A concert by Mazikeen Loaiza
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Mazikeen Loaiza, composition
Mazikeen (Maze or Mazi) is a Senior Music Composition major with a minor in Studio Production at West Chester University. Maze Focuses her attention towards the art of songwriting and arranging classical instruments around contemporary writing, her influences in folk and indie lead her to writing poetry with heartfelt emotional lyrics. Her classical training in contemporary styles of orchestration and arranging lead to beautifully written music that blends together the styles of both the worlds of instrumental composition and songwriting.
LYRICS
MARTYR
Hang the martyr, bleed him dry
Show him what it means to die
Ash to ashes, dust to dust
Riches to rags and love to lust
âKeep my name outside your mindâ
Says the man who lives with pride
Carve your name, will it fade when youâre gone?
Etched in wood, but bleached white by the sun
Hang the martyr
Lose all the pain that you may harbor
Keep my name outside your mind
Stage your sorries line for line
Hang your martyr, bleed him dry
Pick apart my lakeside Eyes then Call me when you need confidinâ
Kiss and tell then tell me what you want
Lead me on a string for you to taunt
Gifted with the words of father
F*** off your sons and daughters
Carve your name, will it fade when youâre gone?
Etched in wood, but bleached white by the sun
Hang the martyr
Lose all the pain that you may harbor
Keep my name outside your mind
Stage your sorries line for line
Hang your martyr, bleed him dry
Bleed him dry
THANK YOU, JUDAS
Youâll be my right hand
And Iâll be your left, babe
âtil death do us part
âtil thereâs nothinâ left, babe
And Youâll still be in mourninâ
Like the doves and them sparrows
While Iâm stuck with your ghost
And a quiver of arrows
And when Iâm in that sunshine
And Iâve been waitinâ for a long time
Still singing your song
That youâre dead and gone
[Interlude]
Youâll be my right hand
and Iâll be your left, babe
âtil death do us part âtil thereâs nothin left, babe
And youâll still be in mourninâ like them doves and them sparrows
while Iâm stuck with your ghost
And a quiver of arrows
And when youâre in that sunshine
and youâve been waitinâ for a long, long time just to ask me whatâs so wrong?
baby Iâm dead and gone
ALL I HAVE LEFT OF YOU
Kiss me then tell me whatâs wrong with my head like a shrink without a license and Iâll do what you tell me, without hesitation, âthout even a worry for as long as you do
But that was years ago, since then I am different found love and a few lovers, shine bright as the snow but youâre still rooting around in the back of mind still thinkin bout what went wrong âcuz Iâm still livin in a song
I mourned you like mothers mourn their sons when they go to see what the world has to offer and up from the dead like a zombie or phoenix to bring me a birdie, just to burn when you go
And Iâll keep this vigil goinâ âtil the sun rises up âtil the copsâll tell me hey girl just move it along and theyâll kick my a** for holdinâ up traffic and iâd understand, âcuz I donât think their wrong âcuz im Still livin in a song
My grandfather's clock keeps ticking like itâs got somewhere else to be and I donât how to tell her that Iâm not going anywhere and I know this wonât hurt forever but god does it feel like it will âcuz thatâs not now thatâs not me
And Iâll mourn you like mothers mourn their sons when theyâre laid in the grounds sweet dirty embrace and youâll just be lyinâ there, in the bed that you made âtil the maggots come out in the dawn but youâll be livinâ in a song
CRASHINâ OUT
Is it just the wind that was howling back and forth just enough you canât ignore?
