Search

1000 results for “less_beauty”

SelfAwarePatterns @[email protected] · 2025-08-31 · 13:43 UTC

Optimism for interstellar exploration
There’s been some attention lately to a contest on designing an interstellar generation ship, a large scale ship that humans live in for generations while it crosses interstellar space to another solar system. As Paul Gilster at Centauri Dreams notes, generation ships are a long time staple in science fiction, albeit with the common trope of the crew forgetting that they’re on a ship, or other things going horribly wrong.
But even before science fiction got into them, the generation ship was explored by early space exploration thinkers like Robert Goddard and Konstantin Tsiolkovsky. Whenever I’m tempted to dismiss current thinking about how interstellar exploration might work, I think about people like Goddard, Tsiolkovsky, Walter Hohmann, and Hermann Oberth, guys working in the early 1900s who were able to predict a lot of the space age, just by carefully thinking through known physics.
Although I find it hard to be too enthusiastic for generation ships. It’s worth thinking about what might have to be true for us to consign a group of people, who would have to be highly skilled, to spending the rest of their lives and that of their descendants in a profoundly isolated environment. It seems like we wouldn’t want to do it unless a number of factors were true.
We would likely want to know that there was a desirable destination worth pursuing. So we probably would have already sent robotic probes to the destination and would have thorough information on the environment. Otherwise the chances of ship’s descendants finding worlds no better than the other planets in our solar system would be too high.
There would also need to be some kind of ideology or religion, some type of manifest destiny involved, something that convinces a society to spend the kind of resources that would be needed for building something like a mobile space colony and accelerating it away at a velocity that allows it to reach its destination in any kind of reasonable time frame. (The contest posits one percent lightspeed, which gets it to Proxima Centauri in four centuries, but would take over a millenia to get to somewhere like Tau Ceti.)
To me, the whole endeavor is easier to imagine, and much less ethically dire, if it isn’t actually a generation ship, but a long duration mission for humans who have achieved immortality, or at least much longer lifespans.
It’s worth noting that the energy to get that large a habitat to even one percent of light (3000 kilometers per second) would be staggering. Although we might imagine it being doable with several gigantic fusion rocket stages. In calculating things like this, we always run up against the tyranny of the rocket equation, which is pitiless in revealing that fuel requirements increase exponentially the heavier our payload and the faster we want to go. (And are even yet more exponentially worse if we need to use the same method to slow down at the destination.)
Earlier this year I did a post asking where the aliens are. At the end, I noted that one possibility to explain why they’re not here, is that maybe interstellar travel is impossible, even for robots. Putting that at the end of the post led a number of people to conclude that was my argument. But I’m actually pretty bullish on the idea of robotic interstellar exploration. (Although I do fear generation, long duration, or sleeper ships might be as good as it gets for sending biological humans.)
Years ago, Paul Gilster made a comment that stuck with me. He noted that the main obstacle to interstellar exploration is energy, but we have all the energy we need in the sun. The trick is to find a way to channel it.
One of the currently most promising options is to use a laser propelled light sail, where a ground based laser, or array of lasers, propel a light sail craft to some substantial percentage of lightspeed. The beauty of approaches like this is they get around the tyranny of the rocket equation by having the energy used for acceleration remain outside of the spacecraft. This is the method envisaged by Breakthrough Starshot.
There are also hybrid approaches involving beaming power to a spacecraft which uses it to accelerate propellant, but the added weight and acceleration times increase the amount of coordination needed and opportunities for things to go wrong.
Breakthrough Starshot is currently aiming for a flyby mission, but to get enough information to support a future human mission, the craft would have to slow down and be able to explore at its destination. Slowing down, which in space takes just as much energy as accelerating, is a non-trivial problem.
A possible solution comes from an old idea. The Bussard ramjet was originally conceived of as a way for a spacecraft to gather its fuel in flight from the interstellar medium using an electromagnetic ram scoop. The problem is that the scoop has been demonstrated to likely produce as much drag as thrust. However, it leads to the idea of using a magnetic sail to break against the interstellar medium, and maybe even switching to an electric sail in the final stages to get down to interplanetary speeds.
Of course, this means a multi-sail design, which adds considerable weight, requiring larger initial light sails and laser arrays. But if we put the lasers on Mercury (as Robert Forward suggested in one of his designs), where solar power would be much more plentiful, such laser arrays start to seem more plausible.
Looking further down the road, the rocket situation could be improved if we can find a way to harness antimatter, aside from black holes, the most dense energy storage mechanism currently known. Manufacturing antimatter is often thought to be the bottleneck here, but again, if the antimatter factories were in close orbit of the sun, utilizing the solar power available there, it might be easier to imagine it happening.
All of which is to say, I don’t think interstellar exploration is impossible. I do doubt it will be practical for humans for a long time. But we seem to have multiple potential approaches for doing it robotically. While some may fizzle along the way, it’s hard to imagine all of them failing.
At least that’s how it looks to me today. But maybe I’m missing something? Are there problems with these approaches I’m overlooking? Or solid reasons to be more optimistic for sending humans?
#Future #GenerationShip #Interstellar #interstellarExploration #Space #spaceExploration

#future #generationship #interstellar #interstellarexploration #space #spaceexploration
SelfAwarePatterns @[email protected] · 2025-08-31 · 13:43 UTC

Optimism for interstellar exploration
There’s been some attention lately to a contest on designing an interstellar generation ship, a large scale ship that humans live in for generations while it crosses interstellar space to another solar system. As Paul Gilster at Centauri Dreams notes, generation ships are a long time staple in science fiction, albeit with the common trope of the crew forgetting that they’re on a ship, or other things going horribly wrong.
But even before science fiction got into them, the generation ship was explored by early space exploration thinkers like Robert Goddard and Konstantin Tsiolkovsky. Whenever I’m tempted to dismiss current thinking about how interstellar exploration might work, I think about people like Goddard, Tsiolkovsky, Walter Hohmann, and Hermann Oberth, guys working in the early 1900s who were able to predict a lot of the space age, just by carefully thinking through known physics.
Although I find it hard to be too enthusiastic for generation ships. It’s worth thinking about what might have to be true for us to consign a group of people, who would have to be highly skilled, to spending the rest of their lives and that of their descendants in a profoundly isolated environment. It seems like we wouldn’t want to do it unless a number of factors were true.
We would likely want to know that there was a desirable destination worth pursuing. So we probably would have already sent robotic probes to the destination and would have thorough information on the environment. Otherwise the chances of ship’s descendants finding worlds no better than the other planets in our solar system would be too high.
There would also need to be some kind of ideology or religion, some type of manifest destiny involved, something that convinces a society to spend the kind of resources that would be needed for building something like a mobile space colony and accelerating it away at a velocity that allows it to reach its destination in any kind of reasonable time frame. (The contest posits one percent lightspeed, which gets it to Proxima Centauri in four centuries, but would take over a millenia to get to somewhere like Tau Ceti.)
To me, the whole endeavor is easier to imagine, and much less ethically dire, if it isn’t actually a generation ship, but a long duration mission for humans who have achieved immortality, or at least much longer lifespans.
It’s worth noting that the energy to get that large a habitat to even one percent of light (3000 kilometers per second) would be staggering. Although we might imagine it being doable with several gigantic fusion rocket stages. In calculating things like this, we always run up against the tyranny of the rocket equation, which is pitiless in revealing that fuel requirements increase exponentially the heavier our payload and the faster we want to go. (And are even yet more exponentially worse if we need to use the same method to slow down at the destination.)
Earlier this year I did a post asking where the aliens are. At the end, I noted that one possibility to explain why they’re not here, is that maybe interstellar travel is impossible, even for robots. Putting that at the end of the post led a number of people to conclude that was my argument. But I’m actually pretty bullish on the idea of robotic interstellar exploration. (Although I do fear generation, long duration, or sleeper ships might be as good as it gets for sending biological humans.)
Years ago, Paul Gilster made a comment that stuck with me. He noted that the main obstacle to interstellar exploration is energy, but we have all the energy we need in the sun. The trick is to find a way to channel it.
One of the currently most promising options is to use a laser propelled light sail, where a ground based laser, or array of lasers, propel a light sail craft to some substantial percentage of lightspeed. The beauty of approaches like this is they get around the tyranny of the rocket equation by having the energy used for acceleration remain outside of the spacecraft. This is the method envisaged by Breakthrough Starshot.
There are also hybrid approaches involving beaming power to a spacecraft which uses it to accelerate propellant, but the added weight and acceleration times increase the amount of coordination needed and opportunities for things to go wrong.
Breakthrough Starshot is currently aiming for a flyby mission, but to get enough information to support a future human mission, the craft would have to slow down and be able to explore at its destination. Slowing down, which in space takes just as much energy as accelerating, is a non-trivial problem.
A possible solution comes from an old idea. The Bussard ramjet was originally conceived of as a way for a spacecraft to gather its fuel in flight from the interstellar medium using an electromagnetic ram scoop. The problem is that the scoop has been demonstrated to likely produce as much drag as thrust. However, it leads to the idea of using a magnetic sail to break against the interstellar medium, and maybe even switching to an electric sail in the final stages to get down to interplanetary speeds.
Of course, this means a multi-sail design, which adds considerable weight, requiring larger initial light sails and laser arrays. But if we put the lasers on Mercury (as Robert Forward suggested in one of his designs), where solar power would be much more plentiful, such laser arrays start to seem more plausible.
Looking further down the road, the rocket situation could be improved if we can find a way to harness antimatter, aside from black holes, the most dense energy storage mechanism currently known. Manufacturing antimatter is often thought to be the bottleneck here, but again, if the antimatter factories were in close orbit of the sun, utilizing the solar power available there, it might be easier to imagine it happening.
All of which is to say, I don’t think interstellar exploration is impossible. I do doubt it will be practical for humans for a long time. But we seem to have multiple potential approaches for doing it robotically. While some may fizzle along the way, it’s hard to imagine all of them failing.
At least that’s how it looks to me today. But maybe I’m missing something? Are there problems with these approaches I’m overlooking? Or solid reasons to be more optimistic for sending humans?
#Future #GenerationShip #Interstellar #interstellarExploration #Space #spaceExploration

#future #generationship #interstellar #interstellarexploration #space #spaceexploration
SelfAwarePatterns @[email protected] · 2025-08-31 · 13:43 UTC

Optimism for interstellar exploration
There’s been some attention lately to a contest on designing an interstellar generation ship, a large scale ship that humans live in for generations while it crosses interstellar space to another solar system. As Paul Gilster at Centauri Dreams notes, generation ships are a long time staple in science fiction, albeit with the common trope of the crew forgetting that they’re on a ship, or other things going horribly wrong.
But even before science fiction got into them, the generation ship was explored by early space exploration thinkers like Robert Goddard and Konstantin Tsiolkovsky. Whenever I’m tempted to dismiss current thinking about how interstellar exploration might work, I think about people like Goddard, Tsiolkovsky, Walter Hohmann, and Hermann Oberth, guys working in the early 1900s who were able to predict a lot of the space age, just by carefully thinking through known physics.
Although I find it hard to be too enthusiastic for generation ships. It’s worth thinking about what might have to be true for us to consign a group of people, who would have to be highly skilled, to spending the rest of their lives and that of their descendants in a profoundly isolated environment. It seems like we wouldn’t want to do it unless a number of factors were true.
We would likely want to know that there was a desirable destination worth pursuing. So we probably would have already sent robotic probes to the destination and would have thorough information on the environment. Otherwise the chances of ship’s descendants finding worlds no better than the other planets in our solar system would be too high.
There would also need to be some kind of ideology or religion, some type of manifest destiny involved, something that convinces a society to spend the kind of resources that would be needed for building something like a mobile space colony and accelerating it away at a velocity that allows it to reach its destination in any kind of reasonable time frame. (The contest posits one percent lightspeed, which gets it to Proxima Centauri in four centuries, but would take over a millenia to get to somewhere like Tau Ceti.)
To me, the whole endeavor is easier to imagine, and much less ethically dire, if it isn’t actually a generation ship, but a long duration mission for humans who have achieved immortality, or at least much longer lifespans.
It’s worth noting that the energy to get that large a habitat to even one percent of light (3000 kilometers per second) would be staggering. Although we might imagine it being doable with several gigantic fusion rocket stages. In calculating things like this, we always run up against the tyranny of the rocket equation, which is pitiless in revealing that fuel requirements increase exponentially the heavier our payload and the faster we want to go. (And are even yet more exponentially worse if we need to use the same method to slow down at the destination.)
Earlier this year I did a post asking where the aliens are. At the end, I noted that one possibility to explain why they’re not here, is that maybe interstellar travel is impossible, even for robots. Putting that at the end of the post led a number of people to conclude that was my argument. But I’m actually pretty bullish on the idea of robotic interstellar exploration. (Although I do fear generation, long duration, or sleeper ships might be as good as it gets for sending biological humans.)
Years ago, Paul Gilster made a comment that stuck with me. He noted that the main obstacle to interstellar exploration is energy, but we have all the energy we need in the sun. The trick is to find a way to channel it.
One of the currently most promising options is to use a laser propelled light sail, where a ground based laser, or array of lasers, propel a light sail craft to some substantial percentage of lightspeed. The beauty of approaches like this is they get around the tyranny of the rocket equation by having the energy used for acceleration remain outside of the spacecraft. This is the method envisaged by Breakthrough Starshot.
There are also hybrid approaches involving beaming power to a spacecraft which uses it to accelerate propellant, but the added weight and acceleration times increase the amount of coordination needed and opportunities for things to go wrong.
Breakthrough Starshot is currently aiming for a flyby mission, but to get enough information to support a future human mission, the craft would have to slow down and be able to explore at its destination. Slowing down, which in space takes just as much energy as accelerating, is a non-trivial problem.
A possible solution comes from an old idea. The Bussard ramjet was originally conceived of as a way for a spacecraft to gather its fuel in flight from the interstellar medium using an electromagnetic ram scoop. The problem is that the scoop has been demonstrated to likely produce as much drag as thrust. However, it leads to the idea of using a magnetic sail to break against the interstellar medium, and maybe even switching to an electric sail in the final stages to get down to interplanetary speeds.
Of course, this means a multi-sail design, which adds considerable weight, requiring larger initial light sails and laser arrays. But if we put the lasers on Mercury (as Robert Forward suggested in one of his designs), where solar power would be much more plentiful, such laser arrays start to seem more plausible.
Looking further down the road, the rocket situation could be improved if we can find a way to harness antimatter, aside from black holes, the most dense energy storage mechanism currently known. Manufacturing antimatter is often thought to be the bottleneck here, but again, if the antimatter factories were in close orbit of the sun, utilizing the solar power available there, it might be easier to imagine it happening.
All of which is to say, I don’t think interstellar exploration is impossible. I do doubt it will be practical for humans for a long time. But we seem to have multiple potential approaches for doing it robotically. While some may fizzle along the way, it’s hard to imagine all of them failing.
At least that’s how it looks to me today. But maybe I’m missing something? Are there problems with these approaches I’m overlooking? Or solid reasons to be more optimistic for sending humans?
#Future #GenerationShip #Interstellar #interstellarExploration #Space #spaceExploration

#spaceexploration #space #interstellarexploration #interstellar #generationship #future
SelfAwarePatterns @[email protected] · 2025-08-31 · 13:43 UTC

Optimism for interstellar exploration
There’s been some attention lately to a contest on designing an interstellar generation ship, a large scale ship that humans live in for generations while it crosses interstellar space to another solar system. As Paul Gilster at Centauri Dreams notes, generation ships are a long time staple in science fiction, albeit with the common trope of the crew forgetting that they’re on a ship, or other things going horribly wrong.
But even before science fiction got into them, the generation ship was explored by early space exploration thinkers like Robert Goddard and Konstantin Tsiolkovsky. Whenever I’m tempted to dismiss current thinking about how interstellar exploration might work, I think about people like Goddard, Tsiolkovsky, Walter Hohmann, and Hermann Oberth, guys working in the early 1900s who were able to predict a lot of the space age, just by carefully thinking through known physics.
Although I find it hard to be too enthusiastic for generation ships. It’s worth thinking about what might have to be true for us to consign a group of people, who would have to be highly skilled, to spending the rest of their lives and that of their descendants in a profoundly isolated environment. It seems like we wouldn’t want to do it unless a number of factors were true.
We would likely want to know that there was a desirable destination worth pursuing. So we probably would have already sent robotic probes to the destination and would have thorough information on the environment. Otherwise the chances of ship’s descendants finding worlds no better than the other planets in our solar system would be too high.
There would also need to be some kind of ideology or religion, some type of manifest destiny involved, something that convinces a society to spend the kind of resources that would be needed for building something like a mobile space colony and accelerating it away at a velocity that allows it to reach its destination in any kind of reasonable time frame. (The contest posits one percent lightspeed, which gets it to Proxima Centauri in four centuries, but would take over a millenia to get to somewhere like Tau Ceti.)
To me, the whole endeavor is easier to imagine, and much less ethically dire, if it isn’t actually a generation ship, but a long duration mission for humans who have achieved immortality, or at least much longer lifespans.
It’s worth noting that the energy to get that large a habitat to even one percent of light (3000 kilometers per second) would be staggering. Although we might imagine it being doable with several gigantic fusion rocket stages. In calculating things like this, we always run up against the tyranny of the rocket equation, which is pitiless in revealing that fuel requirements increase exponentially the heavier our payload and the faster we want to go. (And are even yet more exponentially worse if we need to use the same method to slow down at the destination.)
Earlier this year I did a post asking where the aliens are. At the end, I noted that one possibility to explain why they’re not here, is that maybe interstellar travel is impossible, even for robots. Putting that at the end of the post led a number of people to conclude that was my argument. But I’m actually pretty bullish on the idea of robotic interstellar exploration. (Although I do fear generation, long duration, or sleeper ships might be as good as it gets for sending biological humans.)
Years ago, Paul Gilster made a comment that stuck with me. He noted that the main obstacle to interstellar exploration is energy, but we have all the energy we need in the sun. The trick is to find a way to channel it.
One of the currently most promising options is to use a laser propelled light sail, where a ground based laser, or array of lasers, propel a light sail craft to some substantial percentage of lightspeed. The beauty of approaches like this is they get around the tyranny of the rocket equation by having the energy used for acceleration remain outside of the spacecraft. This is the method envisaged by Breakthrough Starshot.
There are also hybrid approaches involving beaming power to a spacecraft which uses it to accelerate propellant, but the added weight and acceleration times increase the amount of coordination needed and opportunities for things to go wrong.
Breakthrough Starshot is currently aiming for a flyby mission, but to get enough information to support a future human mission, the craft would have to slow down and be able to explore at its destination. Slowing down, which in space takes just as much energy as accelerating, is a non-trivial problem.
A possible solution comes from an old idea. The Bussard ramjet was originally conceived of as a way for a spacecraft to gather its fuel in flight from the interstellar medium using an electromagnetic ram scoop. The problem is that the scoop has been demonstrated to likely produce as much drag as thrust. However, it leads to the idea of using a magnetic sail to break against the interstellar medium, and maybe even switching to an electric sail in the final stages to get down to interplanetary speeds.
Of course, this means a multi-sail design, which adds considerable weight, requiring larger initial light sails and laser arrays. But if we put the lasers on Mercury (as Robert Forward suggested in one of his designs), where solar power would be much more plentiful, such laser arrays start to seem more plausible.
Looking further down the road, the rocket situation could be improved if we can find a way to harness antimatter, aside from black holes, the most dense energy storage mechanism currently known. Manufacturing antimatter is often thought to be the bottleneck here, but again, if the antimatter factories were in close orbit of the sun, utilizing the solar power available there, it might be easier to imagine it happening.
All of which is to say, I don’t think interstellar exploration is impossible. I do doubt it will be practical for humans for a long time. But we seem to have multiple potential approaches for doing it robotically. While some may fizzle along the way, it’s hard to imagine all of them failing.
At least that’s how it looks to me today. But maybe I’m missing something? Are there problems with these approaches I’m overlooking? Or solid reasons to be more optimistic for sending humans?
#Future #GenerationShip #Interstellar #interstellarExploration #Space #spaceExploration

#future #generationship #interstellar #interstellarexploration #space #spaceexploration
la tierra de nuestros nietos @[email protected] · 2025-08-27 · 01:50 UTC

1/x
🧵
#autochthonousAquarium #Uruguay #permaculture
@mina
> Regarding the rain water, I thought it might need some filtering.
Actually that's quite a complex issue, and depends on a lot of factors, including the species involved, and probably even details like the quality of the rain, issues like like acidic rain, "Saurer Regen" in german. In general terms it's recomended to use it.
To begin with it depends on the filter system, the amount of water in the tank and the amount of water you replace. You normally would treat tab water with chemicals or store it at least in open buckets for like two days so that the clorin in it can evaporate.
We never did either of that.
Commonly they say that rain water is quite the contrary to acidic, in german they say "soft" (weich), there is the tale that it is very good for washing your hair.
The fish you'll see in the videos are where you are quite exotic and their for relative expensive, if you get them at all.
All those "exotic" species over here are not only "for free" but come with the added value of emotion of catching the unknown when you lift the trap, including the extra of joy with the kids when you got something and discover new species. Definitely way more exiting than colecting postal stamps or football album figures you'll have to spend lifetime of your own for to get the money to buy them.
Given those facts we started to preocuppy less, began to use "common sense" instead of the indications of the german "Aquarium Atlas of a 1000 species" and took the road of investigating and #learningByDoing.
Things like temperature indication in the literature:
18-22 degrees celsisus!
/head scratching:
"How strange, the creeks in the winter over here a painstakingly cold. Let's forget about the temperature, this is local climate as it is."
PH indication of all kinds:
"Let's build a good filter system inventing it due to our best knowledge with what is at hand and see what's happening."
At first we used the high quality Eheim filter we brought with us. Ultimately we ended up with only the motor, as you can see in the video.
The filters are:
* The floor of the upper tank, using the standard cheapest clay "baldozas" from the nearest "barraca", covered with sand from the creek, and the lower water outlet of the tank as flow out.
From there the outflow "manguera" goes up to mark the water level of outflow we want to have for the upper tank. From their the water pours down into the lower tank in a free fall, which is actually even much bigger than the one on top.
* Inside that tank on the bottom we put a kind a filter wool cartridge, made out of a big disposable plastic bottle. Inside that cartidge goes the feeding "manguera" of the water pump that feeds the filtered water, free of sediments to not compromise the pump, back to the upper tank. Ultimately the strength of the pump doesn't matter as the water simply overflows when the desired height of water level is reached in the upper tank.
A good aquarium filter system works mainly on microorganisms. The clearness of the water in any case is created by the filter wool. As you get your sand from the creek itself, it comes with the respective bacteria and microorganisms all along. Actually you normally wash it with clear water at least two to three times, so make sure to retain those organisms. A good filter system needs like up to a month to fullly evolve. As you can see in the videos, to really clear out the water of the recovery session, it took the filter system like four to five days to really create cristal clear water.
As visible in the video, the lower tank is nearly at the higth of the floor and sorunded by la lot of vegetation. So there are a lot of leaves year round falling into it that actually start to decay in it. Anaerobic decomposition is the fastest decomposition and actually an interesting way to create fertilizer. Maybe once a year we cleared out all that decaing material from the lower tank. In the upper tank we simply cleaned the sand by picking up visible stuff that feel into the open air aquarium and maybe every once in a while using the "campana" aspiration system, adapting a 0.5l disposable plastic bottle with a "manguera", evacuating the sucked water into the lower tank. But that's only for the purpose of beauty of the visible instalation, the "show room aquarium".
Just to get an idea of how something like that looks and feels like, when cleaning out the lower tank of the decaid material, actually even methan bubbles popped up. We never did a PH test of the water, so no idea about those details.
The lower tank had fishes too, of course. In part it was the recipient for the fish that were to many in the upper tank.
The composition of amount and diversity of fishes in an aquarium is probably the most creative and important detail for a nice living ecosystem painting.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2rDhokkn0JA
@bitpickup @aiquez @crossgolf_rebel @dprieto @sinmisterios

#autochthonousaquarium #uruguay #permaculture #learningbydoing
Bryan King @[email protected] · 2025-08-22 · 11:30 UTC
Is Resin Printing Worth the Mess? Brutally Honest Breakdown for First-Timers
1,526 words, 8 minutes read time.
If you’ve been lurking in the shadows of 3D printing forums or scanning YouTube for the next big step in your printing game, chances are you’ve stumbled on resin printing. It’s that tantalizing tech that promises jaw-dropping detail, surfaces so smooth they make FDM prints look like sandpaper, and the kind of precision that makes miniatures and prototypes scream quality. But here’s the real talk: resin printing comes with a mess and a handful of headaches that many first-timers don’t see coming. So, is it worth diving into the resin pool, or should you stick to good ol’ filament? Let’s rip off the band-aid and get gritty on the truth of resin printing.

