Castle of our Skins invites exploration into Black heritage and culture, spotlighting both unsung and celebrated figures of past and present. For more information, please visit www.CastleSkins.org
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Solo Piano
Eddy Conrad : Tom Bombadil
Solo Viola
Kathryn Patricia Cobbler : A Home Called 'Wander'
Forbes Graham : Donna and Clifford
Yaz Lancaster : mimosa
Kevin Madison : Bus Driver
Shannon Sea : Hannah Elias II
Viola and Piano
Melika M. Fitzhugh : Violaceous
Adolphus Hailstork : VI-PI SPECIAL
Jonathan Bailey Holland : Blurred Glance
Mokale Koapeng : PHOLOSO
Monthati Masebe : Re/Cline
Charles M. Murrell, III : Fanfare
Brian Raphael Nabors : Hoedown for Isolation
Gary Powell Nash : Positive Negativity
Juwon Ogungbe : The Fattening Room
Emerson Sudbury : Sans Titre
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Viola, Piano and Electronics
Che Buford : A Day Passes
Brittany J. Green : Connected
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Che Buford
ABOUT THE COMPOSER
Che Buford is a violinist and composer from Brooklyn, NY.
Che is currently pursuing his Bachelors of Music in Violin Performance at the Boston Conservatory at Berklee where he studies with Rictor Noren.
He has participated in programs such as Curtis Summerfest, Interschool Orchestras of NY, and the National Youth Orchestra 2.
Che has written music for various chamber settings such as a chamber adaptation of an art song that he wrote called, We Lived Happily During The War which was premiered at ACOs gala in 2019. He also wrote an orchestra piece entitled If We Must Die which was premiered by the NY Phil for the Very Young Composers concert.
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Anxioulsy Reflecting q = 60
A Day Passes
Che Buford
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Anxioulsy Reflecting q =
A Day Passes
Pre-recorded siren Logic Pro X Pads
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Eddy Conrad
ABOUT THE COMPOSER
Eddy was born in Agew Gimjabet, Ethiopia and currently resides in Massachusetts.
Piano and trumpet are his primary instruments. He also plays trombone, clarinet, and saxophone. He has been playing piano for 7 years.
Eddy is a student at Berklee Prep Academy and New England Conservatory Prep Academy, both in Boston. He is also the youngest member of the Ipswich Summer Band. In addition, Eddy plays in his Middle School Jazz Band.
Eddy has been the keyboardist in the Worship Team at his church for 4 years. He also was the youngest singer ever in Chorus North Shore’s Honors Youth Choir.
He recently has an interest in playing songs by David Lanz. Eddy’s composition was inspired by the Lord of the Rings character, Tom Bombadil.
In his spare time, Eddy fishes for minnows, plays baseball, and reads lots of books.
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Flowing; = 112 q
con pedale, sempre legato
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Kathryn Patricia Cobbler
ABOUT THE COMPOSER
Hailing from Canada’s Capital region, loop pedal violist, composer, and arranger Kathryn Patricia Cobbler has crafted a singular niche in improvisation and classical performance. Recognized as an indemand artist, she has been featured in the Ottawa region’s most notable Concert Series, including Music & Beyond, Shenkman Arts Centre, Music At Southminster, and Ottawa New Music Creators' Analogue Series to name a few.
As a seasoned workshop facilitator and educator, Kathryn is proud to be a teaching artist for the El Sistema-inspired program OrKidstra and on the MASC Artist roster. She has also collaborated with other composers and artists of multiple disciplines, premiering pieces by Canadian composers Mika Posen, and Raphael WeinrothBrowne. Most recently Kathryn Patricia was Artist-in-Residence with the Ottawa Dance Directive composing and collaborating for the premiere of Dream & True North envisioned and choreographed by Elizabeth Emond-Stevenson.
After switching to music from visual arts, she received degrees in viola performance from Western University (B.M.) and the University of Ottawa (M.M.). She performs on a viola by luthier, Sibylle Ruppert and a Boss RC-30 loop pedal.
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A Home Called ‘Wander’
The piece entitled A Home Called ‘Wander’ was inspired by the following words of Maya Angelou:
"You only are free when you realize you belong no place -- you belong every place -- no place at all.”
It explores the concept of home as a place of Wandering, but also a place where wholeness and peace can be experienced.
Note To Performer:
I have included a few dynamic markings within the part; feel free to interpret the musical line and recite the poem written as text in the score as it resonates with your artistic expression.