Down rabbit holes, the prospitable the truth may set you free Say my name without disdain the worth you that you could see
Iâm falling down
Them birds of a feather told me wanna stick together Tethered up into the weather âtil the holy storms is better but itâs only temporary for them sparrows and canaries
cannonfotter for the buried, hear the father and good Mary
Iâve been running out of time Iâve been saving up the peace trynnaâ save up peace of mind I've been tryinâ out for weeks then she held upon my hand told me punches wouldnât land let it flow out of my soul like the hours grain of sand
Iâve been running out of time Iâve been saving up the peace trynnaâ save up peace of mind I've been tryinâ out for weeks then she held upon my hand sayinâ its gon be alright ainât no reason to crash out tonight
And if hell is heaven sent âcuz itâs them angels thatâd sent it sentimental for a sentence, beg the subject for repentance but apart from all the brimstone and the fires, the deceivers and the liars, I donât claim responsibility for the words that may transpire
Iâve been running out of time Iâve been saving up the peace trynnaâ save up peace of mind I've been tryinâ out for weeks then she held upon my hand told me punches wouldnât land let it flow out of my soul like the hours grain of sand
Iâve been running out of time Iâve been saving up the peace trynnaâ save up peace of mind I've been tryinâ out for weeks then she held upon my hand sayinâ its gon be alright ainât no reason to crash out tonight
Iâve been running out of time Iâve been saving up the peace trynnaâ save up peace of mind I've been tryinâ out for weeks then she held upon my hand told me punches wouldnât land let it flow out of my soul like the hours grain of sand
Iâve been running out of time Iâve been saving up the peace trynnaâ save up peace of mind I've been tryinâ out for weeks then she held upon my hand sayinâ its gon be alright ainât no reason to crash out tonight
MYFANWY
I wish I had the words to carve into my chest, my stillbeating heart to press your lips into my palms your shaking breath, it pleads my wrongs
I must object, my mind is frail my body broken and thoughts are veiled you hold me in your hands of pearl they touch my soul and I unfurl
I was a slave to your embrace laid Torn and maimed, but you need space I wish I could be more, to your mind
Myfanwy, Myfanwy
Myfanwy,
Iâm trying to get what you mean to me
Myfanwy, Myfanwy, Myfanwy
Paint a picture of who you thought you were hang that picture in a frame paint a lover, a man who once you loved keep him distant for a day
QUESTIONS AND COMMENTARY AT THE ALTAR
I curse your pale and honest eyes and how they see through my obvious lies and with your stare, straight through my heart I break and I crumble and I fall apart
I was a slave to your embrace Laid Torn and mamed, but you need space I wish I could be more, to your mind
Myfanwy, Myfanwy
Myfanwy,
Iâm trying to get what you mean to me
Myfanwy, Myfanwy, Myfanwy
REMBRANDT
Paint a picture of who you thought you were hang that picture in a frame paint a lover, a man who once you loved keep him distant for a day
Give him the tools you never wanted for yourself let him fix his sufferinâ when in sickness and in health
Iâm not hopeless like you want me like you knew I never was
Face your fears die with em at the chapel at the end of the end road tell your friends and family âbout it fall for all your stories told Itâs only for a moment, then youâre stuck for all eternity
Leave behind all that youâve know sit beside him at his throne
This was what you wanted for a lifetime forever more so why are you frozen standing at the entrance to the altar floor youâre panicked with indecision, are you wrong for wanting more?
Is this all you might have shown? Sit beside him at his throne?