What Is Resin Printing? A Quick Overview
Before we dissect the good, the bad, and the ugly, it’s important to get clear on what resin printing actually is. Unlike FDM printers that melt and extrude plastic filament layer by layer, resin printers use a vat of liquid photopolymer resin cured by light. The most common types you’ll hear about are SLA (Stereolithography), MSLA (Masked Stereolithography), and DLP (Digital Light Processing). All use UV light to harden the resin in very thin, precise layers, which is why the level of detail you get is miles ahead of filament printing.
Resin printing is a fundamentally different beast—it’s more about light chemistry than hot plastic. That difference brings massive rewards in detail and finish, but also a totally different workflow that can feel like stepping into an alien lab if you’re used to FDM.

The Good: Why Resin Printing Rocks
Let’s start with the shine—resin printing delivers insane detail and surface smoothness that filament printers can’t touch. For guys who are into tabletop gaming, collectibles, or prototyping tiny mechanical parts, resin prints can capture the crisp edges and subtle curves you thought only existed in CAD renders. The resolution is typically measured in microns, not millimeters, which means you can pick out textures on a miniature’s armor or the intricate lattice on a prototype bracket with pinpoint accuracy.
Beyond beauty, resin prints can be incredibly strong and functional, depending on the resin you use. There are tough engineering resins, flexible ones, and even biocompatible varieties for dental or medical applications. This versatility means resin printing is carving out a solid place not just with hobbyists, but with businesses looking for rapid, high-fidelity prototyping without resorting to expensive CNC or injection molding.
Another bonus is how fast resin printers can spit out parts. Sure, you’re still building layer by layer, but curing a whole layer at once rather than tracing it with a nozzle often means speedier prints for small, detailed objects. When you want quality and speed in the same package, resin printing has your back.

The Bad: The Mess and Headaches of Resin Printing
Here’s where things get real. The downside to resin printing is all about the mess and the safety headaches that come with working with liquid resin. This stuff isn’t your run-of-the-mill filament spool you toss in and forget. Resin is a toxic, smelly chemical cocktail that demands respect and careful handling. Direct skin contact can cause irritation or allergic reactions, and the fumes aren’t something you want lingering in your man cave.
The post-processing is a chore you won’t escape. Once your print is done, you need to wash it, usually in isopropyl alcohol, to strip off uncured resin. Then, you have to cure it under UV light to harden it fully. This washing and curing routine isn’t just another step; it can take as long as the print itself and involves dealing with flammable liquids and sticky resin sludge.
Disposal is another headache. You can’t just pour leftover resin or used alcohol down the drain without risking environmental damage and local code violations. You’ll need to research how to properly cure and dispose of waste resin, which adds another layer of complexity for the newbie.
On top of that, the resin printer itself demands careful cleaning and maintenance. The vats and FEP films (the thin transparent layers at the bottom of resin trays) wear out and need replacing, and any spills can quickly turn your workspace into a nightmare. Without proper ventilation and protective gear like nitrile gloves and safety glasses, you’re flirting with respiratory irritation and skin problems.

Equipment and Setup: What You’ll Need to Manage the Mess
If you’re thinking resin printing sounds awesome but want to avoid turning your garage into a toxic swamp, prepping the right setup is non-negotiable. First up, safety gear isn’t optional — gloves, a respirator or mask rated for organic vapors, and eye protection are your frontline defense. You’ll also want a well-ventilated space or ideally, a dedicated room with a fume extractor. Trust me, the resin smell sticks around and gets old fast.
Next, post-processing tools like an ultrasonic cleaner or a good wash station can save you time and hassle. UV curing stations are essential to finish prints properly—while sunlight can do the job, it’s slow and inconsistent. Some budget printers come with UV lights built-in, but many require a separate device.
Your workspace should be easy to clean and resistant to resin spills. Plastic trays, disposable paper towels, and dedicated resin containers will save your sanity. The resin itself can be messy—be prepared for drips and splashes, especially when pouring and cleaning.

Maintenance and Ongoing Costs
Unlike filament printers where the ongoing costs are mostly filament and maybe a new nozzle now and then, resin printing carries a heavier price tag over time. Resin is more expensive per liter than filament, and waste from failed prints or washing can add up quickly. Consumables like replacement vats, FEP films, gloves, and isopropyl alcohol add to the tally.
Plus, the time cost isn’t trivial. Post-processing can double your total print time, especially if you’re meticulous about cleaning and curing. And neglecting maintenance or safety can lead to poor print quality or health issues.

First-Timer Tips: How to Survive and Thrive
If you’re still here and seriously thinking about dipping your toes into resin printing, here’s some hard-earned advice. Start small with cheap resins and basic printers before dropping serious cash. Never skip safety protocols—those gloves and goggles exist for a reason.
Plan your post-processing workflow before your first print. Set up a dedicated cleaning area, and always have proper waste disposal methods ready. Expect a learning curve; don’t get discouraged by early fails or messy spills. Clean resin off your tools and surfaces immediately; once it cures, it’s a nightmare to remove.
One of the biggest rookie mistakes is rushing prints or post-processing to save time. Resin printing rewards patience and precision. Follow manufacturer instructions closely, experiment with settings gradually, and join forums or communities to swap tips.

Is It Worth It? The Final Verdict
So, is resin printing worth the mess? The honest answer is: it depends. If you crave ultra-high detail, smooth surfaces, and can handle a bit of chemistry lab discipline, resin printing opens doors that filament can’t. Miniature painters, jewelers, model makers, and prototype developers will appreciate the leaps in quality and speed.
However, if you’re sensitive to chemicals, don’t want to invest in extra gear or spend significant time on post-processing, resin might not be your best first choice. FDM printing still rocks for durability, ease, and low cost.
The tech is evolving, and newer resins and machines are getting safer and less messy, but it’s still a commitment. Understanding the risks, costs, and workflow upfront will help you decide if this next-level tech deserves a spot in your printing arsenal.

Conclusion
Resin printing isn’t just a step up from filament; it’s a whole new game with different rules. It demands respect for the chemicals, time for cleanup, and patience to master. But the payoff—mind-blowing detail and finish—makes it an addiction for those who love pushing 3D printing’s limits.
If you’re ready to take the plunge or want to share your resin printing war stories, drop a comment below or reach out directly. And don’t forget to subscribe to our newsletter for more raw, honest 3D printing insights. This community’s all about keeping it real and getting the most out of our gear.

D. Bryan King

Sources
Disclaimer:
The views and opinions expressed in this post are solely those of the author. The information provided is based on personal research, experience, and understanding of the subject matter at the time of writing. Readers should consult relevant experts or authorities for specific guidance related to their unique situations.

Related Posts

Rate this:

#3dPrinterResinWaste #3dPrintingResinProsAndCons #bestResinPrinters #cleaningResinPrints #isResinPrintingWorthIt #resin3dPrintCleanup #resin3dPrintCuring #resin3dPrinterParts #resin3DPrinterSetup #resin3dPrinting #resin3dPrintingCost #resin3dPrintingDetail #resin3dPrintingEquipment #resin3dPrintingGuide #resin3dPrintingIsopropylAlcohol #resin3dPrintingMistakes #resin3dPrintingQuality #resin3dPrintingSpeed #resin3dPrintingToxicity #resin3dPrintingUVLight #resinPrinterCleaning #resinPrinterMaintenance #resinPrinterSafetyGear #resinPrintingAdvantages #resinPrintingAlternatives #resinPrintingBeginners #resinPrintingCons #resinPrintingConsumables #resinPrintingDetails #resinPrintingDisadvantages #resinPrintingDisposal #resinPrintingDurability #resinPrintingEssentials #resinPrintingForBeginners #resinPrintingForPrototyping #resinPrintingFumes #resinPrintingGloves #resinPrintingHealthPrecautions #resinPrintingHealthRisks #resinPrintingMess #resinPrintingMiniatures #resinPrintingPostCure #resinPrintingPostProcessing #resinPrintingPros #resinPrintingResinTypes #resinPrintingReviews #resinPrintingSafety #resinPrintingSetupTips #resinPrintingSmell #resinPrintingTechnology #resinPrintingTips #resinPrintingTipsAndTricks #resinPrintingVentilation #resinPrintingWasteManagement #resinPrintingWorkflow #resinPrintingWorkspace #resinVsFdm #toxicResinDangers #UVCuringResinPrints
#3dprinterresinwaste #3dprintingresinprosandcons #bestresinprinters #cleaningresinprints #isresinprintingworthit #resin3dprintcleanup
PaulaToThePeople 😷 @[email protected] · 2025-07-30 · 12:20 UTC

I'm so happy about this.
Inspired by @Aurin_the_classtraitor I started making a box of cards for myself, but not just your typical flashcards for #SpacedRepetition, but for whatever.
The first thing I love about this is that I love standardization.
▶️ The box is a wooden A6 box for flashcards (landscape format)
▶️ I use blank A& cards/paper (200g/m2) because I use my cards in portrait format and lined flashcards only exist in landscape format.
▶️ I use A6 tab cards in 4 colors
▶️ I put 16x9 mm labels to stick over the tab labels and write my own categories
▶️ All of this can be bought in nearby stores - no customization needed
But the main thing I love, is that this can be used for so much more than vocab.
My tabs:
➡️ Juggling: I put the names and a simple illustration of all the juggling tricks I know on cards and ordered them in 5 tabs:
play: tricks I can do very well and play around with, vary and e.g. use as warm-ups
perfect: tricks I can do pretty well, but want to be able to do better
train: tricks I can basically do, but not good yet
learn: tricks I understand and am learning
try: tricks that are new to me
➡️ Yoga: I put a lot of asanas and illustrations on cards and put them in the tabs:
calm
stretching
balance
strength
and new
(btw many asanas probably can't be put in one of these categories for everybody - this is about what I struggle with the most with the specific asana - except for "calm" which means I don't struggle)
➡️ classic flash cards with tabs for now, today, tomorrow, this week, next week, one for all 12 months of the year, done, archive and new
➡️ Drums: I haven't created the cards yet, but the tabs are similar to juggling: warm(-up), play, train, learn, try
➡️ Feelings: I created lots and lots of cards for feelings - not just emotions, but broader. I think this will help me better understand and describe how I feel. This deck will still grow a lot because there are so many things you can feel. So far the cards only contain the word(s) describing the feeling, but I'll probably add "links" to related cards and other stuff. It took me a while to find a tab system I'm happy with, and it will probably change, but right now I have these (all with 2 tabs for positive and negative feelings):
mood
balance (for anything related to calmness, freedom, stress, dependence, boredom, ...)
security (for things like clarity, determination, confusion & brain fog)
energy (self-empowerment, drive, creativity, powerlessness, avolition, anhedonia, ...)
self-worth (pride, self-love, shame, blame, ...)
courage (hope, defiance, pleasant anticipation ("Vorfreude"), fear, panic, fright, ...)
interest (lust, curiosity, excitement, indifference, disgust, revulsion)
affection (love, friendship, admiration, closeness, hate, distance, agression, anger, ...)
interpersonal (this needs a new name contains mostly pseudo emotions that describe less how you feel, but why: esteem, praise, belonging, humiliation, punishment, jealousy, distrust, ...)
physical (scent, warmth, beauty, stench, heat, ugliness, ...)
On the first card I have gathered more ideas like embodyment & mindfulness exercises, mental skills, local plant & animal species, ...
On it's back I have written down all the measures so I can get more boxes, cards, tabs and labels, when I need them.
I might post more about #PaulasBox as I gain more experience with it.
Btw, this easily covers my #3GoodThings of today.
#FlashCards #StudyCards #CueCards #CardBox #TrainingCards #Juggling #yoga #drumming #drums #emotions #feelings #EmotionalLiteracy

#spacedrepetition #paulasbox #3goodthings #flashcards #studycards #cuecards
PaulaToThePeople 😷 @[email protected] · 2025-07-30 · 12:20 UTC

I'm so happy about this.
Inspired by @Aurin_the_classtraitor I started making a box of cards for myself, but not just your typical flashcards for #SpacedRepetition, but for whatever.
The first thing I love about this is that I love standardization.
▶️ The box is a wooden A6 box for flashcards (landscape format)
▶️ I use blank A& cards/paper (200g/m2) because I use my cards in portrait format and lined flashcards only exist in landscape format.
▶️ I use A6 tab cards in 4 colors
▶️ I put 16x9 mm labels to stick over the tab labels and write my own categories
▶️ All of this can be bought in nearby stores - no customization needed
But the main thing I love, is that this can be used for so much more than vocab.
My tabs:
➡️ Juggling: I put the names and a simple illustration of all the juggling tricks I know on cards and ordered them in 5 tabs:
play: tricks I can do very well and play around with, vary and e.g. use as warm-ups
perfect: tricks I can do pretty well, but want to be able to do better
train: tricks I can basically do, but not good yet
learn: tricks I understand and am learning
try: tricks that are new to me
➡️ Yoga: I put a lot of asanas and illustrations on cards and put them in the tabs:
calm
stretching
balance
strength
and new
(btw many asanas probably can't be put in one of these categories for everybody - this is about what I struggle with the most with the specific asana - except for "calm" which means I don't struggle)
➡️ classic flash cards with tabs for now, today, tomorrow, this week, next week, one for all 12 months of the year, done, archive and new
➡️ Drums: I haven't created the cards yet, but the tabs are similar to juggling: warm(-up), play, train, learn, try
➡️ Feelings: I created lots and lots of cards for feelings - not just emotions, but broader. I think this will help me better understand and describe how I feel. This deck will still grow a lot because there are so many things you can feel. So far the cards only contain the word(s) describing the feeling, but I'll probably add "links" to related cards and other stuff. It took me a while to find a tab system I'm happy with, and it will probably change, but right now I have these (all with 2 tabs for positive and negative feelings):
mood
balance (for anything related to calmness, freedom, stress, dependence, boredom, ...)
security (for things like clarity, determination, confusion & brain fog)
energy (self-empowerment, drive, creativity, powerlessness, avolition, anhedonia, ...)
self-worth (pride, self-love, shame, blame, ...)
courage (hope, defiance, pleasant anticipation ("Vorfreude"), fear, panic, fright, ...)
interest (lust, curiosity, excitement, indifference, disgust, revulsion)
affection (love, friendship, admiration, closeness, hate, distance, agression, anger, ...)
interpersonal (this needs a new name contains mostly pseudo emotions that describe less how you feel, but why: esteem, praise, belonging, humiliation, punishment, jealousy, distrust, ...)
physical (scent, warmth, beauty, stench, heat, ugliness, ...)
On the first card I have gathered more ideas like embodyment & mindfulness exercises, mental skills, local plant & animal species, ...
On it's back I have written down all the measures so I can get more boxes, cards, tabs and labels, when I need them.
I might post more about #PaulasBox as I gain more experience with it.
Btw, this easily covers my #3GoodThings of today.
#FlashCards #StudyCards #CueCards #CardBox #TrainingCards #Juggling #yoga #drumming #drums #emotions #feelings #EmotionalLiteracy

#spacedrepetition #paulasbox #3goodthings #flashcards #studycards #cuecards
PaulaToThePeople 😷 @[email protected] · 2025-07-30 · 12:20 UTC

I'm so happy about this.
Inspired by @Aurin_the_classtraitor I started making a box of cards for myself, but not just your typical flashcards for #SpacedRepetition, but for whatever.
The first thing I love about this is that I love standardization.
▶️ The box is a wooden A6 box for flashcards (landscape format)
▶️ I use blank A& cards/paper (200g/m2) because I use my cards in portrait format and lined flashcards only exist in landscape format.
▶️ I use A6 tab cards in 4 colors
▶️ I put 16x9 mm labels to stick over the tab labels and write my own categories
▶️ All of this can be bought in nearby stores - no customization needed
But the main thing I love, is that this can be used for so much more than vocab.
My tabs:
➡️ Juggling: I put the names and a simple illustration of all the juggling tricks I know on cards and ordered them in 5 tabs:
play: tricks I can do very well and play around with, vary and e.g. use as warm-ups
perfect: tricks I can do pretty well, but want to be able to do better
train: tricks I can basically do, but not good yet
learn: tricks I understand and am learning
try: tricks that are new to me
➡️ Yoga: I put a lot of asanas and illustrations on cards and put them in the tabs:
calm
stretching
balance
strength
and new
(btw many asanas probably can't be put in one of these categories for everybody - this is about what I struggle with the most with the specific asana - except for "calm" which means I don't struggle)
➡️ classic flash cards with tabs for now, today, tomorrow, this week, next week, one for all 12 months of the year, done, archive and new
➡️ Drums: I haven't created the cards yet, but the tabs are similar to juggling: warm(-up), play, train, learn, try
➡️ Feelings: I created lots and lots of cards for feelings - not just emotions, but broader. I think this will help me better understand and describe how I feel. This deck will still grow a lot because there are so many things you can feel. So far the cards only contain the word(s) describing the feeling, but I'll probably add "links" to related cards and other stuff. It took me a while to find a tab system I'm happy with, and it will probably change, but right now I have these (all with 2 tabs for positive and negative feelings):
mood
balance (for anything related to calmness, freedom, stress, dependence, boredom, ...)
security (for things like clarity, determination, confusion & brain fog)
energy (self-empowerment, drive, creativity, powerlessness, avolition, anhedonia, ...)
self-worth (pride, self-love, shame, blame, ...)
courage (hope, defiance, pleasant anticipation ("Vorfreude"), fear, panic, fright, ...)
interest (lust, curiosity, excitement, indifference, disgust, revulsion)
affection (love, friendship, admiration, closeness, hate, distance, agression, anger, ...)
interpersonal (this needs a new name contains mostly pseudo emotions that describe less how you feel, but why: esteem, praise, belonging, humiliation, punishment, jealousy, distrust, ...)
physical (scent, warmth, beauty, stench, heat, ugliness, ...)
On the first card I have gathered more ideas like embodyment & mindfulness exercises, mental skills, local plant & animal species, ...
On it's back I have written down all the measures so I can get more boxes, cards, tabs and labels, when I need them.
I might post more about #PaulasBox as I gain more experience with it.
Btw, this easily covers my #3GoodThings of today.
#FlashCards #StudyCards #CueCards #CardBox #TrainingCards #Juggling #yoga #drumming #drums #emotions #feelings #EmotionalLiteracy

#spacedrepetition #paulasbox #3goodthings #flashcards #studycards #cuecards
PaulaToThePeople 😷 @[email protected] · 2025-07-30 · 12:20 UTC

I'm so happy about this.
Inspired by @Aurin_the_classtraitor I started making a box of cards for myself, but not just your typical flashcards for #SpacedRepetition, but for whatever.
The first thing I love about this is that I love standardization.
▶️ The box is a wooden A6 box for flashcards (landscape format)
▶️ I use blank A& cards/paper (200g/m2) because I use my cards in portrait format and lined flashcards only exist in landscape format.
▶️ I use A6 tab cards in 4 colors
▶️ I put 16x9 mm labels to stick over the tab labels and write my own categories
▶️ All of this can be bought in nearby stores - no customization needed
But the main thing I love, is that this can be used for so much more than vocab.
My tabs:
➡️ Juggling: I put the names and a simple illustration of all the juggling tricks I know on cards and ordered them in 5 tabs:
play: tricks I can do very well and play around with, vary and e.g. use as warm-ups
perfect: tricks I can do pretty well, but want to be able to do better
train: tricks I can basically do, but not good yet
learn: tricks I understand and am learning
try: tricks that are new to me
➡️ Yoga: I put a lot of asanas and illustrations on cards and put them in the tabs:
calm
stretching
balance
strength
and new
(btw many asanas probably can't be put in one of these categories for everybody - this is about what I struggle with the most with the specific asana - except for "calm" which means I don't struggle)
➡️ classic flash cards with tabs for now, today, tomorrow, this week, next week, one for all 12 months of the year, done, archive and new
➡️ Drums: I haven't created the cards yet, but the tabs are similar to juggling: warm(-up), play, train, learn, try
➡️ Feelings: I created lots and lots of cards for feelings - not just emotions, but broader. I think this will help me better understand and describe how I feel. This deck will still grow a lot because there are so many things you can feel. So far the cards only contain the word(s) describing the feeling, but I'll probably add "links" to related cards and other stuff. It took me a while to find a tab system I'm happy with, and it will probably change, but right now I have these (all with 2 tabs for positive and negative feelings):
mood
balance (for anything related to calmness, freedom, stress, dependence, boredom, ...)
security (for things like clarity, determination, confusion & brain fog)
energy (self-empowerment, drive, creativity, powerlessness, avolition, anhedonia, ...)
self-worth (pride, self-love, shame, blame, ...)
courage (hope, defiance, pleasant anticipation ("Vorfreude"), fear, panic, fright, ...)
interest (lust, curiosity, excitement, indifference, disgust, revulsion)
affection (love, friendship, admiration, closeness, hate, distance, agression, anger, ...)
interpersonal (this needs a new name contains mostly pseudo emotions that describe less how you feel, but why: esteem, praise, belonging, humiliation, punishment, jealousy, distrust, ...)
physical (scent, warmth, beauty, stench, heat, ugliness, ...)
On the first card I have gathered more ideas like embodyment & mindfulness exercises, mental skills, local plant & animal species, ...
On it's back I have written down all the measures so I can get more boxes, cards, tabs and labels, when I need them.
I might post more about #PaulasBox as I gain more experience with it.
Btw, this easily covers my #3GoodThings of today.
#FlashCards #StudyCards #CueCards #CardBox #TrainingCards #Juggling #yoga #drumming #drums #emotions #feelings #EmotionalLiteracy

#emotionalliteracy #feelings #emotions #drums #drumming #yoga
PaulaToThePeople 😷 @[email protected] · 2025-07-30 · 12:20 UTC

I'm so happy about this.
Inspired by @Aurin_the_classtraitor I started making a box of cards for myself, but not just your typical flashcards for #SpacedRepetition, but for whatever.
The first thing I love about this is that I love standardization.
▶️ The box is a wooden A6 box for flashcards (landscape format)
▶️ I use blank A& cards/paper (200g/m2) because I use my cards in portrait format and lined flashcards only exist in landscape format.
▶️ I use A6 tab cards in 4 colors
▶️ I put 16x9 mm labels to stick over the tab labels and write my own categories
▶️ All of this can be bought in nearby stores - no customization needed
But the main thing I love, is that this can be used for so much more than vocab.
My tabs:
➡️ Juggling: I put the names and a simple illustration of all the juggling tricks I know on cards and ordered them in 5 tabs:
play: tricks I can do very well and play around with, vary and e.g. use as warm-ups
perfect: tricks I can do pretty well, but want to be able to do better
train: tricks I can basically do, but not good yet
learn: tricks I understand and am learning
try: tricks that are new to me
➡️ Yoga: I put a lot of asanas and illustrations on cards and put them in the tabs:
calm
stretching
balance
strength
and new
(btw many asanas probably can't be put in one of these categories for everybody - this is about what I struggle with the most with the specific asana - except for "calm" which means I don't struggle)
➡️ classic flash cards with tabs for now, today, tomorrow, this week, next week, one for all 12 months of the year, done, archive and new
➡️ Drums: I haven't created the cards yet, but the tabs are similar to juggling: warm(-up), play, train, learn, try
➡️ Feelings: I created lots and lots of cards for feelings - not just emotions, but broader. I think this will help me better understand and describe how I feel. This deck will still grow a lot because there are so many things you can feel. So far the cards only contain the word(s) describing the feeling, but I'll probably add "links" to related cards and other stuff. It took me a while to find a tab system I'm happy with, and it will probably change, but right now I have these (all with 2 tabs for positive and negative feelings):
mood
balance (for anything related to calmness, freedom, stress, dependence, boredom, ...)
security (for things like clarity, determination, confusion & brain fog)
energy (self-empowerment, drive, creativity, powerlessness, avolition, anhedonia, ...)
self-worth (pride, self-love, shame, blame, ...)
courage (hope, defiance, pleasant anticipation ("Vorfreude"), fear, panic, fright, ...)
interest (lust, curiosity, excitement, indifference, disgust, revulsion)
affection (love, friendship, admiration, closeness, hate, distance, agression, anger, ...)
interpersonal (this needs a new name contains mostly pseudo emotions that describe less how you feel, but why: esteem, praise, belonging, humiliation, punishment, jealousy, distrust, ...)
physical (scent, warmth, beauty, stench, heat, ugliness, ...)
On the first card I have gathered more ideas like embodyment & mindfulness exercises, mental skills, local plant & animal species, ...
On it's back I have written down all the measures so I can get more boxes, cards, tabs and labels, when I need them.
I might post more about #PaulasBox as I gain more experience with it.
Btw, this easily covers my #3GoodThings of today.
#FlashCards #StudyCards #CueCards #CardBox #TrainingCards #Juggling #yoga #drumming #drums #emotions #feelings #EmotionalLiteracy