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A Home Called 'Wander'
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Kathryn Patricia Cobbler (b. 1989)
She waits, but Wander
Embraces Shalohm
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Melika M. Fitzhugh
ABOUT THE COMPOSER
A native of Stafford, Virginia, Melika M. Fitzhugh (A.B. HarvardRadcliffe, M.M. Longy School of Music of Bard College) studied conducting and composition with Thomas G. Everett, Beverly Taylor, James Yannatos, Julian Pellicano, Roger Marsh, Jeff Stadelman, and, most recently, John Howell Morrison and Osnat Netzer.
Mel's compositions have been performed internationally by the PHACE Ensemble (Vienna, Austria), Quarteto Larianna (Sao Paulo, Brazil), the Brouwer Trio (Valencia, Spain), Sarah Jeffery (Amsterdam, Netherlands), the Radcliffe Choral Society (US), Berit Strong (US), John Tyson (US), Miyuki Tsurutani (Japan/US), and Aldo Abreu (Venezuela/US).
Mel was the 2020 winner of the PatsyLu Prize for IAWM’s Search for New Music, the 2014 winner of the Longy orchestral composition competition, and has performed with the Radcliffe Choral Society, Coro Allegro, the Harvard Wind Ensemble, the Village Circle Band, and WACSAC.
The artist, who has composed music for film and stage, was a member of Just In Time Composers and Players and is currently a member of world/early music ensemble Urban Myth, in addition to playing bass guitar with acoustic rock singer/songwriter Emmy Cerra, the ambient rock band Rose Cabal, and the Balkan folk dance band Balkan Fields.
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Melika M. Fitzhugh (2020)
Violaceous
Definition of violaceous: of the color violet
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Violaceous
Miniature for Viola and Piano
In a Purple Mood
Melika
& ?
Violaceous adjective vi·o·la·ceous
Definition of violaceous: of the color violet
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Forbes Graham
ABOUT THE COMPOSER
Forbes Graham is a trumpet player, electronic musician, and composer living and working in Boston, Massachusetts.
He is the founder of the Rock Flint Artists Retreat, and has appeared at numerous festivals including High Zero, Full Force, and Vision.
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Dedicated to Arna Bontemps
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Brittany J.Green
ABOUT THE COMPOSER
Described as “cinematic in the best sense” and “searing” (Chicago Classical Review), Brittany J. Green (b. 1991) writes music that works to facilitate collaborative, intimate musical spaces. The intersections between sound, video, movement, and text often serves as the focal point of these musical spaces. Several of her works engage sonification and black feminist theory as tools for sonic world-building, exploring the construction, displacement, and rupture of systems.
Brittany’s research explores the work of Julius Eastman through the lens of queer and critical race theory, mapping aural gestures to gestural recognition technology, and exploring VR platforms as tools for immersive music making. Her music has been featured at the Society of Composers National Conference, NYC Electronic Music Festival, and the Music by Women Festival. Her research has been presented at the NC Music Educators Association Conference and East Carolina University’s Research and Creative Arts Week. Brittany has collaborated with The JACK Quartet, International Contemporary Ensemble, Transient Canvas, and Mind on Fire.
Brittany holds degrees in Music Education and Composition from the University of North Carolina at Pembroke and East Carolina University. Brittany is a Deans Graduate Fellow at Duke University where she is pursing a PhD in Music Composition.
Driving but Meditative q= 100 Electronic Track Throughout
B b b 4 4
Brittany J. Green
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Connected
for Viola, Piano, and fixed media
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Brittany J. Green
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Adolphus Hailstork
ABOUT THE COMPOSER
Adolphus Hailstork has written numerous works for chorus, solo voice, piano, organ, various chamber ensembles, band, orchestra, and opera. Among his early compositions are: Celebration, recorded by the Detroit Symphony in 1976; Out of the Depths (1977) and American Guernica (1983), two band works which won national competitions. Consort Piece (1995) commissioned by the Norfolk Chamber Ensemble, was awarded first prize by the University of Delaware Festival of Contemporary Music
Significant performances by major orchestras (Philadelphia, Chicago, and New York) have been led by leading conductors such as James de Priest, Paul Freeman, Daniel Barenboim, Kurt Masur, Lorin Maezel, Jo Ann Falletta and David Lockington. In March 2019, Thomas Wilkins conducted Hailstork’s An American Port of Call with the Boston Symphony Orchestra.