And Iâll be your crutch and Iâll be your light keep that light of hope and extinguish mine and Iâll be what you wanted but not what you need and Iâll call you my darling and praise you as king
And just for a moment I see all that Iâve lost and that Iâm holdin out for nothin besides an open box beside an open box
Itâs safer in the morning when itâs just you and the morninâ dew not a soul outside our bedroom window âtil you tell us something new then itâs older than the swallow calls echos out throughout the halls
Take all that you might have need âtil thereâs nothinâ left of me
And Iâll be your crutch and Iâll be your light keep that light of hope
and extinguish mine
and Iâll be what you wanted but not what you need and Iâll call you my darling and praise you as king
And just for a moment I see all that Iâve lost and that Iâm holdinâ out for nothinâ besides an open box beside an open box
ANGEL
Thereâs an angel on the shore as sure as she could be that her wings are falsely feathers lined with piano string
And sheâs hoisted to the sky never knowing that she fell asking everything but why as if heâd ever tell
Itâs shrouded and crowded by everything you knew with a lovely soul to sell and nothing else to do
Itâs free
Sheâs a devil they cry, crying harder then the sea for being anything but useful, such a horrible wretched thing
And theyâll throw her in a box just to open once or twice to see her lying naked for their sins and common vice
Youâre shrouded youâre crowded by everyone you knew with a lovely soul to sell and nothing else to do
Itâs free
Itâs free, Itâs free Itâs free, Itâs free
Itâs free, Itâs free
And then mourn her for all those who can and then see her as mortal as man and then break her for being so flawed and then blame for being a god
Itâs only human when itâs not me
Itâs only human when itâs not me
Itâs only human when itâs not me
Itâs only human when itâs not me
Itâs only human, Itâs only human Itâs only human, Itâs only human
Itâs only human
Itâs only human
Then morning crawls from night as the hunter and its prey dragging stars out from its entrails, itâs noble price to pay
Thereâs an angel on the shore as sure as she can be that her life may have a price and itâs cheap and itâs free
DEAD BIRD
Those lives of mine to love and cherish, to guard and guide along life's way O god forbid that on should perish that one a lamb should go astray
Laid upon the pavement, 80 feet below lies girls who thought they made it and their soft spoken betrothed
neighborhoods of glass made houses drove her close to mad kept on thinkin bout she wanted and lost what she had
Dead birds just dead birds you may think, just for a moment life gives you more than youâve earned rest easy, rest assured, little dead bird
Razor blades and cigarettes and Chopin waltzâs minuets, her hand is tied down to a piano bench
gazing down from windowsills with an empty bottle of saved up pills you were supposed to be so much more
Then dead birds just dead birds you may think, just for a moment life gives you more than youâve earned rest easy, rest assured, little dead birds rest easy, rest assured, little dead birds rest easy, rest assured, despite all that youâve heard rest easy, rest assured, little dead bird
PROGRAM NOTES
MARTYR(2024)
I wrote Martyr while sleeping on the couch of my then A Capella groups music director as I was seething angry about the concept of self-righteous individuals. At the time I was getting really into both folk and the Lydian scale so I combined all of these concepts (folk, anger, and church modes) into the beloved tune you hear today
PS. Beloved as in my band really likes it.
THANKYOU,JUDAS(2025)
This is the most ironic work Iâve ever written, from the perspective of Jesus Christ on the cross being really salty at Judas for betraying him. My goal was to write a very simple folk ballad, something catchy and ear-wormy enough to sound at home in most hymnals, yet still true to its irony-laid subject matter. In reality, I wrote Thank you, Judas after breaking off my engagement with my fiancĂ© of almost 5 years, the bitterness turning into this passiveaggressive hatred that inspires my writing for much of this performance.
ALLIHAVELEFTOFYOU(2025)
All I have left of you is a self-referential piece. Itâs about not only losing people, but losing every trace of them, barring the things you created in their name. However at the end of the song, the power of the muse is lifted. The power of ones memories become just that, memories, leaving space to learn and change from these past experiences. This song is simple, written in a AABA form (solo, verse, solo, verse, bridge, solo, outro) for the purpose of honing my lyric writing skills. This was a concept that meant a lot to me and I needed a well thought out and creative outlet for these big feelings, so I let it live in a song.
CRASHINâOUT(2024)
Crashinâ out is about rejection. Itâs about safe spaces losing their safety and becoming spaces you no longer know, but like, in a cool funky way. It was originally written as a part Dr Maggioâs âtwo chord songâ exercise as to highlight lyrical capability, which I took and ran with, becoming closer in style to rap music with its textual themes and delivery.
MYFANWY(2025)
Myfanwy is an attempt at modal mixture within songwriting, barrowing from the light and airy Lydian mode with the heavy feeling mixolydian. Then in the final breakdown of the piece diving into Minor and Dorian to create these very huge and epic feelings of regret and finality (in a Pearl Jam inspired kind of way). Myfanwy is about big and unrequited feelings, then burying these feelings, attempting to hide and seclude until they recede. Itâs this really nice blend of compositional technique and emotional venting, as all great art strives to be.