#spacedrepetition #paulasbox #3goodthings #flashcards #studycards #cuecards
Angry Metal Guy @[email protected] · 2025-07-14 · 16:02 UTC

Abigail Williams – A Void Within Existence Review
By Dr. A.N. Grier
After dropping a new album last year under his Nachtmystium moniker, I had a sneaky suspicion Ken Sorceron would bless us with a new Abigail Williams record this year. And, sure as shit, A Void Within Existence is here. I’ve been covering this outfit for some time now, thankfully, after their spell in the metalcore realm. And each new album continues to push new boundaries, inching closer to grabbing the counter by the balls and dragging it through blackened muck. While some would disagree, 2019’s Walk Beyond the Dark was a brilliant record that might arguably be the band’s best work. That sets a new bar for this ever-evolving group that, I can only assume, becomes more difficult to overtake with each new album and the swinging door of lineup changes and guest appearances. At least for now, the arsenal Sorceron surrounds himself with on A Void Within Existence is a tight group that meshes nicely together. But will this new record deliver the goods and bitch-slap the counter?
One of the best guests on this year’s release is Mike Heller (Changeling, Malignancy, Raven, and a thousand other fucking bands) on drums. Heller brings the intensity that adds layers of depth to A Void Within Existence, which are rarely found on the band’s previous albums. John Porada’s1 prowess also does wonders to the bass-heavy songwriting of Abigail Williams. Complete it with Vale of Pnath’s Vance Valenzuela on guitar, and we have one of the best Abigail Williams lineups. A Void Within Existence sets this foursome down a road of wreckage that can either end in annihilation or perfection. And it all weighs on the songwriting, performances, production, and, well… everything involved in crafting a release, especially with the depth involved in the lyrics and musical direction. Let’s see if I start crying.
A Void Within Existence wastes no time getting off the ground as it explodes with a heavy-bass assault and a murky, dissonant riff. It eventually settles into a groove as the spitting, slathering vocals arrive, supported powerfully by thundering backing vocals. Oddly enough, the pace and vocal arrangements evoke Hypocrisy. But things really get moving with the follow-up track, “Void Within.” Heller’s drum work, in particular, is the perfect teaser of what’s to come on later tracks. After opening with a meloblack passage, the razor-sharp riffs intensify around Sorceron’s vicious rasps. For nearly six minutes, this conglomeration of crushing black riffs, touches of orchestration, and absolute sinisterness paints a picture of sheer darkness. With wild guitar leads, impressive drum work, and a climax to make it worth the journey, “Void Within” is one of the most rounded ditties on the record.
But the best tracks on the album are “Talk to Your Sleep” and the closing number, “No Less than Death.” Seven months into the year, “Talk to Your Sleep” threatens to be my song o’ the year for 2025. This thing is nothing like anything I’ve ever heard from the band. Bass and drum-led, the crushing riff that springs up throughout is arguably the most memorable and headbangable thing ever to come from Abigail Williams. After cracking pavement with its mid-paced approach, it swings back around to begin again, this time with some punching vocals that are further emphasized by the guitars and drums. Then, Porada’s disgusting bass wakes the beast once more as we headbang to the end. Like Walk Beyond the Dark’s “The Final Failure,” “No Less than Death” is a surprising piece that shows Sorceron continuing to push his limits as a vocalist. While “The Final Failure” teased at some clean vocals, while retaining the rasp as the lead, “No Less than Death” goes all out with soaring, soothing cleans and rasping support. This atmospheric beauty takes us along valleys and hills that never end, and, when you thought you’d heard everything this song could offer, it concludes with beautiful, old-school solo work that, depending on your mood, leaves you hopelessly depressed or naively optimistic
After a dozen listens, I can’t find much on A Void Within Existence that makes me unhappy. While it’s compressed, the production still allows all the instruments to lend their weight to the end product. There could be a bit more bass in places, but it’s made up for by the slick drum mix. And, surprisingly enough, the clean vocals are far more forward in the mix than the previous album, which is pleasant to hear. The most predictable track on the album is “Nonexistence,” but it’s a solid, slower piece that draws you into the album’s sad theme. Letting the songwriting brew for the last six years has done A Void Within Existence well. It’s a repeatable record that requires multiple listens to explore every nook and cranny. Knowing the history of the band and its lineup changes, I hope Sorceron can bring these gents back in the future, because this might be the best they’ve ever been.

Rating: 4.0/5.0
DR: 6 | Format Reviewed: 256 kb/s mp3
Label: Agonia Records
Websites: facebook.com/abigailwilliamsband
Releases Worldwide: July 18th, 2025
#2025 #40 #AbigailWilliams #AgoniaRecords #AmericanMetal #AtmosphericBlackMetal #BearMace #BlackMetal #Changeling #Hypocrisy #Jul25 #Malignancy #Nachtmystium #Raven #Review #Reviews #ValeOfPnath

#abigailwilliams #agoniarecords #americanmetal #atmosphericblackmetal #bearmace #blackmetal
Angry Metal Guy @[email protected] · 2025-07-14 · 16:02 UTC

Abigail Williams – A Void Within Existence Review
By Dr. A.N. Grier
After dropping a new album last year under his Nachtmystium moniker, I had a sneaky suspicion Ken Sorceron would bless us with a new Abigail Williams record this year. And, sure as shit, A Void Within Existence is here. I’ve been covering this outfit for some time now, thankfully, after their spell in the metalcore realm. And each new album continues to push new boundaries, inching closer to grabbing the counter by the balls and dragging it through blackened muck. While some would disagree, 2019’s Walk Beyond the Dark was a brilliant record that might arguably be the band’s best work. That sets a new bar for this ever-evolving group that, I can only assume, becomes more difficult to overtake with each new album and the swinging door of lineup changes and guest appearances. At least for now, the arsenal Sorceron surrounds himself with on A Void Within Existence is a tight group that meshes nicely together. But will this new record deliver the goods and bitch-slap the counter?
One of the best guests on this year’s release is Mike Heller (Changeling, Malignancy, Raven, and a thousand other fucking bands) on drums. Heller brings the intensity that adds layers of depth to A Void Within Existence, which are rarely found on the band’s previous albums. John Porada’s1 prowess also does wonders to the bass-heavy songwriting of Abigail Williams. Complete it with Vale of Pnath’s Vance Valenzuela on guitar, and we have one of the best Abigail Williams lineups. A Void Within Existence sets this foursome down a road of wreckage that can either end in annihilation or perfection. And it all weighs on the songwriting, performances, production, and, well… everything involved in crafting a release, especially with the depth involved in the lyrics and musical direction. Let’s see if I start crying.
A Void Within Existence wastes no time getting off the ground as it explodes with a heavy-bass assault and a murky, dissonant riff. It eventually settles into a groove as the spitting, slathering vocals arrive, supported powerfully by thundering backing vocals. Oddly enough, the pace and vocal arrangements evoke Hypocrisy. But things really get moving with the follow-up track, “Void Within.” Heller’s drum work, in particular, is the perfect teaser of what’s to come on later tracks. After opening with a meloblack passage, the razor-sharp riffs intensify around Sorceron’s vicious rasps. For nearly six minutes, this conglomeration of crushing black riffs, touches of orchestration, and absolute sinisterness paints a picture of sheer darkness. With wild guitar leads, impressive drum work, and a climax to make it worth the journey, “Void Within” is one of the most rounded ditties on the record.
But the best tracks on the album are “Talk to Your Sleep” and the closing number, “No Less than Death.” Seven months into the year, “Talk to Your Sleep” threatens to be my song o’ the year for 2025. This thing is nothing like anything I’ve ever heard from the band. Bass and drum-led, the crushing riff that springs up throughout is arguably the most memorable and headbangable thing ever to come from Abigail Williams. After cracking pavement with its mid-paced approach, it swings back around to begin again, this time with some punching vocals that are further emphasized by the guitars and drums. Then, Porada’s disgusting bass wakes the beast once more as we headbang to the end. Like Walk Beyond the Dark’s “The Final Failure,” “No Less than Death” is a surprising piece that shows Sorceron continuing to push his limits as a vocalist. While “The Final Failure” teased at some clean vocals, while retaining the rasp as the lead, “No Less than Death” goes all out with soaring, soothing cleans and rasping support. This atmospheric beauty takes us along valleys and hills that never end, and, when you thought you’d heard everything this song could offer, it concludes with beautiful, old-school solo work that, depending on your mood, leaves you hopelessly depressed or naively optimistic
After a dozen listens, I can’t find much on A Void Within Existence that makes me unhappy. While it’s compressed, the production still allows all the instruments to lend their weight to the end product. There could be a bit more bass in places, but it’s made up for by the slick drum mix. And, surprisingly enough, the clean vocals are far more forward in the mix than the previous album, which is pleasant to hear. The most predictable track on the album is “Nonexistence,” but it’s a solid, slower piece that draws you into the album’s sad theme. Letting the songwriting brew for the last six years has done A Void Within Existence well. It’s a repeatable record that requires multiple listens to explore every nook and cranny. Knowing the history of the band and its lineup changes, I hope Sorceron can bring these gents back in the future, because this might be the best they’ve ever been.

Rating: 4.0/5.0
DR: 6 | Format Reviewed: 256 kb/s mp3
Label: Agonia Records
Websites: facebook.com/abigailwilliamsband
Releases Worldwide: July 18th, 2025
#2025 #40 #AbigailWilliams #AgoniaRecords #AmericanMetal #AtmosphericBlackMetal #BearMace #BlackMetal #Changeling #Hypocrisy #Jul25 #Malignancy #Nachtmystium #Raven #Review #Reviews #ValeOfPnath

#abigailwilliams #agoniarecords #americanmetal #atmosphericblackmetal #bearmace #blackmetal
Angry Metal Guy @[email protected] · 2025-07-14 · 16:02 UTC

Abigail Williams – A Void Within Existence Review
By Dr. A.N. Grier
After dropping a new album last year under his Nachtmystium moniker, I had a sneaky suspicion Ken Sorceron would bless us with a new Abigail Williams record this year. And, sure as shit, A Void Within Existence is here. I’ve been covering this outfit for some time now, thankfully, after their spell in the metalcore realm. And each new album continues to push new boundaries, inching closer to grabbing the counter by the balls and dragging it through blackened muck. While some would disagree, 2019’s Walk Beyond the Dark was a brilliant record that might arguably be the band’s best work. That sets a new bar for this ever-evolving group that, I can only assume, becomes more difficult to overtake with each new album and the swinging door of lineup changes and guest appearances. At least for now, the arsenal Sorceron surrounds himself with on A Void Within Existence is a tight group that meshes nicely together. But will this new record deliver the goods and bitch-slap the counter?
One of the best guests on this year’s release is Mike Heller (Changeling, Malignancy, Raven, and a thousand other fucking bands) on drums. Heller brings the intensity that adds layers of depth to A Void Within Existence, which are rarely found on the band’s previous albums. John Porada’s1 prowess also does wonders to the bass-heavy songwriting of Abigail Williams. Complete it with Vale of Pnath’s Vance Valenzuela on guitar, and we have one of the best Abigail Williams lineups. A Void Within Existence sets this foursome down a road of wreckage that can either end in annihilation or perfection. And it all weighs on the songwriting, performances, production, and, well… everything involved in crafting a release, especially with the depth involved in the lyrics and musical direction. Let’s see if I start crying.
A Void Within Existence wastes no time getting off the ground as it explodes with a heavy-bass assault and a murky, dissonant riff. It eventually settles into a groove as the spitting, slathering vocals arrive, supported powerfully by thundering backing vocals. Oddly enough, the pace and vocal arrangements evoke Hypocrisy. But things really get moving with the follow-up track, “Void Within.” Heller’s drum work, in particular, is the perfect teaser of what’s to come on later tracks. After opening with a meloblack passage, the razor-sharp riffs intensify around Sorceron’s vicious rasps. For nearly six minutes, this conglomeration of crushing black riffs, touches of orchestration, and absolute sinisterness paints a picture of sheer darkness. With wild guitar leads, impressive drum work, and a climax to make it worth the journey, “Void Within” is one of the most rounded ditties on the record.
But the best tracks on the album are “Talk to Your Sleep” and the closing number, “No Less than Death.” Seven months into the year, “Talk to Your Sleep” threatens to be my song o’ the year for 2025. This thing is nothing like anything I’ve ever heard from the band. Bass and drum-led, the crushing riff that springs up throughout is arguably the most memorable and headbangable thing ever to come from Abigail Williams. After cracking pavement with its mid-paced approach, it swings back around to begin again, this time with some punching vocals that are further emphasized by the guitars and drums. Then, Porada’s disgusting bass wakes the beast once more as we headbang to the end. Like Walk Beyond the Dark’s “The Final Failure,” “No Less than Death” is a surprising piece that shows Sorceron continuing to push his limits as a vocalist. While “The Final Failure” teased at some clean vocals, while retaining the rasp as the lead, “No Less than Death” goes all out with soaring, soothing cleans and rasping support. This atmospheric beauty takes us along valleys and hills that never end, and, when you thought you’d heard everything this song could offer, it concludes with beautiful, old-school solo work that, depending on your mood, leaves you hopelessly depressed or naively optimistic
After a dozen listens, I can’t find much on A Void Within Existence that makes me unhappy. While it’s compressed, the production still allows all the instruments to lend their weight to the end product. There could be a bit more bass in places, but it’s made up for by the slick drum mix. And, surprisingly enough, the clean vocals are far more forward in the mix than the previous album, which is pleasant to hear. The most predictable track on the album is “Nonexistence,” but it’s a solid, slower piece that draws you into the album’s sad theme. Letting the songwriting brew for the last six years has done A Void Within Existence well. It’s a repeatable record that requires multiple listens to explore every nook and cranny. Knowing the history of the band and its lineup changes, I hope Sorceron can bring these gents back in the future, because this might be the best they’ve ever been.

Rating: 4.0/5.0
DR: 6 | Format Reviewed: 256 kb/s mp3
Label: Agonia Records
Websites: facebook.com/abigailwilliamsband
Releases Worldwide: July 18th, 2025
#2025 #40 #AbigailWilliams #AgoniaRecords #AmericanMetal #AtmosphericBlackMetal #BearMace #BlackMetal #Changeling #Hypocrisy #Jul25 #Malignancy #Nachtmystium #Raven #Review #Reviews #ValeOfPnath

#abigailwilliams #agoniarecords #americanmetal #atmosphericblackmetal #bearmace #blackmetal
Angry Metal Guy @[email protected] · 2025-07-14 · 16:02 UTC

Abigail Williams – A Void Within Existence Review
By Dr. A.N. Grier
After dropping a new album last year under his Nachtmystium moniker, I had a sneaky suspicion Ken Sorceron would bless us with a new Abigail Williams record this year. And, sure as shit, A Void Within Existence is here. I’ve been covering this outfit for some time now, thankfully, after their spell in the metalcore realm. And each new album continues to push new boundaries, inching closer to grabbing the counter by the balls and dragging it through blackened muck. While some would disagree, 2019’s Walk Beyond the Dark was a brilliant record that might arguably be the band’s best work. That sets a new bar for this ever-evolving group that, I can only assume, becomes more difficult to overtake with each new album and the swinging door of lineup changes and guest appearances. At least for now, the arsenal Sorceron surrounds himself with on A Void Within Existence is a tight group that meshes nicely together. But will this new record deliver the goods and bitch-slap the counter?
One of the best guests on this year’s release is Mike Heller (Changeling, Malignancy, Raven, and a thousand other fucking bands) on drums. Heller brings the intensity that adds layers of depth to A Void Within Existence, which are rarely found on the band’s previous albums. John Porada’s1 prowess also does wonders to the bass-heavy songwriting of Abigail Williams. Complete it with Vale of Pnath’s Vance Valenzuela on guitar, and we have one of the best Abigail Williams lineups. A Void Within Existence sets this foursome down a road of wreckage that can either end in annihilation or perfection. And it all weighs on the songwriting, performances, production, and, well… everything involved in crafting a release, especially with the depth involved in the lyrics and musical direction. Let’s see if I start crying.
A Void Within Existence wastes no time getting off the ground as it explodes with a heavy-bass assault and a murky, dissonant riff. It eventually settles into a groove as the spitting, slathering vocals arrive, supported powerfully by thundering backing vocals. Oddly enough, the pace and vocal arrangements evoke Hypocrisy. But things really get moving with the follow-up track, “Void Within.” Heller’s drum work, in particular, is the perfect teaser of what’s to come on later tracks. After opening with a meloblack passage, the razor-sharp riffs intensify around Sorceron’s vicious rasps. For nearly six minutes, this conglomeration of crushing black riffs, touches of orchestration, and absolute sinisterness paints a picture of sheer darkness. With wild guitar leads, impressive drum work, and a climax to make it worth the journey, “Void Within” is one of the most rounded ditties on the record.
But the best tracks on the album are “Talk to Your Sleep” and the closing number, “No Less than Death.” Seven months into the year, “Talk to Your Sleep” threatens to be my song o’ the year for 2025. This thing is nothing like anything I’ve ever heard from the band. Bass and drum-led, the crushing riff that springs up throughout is arguably the most memorable and headbangable thing ever to come from Abigail Williams. After cracking pavement with its mid-paced approach, it swings back around to begin again, this time with some punching vocals that are further emphasized by the guitars and drums. Then, Porada’s disgusting bass wakes the beast once more as we headbang to the end. Like Walk Beyond the Dark’s “The Final Failure,” “No Less than Death” is a surprising piece that shows Sorceron continuing to push his limits as a vocalist. While “The Final Failure” teased at some clean vocals, while retaining the rasp as the lead, “No Less than Death” goes all out with soaring, soothing cleans and rasping support. This atmospheric beauty takes us along valleys and hills that never end, and, when you thought you’d heard everything this song could offer, it concludes with beautiful, old-school solo work that, depending on your mood, leaves you hopelessly depressed or naively optimistic
After a dozen listens, I can’t find much on A Void Within Existence that makes me unhappy. While it’s compressed, the production still allows all the instruments to lend their weight to the end product. There could be a bit more bass in places, but it’s made up for by the slick drum mix. And, surprisingly enough, the clean vocals are far more forward in the mix than the previous album, which is pleasant to hear. The most predictable track on the album is “Nonexistence,” but it’s a solid, slower piece that draws you into the album’s sad theme. Letting the songwriting brew for the last six years has done A Void Within Existence well. It’s a repeatable record that requires multiple listens to explore every nook and cranny. Knowing the history of the band and its lineup changes, I hope Sorceron can bring these gents back in the future, because this might be the best they’ve ever been.

Rating: 4.0/5.0
DR: 6 | Format Reviewed: 256 kb/s mp3
Label: Agonia Records
Websites: facebook.com/abigailwilliamsband
Releases Worldwide: July 18th, 2025
#2025 #40 #AbigailWilliams #AgoniaRecords #AmericanMetal #AtmosphericBlackMetal #BearMace #BlackMetal #Changeling #Hypocrisy #Jul25 #Malignancy #Nachtmystium #Raven #Review #Reviews #ValeOfPnath

#valeofpnath #reviews #review #raven #nachtmystium #malignancy
Angry Metal Guy @[email protected] · 2025-07-14 · 16:02 UTC

Abigail Williams – A Void Within Existence Review
By Dr. A.N. Grier
After dropping a new album last year under his Nachtmystium moniker, I had a sneaky suspicion Ken Sorceron would bless us with a new Abigail Williams record this year. And, sure as shit, A Void Within Existence is here. I’ve been covering this outfit for some time now, thankfully, after their spell in the metalcore realm. And each new album continues to push new boundaries, inching closer to grabbing the counter by the balls and dragging it through blackened muck. While some would disagree, 2019’s Walk Beyond the Dark was a brilliant record that might arguably be the band’s best work. That sets a new bar for this ever-evolving group that, I can only assume, becomes more difficult to overtake with each new album and the swinging door of lineup changes and guest appearances. At least for now, the arsenal Sorceron surrounds himself with on A Void Within Existence is a tight group that meshes nicely together. But will this new record deliver the goods and bitch-slap the counter?
One of the best guests on this year’s release is Mike Heller (Changeling, Malignancy, Raven, and a thousand other fucking bands) on drums. Heller brings the intensity that adds layers of depth to A Void Within Existence, which are rarely found on the band’s previous albums. John Porada’s1 prowess also does wonders to the bass-heavy songwriting of Abigail Williams. Complete it with Vale of Pnath’s Vance Valenzuela on guitar, and we have one of the best Abigail Williams lineups. A Void Within Existence sets this foursome down a road of wreckage that can either end in annihilation or perfection. And it all weighs on the songwriting, performances, production, and, well… everything involved in crafting a release, especially with the depth involved in the lyrics and musical direction. Let’s see if I start crying.
A Void Within Existence wastes no time getting off the ground as it explodes with a heavy-bass assault and a murky, dissonant riff. It eventually settles into a groove as the spitting, slathering vocals arrive, supported powerfully by thundering backing vocals. Oddly enough, the pace and vocal arrangements evoke Hypocrisy. But things really get moving with the follow-up track, “Void Within.” Heller’s drum work, in particular, is the perfect teaser of what’s to come on later tracks. After opening with a meloblack passage, the razor-sharp riffs intensify around Sorceron’s vicious rasps. For nearly six minutes, this conglomeration of crushing black riffs, touches of orchestration, and absolute sinisterness paints a picture of sheer darkness. With wild guitar leads, impressive drum work, and a climax to make it worth the journey, “Void Within” is one of the most rounded ditties on the record.
But the best tracks on the album are “Talk to Your Sleep” and the closing number, “No Less than Death.” Seven months into the year, “Talk to Your Sleep” threatens to be my song o’ the year for 2025. This thing is nothing like anything I’ve ever heard from the band. Bass and drum-led, the crushing riff that springs up throughout is arguably the most memorable and headbangable thing ever to come from Abigail Williams. After cracking pavement with its mid-paced approach, it swings back around to begin again, this time with some punching vocals that are further emphasized by the guitars and drums. Then, Porada’s disgusting bass wakes the beast once more as we headbang to the end. Like Walk Beyond the Dark’s “The Final Failure,” “No Less than Death” is a surprising piece that shows Sorceron continuing to push his limits as a vocalist. While “The Final Failure” teased at some clean vocals, while retaining the rasp as the lead, “No Less than Death” goes all out with soaring, soothing cleans and rasping support. This atmospheric beauty takes us along valleys and hills that never end, and, when you thought you’d heard everything this song could offer, it concludes with beautiful, old-school solo work that, depending on your mood, leaves you hopelessly depressed or naively optimistic
After a dozen listens, I can’t find much on A Void Within Existence that makes me unhappy. While it’s compressed, the production still allows all the instruments to lend their weight to the end product. There could be a bit more bass in places, but it’s made up for by the slick drum mix. And, surprisingly enough, the clean vocals are far more forward in the mix than the previous album, which is pleasant to hear. The most predictable track on the album is “Nonexistence,” but it’s a solid, slower piece that draws you into the album’s sad theme. Letting the songwriting brew for the last six years has done A Void Within Existence well. It’s a repeatable record that requires multiple listens to explore every nook and cranny. Knowing the history of the band and its lineup changes, I hope Sorceron can bring these gents back in the future, because this might be the best they’ve ever been.