Recent commissions include Rise for Freedom, an opera about the Underground Railroad, premiered in the fall of 2007 by the Cincinnati Opera Company; Set Me On a Rock (re: Hurricane Katrina), for chorus and orchestra, commissioned by the Houston Choral Society (2008); and the choral ballet, The Gift of the Magi, for treble chorus and orchestra, (2009).
Hailstork’s new pieces include The World Called (based on Rita Dove’s poem Testimonial), a work for soprano, chorus and orchestra commissioned by the Oratorio Society of Virginia, and Still Holding On, an orchestra work commissioned and premiered by the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Works in process include Tulsa 1921, A Knee on the Neck, and Symphony No. 4.
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Adolphus Hailstork
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Jonathan Bailey Holland
ABOUT THE COMPOSER
Jonathan Bailey Holland’s works have been commissioned and performed by the Atlanta, Baltimore, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Dallas, Detroit, Minnesota, National, Philadelphia, St. Louis, and South Bend Symphony Orchestras; Da Capo Chamber Players; Left Coast Chamber Ensemble; Plymouth Music Series of Minnesota (currentlyVocal Essence), and many others.
A recipient of a Massachusetts Cultural Council Artist Fellowship, and a Fromm Foundation Commission, he has received honors from the American Academy of Arts & Letters, American Music Center, ASCAP, the Presser Foundation, and more. He served as the first ever Composer-in-Residence for the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra during their 2018-2019 season, and served as Classical Roots Composer-in-Residence for the Detroit Symphony Orchestra during that same season. He has held similar roles with the Ritz Chamber Players; South Bend Symphony; and Radius Ensemble.
His music has been recorded by the Cincinnati Symphony; Detroit Symphony and numerous others. Recent highlights include performances by Hotel Elefant, Emmanuel Music featuring the Arneis Quartet, commissions by Boston’s Phoenix Ensemble, pianist Awadagin Pratt with Room Full of Teeth and A Far Cry, and more.
Holland is Chair of Composition, Contemporary Music, and Core Studies at Boston Conservatory at Berklee, and faculty at Vermont College of Fine Arts.
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Blurred Glance
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Intensely, q = 60
Jonathan Bailey HOLLAND
Blurred Glance
Jonathan Bailey HOLLAND
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ABOUT THE COMPOSER
Mokale Koapeng is a composer, conductor and academic. He studied music at the University of the Witwatersrand. He holds a masters degree in composition from the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg.
He taught composition at the University of the Witwatersrand and University of South Africa (UNISA). He is currently lecturing at Rusangu University, Monze, Zambia.
As a composer, he was Composer-in-Residence for the 2004 Consonances Festival in St Nazaire, France, the 2010 IHLOMBE South African Choral Festival, and the Johannesburg International Mozart Festival. His string quartet, Komeng is recorded by the Nightingale String Quartet from Denmark.
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Lively
PHOLOSO
SALVATION
For Viola and PIano
Mokale Koapeng
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Yaz Lancaster
ABOUT THE COMPOSER
Yaz Lancaster (they/them) is a transdisciplinary artist most interested in relational aesthetics and the everyday; fragments and collage; and anti-oppressive, liberatory politics.
Yaz performs as a violinist, vocalist, and steel pannist in a wide variety of settings from pop/DIY, to steel bands and orchestras; and they present work in many different mediums and collaborative projects.
Yaz has had the opportunity to create with artists like Andy Akiho, Contemporaneous, JACK Quartet, Leilehua Lanzilotti, Rohan Chander, Skiffle Steel Orchestra, and Wadada Leo Smith; among others.
They have degrees in violin and poetry from New York University; and they love chess, horror movies, and bubble tea.
http://yaz-lancaster.com
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Kevin Madison
ABOUT THE COMPOSER
Kevin Madison is a pianist, composer, and educator residing in Boston. He currently works as a teaching artist for the non-profit Rehearsal for Life, which seeks to create social change through theater and arts practices, targeting youth in Boston's public school system.
As a composer, his music has been featured at Spectrum, Le Poisson Rouge, Carnegie Hall, the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, the Brevard Music Center, the Bang on a Can music festival, and broadcasted on WQXR. His interests have recently shifted from being solely in classical music to writing in more commercial styles as well, with plans to release an album of self and co-produced music in 2021.
He will be attending the California Institute of the Arts as a performer-composer DMA starting in the Fall of 2021. Kevin graduated from the Boston Conservatory with a Master's in Contemporary Classical Music performance in 2019.
Some of Kevin's favorite artists include Tierra Whack, Brian Ferneyhough, Solange and the Staves.