REMBRANDT(2024)
I know nothing about art. I know nothing of its history, of its significance in the modern world, let alone how to do it (shoutout to my lovely partner Nick for the illustrations!). In fact, I chose the name Rembrandt because it sounded cool, I could not point out a Rembrandt to save my life. However, lyrically Rembrandt isnât about art, itâs about visualization and imagination. I had written it about my ex-fiancĂ© before coming to the full realization that I had to leave him. I used it as a way to visualize my situation, imagining âwhat if I had a person like this in my life? What would I do?â and then having that person in my life.
QUESTIONSANDCOMMENTARYATTHEALTAR(2025)
This piece was written during my time with Dr. Ari Sussman as my composition professor. At the time I was focusing on simplicity in my song writing, sticking to Is, IVs and Vs with the occasional ii or vi, all with the goal of honing my lyric writing skills. A lot of my work with Dr. Sussman was with the subversion of harmonic cliché and broadening my tonal color palette. Altar was the result, frequently using non-functional harmony and modal mixture not commonly found in most examples of pop/indie music. This left me with a piece that accurately depicted my feelings at the time, freshly out of engagement and fully understanding the depths of my emotions surrounding the relationship that had ended. I felt angry, depressed, grieving, even glad and hopeful at times. I was feeling the depths and multitudes of the emotional spectrum as it was known to me to me at the time, so I let them out and experienced them, then I left them at the Altar
DEADBIRD(2024)
ANGEL(2025)
Angel is an example of how to treat and circumvent a line clichĂ©. Throughout all of my songwriting career over the past couple years Iâve done one specific thing well and that is modal mixture. Angel frequently uses chords from the relative major and Phrygian, even (and especially) in its main guitar riff with the usage of a root position Neapolitan chord in the verse chord loop, and IV in the chorus loop as well. Iâd written this song well into the first year of my medical transition, a point in time when I was beginning to understand my place in femininity and âwomanhoodâ as well as what itâs like to be socially accepted as a part of a binary when I wasnât actually a member of said binary. Angel lyrically is about being taken advantage of for the profit of others.
The finally of the night, Dead bird is a song about suicidal ideation and the pressure to succeed that comes with its looming threat. With that in mind, I wasnât in the best spot mentally when I had written the song. Yet when I recorded it for public release, Iâd done something special compared to the other times I had felt these ways. I talked, I reached out, Iâd connected with people I hadnât felt inclined to previously. The recording of Dead bird was an attempt to break my isolationist tendencies and create art with friends, to BE with friends. Itâs the reason you see so many people surrounding me tonight on that stage, because even if my tendency is to hide and be alone, I simply will not. Also, Dead bird was written about the dead bird that was outside the music building for a few weeks.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Maze would like to thank their family and friends who fill this audience, without these wonderful and beautiful people there wouldnât be nearly enough joy and care in her life, and certainly not as much inspiration as an artist and individual. She would also like to thank her partners for all of the incredible emotional support and foundation sheâs been able to rely on all this time. Theyâd like to thank their professors and faculty for being such cornerstones of her music education, as well as thanking the entire composition faculty for making the home sheâs found in West Chester Universityâs halls. She would also like to thank the musicians performing with her for their commitment to Maziâs music. They will be noted in both the program and at the end of the acknowledgments.
Lastly, they want to thank you, audience member. Whether your friend, family, or someone just trying to get a recital credit, none of this show wouldâve been possible. So, thank you, whoever you are
Niamh Kelly â Backing Vocals
Haley Phares â Backing Vocals/Backing Guitar
Gabriel Kolsevich â Tenor Saxophone/EWI
Ivy Visneski â French Horn
Alex Ruhl - Trumpet
Sylvie Priemon â Keys
Quinn Adams â Bass Guitar
Liam Turnage â Drums
Tyâlei Singleton â 1st Violin
Paola Loaiza â 2nd Violin
Bryn Vanrooyen â Viola
Gabby Felix â Tech/Live Sound
Illustrations by Nicolas Camaione-Lind