Rating: 4.0/5.0
DR: 6 | Format Reviewed: 256 kb/s mp3
Label: Agonia Records
Websites: facebook.com/abigailwilliamsband
Releases Worldwide: July 18th, 2025
#2025 #40 #AbigailWilliams #AgoniaRecords #AmericanMetal #AtmosphericBlackMetal #BearMace #BlackMetal #Changeling #Hypocrisy #Jul25 #Malignancy #Nachtmystium #Raven #Review #Reviews #ValeOfPnath

#abigailwilliams #agoniarecords #americanmetal #atmosphericblackmetal #bearmace #blackmetal
WE AND THE COLOR @[email protected] · 2025-06-30 · 08:09 UTC
Clermont Font by Laras Wonderland

This post contains affiliate links. We may earn a commission if you click on them and make a purchase. It’s at no extra cost to you and helps us run this site. Thanks for your support!

The Clermont Font is the Soulful Handwritten Typeface Redefining Charm
The Clermont font arrives with a quiet confidence that is impossible to ignore. It is a bold, handwritten sans-serif typeface from the creative studio Laras Wonderland, and it brings a tangible sense of warmth to the digital world. Each letterform feels considered, intentionally shaped with the gentle imperfections that signal a human touch. This is not just a collection of characters; it is a complete typographic personality. The Clermont typeface is bold in its presence, yet it whispers with quirky, subtle details, making it an incredibly versatile and soulful choice for discerning designers.
Download from Creative Market
This font feels like a warm, sunny afternoon. Consequently, it has quickly become a favorite for projects that need to communicate authenticity and thoughtful craftsmanship. You can almost feel the artist’s hand behind every curve. It has a soul, a story. What story does your brand’s typography tell right now?
Clermont typeface, a bold handwritten sans-serif font by Laras Wonderland Download from Creative Market
The Unique Character of the Clermont Typeface
Let’s look closer at what makes this font so special. The Clermont font is a sans-serif, meaning its letters lack the small strokes (or “serifs”) at the ends of their lines. However, it carries the warmth and organic feel often associated with serif fonts. This beautiful duality is its greatest strength. Its lines are not perfectly straight or digitally sterile. Instead, they possess a gentle, hand-carved quality that feels both rustic and refined.
This typeface is proof that “bold” does not have to mean “loud.” The weight of the Clermont font gives it a strong visual impact, ensuring it stands out on packaging, headlines, and logos. Nevertheless, its soft edges and slightly uneven strokes keep it approachable and friendly. It avoids the coldness of many geometric sans serifs, offering a more humanized alternative. Therefore, it’s perfect for brands that want to appear established and trustworthy, yet also personal and down-to-earth.
The Art of Imperfection: A Human Touch
The magic of the Clermont typeface lies in its deliberate imperfections. In an age of pixel-perfect graphics and vectorized precision, Clermont champions the beauty of the handmade. The subtle variations in letter height and weight mimic the natural inconsistencies of actual handwriting. This isn’t a flaw; it is its most compelling feature.

This characteristic makes the font feel genuine. It speaks to a slower, more intentional way of creating. Think of artisan bakeries, small-batch coffee roasters, or independent ceramicists. These brands build their identity on care, quality, and a personal story. The Clermont font visually translates that exact ethos. It feels as though it were crafted specifically for a product made with love. Doesn’t your brand deserve that same level of bespoke character in its visual identity?
Beyond the Basics: The Power of Alternate Characters
A truly professional typeface offers more than just the standard A-Z. Laras Wonderland includes a complete set of alternate characters with the Clermont font. But what does that actually mean for you?
Alternate characters, or stylistic alternates, are different versions of the same letter. For instance, you might get a slightly different “a” or a more expressive “t.” These alternates allow for an incredible degree of customization. By mixing and matching them, you can create a truly unique, custom-handwritten look for your text. This prevents the repetitive feeling that can sometimes occur with simpler fonts.
Specifically, these alternates allow you to fine-tune your typography to perfection. You can ensure that letter pairings look natural and that headlines have a dynamic, flowing rhythm. Accessing these is simple in most design programs like Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, and even Canva Pro. This feature elevates the Clermont typeface from a simple font to a powerful design tool, giving you creative control.
Where the Clermont Font Truly Excels
The versatility of this typeface is one of its most significant assets. It adapts beautifully to a wide range of applications, bringing its signature charm to each one.
Branding for Artisans and Boutiques
For creative brands, bohemian boutiques, and handmade goods, the Clermont font is a natural fit. It communicates authenticity at a glance. Imagine it on the logo for a sustainable clothing line, the business card for a custom jeweler, or the website header for an organic skincare shop. It instantly builds a bridge of trust and personality with the customer. Using this unique sans-serif font for logos ensures a memorable and distinctive brand presence.
Packaging That Tells a Story
Product packaging is a critical touchpoint. The Clermont typeface can transform a simple box or label into a piece of brand storytelling. Its readability ensures that product names and descriptions are clear, while its style adds a layer of premium, artisan quality. It’s the ideal packaging font for products that are slow-made, organic, or have a rich story behind them.
Stunning Social Media Graphics
In the fast scroll of social media, you need graphics that stop thumbs. A bold handwritten font for social media is a powerful tool for this. The Clermont font is perfect for creating eye-catching quotes, promotional announcements, and story templates. Its friendly and engaging nature makes content feel more personal and less corporate, which can significantly boost engagement.
Coastal and Summer-Themed Designs
As the description suggests, this is the perfect summer font. Its relaxed, breezy feel is a perfect match for coastal designs. Think of branding for a seaside hotel, a menu for a beachside cafe, or invitations for a summer wedding. The Clermont typeface evokes a sense of ease and natural beauty, perfectly capturing that sought-after coastal vibe.
Meet the Creator: Laras Wonderland
Behind every great font is a passionate creator. The Clermont typeface comes from Laras Wonderland, a design studio known for producing fonts that are rich with personality and charm. The studio’s work consistently emphasizes the handmade, the artistic, and the emotionally resonant. Clermont is a brilliant example of this philosophy. It’s clear that Laras Wonderland doesn’t just create fonts; they create moods and tell stories through typography. This commitment to soulful design is what makes the Clermont font and other creations from the studio so compelling.
How to Get Started with the Clermont Typeface
Ready to bring this beautiful font into your design toolkit? The Clermont font is available as an OTF (OpenType Font) file, which is the modern standard compatible with virtually all systems and design software.
1. Download: After purchasing, you will receive the Clermont.otf file.
2. Install: On both Mac and Windows, installing a font is as simple as double-clicking the file and selecting “Install.”
3. Use: Once installed, the Clermont typeface will appear in the font menu of all your applications, including the Adobe Creative Suite, Affinity Designer, Procreate, and Canva.
To get the most out of it, be sure to explore the stylistic alternates in your design software’s glyphs panel. This is where you can unlock the font’s full potential and create a look that is uniquely yours. Could this be the missing piece in your design puzzle?
Clermont is more than just a typeface. It is an infusion of personality, a touch of human warmth, and a statement of authentic quality. For any project that deserves to feel both distinct and deeply thoughtful, the Clermont font is not just a choice; it is the answer.
Download from Creative Market
Feel free to find other trending typefaces here at WE AND THE COLOR or check out our selection of the 50 best fonts for designers in 2025.

#clermont #font #handwritten #handwrittenTypeface #LarasWonderland #typeface
#clermont #font #handwritten #handwrittentypeface #laraswonderland #typeface
WE AND THE COLOR @[email protected] · 2025-06-30 · 08:09 UTC
Clermont Font by Laras Wonderland

This post contains affiliate links. We may earn a commission if you click on them and make a purchase. It’s at no extra cost to you and helps us run this site. Thanks for your support!

The Clermont Font is the Soulful Handwritten Typeface Redefining Charm
The Clermont font arrives with a quiet confidence that is impossible to ignore. It is a bold, handwritten sans-serif typeface from the creative studio Laras Wonderland, and it brings a tangible sense of warmth to the digital world. Each letterform feels considered, intentionally shaped with the gentle imperfections that signal a human touch. This is not just a collection of characters; it is a complete typographic personality. The Clermont typeface is bold in its presence, yet it whispers with quirky, subtle details, making it an incredibly versatile and soulful choice for discerning designers.
Download from Creative Market
This font feels like a warm, sunny afternoon. Consequently, it has quickly become a favorite for projects that need to communicate authenticity and thoughtful craftsmanship. You can almost feel the artist’s hand behind every curve. It has a soul, a story. What story does your brand’s typography tell right now?
Clermont typeface, a bold handwritten sans-serif font by Laras Wonderland Download from Creative Market
The Unique Character of the Clermont Typeface
Let’s look closer at what makes this font so special. The Clermont font is a sans-serif, meaning its letters lack the small strokes (or “serifs”) at the ends of their lines. However, it carries the warmth and organic feel often associated with serif fonts. This beautiful duality is its greatest strength. Its lines are not perfectly straight or digitally sterile. Instead, they possess a gentle, hand-carved quality that feels both rustic and refined.
This typeface is proof that “bold” does not have to mean “loud.” The weight of the Clermont font gives it a strong visual impact, ensuring it stands out on packaging, headlines, and logos. Nevertheless, its soft edges and slightly uneven strokes keep it approachable and friendly. It avoids the coldness of many geometric sans serifs, offering a more humanized alternative. Therefore, it’s perfect for brands that want to appear established and trustworthy, yet also personal and down-to-earth.
The Art of Imperfection: A Human Touch
The magic of the Clermont typeface lies in its deliberate imperfections. In an age of pixel-perfect graphics and vectorized precision, Clermont champions the beauty of the handmade. The subtle variations in letter height and weight mimic the natural inconsistencies of actual handwriting. This isn’t a flaw; it is its most compelling feature.

This characteristic makes the font feel genuine. It speaks to a slower, more intentional way of creating. Think of artisan bakeries, small-batch coffee roasters, or independent ceramicists. These brands build their identity on care, quality, and a personal story. The Clermont font visually translates that exact ethos. It feels as though it were crafted specifically for a product made with love. Doesn’t your brand deserve that same level of bespoke character in its visual identity?
Beyond the Basics: The Power of Alternate Characters
A truly professional typeface offers more than just the standard A-Z. Laras Wonderland includes a complete set of alternate characters with the Clermont font. But what does that actually mean for you?
Alternate characters, or stylistic alternates, are different versions of the same letter. For instance, you might get a slightly different “a” or a more expressive “t.” These alternates allow for an incredible degree of customization. By mixing and matching them, you can create a truly unique, custom-handwritten look for your text. This prevents the repetitive feeling that can sometimes occur with simpler fonts.
Specifically, these alternates allow you to fine-tune your typography to perfection. You can ensure that letter pairings look natural and that headlines have a dynamic, flowing rhythm. Accessing these is simple in most design programs like Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, and even Canva Pro. This feature elevates the Clermont typeface from a simple font to a powerful design tool, giving you creative control.
Where the Clermont Font Truly Excels
The versatility of this typeface is one of its most significant assets. It adapts beautifully to a wide range of applications, bringing its signature charm to each one.
Branding for Artisans and Boutiques
For creative brands, bohemian boutiques, and handmade goods, the Clermont font is a natural fit. It communicates authenticity at a glance. Imagine it on the logo for a sustainable clothing line, the business card for a custom jeweler, or the website header for an organic skincare shop. It instantly builds a bridge of trust and personality with the customer. Using this unique sans-serif font for logos ensures a memorable and distinctive brand presence.
Packaging That Tells a Story
Product packaging is a critical touchpoint. The Clermont typeface can transform a simple box or label into a piece of brand storytelling. Its readability ensures that product names and descriptions are clear, while its style adds a layer of premium, artisan quality. It’s the ideal packaging font for products that are slow-made, organic, or have a rich story behind them.
Stunning Social Media Graphics
In the fast scroll of social media, you need graphics that stop thumbs. A bold handwritten font for social media is a powerful tool for this. The Clermont font is perfect for creating eye-catching quotes, promotional announcements, and story templates. Its friendly and engaging nature makes content feel more personal and less corporate, which can significantly boost engagement.
Coastal and Summer-Themed Designs
As the description suggests, this is the perfect summer font. Its relaxed, breezy feel is a perfect match for coastal designs. Think of branding for a seaside hotel, a menu for a beachside cafe, or invitations for a summer wedding. The Clermont typeface evokes a sense of ease and natural beauty, perfectly capturing that sought-after coastal vibe.
Meet the Creator: Laras Wonderland
Behind every great font is a passionate creator. The Clermont typeface comes from Laras Wonderland, a design studio known for producing fonts that are rich with personality and charm. The studio’s work consistently emphasizes the handmade, the artistic, and the emotionally resonant. Clermont is a brilliant example of this philosophy. It’s clear that Laras Wonderland doesn’t just create fonts; they create moods and tell stories through typography. This commitment to soulful design is what makes the Clermont font and other creations from the studio so compelling.
How to Get Started with the Clermont Typeface
Ready to bring this beautiful font into your design toolkit? The Clermont font is available as an OTF (OpenType Font) file, which is the modern standard compatible with virtually all systems and design software.
1. Download: After purchasing, you will receive the Clermont.otf file.
2. Install: On both Mac and Windows, installing a font is as simple as double-clicking the file and selecting “Install.”
3. Use: Once installed, the Clermont typeface will appear in the font menu of all your applications, including the Adobe Creative Suite, Affinity Designer, Procreate, and Canva.
To get the most out of it, be sure to explore the stylistic alternates in your design software’s glyphs panel. This is where you can unlock the font’s full potential and create a look that is uniquely yours. Could this be the missing piece in your design puzzle?
Clermont is more than just a typeface. It is an infusion of personality, a touch of human warmth, and a statement of authentic quality. For any project that deserves to feel both distinct and deeply thoughtful, the Clermont font is not just a choice; it is the answer.
Download from Creative Market
Feel free to find other trending typefaces here at WE AND THE COLOR or check out our selection of the 50 best fonts for designers in 2025.

#clermont #font #handwritten #handwrittenTypeface #LarasWonderland #typeface
#clermont #font #handwritten #handwrittentypeface #laraswonderland #typeface
WE AND THE COLOR @[email protected] · 2025-06-29 · 08:43 UTC
Villa al Mare Typeface – Vintage Script Font by AnMark

This post contains affiliate links. We may earn a commission if you click on them and make a purchase. It’s at no extra cost to you and helps us run this site. Thanks for your support!

This is Your Guide to Seaside Elegance in Design with the Villa al Mare Typeface.
A design project often starts with a feeling. It’s an abstract idea of warmth, sophistication, or perhaps a touch of nostalgia. The challenge, consequently, is finding the tools to translate that feeling into something tangible. The Villa al Mare typeface, a stunning vintage script font from the talented creators at AnMark, does exactly that. It doesn’t just form words; instead, it captures an entire atmosphere. Imagine a sun-drenched afternoon at a coastal Italian villa, a gentle breeze rustling through olive groves, and the soft scratch of an ink pen across thick, creamy paper. This is the essence of Villa al Mare. It’s a font that feels less like a digital file and more like a captured memory, offering a perfect blend of timeless elegance and relaxed, handwritten charm.
Download from Creative Market
This article explores the unique character of the Villa al Mare typeface. We will look at what makes it a standout choice for designers, business owners, and creators. Furthermore, we’ll examine its powerful features and discuss how you can use it to bring a personal, artisanal touch to your own work. What story will your brand tell? Let’s discover if Villa al Mare is the voice you’ve been looking for.
Villa al Mare Typeface – Vintage Script Font by AnMark Download from Creative Market
The Soul of This Vintage Script Font
At its core, the Villa al Mare typeface is a masterclass in balance. It is a handwritten calligraphy font, yet it maintains a remarkable level of clarity and readability. Its lines flow with an organic, unforced rhythm, mirroring the natural inconsistencies of real handwriting. But what makes a script font truly feel authentic? It’s all in the details. The gentle variations in stroke weight, the soft curves of the ascenders, and the elegant flourish of the descenders all contribute to its character.
AnMark designed this font to evoke a very specific feeling: Mediterranean charm. It avoids the rigid formality of many traditional calligraphy fonts. Instead, it feels approachable and deeply personal. Think of it as the handwriting of someone with impeccable taste and a warm heart. This unique personality makes the Villa al Mare typeface incredibly versatile. It can whisper sophistication on a wedding invitation or exude rustic charm on a bottle of olive oil. Consequently, its power lies in this ability to adapt its mood while always retaining its core identity of relaxed elegance.
Unpacking the Features: More Than Just Letters
A truly great font is an intricate system of characters designed to work together harmoniously. The Villa al Mare typeface is packed with professional-grade features that give designers incredible creative control. These aren’t just decorative add-ons; they are essential tools for achieving a genuinely custom and natural look.

The Power of Alternates and Swashes
Have you ever noticed how in real handwriting, you never write the same letter identically twice? Villa al Mare simulates this beautifully with uppercase alternatives. This means for many capital letters, you have different styles to choose from, allowing you to create a more dynamic and less repetitive headline or logo.
Even more expressive are the beginning and ending lowercase swashes. These are elegant extensions that can be added to the first or last letter of a word. A simple swash can instantly elevate a design, adding a flourish of romance and a bespoke feel. For instance, you can use a starting swash to gracefully introduce a name on a place card or an ending swash to add a final, confident stroke to a brand tagline.
Ligatures: The Secret to Natural Flow
Ligatures are the unsung heroes of script fonts. They are special characters that combine two or more letters that would otherwise clash or look awkward next to each other. In the Villa al Mare typeface, these ligatures are crafted to be seamless. They ensure that letters like ‘th’, ‘ll’, or ‘st’ flow into each other as they would in cursive writing. This small detail makes a huge difference. It eliminates clumsy connections and results in text that looks fluid, connected, and authentically handwritten. Using them is essential for anyone wanting to create truly professional-looking typography.
Global Reach: Understanding Multilingual Support
Creativity knows no borders, and thankfully, neither does the Villa al Mare typeface. It comes with extensive multilingual support, including all major Western European languages. This means you can create cohesive designs for an international audience without worrying about missing characters or symbols. Whether you’re designing a menu with French dishes, a label with Italian ingredients, or a website for a global brand, this font provides the necessary tools. This feature significantly expands its usability, making it a reliable choice for projects with an international scope.
How to Use the Villa al Mare Typeface in Your Projects
So, you are captivated by its charm. How can you effectively integrate this elegant font into your work? The applications are nearly limitless, but its style particularly shines in projects that require a human, sophisticated, or romantic touch.
The Ultimate Wedding Font for Modern Romance
For wedding stationery, the font choice is paramount. It sets the tone for the entire event. The Villa al Mare typeface is an exceptional wedding font because it strikes the perfect balance between formal and personal. It’s elegant enough for a black-tie affair yet warm enough for a rustic barn wedding.
Imagine it on:
- Invitations: The flowing script immediately communicates romance and occasion.
- Save-the-Dates: Use the swashes to add a playful yet chic flourish.
- Menus and Place Cards: It creates a cohesive and luxurious tabletop experience.
- Thank You Notes: A personal touch that feels genuinely heartfelt.
For couples seeking the “best vintage script font for wedding invitations,” Villa al Mare is a leading contender.
Crafting Unforgettable Brands and Logos
In branding, distinctiveness is key. A generic font can make a business feel impersonal and forgettable. The Villa al Mare typeface offers an immediate injection of personality, making it an excellent logo font. It’s particularly well-suited for boutique businesses that pride themselves on quality, craftsmanship, and a personal connection with their customers.
Consider it for brands in these industries:
- Boutique Hotels & Spas: It conveys luxury, relaxation, and bespoke service.
- Artisanal Food & Beverage: Perfect for wine labels, bakery logos, or organic food packaging.
- Photographers & Creatives: It communicates artistry, style, and a personal brand.
- High-End Fashion & Jewelry: The script adds a touch of signature elegance.
Using an “elegant handwritten font with swashes” like this one can instantly make a brand feel more premium and established.
Getting Started: Font Files and Installation
Bringing Villa al Mare into your design toolkit is straightforward. The font package typically includes several file formats to ensure compatibility across different software and platforms.
- OTF (OpenType Font): This is the one you’ll want to use most often. It’s the format that contains all the advanced features like ligatures, swashes, and stylistic alternates. To access these, you’ll need professional design software like Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, or InDesign.
- TTF (TrueType Font): This is a more standard format that works on almost every computer and in basic programs like Microsoft Word. It’s a great option if you don’t need the advanced typographic features.
- WOFF (Web Open Font Format): These files are optimized for use on websites, ensuring your text looks crisp and loads quickly online.
A quick search for “Villa al Mare typeface download” will lead you to the official marketplaces where AnMark sells their fonts. Once downloaded, installation is as simple as double-clicking the file and pressing “Install.”
Ultimately, the Villa al Mare typeface is more than a font. It is a design tool for storytelling. It speaks of sunlit coastlines, heartfelt letters, and the beauty of the human touch in an increasingly digital landscape. Its thoughtful design and robust features provide a canvas for creating work that is not only beautiful but also deeply resonant. So, the final question is a simple one. What beautiful story will you tell with it?
Download from Creative Market
Feel free to explore other trending typefaces for different design projects in the Fonts category here at WE AND THE COLOR.

#font #fonts #retroFont #scriptFont #typeface #Typefaces #vintageFont #weddingFont
#font #fonts #retrofont #scriptfont #typeface #typefaces
Angry Metal Guy @[email protected] · 2025-06-20 · 18:08 UTC

Patristic – Catechesis Review
By Thus Spoke
The first eight centuries of the common era were a tumultuous one for Christian theology, played out in the writings of scholars now considered Early Church fathers. The study of this back-and-forth, which eventually resulted in an agreed ‘canon,’ gives Patristic their name. On debut Catechesis, the trio turn to the turbulent and culturally pivotal period that saw the fall of the Roman Empire, and the rise of the once-marginalized religion. The album’s title refers to the practice of Christian instruction imparted upon potential converts—teachings which stemmed from a still-divided root, even as the religion spread and any pretenses to truth conceded to power. This chaos informs Patristic’s music in a way unique to freeform dissonant metal and culminates in a record whose resonance goes beyond the literal echo of its notes.
The seamlessly flowing sermons that comprise Catechesis are both discomfiting and alluring. Churning riffs and undulating waves of percussion, though sinister and often dissonant, mesmerize through hypnotic recurrence, as Patristic sway and lurch between moments of eerie calm, and punishing violence. And the whole evolves gradually through repeated returns to restless drum patterns, and passages of tense atmosphere, cataclysmic blackened-death assaults, and imposing, frightening melody. As with all the best dissonant extreme metal, Catechesis is intense without being totally overwhelming, and beyond this, is haunting in its particular approach to the interplay between spaciousness and crushing density. In this—particularly a disposition towards dark layers of guitar, and a reverberating quality to the vocals (“A Vinculis Soluta II,” “Catechesis I”)—the closest comparison is Verberis,1 though Patristic craft a drama that is very much their own.
Catechesis can and should be seen as one piece; you could say, one instruction, one imparting of sacred knowledge or dogma. Without lyrics, much is hidden, but as the album progresses, one gets the sense of approaching order by means of violence. The grand refrain that first emerges towards the end of “Catechesis II” comes to fruition with yet ominous finality in closer “Catechesis IV,” and this ultimate reprise echoes the subversive creep of themes through Catechesis. The music’s stream allows the ebb and flow of elements to layer, rise, and fade away with grace that borders on predatory, melodies teased in fragmentary glimpses (“A Vinculis Soluta I,” “Catechesis IV”), or their aura turned back from menacing to mournful (“A Vinculis Soluta II” “Catechesis III”). Riffs overlap in uneasy syncopation, hum malevolently, or chime emphatically in a reverberant chorus with rasping and cavernous bellows, and cello2—played in shuddering vibrato3—weaves through the darkness to amplify tension, and eerie beauty (“Vinculis Soluta II,” “Catechesis I,” “Catechesis II”). Driving the whole through union and separation is a current of mesmerizingly fluid and dynamic drumming, which heightens the already portentous atmospheres and pulls you deep into the writhing mass of it all.
The convergence of the many thematic and percussive threads across the album is impressive in its scope and deceptive ease; it is seamless, beautiful, and often frightening. Patristic also achieve the practically unachievable by using spoken word to add powerful gravitas, which increases rather than lessens the song’s impact (“A Vinculis Soluta I,” “A Vinculis Soluta II”). And speaking of impact, the drum performance, courtesy of Sathrath, deserves particular praise for being one of the most insane of its kind I have ever heard.4 It’s impossibly delicate in shivering cymbal taps, lethally fast in split-second rollovers and fills, and ruthless in its sharp, brutal cascades of double-bass. Everything, drums included, is produced perfectly to allow the convulsing lows to reflect and resonate in a cavernous, immersive portal of grinding guitar and bellowing howls, and the stalking highs dip chillingly below and above its surface.
With such immensity, it’s easy to see how Patristic got a signing with Willowtip so soon; I struggle to believe that these musicians have been playing together for less than five years. So arresting is Catechesis, so layered and immersive, that it threatens to overshadow all other extreme metal this year—if not all metal, period. This is a teaching that all acolytes of the dark and dissonant, and hell, maybe even the crucified Lord, need to hear.