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or much slower
Bus Driver
for Castle of our Skins
play so softly that everything seems accidental, but with a strict sense of time text needn't line up exaclty eith Viola part
spoken clearly : "I will take the bus."
Kevin Madison
"I will walk everyday." "the same way"
"and I will want." "I will want."
"I will know the same things."
Begin to touch your Viola lovingly. Make random, extremely tiny sounds with only your fingers on the fingerboard (no bow and no pizzicato) in the style of the above material (in terms of pitch content and ghosts of rhythms) while you do. As you do this, speak the following text, matter of factly:
"I will walk and I will touch my hair And think about the way the bus driver touched her own hair. I will continue to walk and soon sit. Small sounds all become the sound of me wanting.And my body is my own music. I will want this to be true for her more than I want it to true for myself. But that will never hold, not the way I'm holding my viola, and not the way in which she will ever touch her own body."
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Monthati Masebe
ABOUT THE COMPOSER
Sound artist, pianist and composer Monthati Masebe is passionate about unconventional story telling through the merging of various mediums. She has a deep curiosity for pollination between cultures. Her works delve into deep intertwining of rhythm, harmony and structure that is influenced by traditional music of southern Africa, late romantic and impressionist music, as well as her personal tastes in acid jazz, broken beats and house music. Monthati believes in the power of music through time and our ability to capture time in space and either warp, squeeze or freeze cultures in a way that gives us meaning as fluid as sound in space.
Monthati has received commissions for classical performers around the globe. Her string quartet Nomadic Nirvana had its international premiere in January 2021. Current works include a piano and Bass suite a kibuni which looks at the spiraling mind of a creative (a kibuni) in their process, and an Opera with Zakes Mda placed in 17th century Mpondoland. The opera is for full orchestra with the addition of uhadi, umrhube and umtshingo ensembles that expand the string and woodwind families into more afrocentric and decolonial narratives.
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Start slow and gradually increase tempo
Re/Cline
For Solo Viola and Piano
The piece is very childlike. Where possible can pianist play only with index finger. Viola is strictly percussive and rhythms may vary from text
Monthati Masebe knock on body tap fingernails on body
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Re/Cline
For Solo Viola and Piano
The piece is very childlike. Where possible can pianist play only with index finger. Viola is strictly percussive and rhythms may vary from text
Start slow and gradually increase tempo
tap fingernails on body
B & ?
& ?
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Charles M.Murrell, III
ABOUT THE COMPOSER
Born and raised in small-town Dover, DE, Charles won his first competition for an original arrangement of Shenandoah for his wind band. Since then Charles has premiered numerous works along the East Coast. This includes with the prominent Philadelphia Orchestra and narrator Charlotte Blake Alston, The Rodney Marsalis Brass Band, and a collection of university, church, and chamber ensembles. Works of his have been premiered at New England Conservatory, Boston Conservatory, The Curtis Institute.
Charles has performed as a multi-instrumentalist (single reeds) and vocalist, and conducted works of his own in addition to works of others. Working mostly as a composer-performer he has also gained mentoring as a copyist on projects with Hannibal Lokumbe, Dr. Lloyd Mallory, Jr. and others.
One finds a unique blending of African and American folk music and folk dance consistent to his palette of sounds, stories, and project concepts. Latest premiers include: an original arrangement of Wade in the Water and composition Yemaya at River St. both premiered for protests and small rituals; The Song of the Innocent, op. 8 commissioned June 2020 after the deaths of innocent BIPOC; and John Henry: His Hammer, His Ox, and His Beloved Wife with The Philadelphia Symphony Orchestra’s Sound All Around Program, an all-inclusive youth concert series especially designed for concert-goers with challenges.
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Noted teachers include Dr. James Lee (composer), Dr. Dominique DéLerma (archivist), David N. Baker (composer and conductor), Charles Dickerson (conductor of Inner City Youth Orchestra of LA) and others throughout his academic career.
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Charles M. Murrell, III (b.
Fanfare
for Viola and Piano
Charles M. Murrell, III (b. 1987)
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Brian Raphael Nabors
ABOUT THE COMPOSER
Brian Raphael Nabors (b.1991, Birmingham, AL) is a composer of emotionally enriching music that tells exciting narratives with its vibrant themes and colorful harmonic language. Nabors’ music has been performed by the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, Nashville Symphony Orchestra, Detroit Symphony Orchestra, and ROCO Chamber Orchestra. He has also been performed by artists such as the Atlanta Chamber Players, Dallas's Voices of Change, Boston Musica Viva and the Detroit Chamber Winds & Strings.