Rating: Excellent
DR: 6 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Willowtip
Websites: Bandcamp | Facebook
Releases Worldwide: June 20th, 2025
#2025 #45 #BlackMetal #BlackenedDeathMetal #Catechesis #DeathMetal #DissonantDeathMetal #ItalianMetal #Jun25 #Patristic #Review #Reviews #Ulcerate #Verberis #WillowtipRecords

#blackmetal #blackeneddeathmetal #catechesis #deathmetal #dissonantdeathmetal #italianmetal
Angry Metal Guy @[email protected] · 2025-06-20 · 18:08 UTC

Patristic – Catechesis Review
By Thus Spoke
The first eight centuries of the common era were a tumultuous one for Christian theology, played out in the writings of scholars now considered Early Church fathers. The study of this back-and-forth, which eventually resulted in an agreed ‘canon,’ gives Patristic their name. On debut Catechesis, the trio turn to the turbulent and culturally pivotal period that saw the fall of the Roman Empire, and the rise of the once-marginalized religion. The album’s title refers to the practice of Christian instruction imparted upon potential converts—teachings which stemmed from a still-divided root, even as the religion spread and any pretenses to truth conceded to power. This chaos informs Patristic’s music in a way unique to freeform dissonant metal and culminates in a record whose resonance goes beyond the literal echo of its notes.
The seamlessly flowing sermons that comprise Catechesis are both discomfiting and alluring. Churning riffs and undulating waves of percussion, though sinister and often dissonant, mesmerize through hypnotic recurrence, as Patristic sway and lurch between moments of eerie calm, and punishing violence. And the whole evolves gradually through repeated returns to restless drum patterns, and passages of tense atmosphere, cataclysmic blackened-death assaults, and imposing, frightening melody. As with all the best dissonant extreme metal, Catechesis is intense without being totally overwhelming, and beyond this, is haunting in its particular approach to the interplay between spaciousness and crushing density. In this—particularly a disposition towards dark layers of guitar, and a reverberating quality to the vocals (“A Vinculis Soluta II,” “Catechesis I”)—the closest comparison is Verberis,1 though Patristic craft a drama that is very much their own.
Catechesis can and should be seen as one piece; you could say, one instruction, one imparting of sacred knowledge or dogma. Without lyrics, much is hidden, but as the album progresses, one gets the sense of approaching order by means of violence. The grand refrain that first emerges towards the end of “Catechesis II” comes to fruition with yet ominous finality in closer “Catechesis IV,” and this ultimate reprise echoes the subversive creep of themes through Catechesis. The music’s stream allows the ebb and flow of elements to layer, rise, and fade away with grace that borders on predatory, melodies teased in fragmentary glimpses (“A Vinculis Soluta I,” “Catechesis IV”), or their aura turned back from menacing to mournful (“A Vinculis Soluta II” “Catechesis III”). Riffs overlap in uneasy syncopation, hum malevolently, or chime emphatically in a reverberant chorus with rasping and cavernous bellows, and cello2—played in shuddering vibrato3—weaves through the darkness to amplify tension, and eerie beauty (“Vinculis Soluta II,” “Catechesis I,” “Catechesis II”). Driving the whole through union and separation is a current of mesmerizingly fluid and dynamic drumming, which heightens the already portentous atmospheres and pulls you deep into the writhing mass of it all.
The convergence of the many thematic and percussive threads across the album is impressive in its scope and deceptive ease; it is seamless, beautiful, and often frightening. Patristic also achieve the practically unachievable by using spoken word to add powerful gravitas, which increases rather than lessens the song’s impact (“A Vinculis Soluta I,” “A Vinculis Soluta II”). And speaking of impact, the drum performance, courtesy of Sathrath, deserves particular praise for being one of the most insane of its kind I have ever heard.4 It’s impossibly delicate in shivering cymbal taps, lethally fast in split-second rollovers and fills, and ruthless in its sharp, brutal cascades of double-bass. Everything, drums included, is produced perfectly to allow the convulsing lows to reflect and resonate in a cavernous, immersive portal of grinding guitar and bellowing howls, and the stalking highs dip chillingly below and above its surface.
With such immensity, it’s easy to see how Patristic got a signing with Willowtip so soon; I struggle to believe that these musicians have been playing together for less than five years. So arresting is Catechesis, so layered and immersive, that it threatens to overshadow all other extreme metal this year—if not all metal, period. This is a teaching that all acolytes of the dark and dissonant, and hell, maybe even the crucified Lord, need to hear.

Rating: Excellent
DR: 6 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Willowtip
Websites: Bandcamp | Facebook
Releases Worldwide: June 20th, 2025
#2025 #45 #BlackMetal #BlackenedDeathMetal #Catechesis #DeathMetal #DissonantDeathMetal #ItalianMetal #Jun25 #Patristic #Review #Reviews #Ulcerate #Verberis #WillowtipRecords

#blackmetal #blackeneddeathmetal #catechesis #deathmetal #dissonantdeathmetal #italianmetal
Angry Metal Guy @[email protected] · 2025-06-20 · 18:08 UTC

Patristic – Catechesis Review
By Thus Spoke
The first eight centuries of the common era were a tumultuous one for Christian theology, played out in the writings of scholars now considered Early Church fathers. The study of this back-and-forth, which eventually resulted in an agreed ‘canon,’ gives Patristic their name. On debut Catechesis, the trio turn to the turbulent and culturally pivotal period that saw the fall of the Roman Empire, and the rise of the once-marginalized religion. The album’s title refers to the practice of Christian instruction imparted upon potential converts—teachings which stemmed from a still-divided root, even as the religion spread and any pretenses to truth conceded to power. This chaos informs Patristic’s music in a way unique to freeform dissonant metal and culminates in a record whose resonance goes beyond the literal echo of its notes.
The seamlessly flowing sermons that comprise Catechesis are both discomfiting and alluring. Churning riffs and undulating waves of percussion, though sinister and often dissonant, mesmerize through hypnotic recurrence, as Patristic sway and lurch between moments of eerie calm, and punishing violence. And the whole evolves gradually through repeated returns to restless drum patterns, and passages of tense atmosphere, cataclysmic blackened-death assaults, and imposing, frightening melody. As with all the best dissonant extreme metal, Catechesis is intense without being totally overwhelming, and beyond this, is haunting in its particular approach to the interplay between spaciousness and crushing density. In this—particularly a disposition towards dark layers of guitar, and a reverberating quality to the vocals (“A Vinculis Soluta II,” “Catechesis I”)—the closest comparison is Verberis,1 though Patristic craft a drama that is very much their own.
Catechesis can and should be seen as one piece; you could say, one instruction, one imparting of sacred knowledge or dogma. Without lyrics, much is hidden, but as the album progresses, one gets the sense of approaching order by means of violence. The grand refrain that first emerges towards the end of “Catechesis II” comes to fruition with yet ominous finality in closer “Catechesis IV,” and this ultimate reprise echoes the subversive creep of themes through Catechesis. The music’s stream allows the ebb and flow of elements to layer, rise, and fade away with grace that borders on predatory, melodies teased in fragmentary glimpses (“A Vinculis Soluta I,” “Catechesis IV”), or their aura turned back from menacing to mournful (“A Vinculis Soluta II” “Catechesis III”). Riffs overlap in uneasy syncopation, hum malevolently, or chime emphatically in a reverberant chorus with rasping and cavernous bellows, and cello2—played in shuddering vibrato3—weaves through the darkness to amplify tension, and eerie beauty (“Vinculis Soluta II,” “Catechesis I,” “Catechesis II”). Driving the whole through union and separation is a current of mesmerizingly fluid and dynamic drumming, which heightens the already portentous atmospheres and pulls you deep into the writhing mass of it all.
The convergence of the many thematic and percussive threads across the album is impressive in its scope and deceptive ease; it is seamless, beautiful, and often frightening. Patristic also achieve the practically unachievable by using spoken word to add powerful gravitas, which increases rather than lessens the song’s impact (“A Vinculis Soluta I,” “A Vinculis Soluta II”). And speaking of impact, the drum performance, courtesy of Sathrath, deserves particular praise for being one of the most insane of its kind I have ever heard.4 It’s impossibly delicate in shivering cymbal taps, lethally fast in split-second rollovers and fills, and ruthless in its sharp, brutal cascades of double-bass. Everything, drums included, is produced perfectly to allow the convulsing lows to reflect and resonate in a cavernous, immersive portal of grinding guitar and bellowing howls, and the stalking highs dip chillingly below and above its surface.
With such immensity, it’s easy to see how Patristic got a signing with Willowtip so soon; I struggle to believe that these musicians have been playing together for less than five years. So arresting is Catechesis, so layered and immersive, that it threatens to overshadow all other extreme metal this year—if not all metal, period. This is a teaching that all acolytes of the dark and dissonant, and hell, maybe even the crucified Lord, need to hear.

Rating: Excellent
DR: 6 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Willowtip
Websites: Bandcamp | Facebook
Releases Worldwide: June 20th, 2025
#2025 #45 #BlackMetal #BlackenedDeathMetal #Catechesis #DeathMetal #DissonantDeathMetal #ItalianMetal #Jun25 #Patristic #Review #Reviews #Ulcerate #Verberis #WillowtipRecords

#willowtiprecords #verberis #ulcerate #reviews #review #patristic
Angry Metal Guy @[email protected] · 2025-06-20 · 18:08 UTC

Patristic – Catechesis Review
By Thus Spoke
The first eight centuries of the common era were a tumultuous one for Christian theology, played out in the writings of scholars now considered Early Church fathers. The study of this back-and-forth, which eventually resulted in an agreed ‘canon,’ gives Patristic their name. On debut Catechesis, the trio turn to the turbulent and culturally pivotal period that saw the fall of the Roman Empire, and the rise of the once-marginalized religion. The album’s title refers to the practice of Christian instruction imparted upon potential converts—teachings which stemmed from a still-divided root, even as the religion spread and any pretenses to truth conceded to power. This chaos informs Patristic’s music in a way unique to freeform dissonant metal and culminates in a record whose resonance goes beyond the literal echo of its notes.
The seamlessly flowing sermons that comprise Catechesis are both discomfiting and alluring. Churning riffs and undulating waves of percussion, though sinister and often dissonant, mesmerize through hypnotic recurrence, as Patristic sway and lurch between moments of eerie calm, and punishing violence. And the whole evolves gradually through repeated returns to restless drum patterns, and passages of tense atmosphere, cataclysmic blackened-death assaults, and imposing, frightening melody. As with all the best dissonant extreme metal, Catechesis is intense without being totally overwhelming, and beyond this, is haunting in its particular approach to the interplay between spaciousness and crushing density. In this—particularly a disposition towards dark layers of guitar, and a reverberating quality to the vocals (“A Vinculis Soluta II,” “Catechesis I”)—the closest comparison is Verberis,1 though Patristic craft a drama that is very much their own.
Catechesis can and should be seen as one piece; you could say, one instruction, one imparting of sacred knowledge or dogma. Without lyrics, much is hidden, but as the album progresses, one gets the sense of approaching order by means of violence. The grand refrain that first emerges towards the end of “Catechesis II” comes to fruition with yet ominous finality in closer “Catechesis IV,” and this ultimate reprise echoes the subversive creep of themes through Catechesis. The music’s stream allows the ebb and flow of elements to layer, rise, and fade away with grace that borders on predatory, melodies teased in fragmentary glimpses (“A Vinculis Soluta I,” “Catechesis IV”), or their aura turned back from menacing to mournful (“A Vinculis Soluta II” “Catechesis III”). Riffs overlap in uneasy syncopation, hum malevolently, or chime emphatically in a reverberant chorus with rasping and cavernous bellows, and cello2—played in shuddering vibrato3—weaves through the darkness to amplify tension, and eerie beauty (“Vinculis Soluta II,” “Catechesis I,” “Catechesis II”). Driving the whole through union and separation is a current of mesmerizingly fluid and dynamic drumming, which heightens the already portentous atmospheres and pulls you deep into the writhing mass of it all.
The convergence of the many thematic and percussive threads across the album is impressive in its scope and deceptive ease; it is seamless, beautiful, and often frightening. Patristic also achieve the practically unachievable by using spoken word to add powerful gravitas, which increases rather than lessens the song’s impact (“A Vinculis Soluta I,” “A Vinculis Soluta II”). And speaking of impact, the drum performance, courtesy of Sathrath, deserves particular praise for being one of the most insane of its kind I have ever heard.4 It’s impossibly delicate in shivering cymbal taps, lethally fast in split-second rollovers and fills, and ruthless in its sharp, brutal cascades of double-bass. Everything, drums included, is produced perfectly to allow the convulsing lows to reflect and resonate in a cavernous, immersive portal of grinding guitar and bellowing howls, and the stalking highs dip chillingly below and above its surface.
With such immensity, it’s easy to see how Patristic got a signing with Willowtip so soon; I struggle to believe that these musicians have been playing together for less than five years. So arresting is Catechesis, so layered and immersive, that it threatens to overshadow all other extreme metal this year—if not all metal, period. This is a teaching that all acolytes of the dark and dissonant, and hell, maybe even the crucified Lord, need to hear.

Rating: Excellent
DR: 6 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Willowtip
Websites: Bandcamp | Facebook
Releases Worldwide: June 20th, 2025
#2025 #45 #BlackMetal #BlackenedDeathMetal #Catechesis #DeathMetal #DissonantDeathMetal #ItalianMetal #Jun25 #Patristic #Review #Reviews #Ulcerate #Verberis #WillowtipRecords

#blackmetal #blackeneddeathmetal #catechesis #deathmetal #dissonantdeathmetal #italianmetal
Sarah Wallin Huff @[email protected] · 2025-06-05 · 10:27 UTC

Sept. 2023 Interview with Daniel Kepl

Back in the fall of 2023, right after the release of my second solo album with Navona, I got the opportunity to sit down with longtime American conductor, arts administrator, and music/theater/dance critic, Daniel Kepl, and talk with him about my album, SHARDS.
Unfortunately, the audio in that video interview was extremely unbalanced and distorted, so I took some time to try and clean it up, to make it as listenable as possible. So… that edited video is now here, below, ready for your viewing pleasure (complete with chapter breaks, if you’d prefer to jump around)!
While the pops and crackles and background noises are mostly gone, sometimes the words are still a little garbly, so I’ve embedded captions in the video and am providing a full transcript, for those who would prefer to read the discussion. If you would like to see the original unedited video, you can do that here.

Dan Kepl’s Review Highlights
The high points of Dan Kepl’s praise, as stated in the video below.

About the Album:

[SHARDS is] a wonderful album, very interesting and very accessible, if I may say. It’s absolutely a magnificent recording of simply superb music… This music is just simply gorgeous. You use instruments in the most magical way.
This is music that should be heard a lot more…it’s just good, solid, wonderful music-making. It’s…a very important CD you’ve got.

About “Ayre of Grievances”:

It’s absolutely gorgeous. Tense, beautifully crafted, thoroughly contemporarily classical. tonalities are altogether satisfying throughout the piece. The balancing and everything is wonderful in terms of your compositional skills.

About “DodecaFunky”:

I want to tell everybody out there that’s looking for a repertoire, this is a beauty. This is a recital beauty. I think I can say it’s fun. It’s wonderful. It’s just a delicious piece, it’s aggressive in its funky way. It’s wonderful to the max. Should be on programming all over the place. This is irresistible. Audiences would love it, I think.

About “Of Roses and Lilies”:

It’s a beauty; a rich tapestry of sound and a highly romantic tonal aesthetic. …this should go off the shelf and into performance and rehearsal. A flowing, lovely, entirely tonal journey. The soprano recorder is charming. Your writing is absolutely first-class. You handle transitions of mood with smooth aplomb. The piece soars with beauty. Your compositional savvy and skill are beyond question.

About “The Oracle”:

Once in a while, I really want to play [a track of] an album, uh, for other people…you know, over a dinner or something. This is one of them. What an amazing chamber piece. Wonderful transitional writing; compositional savvy is top notch. The piece is a wonderful narrative. It’s complex. This piece is quite a journey.

About “Wabi-Sabi”:

The construct is fascinating and sensible to the intellect…quite a narrative…wonderful quartet writing.

About “Nevermore”:

An absolutely gorgeous, wonderful, magnificent Sonata for viola and piano…so American. …a fascinating piano introduction that really nails the interest immediately because it hints at mysteries, then it’s followed by the viola’s intensely Poe-ish colors and temperament. It’s a beauty, again, of narrative imagination, a wonderful piece of writing for viola. It is virtuosic, everything a violist looks for in a recital piece. There are romantic bits in here, some hair-raising twilight zone intervals between notes, if that makes any sense, thrilling, kooky, mysterious, as was the man. It has a tremendous connection to America and American history and American literature. It is a beautiful sonata and it sounds so beautiful. The writing is so gorgeous.
[For Annabelle Lee] I call it magical writing. It’s exceptionally sensitive.
The Tell-Tale Heart: the intro, sufficiently terrifying. Very imaginative character development. It’s exactly creepy enough to fit the narrative, because it is that narrative, the pulsing, the clicking…the floorboards…Then the beginning of real paranoia. Shades of the shower scene in Psycho – Brava! Disturbingly deliberate ending.

About “The Dark Glass Sinfonia”:

…wonderful piece for orchestra, “The Dark Glass Sinfonia,” gives me shivers, but it’s wonderful.
Lovely wind section work…nicely orchestrated. It’s brilliant and wonderful and very accessible…a beautiful, beautiful orchestral piece. Definitely descriptive, martial, perfectly accessible.
Sept. 2023 Interview with Daniel Kepl (Edited, with Captions)

Full [Edited] Interview Transcript

D: I’m chatting with composer Sarah Wallin Huff and we’re going to talk about your 2023 Navona CD release. Thank you, Parma. Thank you, Navona. Thank you, all of you wonderful people out there that put this, these kind of packages together. Just a quick aside about Navona, including everything that we need as critics, really somewhat truncated, makes perfect sense, but up on a website. And very few other companies do this. I just think it’s fabulous.
I’ve seen your interview, or I’ve read your interview, I should say, with Parma. And we’re going to talk about your 2023 Navona CD release of Contemporary Classical Chamber Works and an album for diverse instrumental combinations. Anyway, the CD is called Shards. Do not run away in the night and be afraid. It’s a wonderful album of very interesting and very accessible, if I may say so, and I think it’s perfectly OK to say so.
Here, just a sampling: Ayre of Grievances, for viola, violin, flute, lovely. The flute I wondered about. Those are pretty heavy instruments and the balancing and everything is wonderful in terms of your compositional skills.
DodecaFunky, let me say that once more. DodecaFunky, for piano, and it is cute… oh, did I miss one?
S: DodecaFunky.
D: Anyway, it’s cute. I think I can say it’s fun. It’s wonderful. And it’s a wonderful, very fascinating piano piece. Audiences would love it, I think.
“Of Roses and Lilies.” This one’s a little complex for soprano, piano, soprano recorder. Nice colors. Nice. English horn, very interesting. And women’s chorus. I mean, not since Holst have I heard women’s chorus used in this way.
So, Wabi-Sabi, it’s in three movements. Juventas, the new music ensemble performs it. This is a string quartet, so four players of the Juventas ensemble. I hope I’m pronouncing that right since I live in California. Three movements: Emergence, Evolution, Entropy. Very, very interesting. And maybe even kind of the heart of who you might be. I don’t know. I’m just guessing.
The next piece, Nevermore for viola and piano, an absolutely gorgeous, wonderful, three-movement sonata for viola and piano. The movements: The Raven, Annabelle Lee, The Tell-Tale Heart. And I love Poe, what a genius, what a genius. So glad you have included this wonderful, wonderful piece for viola and piano. And I mean by that, again, your compositional skills, the way you use these, didn’t you play viola? I thought I that read somewhere. Were you a violist?
S: I double on viola. I feel more comfortable on violin, but I can pick up a viola if I need it.
D: Okay. So you got all that stuff, you know, under your fingernails, so to say.
And then the last piece, wonderful piece for orchestra, The Dark Glass Sinfonia, gives me shivers, but it’s wonderful. And with a little subtype, if I’m reading it correctly: “We see through a glass darkly.” Wonderful piece, performed by wonderful people, while you really say it right out, right, and I just want to deal with this a little bit before I get to where you know, I’m going.
We all know people with autism and what I have found in my experience with people, and you know, autism is here, there, everywhere in various variations. You’re going to speak to it, I think in a bit, but the people that I have known with autism, some people have had troubles, others have been really, really talented, clever, and innovative. Autism is not a deficit. Okay.
S: Yeah. It’s a difference.
D: It’s a difference. Thank you. That’s better. Okay. Because I too, like most of, especially like with dyslexia, in the seventies, we all thought people with dyslexia were just lazy. Just didn’t want to do a job. Well, they couldn’t help it. They couldn’t read. Everything was backwards. My, my oldest nephew, uh, is dyslexic. So I just want everybody to understand…
And, and where are you in the autism spectrum? Can I ask that question?
S: Sure.
D: Of course, you’re clearly under great control. You have mastered the magic of autism.
S: Yeah. Well, what’s funny about that is I’ve actually only just in the past year, really got confirmation. Um, I’m still don’t have, yeah, I still don’t have an official diagnosis because that’s a whole other bag of worms for adult diagnosis and it costs thousands of dollars. And, uh, some doctors still don’t believe that women have it. Um, so, but just taking several screening tests, um, I’ve taken about five of the clinical screening tests and they all point very highly to autism. Um, and thinking about my experiences growing up, it really makes a lot of sense.
D: That’s what I was going to ask you next. You must have known, you know, that something was different.
S: Well, yeah. I, I thought something was always…
D: Can you give an example or two, you know, when you were a little kid. What I remember is the kids that I’ve known have various symptoms of autism.
S: Definitely. Um, emotional dysregulation, um, is still difficult where, well, and for me, because I kind of triggered emotional response to things like, um, there’s a famous phrase that “you don’t have enough spoons”, but the phrase means basically like, I only have so many ways of coping with life and when I’m out of those ways, I have to take a nap. I have to, I have to go to the corner for a second. And for different people, there’s different levels of that.
And growing up with a family who expected me to be normal. Um, I got really good at masking. I got really good at holding it all in, but then I’d get home and just. Like, um, I didn’t want to do my homework. I didn’t want to eat. I didn’t want to do anything except just sit there after school. Um, unfortunately I had to keep pushing through. Um, and so I just got used to doing that, hiding who I really was, you know?
D: Um, as you know, we talked, I’m very openly gay and…what we’re getting to, the bottom line is you have to be who you are. To keep these things secret or to try and work around who you are is exhausting, as you said. And just mentally, you know, exactly.
S: I’ve actually, I did actually get a diagnosis like 15 years ago for anxiety disorder and what I’ve discovered since then is that it is a part of the autism masking, just, I had been masking for 40 years. And so, um, that just built up a lot of anxiety in me for everything, you know? Um, but now that I’m just past year, starting to learn who I am and learn what my triggers are.
Um, I am very sensitive to sound, ironically enough, um, disorganized sound, I really have a hard time handling with, but music is organized sounds. So for me, my brain likes it, you know? Um, but yeah, so I’m just learning a lot more about myself and how my brain works and that it’s okay that my brain has trouble where other people seem to have things worked out, you know? And that’s okay.
D: You see, if you will, with your brain, things that we don’t, and so on. So, you know, I mean, that’s the beauty of all, for all of us. Uh, it’s the tremendous beauty of diversity.
Um… Let’s talk about Ancients. This is psycho-messaging to our brains. I mean, give me a break. It’s not random. It’s pure messaging to ourselves, uh, Tarot and all the rest of it. And I love traditions that have been there for 8,000 years. We’re going to talk about it. Cause you use, you do, you do this formula for a piece with Tarot cards that drives me crazy, but often told me it, speaking of what you had spoken to, uh, just a moment ago, when one gets kind of focused, the focus becomes quite, uh, extravagant. And was that for you? You really got into constructing this piece around Tarot.
S: Oh, yeah, I tend to, this tends to be a theme that I, if I hit on something that’s been very useful for me, um, mentally and psychologically, spiritually, I tend to write a piece about it. So that’s what the Oracle, the Oracle tended to be Tarot. I fell, fell onto, um, as a way to deal with my anxiety and it really, luckily, I had a therapist at the time who was open to the idea of me exploring my subconscious through the Tarot cards.
D: It’s about this idea of finding oneself, of reveling in these discoveries, uh, you know, and so is there any, can you give me a, um, what a topography of when, where, if even you feel now, like who you are, you know what I mean? How, what, what trajectory, where did you arrive? Have you arrived yet?
S: Um, well, definitely starting roughly a little less than a year ago when I finally did those, um, screenings for autism, like is when everything really started clicking and, and I did a lot of reading and, and, um, researching and, and finding others like me, you know, um, and it just helped click, you know, uh, it helped make, help me make sense of who I am and why I am the way I am.
Um, so often, especially throughout my whole life, um, I would be upset that I didn’t seem to be like everybody else. Even as a teacher, I mean, one of my favorite compliments from a student of mine was I’m the quirkiest teacher on campus. And I wear that like a badge. You know, I don’t teach like other teachers teach. I don’t think like other people think, and I’ve learned that that’s okay. There’s nothing wrong with me. Um, that diversity is a great thing.
D: So now we’re going to deal with the, uh, the product of your, uh, satisfactions, although this is, let’s see, 2023. I know these are recorded over a rather large span of time.
S: Maybe, uh, yeah, about five years or so.
D: So in other words, I guess what now has me curious is feeling where you are feeling now. Do you see, do you hear, see things in your focus on this CD?
S: I do actually. Um, the CD actually came about simply by virtue of, um, the way the economy works in the music recording industry and classical music, et cetera, where we just recorded piece by piece by piece as we could, um, and then finally had enough and say, Hey, let’s put together an album, you know…
D: And then let’s figure out how to pay for it. That’s what everybody watching this knows all about. It’s not like it [just] happens.
S: Exactly. Uh, so now, like I said, especially after these past several months, I look at the CD and I do really see it as if it’s sort of a culmination of my past 15 years or so, um, because all the pieces have been written, I think the earliest one was. Well, I think “Roses and Lilies” was what, like 2012 or something like that. Um, 2013, maybe.
D: Oh, well, we’ll find it.
S: I don’t remember.
D: Why did you use the word, “Shards”?
S: My husband picked it. He, he actually made up the title Ayre of Grievances too. He comes up with great titles. We thought about “Shards” because there are pieces like Dark Glass Sinfonia, so glass and, and breaking, uh, Wabi-Sabi is sort of like the fractal nature of life. And so you see shards of glass reflecting, reflecting different things, um, basically it’s supposed to be sort of the fragmentations of personality and life and spirituality.
D: That’s a good definition here. I was, I was expecting, uh, the, as I told you, I was expecting a wild ride. And by the way, everybody knows it isn’t, it’s absolutely a magnificent recording of simply superb music. This is what just blew me away.
In a way, this text that’s on your CD tells us how fresh the CD is. So it’s been put together. You’ve done that. It’s been five years. You’re there. And then it’s like, son of a gun.
“One inherent trait I possess is finding my emotional fulfillment through the active, creative manipulation of music.” And this fascinates me. I’m, I’m not a fix the watch kind of guy. I don’t get into the little details. I’m, I’m the conductor. I’m the, you know, I want the big pastel, you know, horses crossing the plains or something. You know, does that speak to your autism in a way, the focus?
S: I think so. The hyper fixation. I mean, there are times when I’m working on a piece that if my husband wasn’t there to remind me, I’d forget to eat, you know, I’ll just be like focused on these patterns and what else can I do with them? And, and, oh, that sounds really cool. Let me try this. Let’s see.
D: And you say, “I’m not, I’m not seeking to impose specific emotions on listeners.” That’s something that’s very important, “…but rather to facilitate a deeper connection with their inner selves.” Now, I’m not quite sure what kind of, what kind of a labyrinth you just, you know, created with those words. “I’m not seeking to impose specific emotions on listeners” yet, “I would like them to get in touch with their deeper…” you know, you know what I mean, you’re clever, aren’t you?
S: Well, that’s a question I get a lot is, well, how do you want the audience to feel? Even, even composition teachers… “How do you want them to feel?” And, and I think that’s another part of my autism. I relate to emotions differently than some other people do from what I can tell. Um, I, for me, the emotion and joy comes from the patterns. And so that’s what it is for me. Um, you know, it can be a completely atonal piece and if the patterns are cool then I’m getting such delight out of it. Uh, but for other people that might not be the case and I totally recognize that. So I’m hoping through my music, even though I might find joy in places they won’t, um, that they’ll still find something that they can resonate with.
D: Oh, that was very well, well, spracht and I can only agree with you because as I think I mentioned to you and probably everybody else and probably about three times already by now, but that was the shock. This music is just simply gorgeous. And I was expecting a few more “shards”, something expecting something, something a little, little more fractious, if you will.
The first piece on the, on the CD is Ayre of Grievances. I love the spelling. I presume clever, uh, you know, and, and, uh, awfully medieval or something. For viola, violin, and flute. It’s from 2020. So that’s a bad year. Oh my God.
S: Hence the grievances.
D: Hence the grievances is right. Uh, composed during the worldwide COVID epidemic. And you and I’ve talked about it. People are not yet clear how profoundly we as a planet of human beings and animals have been affected. This is going to take another half dozen years if we don’t have World War Three somewhere in between to sort it out. So it’s a, this was a big thing. And the biggest thing in my life, maybe, uh, to go through. So, Ayre of Grievances, and, uh, and, you know, you set us up with all the frustrations, fear, sorrow, and anger, and I’m going, Oh, can’t wait.
And I put it on. And it’s absolutely gorgeous. I totally did not expect it. Here’s a bit of my stream of consciousness, totally not expecting such… well, tonality. It’s wonderful already. Tense, beautifully crafted, thoroughly contemporarily classical. I mean, it’s, it’s totally accessible. And I, again, I almost want to spit when I say that word, but I think it’s okay now to use that, to create accessible music, um, things get a little crazy and frustrated.
You mentioned in your program notes, there’s that frustration and you describe it very well. How, although in my case, I just went comatose and just stared out the windows for two years and allowed the checks to come in. Cause I was a freelancer unemployed and boy, the money was better than I’ve ever received. Thank you, Uncle Sam, but, but so I didn’t really experience a whole lot of frustration. I just sort of couldn’t believe what was going on for about two years.
In other words, there is a narrative to this piece, Ayre of Grievances. Um, but I think it, you know, it is much more than the sum of its narrative is what I’m trying to say. Uh, tonalities are altogether satisfying throughout the piece.
Go, give me an overview. What was this about for you?
S: During the, during the lockdowns for me, it was frustrating. Well, because… guy, giving three hour lectures on zoom, I never want to do that again. Oh my gosh. Not being able to see anybody, not being able to see family. Um, that was really frustrating, but at the same time, because I wasn’t able to play live concerts, like I had been, um, it gave me a chance to sit down and really think about who I am.
Um, up until that point, it was very much, oh, I’m a major violinist and a composer and a teacher at all at once.
D: Don’t forget viola… and viola too.
S: Yes. I love the viola. Um, but then I came to realize. I really much prefer writing, uh, and recording. Uh, so I, I allowed myself to let go of the, the things that maybe didn’t bring me quite as much joy. So when things did open back up, I’m, I’m being more careful to balance my life, uh, with what really brings me more joy and less stress, hopefully. Um, that’s, that’s what that piece really sort of represented is it was frustrating. It was lonely. I was angry at the world. Um, but at the same time, there was some beauty in there and some peace.
And, um, and I just love the interaction of the three parts. They’re both, they’re all three very independent, but they speak together and sometimes they’re arguing with each other. Sometimes they’re singing with each other and supporting each other. And, um, I just really liked that intimacy of the work.
D: Well, that whole narrative thing about what you’re very good, uh, you know, voices, uh, having discussions between each other, but I found, and I may sound like I’m an idiot or something, but when I saw that viola, violin, flute, I told you earlier, I thought, I remember thinking that’s going to be tricky, you know, that the flute doesn’t get lost, and all of that works beautifully. And that is not about, you know, microphones. It’s about the way you wrote the piece. Using those three instruments. So, so beautifully. And later you use instruments in the most magical way.
S: Yeah, we actually debuted it during the pandemic where I recorded the violin and viola part. And then I recorded a friend of mine playing the flute part and we just did one of those YouTube stitched videos where we stitched our videos together. That was the thing.
D: Yeah. Am I pronouncing it reasonably close? “DodecaFunky” And of course we’re playing, playing with, uh, dodeca cacophony or something. You can fill me in on that. There’s all this funny stuff going on. That’s all inside stuff for musicians.
It’s for flute and piano from 2015. I think you mentioned this might be the earliest piece, maybe…
S: “Of Roses and Lilies”, I actually wrote the original piece for voice and piano in like the early aughts. But then I went back and fleshed it out and sort of made it fuller.
D: So then you know, the early aughts, I love that. So DodecaFunky, uh, flute and piano. I want to tell everybody out there that’s looking for a repertoire. This is a beauty. This is a recital beauty. A funky solo for flute with piano accompaniment, this intense and spastic work. Is that me or you?
S: I think it’s me.
D: I think it was you. So it… “exploits various manipulations”. Oh, here you go. Yeah, it is you… “of a 12 tone row (dodecaphony).” I’m supposed to be a musician and I couldn’t care less how it’s pronounced or even what it is these days. It’s just the serial melody to a backdrop, et cetera, et cetera. But the point of, oh, this is why it’s so cute. A hard bop and swing and, uh, and stuff. It’s just a delicious piece. And it’s, it’s aggressive in its funky way. I say about the opening, while the piano adds to the delightful confusion with various playful styles, a pause and it starts to get feisty. Uh, now I don’t know where I am in the piece, but now some casual virtuoso boogie woogie, boogie funky, uh, it’s a delight.
It’s kind of a series of descriptive tableau. Am I closer? Cause I love dance. I, you know, I reviewed dance a lot and these are like little tableau. It’s wonderful to the max. Should be, uh, on programming all over the place. It’s a beauty.
Tell me, tell me, what do you think? What do you think of this?
S: I love this piece. It just makes, it makes me giggle.
D: It’s just a charm. Beautiful. It’s so cute.
S: Thank you, thank you.
D: Again, if you, you’ll forgive me the accessibility word. This is irresistible. Of course, you know what I’m trying to say?
S: I’m glad you like it. That one actually took a little bit of inspiration from Bernstein. Um, I, I love, uh, I was studying his symphony, Age of Anxiety. Oh, and I love how he merged, well, he merged…
D: By the way, you know, I’m a conductor. Uh, and I know all three of those symphonies very, very well. I’ve never conducted them because they’re too hard. “Jeremiah” I could conduct. That one makes sense. Uh, the, the age of anxiety for piano and orchestra is unbelievable, but it’s also unbelievably difficult to conduct, you know? And then Kaddish, he wrote the original and then tore it all to pieces and stuff. So, but anyway, I just want, I’m so glad somebody also has studied [those works]. Anyway, excuse me.
S: That’s okay. Uh, but yeah, I really loved the idea of merging modernist, modernistic tendencies as Bernstein would say, um, with jazz and other accessible popular genres. And so that’s what I did with this flute piece is I took a 12 tone row and it is an authentic 12 tone row, but I, you could say I cheated, I cheated a little bit because I used transpositions. So what I would do is it’s still the same row, but I would transpose fragments of it to places that I liked it, where it fit better.
D: Arnold [Schoenberg] is turning into his grave.
S: Well, this is true. Ah but see, Stravinsky did it first. So, you know, let’s blame him.
It’s still, it still has the same intervallic structures. Um, but then I back it up, with that really jazzy, different, like you say, different tableaus of different jazzy styles to kind of increase the…
D: It’s a great dance piece…
S: That’d be fun.
D: In other words, there’s lots of possibilities.
Okay. We’re going to move on.
“Of Roses and Lilies”, this is for soprano, piano, soprano recorder, which I don’t think I hear very often used in these kinds of chamber pieces. And it’s a perfect color. English horn… what got into you ?…and women’s chorus. And then the, are there strings there? I have this question.
S: String orchestra.
D: String orchestra, because I didn’t, you know, I didn’t see it in the, in the brief and it’s from 2013, so we’re getting closer to, to the bottom of the stack here. Tell us about it.
S: This one’s a really fascinating piece for me. I, like I said, I had first written it many, many, many, several decades ago. And this was written…
D: Don’t be so hard on yourself…It’s only been 10 years…
S: But the original piece for just soprano and piano was written, like I said, in the late nineties or early aughts, um, this was when I was still with my very Christian family, um, yeah, there you go. And so I fell in love with the song of Solomon and I thought, why don’t I write quick snippets of the song of Solomon and put it together as sort of a love song. And so I did. And, um, eventually just another like 10 years or so down the road, I’d said, you know what, I really love this piece. I’m going to flesh it out. So, um, I took the original just two parts and added the strings and added the color of the soprano recorder and the English horn, um, and, you know, added the women’s chorus as sort of this almost Greek chorus kind of response thing.
So it’s a very, it’s a very different piece. Uh, it’s a very dramatic kind of theater-esque, drama-esque kind of, uh, kind of a feel.
D: And you don’t use the word romantic. It reeks of romanticism. I see in my notes there, a rich tapestry of sound and a highly romantic tonal aesthetic. I was not ready for that.
S: Well, actually, uh, every, everybody don’t hate on me, but I actually recorded it myself. So it’s only, it’s only two microphones with, uh, the soloist, Claire is one of my best friends and she teaches at Azusa. So she was able to grab us a classroom. And so I recorded with the two microphones, her and another good friend of mine, the pianist, Lydia. Um, and at the time we weren’t sure if I was just going to put together a digital background to it and like release it online or something. But, you know, this CD was coming to the, coming toward finishing and I was like, you know, this would be really awesome if we can get the rest of it recorded.
So I, yeah, I took two more sessions. I got the strings and the winds together for one session. Uh, and then I finally got the women’s chorus together for a session.
D: So that makes sense too. Very hard undertaking just in terms of production.
S: Yeah, it’s such a good, such a good learning experience. And again, so many of my dear, dear friends are on that recording and it’s just, it was just so special to me.
D: It’s something else. And I hope you understand what I’m saying here, because we want to get this, these pieces performed. It’s a beauty. It’s very accessible. So it doesn’t sound terribly hard to put together. What do you think? Am I all wet? I don’t know, but just, it seemed very, it seemed to just flow pretty freely.
S: Here’s the… I would say, here’s the danger with my music. And, um, especially with this piece, this has happened before. There have been pianists who think they can sight read it and they suddenly quit. It’s like, oh, I can’t sight read this. So this is something my very first composition teacher warned me about is that my music seems really easy. But then you dig into it and there are some little quirks in there and some tricks that you might not be expecting. So as long as you know…
D: It shouldn’t be a big problem. If you know what I mean, so I think I’m okay in saying that I think it’s not like, you know…
S: It’s not terrible.
D: Yeah…[not] terribly virtuosic. And that is, that is to say this should go off the shelf and into performance and rehearsal. And that’s exactly what I see. Nothing but college, college ensemble. Because of the difficulty of getting, you know, professionals together in that kind of complex, you know, but, but, so I found it really very, very…a flowing, lovely, entirely tonal journey. The soprano recorder is charming. Your writing is absolutely first-class. You handle transitions of mood with smooth aplomb. Boy, that came out of my head. Geez. The piece soars with beauty. Your compositional savvy and skill are beyond question.
S: Thank you.
D: Let’s see. Now this is “The Oracle,” for violin, cello, flute and piccolo, clarinet, piano. That’s from 2016. Go ahead. Tell us, but the bottom line is you constructed this thing from random throws of tarot cards. Go.
S: Exactly. Okay. So…
D: Aleatoric indeed!
S: Uh, I really, like I said, this was the time in my life when I had just really started to latch on to tarot as a means of exploring my own subconscious.
D: Which is correct, by the way. Let’s make sure. Exactly what it’s supposed to be. No, let the self-conscious speak to us.
S: Exactly. I like to think of it, it’s like a mirror for myself. It’s a way for me to talk to myself when sometimes I’m having trouble understanding my brain. So, uh, I really love tarot and I wrote this when I first really started getting into it. And so what I did is, um, I had an opportunity. It was like a call for scores for this ensemble. Uh, and so I was like, this will be fun. Why don’t I use that as an excuse to try it out?
So, and I wanted to do sort of a homage to John Cage by using an aleatoric kind of method. And so tarot seemed like the perfect way to do it. So I set up, um, I think it was five different spreads of 10 cards. I think I did like, um, some kind of a sacred pyramid, uh, spread for each of those. Um, and what I did is I, I assigned certain, you know, in tarot, the different suits represent different aspects of life and personality.
So you have the cups, which is emotion. Um, you have, you know, the, uh, the pentacles, uh, the pentacles are, uh, earth, uh, and, um, material wellbeing and reality and such. Uh, so what I did is I attached each of the instruments to those suits. The, uh, violin was fire, uh, or wands. Uh, the, uh, the cello was water or cups and the, uh, the clarinet was earth and the flute, of course, was air. And then for the piano, uh, I made the piano, the tree of life itself. Uh, because I like to read tarot from a Kabbalistic tree of life sort of interpretation.
D: You’re starting to get over my head. I thought I was with you pretty well, but Kabbalistic something, something…with a tree of life.
S: So Jewish mysticism, basically. So on the tree of life, each of the cards have their place on that tree. And the higher up the tree you are, the closer to the divine source you are. And then you travel down the tree and experience various phases of life and emotion, et cetera, until you get to the bottom, which is material reality. Everything you’ve experienced becomes real. Uh, and then you cycle back to the top, back to the divine source again.
So for the piano, um, when I had a spread that, that spoke of being closer to the divine source, I had the piano playing up in its higher registers. And then as it got closer to the bottom, to the ground, the piano went down. So the higher, if you hear the piano going, noodling up really high, that’s up at the divine source of things. If you hear the piano kind of in the middle, that’s sort of where balance and harmony are. If the piano is down in the basement, that’s down in material reality.
And then in the meantime, you have all the other instruments that are reflecting on emotion or, um, you know, or, or thought, or power
D: …and character that may be interpreted…in countless ways. That’s the beauty of the idea of randomness, the beauty of the order, if you will, of randomness, that even random events will speak to us.
S: Exactly.
D: Once in a while, I really want to play an album, uh, for other people in my, you know, over a dinner or something. This is one of them. Um, what an amazing chamber piece. I say this is, uh, this long cello obbligato, then into the klezmer aesthetic I call, uh, with, with all of that playing. Now I understand the cabalistic, if you will, right. Uh, meaning to it all. Uh, but the klezmer, uh, aesthetic is, is clearly there. The, and of course the Oracle is a Jew, right? I say the Oracle is a Jew? Question mark.
A wonderful transition, transitional writing. And you know what I mean? Making segments and, and, uh, themes make sense. That transition material is very, very important to get it right. [Your] compositional savvy is top notch. I think I’ve been saying that, but the piece is a wonderful narrative. It’s complex. It’s a complex narrative. Um, and as you have just described the instruments are characters.
S: They’re, they’re the suits of the, of the cards, but they do have sort of, they evoke their sort of, uh, certain characteristics about it.
D: Okay. That’s much more complex. Thank you. That clarifies.
This is quite a journey. So, and, uh, and then I say, um, a jaunty section now as CODA, I assume that’s a CODA. Uh, still a fun ending. I love it. I don’t think you can get any more, you know, any, any better than that.
Okay. Next is, is, uh, Wabi-Sabi, this, uh, uh, the aesthetic and metaphysical ideals that Japanese Wabi-Sabi encapsulates. Tell us about Wabi-Sabi. Is it animist or something? Is it part of their religion? Animist religion?
S: It can be. Uh, I’m trying to remember where it historically started. It actually started with monochromatic Chinese drawings and then the Japanese sort of took that ideal and enhanced it. A lot of people think of a Zen garden when they think of Wabi Sabi.
D: I see what you mean. Now I understand exactly what you mean. Even the artwork, strokes, you know, just very spare strokes.
S: Yeah. The tea ceremony. Um, everything about that ceremony is part of their Wabi Sabi aesthetic and metaphysical ideals.
D: I’m trying to remember this [for] parties.
S: Simplicity is, is a major part of it, but it goes beyond that. This, and this is what the string quartet throughout the three movements sort of encapsulates is that, uh, the beginning that, that…you know, in the west the idea of nothing is like zero, there’s nothing there. It’s very stark, but in Wabi Sabi ideas, um, nothing is full of potential. There’s a lot that could be there, but isn’t there yet.
D: That’s so profound.
S: Um, and then you go through, especially at the beginning of the first movement, sort of these random particles where the players can choose how they want to play it.
D: I understand that. We’re talking about the first movement Emergence, what have you just said that the players have some choice and they have choices.
S: So, so each of the players have a collection of notes that they can choose from to play. Uh, and they do it in different ways. Like the cello trills all their notes, but they can choose how they want to trill and how fast they want to trill and when they want to come in, uh, and things like that. Um, until they finally come together in the middle of the first movement and it sort of builds from there. So the idea is like that of creation of these particles coming into space and slowly merging together to become something.
D: And by the way, this sounds like an homage to Stockhausen, you know?
S: Yeah, absolutely.
D: Another great. Distance… these distant sounds… I remember performance, you know, Stockhausen, and it all comes together.
S: And then, and then Evolution is a short, it’s intentionally a short little two minute burst because that’s where everything is kind of locked in.
D: This is Evolution.
S: This is the, the cells are coming together and creating fish that are coming out of the water and, you know, becoming man. Um, et cetera. Possibility.
D: Alive with possibility, yeah. …Nothingness itself…
S: Yeah, exactly. Um, and then it gives way to Entropy, uh, and Entropy starts with a very strict structure. Uh, funnily enough, I wasn’t sure compositionally how I wanted to go about the third movement, but I was in the middle of teaching about isorhythm in one of my classes. So I’m like, Hey, I can do isorhythm with this. That’d be fun. So it starts out very strict, um, but then gets really complex and starts falling apart. And again, that’s the idea of returning back to nothingness. Everything’s falling apart.
Uh, and, and that’s the idea of, um, the idea that you, um, sometimes the best course of action is to decide to do nothing, you know…
D: I think you have just described an exact, uh, arc in the, they come together. I’m looking at Emergence. The first one builds quite satisfyingly. Uh, the construct is fascinating and sensible to the intellect, I say to myself. And of course, if there, if you don’t get it off the ground, intellectually from the beginning, you’re in trouble… Ok, Evolution. Um, I love this, uh, I call it a flowing sea sort of opening. Or whatever that vibe could be. Anything, forget sea, whatever that undulating flowing thing…so mesmerizing. Again, wonderful quartet writing.
I’m going to have to stop using this word accessible, but that’s the whole idea to get these performed. And that’s exactly to be well written and also to be a happy time for an audience. Give me a break. And I, and here’s the thing about Evolution that it’s, uh, utterly accessible to the listener, though the subject, listening, but I think I got it. Although the subject matter may have sub-basements. Now a walking cello fits that, that walking cello thing. It’s wonderful to keep the piece moving and, and, uh, energetic. Um, quite a narrative.
S: It’s like a little metronome marking I have in the, uh, the second movement is “Like dancing molecules.”
D: Oh!
S: Kind of the spinning, whirling…
D: I might have to dream about that tonight. And the third movement, if you will, Entropy. It’s such a nice, uh, I, I, do I hear a little fugue…? I wanted… the stream of consciousness thing…fuguetto. You know what I mean? That opening is a, is it a genuine, but it’s a fuguetto, right?
S: Yeah, it’s, um, it starts out exactly as a canon. Then what happens is that each time the line comes back, uh, I either in diminution or augmentation. Uh, so I, I, like I said, if you see the score, um, I start doing crazy little sub meters within each of the parts just to help, just to help the players keep, keep time with each other, but yeah, that’s part of the unraveling part is they start very much together and then they start in like ratios of two to one or one to two, but yeah, then it starts getting into weird ratios…
D: …because I think I wondered about those, those asymmetrical collisions… A slightly dysfunctional intentional section. I’m toward the end here of pizz’s.
S: Well, the very ending, I go back to the beginning idea where the, each player has a selection of notes. They can pizz. whenever they want to. So each performance should be a little different than each other.
D: So the end of entropy, they go back to this idea and they can even change their mind about it.
S: Exactly.
D: Stockhausen, he’s smiling.
“Nevermore,” this major Sonata, I think for viola and piano from 2019 to 2021. Nevermore for viola and piano, also a subtitle of a Gothic Suite, so delightful, it’s an absolutely magnificent Sonata for viola and piano. It’s just absolutely, it’s so American, because we’re talking about Edgar Allan Poe and each movement is after one of his most famous pieces. But you have, I feel very powerfully about American composers choosing American subjects. The Raven, Annabelle Lee, the Telltale Heart.
S: Actually, Charlotte Goode, the violist on this recording, is actually another one of my bestest friends. And she is also a gothic nut and a fellow autistic. And she just, she was like, oh my gosh, we need to collaborate. We need to do this for viola. And I’m like, yes. So I started out with the Raven, you know, and she debuted that at a recital. And then I was like, okay, we need to come up with two other, you know, two other movements to finish it out. And the thing I love about the recording of this, again, this is so her, the viola part is so her, the subject matter is so her, and then I was lucky enough to be able to fly out with her to Boston to have her record it for PARMA. So…that day I went to Salem after we recorded it. So it was perfect.
D: You mean, the Witch Town or Salem, Oregon?
S: No, no, no, the Witch Town, yeah, Salem, Massachusetts.
D: So Poe inspired you to go to the seat of evil.
S: Exactly. It was so good.
D: Well, what I have to say is here, I worked on looking at the first movement. First of all, a fascinating piano introduction that really nails the interest immediately because it hints at mysteries, then it’s followed by the viola’s intensely Poe-ish colors and temperament, so congrats to your friend. It’s a beauty, again, of narrative imagination, a wonderful piece of writing for viola. It is virtuosic.
S: Yeah, it is. I won’t play it on my viola. I’ll let somebody else do it. I’m not that good.
D: Well, everything a violist looks for in a recital piece, you know, and it’s romantic, there are romantic bits in here, some hair-raising twilight zone intervals between notes, if that makes any sense, thrilling, kooky, mysterious, as was the man, nice new idea… that roiling keyboard stuff toward the end of the piece, does that make any sense? Under viola, that middle and low register as it goes.
“Annabelle Lee.” It’s gorgeous, that movement is just gorgeous.
S: So beautiful, it’s one of my absolute favorites, just, and the poem, too, is just absolutely, it really struck me.
D: It brings you to tears, really, that poem.
S: It really does. I really wanted to capture that complete childlike innocence, just absolutely purest childlike innocent love of a little boy and a little girl. And then the angels cruelly take her away from him, you know, and just that drama.
D: And that’s the true story, isn’t it? Doesn’t he marry her, his wife, when she was 15, and then did she die? I can’t quite remember.
S: I don’t remember. I’d have to look it up.
D: We just missed the good parts that neither of us can remember. Anyway, what I’m trying to say is, Annabelle Lee speaks to a very personal experience.
S: I do know this was his last poem that he wrote before he died. That’s also a very haunting little tidbit. So, yeah, I love this movement so much. It actually, it was the hardest to record, too, because it’s deceptively simple. But it’s because it’s kind of like Mozart in that way, where it’s so simple and exposed that the violist has to be really careful and really in tune. So it took us a little bit longer to do this one.
D: Nice. Yeah, it’s a beautiful reading. I call it magical writing. It’s exceptionally sensitive.
The Tell-Tale Heart: the intro, sufficiently terrifying. Very imaginative character development. It’s exactly creepy enough to fit the narrative, because it is that narrative, the pulsing, the clicking, and the floorboards… Then the beginning of real paranoia. I mean, you describe this tale very well.
S: Actually, I decided the best way to put it together was to take the story apart and make each of the sections of music a section of the story. So it’s probably the most narratively accurate of the three movements.
D: And that makes good sense to me.
S: Yeah, and in the music, each of the section headings has a little quote from the story. So you can kind of tell where you are in the story. But yeah, the idea of just. I wanted the opening theme that the viola starts playing is supposed to be sort of the love theme that the narrator has for his master.
“I loved the old man…It was his eye!” …you know, so it’s this really creepy. It’s a love song, but it’s twisted. It’s got something off.
So that’s where it opens. And then from there, then I get into the part where it’s for seven nights. He he peeks in at the bedroom. And so that section is like in seven four or something like that. It has odd. It’s asymmetrical. So, again, it feels a little off, you know, a little bit of the heartbeat taps and then, you know, stuff like that. And then little answering in the piano… And then you hear him murder him.
D: I call it shades of the shower scene in Psycho.
S: Yeah, yeah, exactly.
D: Brava, I say after that.
S: …yeah, thank you. Yeah. And then you just get, like you say, the paranoia as the cops won’t leave. But the narrator keeps hearing the heartbeat and he can’t get away from it. And he just has to give up.
D: And indeed, it’s an internal conflict. Yeah, that’s the order of the soundscape. It’s kind of this internal conflict that becomes, you know, insupportable, disturbingly deliberate. And it’s so well done, well done.
So that’s a beautiful sonata. And as I mentioned, here it is. It’s a, it’s a viola sonata. It’s, it’s tough. Well, you know, at a certain level, you know, you almost want it to be. So it’s not inaccessible at all. It has a it has a tremendous connection to America and American history and American literature. It is a beautiful sonata and it sounds so beautiful. The writing is so gorgeous.
So take note, everybody. Nevermore for viola and piano.
And then now the last, the grand finale on the CD, The Dark Glass Sinfonia: We see through a glass darkly. For orchestra from 2017 built upon an integrated set…Oh, here you go again.
S: I love patterns!
D: …that’s why I pulled it. Because in all of my life in the arts and even at college, these things never came up in my experience. “Built,” she says, confident, “built upon an integrated set of hexachordal formulae.” End quote. I say to myself, please explain. You will, then you go on: “Free atonality with modal harmony…In doing so, it is meant to represent the enigmatic and ongoing emotional flux of the soul.”
S: This is another…it started out as just a love affair with patterns. And one thing, I’m not a major post-tonalist. You can tell from the accessibleness of my music. But I do love some of the number patterns that come about from, you know, post-tonal exercises. And hexachordal combinatoriality is one of my favorite ideas. I just love saying it. Hexachordal combinatoriality.
D: Yeah, I bet when you have students, they just sort of collapse.
S: Yeah, I’m like, OK, learn how to say it, you can impress all of your friends.
D: But then again, formulae is rather…
S: …It’s very pompous sounding…it’s basically it’s built upon the 12-tone ideal, but it breaks up the 12 tones into six tones, hexachords. So each of the hexachords has its own unique intervallic character to it. And so in the same way that you can take kind of the same way where I cheated with DodecaFunky, where I took segments of it and like transposed it, it’s kind of like that, but I did less cheating. Hexachords kind of do their own cheating because you can take one part of the tone row and then take the second half of it and flip it or reverse it. Or, you know, all that kind of stuff. And then if you break them down into numbers, you can add them up into cool combinations and things like that. So that’s what this was. This piece was sort of a play on that and seeing what I could do with it. And that’s how I developed the main themes.
You really hear it come out, especially in the little woodwind stuff throughout the top. That’s really where it shines. But it really is woven into it.
D: The row shines?…
S: Yeah, yeah, exactly.
D: Well, you must have been in heaven putting this piece together.
S: It was very, very fun. And again, and I don’t know how my brain does this, but what starts out with a whole bunch of numbers and patterns usually comes out as something really lovely that I continue to love listening to.
D: Well, guess what? That’s exactly the whole point of the genius of autism. You just exactly described what we’ve been kind of…that autism is, is just different.
S: You know, you know, that’s another thing that shines through with this orchestral piece, too, is that one of the comments sometimes I get from other people is, oh, why can’t you just have the instruments all stacked up on top of each other? You know, why can’t they all play at once? And I’m like, I just don’t like that. I like to have the layers. Somebody’s always doing something. And so there’s kind of a medievalness to it, you know, going back to that old polyphony idea. But then I’ll integrate it with these numbers and patterns. And I just love seeing it layer.
D: Speaking of layering, did I hear I see in my notes here. Is there any kind of pyramid that you constructed a sound pyramid somewhere in the beginning of that piece? Or is it a stupid word?
S: No it’s not stupid. I like to call it a waterfall, where…
D: Yeah, ….I got the idea of what you were creating there.
S: Yeah. The hexachordal pattern is there. But what I do is I pass it starting from the top and have it kind of trickle down like that.
D: So pyramid is not quite the right way of describing it. But I was hearing a very specific concept. And of course, thinking pyramid, I’m describing it as from the bottom up. But you’ve just described it as from top to trickle down, if you will.
Let’s see… There was a lovely little brass tune. I’m hearing that I’m hearing cinematic moments. Of course, it’s an orchestral piece. I’m sure you really got your teeth into that one.
Let’s see, lovely wind section work, as we’ve discussed, nicely orchestrated. Well, it’s brilliant and wonderful and very accessible and a beautiful, beautiful orchestral piece of what? I can’t remember. Seven minutes or…
S: Yeah, it’s only like seven minutes or so, which I have found, again, economically and just competition wise…
D: That’s exactly right.
S: People like shorter, shorter pieces.
D: That’s kind of what we ask, because then the next question is how? Because I’m again thinking collegiate orchestras. And then let’s see that as we’ve discussed, there’s that thematic return, you know, that the whole thing does a perfect arc. So there you go.
S: I just really love the very, very ending of it. When I first put it together and to me, it evoked sort of almost this organ, this organ like texture with. I just love the resonance… T
D: That section with percussion. That’s toward the end. I see more complicated in narrative in terms of just the construct of the piece. Definitely descriptive, martial, perfectly accessible. It’s a perfect piece for a college orchestra if it’s in that sphere of capability.
S: Yeah. …that little fast march like scherzo thing. I kind of had a like a like a Russian, Russian romantic vibe almost or like early 20th century Russian vibe, you know, almost like kind of Shostakovich-esque, you know…
D: Each question mark was starting to rise out of my head there, the Shostakovich-ish.
S: Yeah, exactly.
D: What a great talk we’ve had. And I think just anybody could pick up that the world of our profession, of our music making, is the world at large. I mean, we speak to the wonderful, fascinating world around us. That’s the whole idea of being a creative person.
So, again, wonderful chat with composer Sarah Wallin Huff. And we’re talking about your 2023 Navona release. It’s contemporary classic chamber music for diverse instrumental combinations. You’ve heard this before. It’s called Shards. Don’t worry, anybody. It’s fine. And wonderful pieces that as we’ve discussed that are chamber works and then, of course, the orchestral piece at the very end.
But this is music that should be heard a lot more. And it’s not off the top of the charts of virtuosity. But, it’s just good, solid, wonderful music-making with enough virtuosity to keep…Why did I say those of us who are gifted…busy…you know what I’m trying to say… I’m gonna shut my mouth up here.
Anyway, great fun chatting with you.
S: Thank you so much. I really I’m really flattered, you know, that you reached out.
D: Well, I’m flattered that I heard what I heard. I’ll tell you, because it’s always a gamble. I just sort of pick up, pick up whatever. And I thought I’ve never heard of this thing. Well, who is this person and what is that stuff? And that’s got us started.
It’s been a tremendous treat and a really important and a very important CD you’ve got. So, congratulations all around.
#chamberMusic #classical #Interview #orchestra #review #StudioRecording