He was named a 2019 composer fellow in the American Composer’s Orchestra Earshot program with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra; a 2019 composer fellow with the Nashville Symphony Orchestra’s Composer Lab; and 2019 cycle five grand prize winner of the Rapido! National Composition Contest. Nabors is also a 2020 Fulbright scholarship recipient to Sydney, Australia, studying with composer Carl Vine at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music.
Nabors earned both a Doctor of Musical Arts and Master of Music degree in Composition at the University of Cincinnati CollegeConservatory of Music (CCM). Prior to graduate studies, he obtained a Bachelor of Music Theory & Composition degree from the School of the Arts at Samford University.
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Hoedown for Isolation
For Viola and Piano
Brian Raphael Nabors
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Gary Powell Nash
ABOUT THE COMPOSER
Gary Powell Nash, a native of Flint, Michigan is Professor of Music at Fisk University in Nashville, TN, where he teaches courses in music theory, technology, composition, and applied woodwinds, and conducts the Fisk Jazz Ensemble.
Nash’s compositions have been performed in all major regions of the United States and abroad on the continents of Europe and Asia.
Nash has received numerous grants and commissions including from Driftwood Duo to compose Mixed Messages (2020) clarinet duo, as well as and awards for his compositions.
Eleven of his compositions are featured on compact disc with four of those appearing on Albany Centaur and Citadel Records labels.
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Positive Negativity
for Viola and Piano duo
© 2020 Gary Powell Nash. All rights reserved. for Ashleigh Gordon and Anthony Green
Gary Powell Nash
Positive Negativity
for Viola and Piano duo
for Ashleigh Gordon and Anthony Green
Gary Powell Nash
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Juwon Ogungbe
ABOUT THE COMPOSER
Juwon Ogungbe is a London based composer, singer and theatre maker whose music draws inspiration from Opera, Western Art Music and African music genres.
Juwon’s concert and music theatre commissions include music for the Royal Shakespeare Company, Union Dance, the BBC, LIFT and the Southbank Centre amongst many others.
In 2018, Juwon composed and performed new works in residencies at Opera North, Grimeborn Opera Festival, Dhow Countries Music Academy, Zanzibar and Longfield Hall, London amongst other settings.
King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba – Juwon’s most recent music theatre piece – was premiered in 2019 and several new works of his were publicly performed in 2020.
Apart from creating music for film, television and radio, Juwon writes a daily blog which he posts on his website at juwonogungbe.com. He also presents weekly podcasts and vlogs that can be found on notable social media platforms.
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The
Fattening Room
Solo Viola and Piano
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Juwon Ogungbe
The Fattening Room for Solo Viola and Piano
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Shannon Sea
ABOUT THE COMPOSER
Shannon Sea is a Bahamian-American composer, sound artist, and sonic activist.
Her classical compositions are deeply influenced by the avantgarde aesthetic, electronic music, Taoism, and her Afro-Caribbean roots.
Largely self-taught, Sea began studying music theory and composition in 2017, after a career in law.
Her works explore themes of nature, spirituality, Afro-futurism, and self-exploration; and she seeks to create sound worlds that fuse together acoustic and electronic means of expression.
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Rubato D=120
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Emerson Sudbury
ABOUT THE COMPOSER
Emerson Sudbury (b 1994) is a New York-based composer and sound artist. He completed his BA and MA in Music/Music Composition at Hunter College. During his time in Hunter's music program, Emerson wrote several chamber works and electroacoustic works for ensembles such as Longleash and Mazumal. He also participated in the 2019 Cortona Sessions for New Music as a composition fellow.
He finds inspiration in Gothic and Expressionist literature, as well as the visual arts. Emerson's work often explores the subjective experience, the morbid, the macabre, and the space between the technological and the human, hoping to find or create a point of seamless overlap. Emerson's music also draws its influences from Kaija Saariaho, Arvo Pärt, Salvatore Sciarrino, Olivier Messaien, and the Delta Blues tradition. As a Black artist, he aims to express Black voices in contemporary art spaces by incorporating Black musical traditions while utilizing technology and extended techniques to create rich textures and sonorities.
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Sans Titre
For Solo Viola and Piano
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œ q = 60 sempre legato ; dolce
Emerson Sudbury
For Solo Viola and Piano
Emerson Sudbury
q = 60
sul pont.
sempre legato ; dolce
*X noteheads indicate gradual increase in bow pressure for the duration of the notes (pitch should still be present)
sempre legato
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