#chambermusic #classical #interview #orchestra #review #studiorecording
Sarah Wallin Huff @[email protected] · 2025-06-05 · 10:27 UTC

Sept. 2023 Interview with Daniel Kepl

Back in the fall of 2023, right after the release of my second solo album with Navona, I got the opportunity to sit down with longtime American conductor, arts administrator, and music/theater/dance critic, Daniel Kepl, and talk with him about my album, SHARDS.
Unfortunately, the audio in that video interview was extremely unbalanced and distorted, so I took some time to try and clean it up, to make it as listenable as possible. So… that edited video is now here, below, ready for your viewing pleasure (complete with chapter breaks, if you’d prefer to jump around)!
While the pops and crackles and background noises are mostly gone, sometimes the words are still a little garbly, so I’ve embedded captions in the video and am providing a full transcript, for those who would prefer to read the discussion. If you would like to see the original unedited video, you can do that here.

Dan Kepl’s Review Highlights
The high points of Dan Kepl’s praise, as stated in the video below.

About the Album:

[SHARDS is] a wonderful album, very interesting and very accessible, if I may say. It’s absolutely a magnificent recording of simply superb music… This music is just simply gorgeous. You use instruments in the most magical way.
This is music that should be heard a lot more…it’s just good, solid, wonderful music-making. It’s…a very important CD you’ve got.

About “Ayre of Grievances”:

It’s absolutely gorgeous. Tense, beautifully crafted, thoroughly contemporarily classical. tonalities are altogether satisfying throughout the piece. The balancing and everything is wonderful in terms of your compositional skills.

About “DodecaFunky”:

I want to tell everybody out there that’s looking for a repertoire, this is a beauty. This is a recital beauty. I think I can say it’s fun. It’s wonderful. It’s just a delicious piece, it’s aggressive in its funky way. It’s wonderful to the max. Should be on programming all over the place. This is irresistible. Audiences would love it, I think.

About “Of Roses and Lilies”:

It’s a beauty; a rich tapestry of sound and a highly romantic tonal aesthetic. …this should go off the shelf and into performance and rehearsal. A flowing, lovely, entirely tonal journey. The soprano recorder is charming. Your writing is absolutely first-class. You handle transitions of mood with smooth aplomb. The piece soars with beauty. Your compositional savvy and skill are beyond question.

About “The Oracle”:

Once in a while, I really want to play [a track of] an album, uh, for other people…you know, over a dinner or something. This is one of them. What an amazing chamber piece. Wonderful transitional writing; compositional savvy is top notch. The piece is a wonderful narrative. It’s complex. This piece is quite a journey.

About “Wabi-Sabi”:

The construct is fascinating and sensible to the intellect…quite a narrative…wonderful quartet writing.

About “Nevermore”:

An absolutely gorgeous, wonderful, magnificent Sonata for viola and piano…so American. …a fascinating piano introduction that really nails the interest immediately because it hints at mysteries, then it’s followed by the viola’s intensely Poe-ish colors and temperament. It’s a beauty, again, of narrative imagination, a wonderful piece of writing for viola. It is virtuosic, everything a violist looks for in a recital piece. There are romantic bits in here, some hair-raising twilight zone intervals between notes, if that makes any sense, thrilling, kooky, mysterious, as was the man. It has a tremendous connection to America and American history and American literature. It is a beautiful sonata and it sounds so beautiful. The writing is so gorgeous.
[For Annabelle Lee] I call it magical writing. It’s exceptionally sensitive.
The Tell-Tale Heart: the intro, sufficiently terrifying. Very imaginative character development. It’s exactly creepy enough to fit the narrative, because it is that narrative, the pulsing, the clicking…the floorboards…Then the beginning of real paranoia. Shades of the shower scene in Psycho – Brava! Disturbingly deliberate ending.

About “The Dark Glass Sinfonia”:

…wonderful piece for orchestra, “The Dark Glass Sinfonia,” gives me shivers, but it’s wonderful.
Lovely wind section work…nicely orchestrated. It’s brilliant and wonderful and very accessible…a beautiful, beautiful orchestral piece. Definitely descriptive, martial, perfectly accessible.
Sept. 2023 Interview with Daniel Kepl (Edited, with Captions)

Full [Edited] Interview Transcript

D: I’m chatting with composer Sarah Wallin Huff and we’re going to talk about your 2023 Navona CD release. Thank you, Parma. Thank you, Navona. Thank you, all of you wonderful people out there that put this, these kind of packages together. Just a quick aside about Navona, including everything that we need as critics, really somewhat truncated, makes perfect sense, but up on a website. And very few other companies do this. I just think it’s fabulous.
I’ve seen your interview, or I’ve read your interview, I should say, with Parma. And we’re going to talk about your 2023 Navona CD release of Contemporary Classical Chamber Works and an album for diverse instrumental combinations. Anyway, the CD is called Shards. Do not run away in the night and be afraid. It’s a wonderful album of very interesting and very accessible, if I may say so, and I think it’s perfectly OK to say so.
Here, just a sampling: Ayre of Grievances, for viola, violin, flute, lovely. The flute I wondered about. Those are pretty heavy instruments and the balancing and everything is wonderful in terms of your compositional skills.
DodecaFunky, let me say that once more. DodecaFunky, for piano, and it is cute… oh, did I miss one?
S: DodecaFunky.
D: Anyway, it’s cute. I think I can say it’s fun. It’s wonderful. And it’s a wonderful, very fascinating piano piece. Audiences would love it, I think.
“Of Roses and Lilies.” This one’s a little complex for soprano, piano, soprano recorder. Nice colors. Nice. English horn, very interesting. And women’s chorus. I mean, not since Holst have I heard women’s chorus used in this way.
So, Wabi-Sabi, it’s in three movements. Juventas, the new music ensemble performs it. This is a string quartet, so four players of the Juventas ensemble. I hope I’m pronouncing that right since I live in California. Three movements: Emergence, Evolution, Entropy. Very, very interesting. And maybe even kind of the heart of who you might be. I don’t know. I’m just guessing.
The next piece, Nevermore for viola and piano, an absolutely gorgeous, wonderful, three-movement sonata for viola and piano. The movements: The Raven, Annabelle Lee, The Tell-Tale Heart. And I love Poe, what a genius, what a genius. So glad you have included this wonderful, wonderful piece for viola and piano. And I mean by that, again, your compositional skills, the way you use these, didn’t you play viola? I thought I that read somewhere. Were you a violist?
S: I double on viola. I feel more comfortable on violin, but I can pick up a viola if I need it.
D: Okay. So you got all that stuff, you know, under your fingernails, so to say.
And then the last piece, wonderful piece for orchestra, The Dark Glass Sinfonia, gives me shivers, but it’s wonderful. And with a little subtype, if I’m reading it correctly: “We see through a glass darkly.” Wonderful piece, performed by wonderful people, while you really say it right out, right, and I just want to deal with this a little bit before I get to where you know, I’m going.
We all know people with autism and what I have found in my experience with people, and you know, autism is here, there, everywhere in various variations. You’re going to speak to it, I think in a bit, but the people that I have known with autism, some people have had troubles, others have been really, really talented, clever, and innovative. Autism is not a deficit. Okay.
S: Yeah. It’s a difference.
D: It’s a difference. Thank you. That’s better. Okay. Because I too, like most of, especially like with dyslexia, in the seventies, we all thought people with dyslexia were just lazy. Just didn’t want to do a job. Well, they couldn’t help it. They couldn’t read. Everything was backwards. My, my oldest nephew, uh, is dyslexic. So I just want everybody to understand…
And, and where are you in the autism spectrum? Can I ask that question?
S: Sure.
D: Of course, you’re clearly under great control. You have mastered the magic of autism.
S: Yeah. Well, what’s funny about that is I’ve actually only just in the past year, really got confirmation. Um, I’m still don’t have, yeah, I still don’t have an official diagnosis because that’s a whole other bag of worms for adult diagnosis and it costs thousands of dollars. And, uh, some doctors still don’t believe that women have it. Um, so, but just taking several screening tests, um, I’ve taken about five of the clinical screening tests and they all point very highly to autism. Um, and thinking about my experiences growing up, it really makes a lot of sense.
D: That’s what I was going to ask you next. You must have known, you know, that something was different.
S: Well, yeah. I, I thought something was always…
D: Can you give an example or two, you know, when you were a little kid. What I remember is the kids that I’ve known have various symptoms of autism.
S: Definitely. Um, emotional dysregulation, um, is still difficult where, well, and for me, because I kind of triggered emotional response to things like, um, there’s a famous phrase that “you don’t have enough spoons”, but the phrase means basically like, I only have so many ways of coping with life and when I’m out of those ways, I have to take a nap. I have to, I have to go to the corner for a second. And for different people, there’s different levels of that.
And growing up with a family who expected me to be normal. Um, I got really good at masking. I got really good at holding it all in, but then I’d get home and just. Like, um, I didn’t want to do my homework. I didn’t want to eat. I didn’t want to do anything except just sit there after school. Um, unfortunately I had to keep pushing through. Um, and so I just got used to doing that, hiding who I really was, you know?
D: Um, as you know, we talked, I’m very openly gay and…what we’re getting to, the bottom line is you have to be who you are. To keep these things secret or to try and work around who you are is exhausting, as you said. And just mentally, you know, exactly.
S: I’ve actually, I did actually get a diagnosis like 15 years ago for anxiety disorder and what I’ve discovered since then is that it is a part of the autism masking, just, I had been masking for 40 years. And so, um, that just built up a lot of anxiety in me for everything, you know? Um, but now that I’m just past year, starting to learn who I am and learn what my triggers are.
Um, I am very sensitive to sound, ironically enough, um, disorganized sound, I really have a hard time handling with, but music is organized sounds. So for me, my brain likes it, you know? Um, but yeah, so I’m just learning a lot more about myself and how my brain works and that it’s okay that my brain has trouble where other people seem to have things worked out, you know? And that’s okay.
D: You see, if you will, with your brain, things that we don’t, and so on. So, you know, I mean, that’s the beauty of all, for all of us. Uh, it’s the tremendous beauty of diversity.
Um… Let’s talk about Ancients. This is psycho-messaging to our brains. I mean, give me a break. It’s not random. It’s pure messaging to ourselves, uh, Tarot and all the rest of it. And I love traditions that have been there for 8,000 years. We’re going to talk about it. Cause you use, you do, you do this formula for a piece with Tarot cards that drives me crazy, but often told me it, speaking of what you had spoken to, uh, just a moment ago, when one gets kind of focused, the focus becomes quite, uh, extravagant. And was that for you? You really got into constructing this piece around Tarot.
S: Oh, yeah, I tend to, this tends to be a theme that I, if I hit on something that’s been very useful for me, um, mentally and psychologically, spiritually, I tend to write a piece about it. So that’s what the Oracle, the Oracle tended to be Tarot. I fell, fell onto, um, as a way to deal with my anxiety and it really, luckily, I had a therapist at the time who was open to the idea of me exploring my subconscious through the Tarot cards.
D: It’s about this idea of finding oneself, of reveling in these discoveries, uh, you know, and so is there any, can you give me a, um, what a topography of when, where, if even you feel now, like who you are, you know what I mean? How, what, what trajectory, where did you arrive? Have you arrived yet?
S: Um, well, definitely starting roughly a little less than a year ago when I finally did those, um, screenings for autism, like is when everything really started clicking and, and I did a lot of reading and, and, um, researching and, and finding others like me, you know, um, and it just helped click, you know, uh, it helped make, help me make sense of who I am and why I am the way I am.
Um, so often, especially throughout my whole life, um, I would be upset that I didn’t seem to be like everybody else. Even as a teacher, I mean, one of my favorite compliments from a student of mine was I’m the quirkiest teacher on campus. And I wear that like a badge. You know, I don’t teach like other teachers teach. I don’t think like other people think, and I’ve learned that that’s okay. There’s nothing wrong with me. Um, that diversity is a great thing.
D: So now we’re going to deal with the, uh, the product of your, uh, satisfactions, although this is, let’s see, 2023. I know these are recorded over a rather large span of time.
S: Maybe, uh, yeah, about five years or so.
D: So in other words, I guess what now has me curious is feeling where you are feeling now. Do you see, do you hear, see things in your focus on this CD?
S: I do actually. Um, the CD actually came about simply by virtue of, um, the way the economy works in the music recording industry and classical music, et cetera, where we just recorded piece by piece by piece as we could, um, and then finally had enough and say, Hey, let’s put together an album, you know…
D: And then let’s figure out how to pay for it. That’s what everybody watching this knows all about. It’s not like it [just] happens.
S: Exactly. Uh, so now, like I said, especially after these past several months, I look at the CD and I do really see it as if it’s sort of a culmination of my past 15 years or so, um, because all the pieces have been written, I think the earliest one was. Well, I think “Roses and Lilies” was what, like 2012 or something like that. Um, 2013, maybe.
D: Oh, well, we’ll find it.
S: I don’t remember.
D: Why did you use the word, “Shards”?
S: My husband picked it. He, he actually made up the title Ayre of Grievances too. He comes up with great titles. We thought about “Shards” because there are pieces like Dark Glass Sinfonia, so glass and, and breaking, uh, Wabi-Sabi is sort of like the fractal nature of life. And so you see shards of glass reflecting, reflecting different things, um, basically it’s supposed to be sort of the fragmentations of personality and life and spirituality.
D: That’s a good definition here. I was, I was expecting, uh, the, as I told you, I was expecting a wild ride. And by the way, everybody knows it isn’t, it’s absolutely a magnificent recording of simply superb music. This is what just blew me away.
In a way, this text that’s on your CD tells us how fresh the CD is. So it’s been put together. You’ve done that. It’s been five years. You’re there. And then it’s like, son of a gun.
“One inherent trait I possess is finding my emotional fulfillment through the active, creative manipulation of music.” And this fascinates me. I’m, I’m not a fix the watch kind of guy. I don’t get into the little details. I’m, I’m the conductor. I’m the, you know, I want the big pastel, you know, horses crossing the plains or something. You know, does that speak to your autism in a way, the focus?
S: I think so. The hyper fixation. I mean, there are times when I’m working on a piece that if my husband wasn’t there to remind me, I’d forget to eat, you know, I’ll just be like focused on these patterns and what else can I do with them? And, and, oh, that sounds really cool. Let me try this. Let’s see.
D: And you say, “I’m not, I’m not seeking to impose specific emotions on listeners.” That’s something that’s very important, “…but rather to facilitate a deeper connection with their inner selves.” Now, I’m not quite sure what kind of, what kind of a labyrinth you just, you know, created with those words. “I’m not seeking to impose specific emotions on listeners” yet, “I would like them to get in touch with their deeper…” you know, you know what I mean, you’re clever, aren’t you?
S: Well, that’s a question I get a lot is, well, how do you want the audience to feel? Even, even composition teachers… “How do you want them to feel?” And, and I think that’s another part of my autism. I relate to emotions differently than some other people do from what I can tell. Um, I, for me, the emotion and joy comes from the patterns. And so that’s what it is for me. Um, you know, it can be a completely atonal piece and if the patterns are cool then I’m getting such delight out of it. Uh, but for other people that might not be the case and I totally recognize that. So I’m hoping through my music, even though I might find joy in places they won’t, um, that they’ll still find something that they can resonate with.
D: Oh, that was very well, well, spracht and I can only agree with you because as I think I mentioned to you and probably everybody else and probably about three times already by now, but that was the shock. This music is just simply gorgeous. And I was expecting a few more “shards”, something expecting something, something a little, little more fractious, if you will.
The first piece on the, on the CD is Ayre of Grievances. I love the spelling. I presume clever, uh, you know, and, and, uh, awfully medieval or something. For viola, violin, and flute. It’s from 2020. So that’s a bad year. Oh my God.
S: Hence the grievances.
D: Hence the grievances is right. Uh, composed during the worldwide COVID epidemic. And you and I’ve talked about it. People are not yet clear how profoundly we as a planet of human beings and animals have been affected. This is going to take another half dozen years if we don’t have World War Three somewhere in between to sort it out. So it’s a, this was a big thing. And the biggest thing in my life, maybe, uh, to go through. So, Ayre of Grievances, and, uh, and, you know, you set us up with all the frustrations, fear, sorrow, and anger, and I’m going, Oh, can’t wait.
And I put it on. And it’s absolutely gorgeous. I totally did not expect it. Here’s a bit of my stream of consciousness, totally not expecting such… well, tonality. It’s wonderful already. Tense, beautifully crafted, thoroughly contemporarily classical. I mean, it’s, it’s totally accessible. And I, again, I almost want to spit when I say that word, but I think it’s okay now to use that, to create accessible music, um, things get a little crazy and frustrated.
You mentioned in your program notes, there’s that frustration and you describe it very well. How, although in my case, I just went comatose and just stared out the windows for two years and allowed the checks to come in. Cause I was a freelancer unemployed and boy, the money was better than I’ve ever received. Thank you, Uncle Sam, but, but so I didn’t really experience a whole lot of frustration. I just sort of couldn’t believe what was going on for about two years.
In other words, there is a narrative to this piece, Ayre of Grievances. Um, but I think it, you know, it is much more than the sum of its narrative is what I’m trying to say. Uh, tonalities are altogether satisfying throughout the piece.
Go, give me an overview. What was this about for you?
S: During the, during the lockdowns for me, it was frustrating. Well, because… guy, giving three hour lectures on zoom, I never want to do that again. Oh my gosh. Not being able to see anybody, not being able to see family. Um, that was really frustrating, but at the same time, because I wasn’t able to play live concerts, like I had been, um, it gave me a chance to sit down and really think about who I am.
Um, up until that point, it was very much, oh, I’m a major violinist and a composer and a teacher at all at once.
D: Don’t forget viola… and viola too.
S: Yes. I love the viola. Um, but then I came to realize. I really much prefer writing, uh, and recording. Uh, so I, I allowed myself to let go of the, the things that maybe didn’t bring me quite as much joy. So when things did open back up, I’m, I’m being more careful to balance my life, uh, with what really brings me more joy and less stress, hopefully. Um, that’s, that’s what that piece really sort of represented is it was frustrating. It was lonely. I was angry at the world. Um, but at the same time, there was some beauty in there and some peace.
And, um, and I just love the interaction of the three parts. They’re both, they’re all three very independent, but they speak together and sometimes they’re arguing with each other. Sometimes they’re singing with each other and supporting each other. And, um, I just really liked that intimacy of the work.
D: Well, that whole narrative thing about what you’re very good, uh, you know, voices, uh, having discussions between each other, but I found, and I may sound like I’m an idiot or something, but when I saw that viola, violin, flute, I told you earlier, I thought, I remember thinking that’s going to be tricky, you know, that the flute doesn’t get lost, and all of that works beautifully. And that is not about, you know, microphones. It’s about the way you wrote the piece. Using those three instruments. So, so beautifully. And later you use instruments in the most magical way.
S: Yeah, we actually debuted it during the pandemic where I recorded the violin and viola part. And then I recorded a friend of mine playing the flute part and we just did one of those YouTube stitched videos where we stitched our videos together. That was the thing.
D: Yeah. Am I pronouncing it reasonably close? “DodecaFunky” And of course we’re playing, playing with, uh, dodeca cacophony or something. You can fill me in on that. There’s all this funny stuff going on. That’s all inside stuff for musicians.
It’s for flute and piano from 2015. I think you mentioned this might be the earliest piece, maybe…
S: “Of Roses and Lilies”, I actually wrote the original piece for voice and piano in like the early aughts. But then I went back and fleshed it out and sort of made it fuller.
D: So then you know, the early aughts, I love that. So DodecaFunky, uh, flute and piano. I want to tell everybody out there that’s looking for a repertoire. This is a beauty. This is a recital beauty. A funky solo for flute with piano accompaniment, this intense and spastic work. Is that me or you?
S: I think it’s me.
D: I think it was you. So it… “exploits various manipulations”. Oh, here you go. Yeah, it is you… “of a 12 tone row (dodecaphony).” I’m supposed to be a musician and I couldn’t care less how it’s pronounced or even what it is these days. It’s just the serial melody to a backdrop, et cetera, et cetera. But the point of, oh, this is why it’s so cute. A hard bop and swing and, uh, and stuff. It’s just a delicious piece. And it’s, it’s aggressive in its funky way. I say about the opening, while the piano adds to the delightful confusion with various playful styles, a pause and it starts to get feisty. Uh, now I don’t know where I am in the piece, but now some casual virtuoso boogie woogie, boogie funky, uh, it’s a delight.
It’s kind of a series of descriptive tableau. Am I closer? Cause I love dance. I, you know, I reviewed dance a lot and these are like little tableau. It’s wonderful to the max. Should be, uh, on programming all over the place. It’s a beauty.
Tell me, tell me, what do you think? What do you think of this?
S: I love this piece. It just makes, it makes me giggle.
D: It’s just a charm. Beautiful. It’s so cute.
S: Thank you, thank you.
D: Again, if you, you’ll forgive me the accessibility word. This is irresistible. Of course, you know what I’m trying to say?
S: I’m glad you like it. That one actually took a little bit of inspiration from Bernstein. Um, I, I love, uh, I was studying his symphony, Age of Anxiety. Oh, and I love how he merged, well, he merged…
D: By the way, you know, I’m a conductor. Uh, and I know all three of those symphonies very, very well. I’ve never conducted them because they’re too hard. “Jeremiah” I could conduct. That one makes sense. Uh, the, the age of anxiety for piano and orchestra is unbelievable, but it’s also unbelievably difficult to conduct, you know? And then Kaddish, he wrote the original and then tore it all to pieces and stuff. So, but anyway, I just want, I’m so glad somebody also has studied [those works]. Anyway, excuse me.
S: That’s okay. Uh, but yeah, I really loved the idea of merging modernist, modernistic tendencies as Bernstein would say, um, with jazz and other accessible popular genres. And so that’s what I did with this flute piece is I took a 12 tone row and it is an authentic 12 tone row, but I, you could say I cheated, I cheated a little bit because I used transpositions. So what I would do is it’s still the same row, but I would transpose fragments of it to places that I liked it, where it fit better.
D: Arnold [Schoenberg] is turning into his grave.
S: Well, this is true. Ah but see, Stravinsky did it first. So, you know, let’s blame him.
It’s still, it still has the same intervallic structures. Um, but then I back it up, with that really jazzy, different, like you say, different tableaus of different jazzy styles to kind of increase the…
D: It’s a great dance piece…
S: That’d be fun.
D: In other words, there’s lots of possibilities.
Okay. We’re going to move on.
“Of Roses and Lilies”, this is for soprano, piano, soprano recorder, which I don’t think I hear very often used in these kinds of chamber pieces. And it’s a perfect color. English horn… what got into you ?…and women’s chorus. And then the, are there strings there? I have this question.
S: String orchestra.
D: String orchestra, because I didn’t, you know, I didn’t see it in the, in the brief and it’s from 2013, so we’re getting closer to, to the bottom of the stack here. Tell us about it.
S: This one’s a really fascinating piece for me. I, like I said, I had first written it many, many, many, several decades ago. And this was written…
D: Don’t be so hard on yourself…It’s only been 10 years…
S: But the original piece for just soprano and piano was written, like I said, in the late nineties or early aughts, um, this was when I was still with my very Christian family, um, yeah, there you go. And so I fell in love with the song of Solomon and I thought, why don’t I write quick snippets of the song of Solomon and put it together as sort of a love song. And so I did. And, um, eventually just another like 10 years or so down the road, I’d said, you know what, I really love this piece. I’m going to flesh it out. So, um, I took the original just two parts and added the strings and added the color of the soprano recorder and the English horn, um, and, you know, added the women’s chorus as sort of this almost Greek chorus kind of response thing.
So it’s a very, it’s a very different piece. Uh, it’s a very dramatic kind of theater-esque, drama-esque kind of, uh, kind of a feel.
D: And you don’t use the word romantic. It reeks of romanticism. I see in my notes there, a rich tapestry of sound and a highly romantic tonal aesthetic. I was not ready for that.
S: Well, actually, uh, every, everybody don’t hate on me, but I actually recorded it myself. So it’s only, it’s only two microphones with, uh, the soloist, Claire is one of my best friends and she teaches at Azusa. So she was able to grab us a classroom. And so I recorded with the two microphones, her and another good friend of mine, the pianist, Lydia. Um, and at the time we weren’t sure if I was just going to put together a digital background to it and like release it online or something. But, you know, this CD was coming to the, coming toward finishing and I was like, you know, this would be really awesome if we can get the rest of it recorded.
So I, yeah, I took two more sessions. I got the strings and the winds together for one session. Uh, and then I finally got the women’s chorus together for a session.
D: So that makes sense too. Very hard undertaking just in terms of production.
S: Yeah, it’s such a good, such a good learning experience. And again, so many of my dear, dear friends are on that recording and it’s just, it was just so special to me.
D: It’s something else. And I hope you understand what I’m saying here, because we want to get this, these pieces performed. It’s a beauty. It’s very accessible. So it doesn’t sound terribly hard to put together. What do you think? Am I all wet? I don’t know, but just, it seemed very, it seemed to just flow pretty freely.
S: Here’s the… I would say, here’s the danger with my music. And, um, especially with this piece, this has happened before. There have been pianists who think they can sight read it and they suddenly quit. It’s like, oh, I can’t sight read this. So this is something my very first composition teacher warned me about is that my music seems really easy. But then you dig into it and there are some little quirks in there and some tricks that you might not be expecting. So as long as you know…
D: It shouldn’t be a big problem. If you know what I mean, so I think I’m okay in saying that I think it’s not like, you know…
S: It’s not terrible.
D: Yeah…[not] terribly virtuosic. And that is, that is to say this should go off the shelf and into performance and rehearsal. And that’s exactly what I see. Nothing but college, college ensemble. Because of the difficulty of getting, you know, professionals together in that kind of complex, you know, but, but, so I found it really very, very…a flowing, lovely, entirely tonal journey. The soprano recorder is charming. Your writing is absolutely first-class. You handle transitions of mood with smooth aplomb. Boy, that came out of my head. Geez. The piece soars with beauty. Your compositional savvy and skill are beyond question.
S: Thank you.
D: Let’s see. Now this is “The Oracle,” for violin, cello, flute and piccolo, clarinet, piano. That’s from 2016. Go ahead. Tell us, but the bottom line is you constructed this thing from random throws of tarot cards. Go.
S: Exactly. Okay. So…
D: Aleatoric indeed!
S: Uh, I really, like I said, this was the time in my life when I had just really started to latch on to tarot as a means of exploring my own subconscious.
D: Which is correct, by the way. Let’s make sure. Exactly what it’s supposed to be. No, let the self-conscious speak to us.
S: Exactly. I like to think of it, it’s like a mirror for myself. It’s a way for me to talk to myself when sometimes I’m having trouble understanding my brain. So, uh, I really love tarot and I wrote this when I first really started getting into it. And so what I did is, um, I had an opportunity. It was like a call for scores for this ensemble. Uh, and so I was like, this will be fun. Why don’t I use that as an excuse to try it out?
So, and I wanted to do sort of a homage to John Cage by using an aleatoric kind of method. And so tarot seemed like the perfect way to do it. So I set up, um, I think it was five different spreads of 10 cards. I think I did like, um, some kind of a sacred pyramid, uh, spread for each of those. Um, and what I did is I, I assigned certain, you know, in tarot, the different suits represent different aspects of life and personality.
So you have the cups, which is emotion. Um, you have, you know, the, uh, the pentacles, uh, the pentacles are, uh, earth, uh, and, um, material wellbeing and reality and such. Uh, so what I did is I attached each of the instruments to those suits. The, uh, violin was fire, uh, or wands. Uh, the, uh, the cello was water or cups and the, uh, the clarinet was earth and the flute, of course, was air. And then for the piano, uh, I made the piano, the tree of life itself. Uh, because I like to read tarot from a Kabbalistic tree of life sort of interpretation.
D: You’re starting to get over my head. I thought I was with you pretty well, but Kabbalistic something, something…with a tree of life.
S: So Jewish mysticism, basically. So on the tree of life, each of the cards have their place on that tree. And the higher up the tree you are, the closer to the divine source you are. And then you travel down the tree and experience various phases of life and emotion, et cetera, until you get to the bottom, which is material reality. Everything you’ve experienced becomes real. Uh, and then you cycle back to the top, back to the divine source again.
So for the piano, um, when I had a spread that, that spoke of being closer to the divine source, I had the piano playing up in its higher registers. And then as it got closer to the bottom, to the ground, the piano went down. So the higher, if you hear the piano going, noodling up really high, that’s up at the divine source of things. If you hear the piano kind of in the middle, that’s sort of where balance and harmony are. If the piano is down in the basement, that’s down in material reality.
And then in the meantime, you have all the other instruments that are reflecting on emotion or, um, you know, or, or thought, or power
D: …and character that may be interpreted…in countless ways. That’s the beauty of the idea of randomness, the beauty of the order, if you will, of randomness, that even random events will speak to us.
S: Exactly.
D: Once in a while, I really want to play an album, uh, for other people in my, you know, over a dinner or something. This is one of them. Um, what an amazing chamber piece. I say this is, uh, this long cello obbligato, then into the klezmer aesthetic I call, uh, with, with all of that playing. Now I understand the cabalistic, if you will, right. Uh, meaning to it all. Uh, but the klezmer, uh, aesthetic is, is clearly there. The, and of course the Oracle is a Jew, right? I say the Oracle is a Jew? Question mark.
A wonderful transition, transitional writing. And you know what I mean? Making segments and, and, uh, themes make sense. That transition material is very, very important to get it right. [Your] compositional savvy is top notch. I think I’ve been saying that, but the piece is a wonderful narrative. It’s complex. It’s a complex narrative. Um, and as you have just described the instruments are characters.
S: They’re, they’re the suits of the, of the cards, but they do have sort of, they evoke their sort of, uh, certain characteristics about it.
D: Okay. That’s much more complex. Thank you. That clarifies.
This is quite a journey. So, and, uh, and then I say, um, a jaunty section now as CODA, I assume that’s a CODA. Uh, still a fun ending. I love it. I don’t think you can get any more, you know, any, any better than that.
Okay. Next is, is, uh, Wabi-Sabi, this, uh, uh, the aesthetic and metaphysical ideals that Japanese Wabi-Sabi encapsulates. Tell us about Wabi-Sabi. Is it animist or something? Is it part of their religion? Animist religion?
S: It can be. Uh, I’m trying to remember where it historically started. It actually started with monochromatic Chinese drawings and then the Japanese sort of took that ideal and enhanced it. A lot of people think of a Zen garden when they think of Wabi Sabi.
D: I see what you mean. Now I understand exactly what you mean. Even the artwork, strokes, you know, just very spare strokes.
S: Yeah. The tea ceremony. Um, everything about that ceremony is part of their Wabi Sabi aesthetic and metaphysical ideals.
D: I’m trying to remember this [for] parties.
S: Simplicity is, is a major part of it, but it goes beyond that. This, and this is what the string quartet throughout the three movements sort of encapsulates is that, uh, the beginning that, that…you know, in the west the idea of nothing is like zero, there’s nothing there. It’s very stark, but in Wabi Sabi ideas, um, nothing is full of potential. There’s a lot that could be there, but isn’t there yet.
D: That’s so profound.
S: Um, and then you go through, especially at the beginning of the first movement, sort of these random particles where the players can choose how they want to play it.
D: I understand that. We’re talking about the first movement Emergence, what have you just said that the players have some choice and they have choices.
S: So, so each of the players have a collection of notes that they can choose from to play. Uh, and they do it in different ways. Like the cello trills all their notes, but they can choose how they want to trill and how fast they want to trill and when they want to come in, uh, and things like that. Um, until they finally come together in the middle of the first movement and it sort of builds from there. So the idea is like that of creation of these particles coming into space and slowly merging together to become something.
D: And by the way, this sounds like an homage to Stockhausen, you know?
S: Yeah, absolutely.
D: Another great. Distance… these distant sounds… I remember performance, you know, Stockhausen, and it all comes together.
S: And then, and then Evolution is a short, it’s intentionally a short little two minute burst because that’s where everything is kind of locked in.
D: This is Evolution.
S: This is the, the cells are coming together and creating fish that are coming out of the water and, you know, becoming man. Um, et cetera. Possibility.
D: Alive with possibility, yeah. …Nothingness itself…
S: Yeah, exactly. Um, and then it gives way to Entropy, uh, and Entropy starts with a very strict structure. Uh, funnily enough, I wasn’t sure compositionally how I wanted to go about the third movement, but I was in the middle of teaching about isorhythm in one of my classes. So I’m like, Hey, I can do isorhythm with this. That’d be fun. So it starts out very strict, um, but then gets really complex and starts falling apart. And again, that’s the idea of returning back to nothingness. Everything’s falling apart.
Uh, and, and that’s the idea of, um, the idea that you, um, sometimes the best course of action is to decide to do nothing, you know…
D: I think you have just described an exact, uh, arc in the, they come together. I’m looking at Emergence. The first one builds quite satisfyingly. Uh, the construct is fascinating and sensible to the intellect, I say to myself. And of course, if there, if you don’t get it off the ground, intellectually from the beginning, you’re in trouble… Ok, Evolution. Um, I love this, uh, I call it a flowing sea sort of opening. Or whatever that vibe could be. Anything, forget sea, whatever that undulating flowing thing…so mesmerizing. Again, wonderful quartet writing.
I’m going to have to stop using this word accessible, but that’s the whole idea to get these performed. And that’s exactly to be well written and also to be a happy time for an audience. Give me a break. And I, and here’s the thing about Evolution that it’s, uh, utterly accessible to the listener, though the subject, listening, but I think I got it. Although the subject matter may have sub-basements. Now a walking cello fits that, that walking cello thing. It’s wonderful to keep the piece moving and, and, uh, energetic. Um, quite a narrative.
S: It’s like a little metronome marking I have in the, uh, the second movement is “Like dancing molecules.”
D: Oh!
S: Kind of the spinning, whirling…
D: I might have to dream about that tonight. And the third movement, if you will, Entropy. It’s such a nice, uh, I, I, do I hear a little fugue…? I wanted… the stream of consciousness thing…fuguetto. You know what I mean? That opening is a, is it a genuine, but it’s a fuguetto, right?
S: Yeah, it’s, um, it starts out exactly as a canon. Then what happens is that each time the line comes back, uh, I either in diminution or augmentation. Uh, so I, I, like I said, if you see the score, um, I start doing crazy little sub meters within each of the parts just to help, just to help the players keep, keep time with each other, but yeah, that’s part of the unraveling part is they start very much together and then they start in like ratios of two to one or one to two, but yeah, then it starts getting into weird ratios…
D: …because I think I wondered about those, those asymmetrical collisions… A slightly dysfunctional intentional section. I’m toward the end here of pizz’s.
S: Well, the very ending, I go back to the beginning idea where the, each player has a selection of notes. They can pizz. whenever they want to. So each performance should be a little different than each other.
D: So the end of entropy, they go back to this idea and they can even change their mind about it.
S: Exactly.
D: Stockhausen, he’s smiling.
“Nevermore,” this major Sonata, I think for viola and piano from 2019 to 2021. Nevermore for viola and piano, also a subtitle of a Gothic Suite, so delightful, it’s an absolutely magnificent Sonata for viola and piano. It’s just absolutely, it’s so American, because we’re talking about Edgar Allan Poe and each movement is after one of his most famous pieces. But you have, I feel very powerfully about American composers choosing American subjects. The Raven, Annabelle Lee, the Telltale Heart.
S: Actually, Charlotte Goode, the violist on this recording, is actually another one of my bestest friends. And she is also a gothic nut and a fellow autistic. And she just, she was like, oh my gosh, we need to collaborate. We need to do this for viola. And I’m like, yes. So I started out with the Raven, you know, and she debuted that at a recital. And then I was like, okay, we need to come up with two other, you know, two other movements to finish it out. And the thing I love about the recording of this, again, this is so her, the viola part is so her, the subject matter is so her, and then I was lucky enough to be able to fly out with her to Boston to have her record it for PARMA. So…that day I went to Salem after we recorded it. So it was perfect.
D: You mean, the Witch Town or Salem, Oregon?
S: No, no, no, the Witch Town, yeah, Salem, Massachusetts.
D: So Poe inspired you to go to the seat of evil.
S: Exactly. It was so good.
D: Well, what I have to say is here, I worked on looking at the first movement. First of all, a fascinating piano introduction that really nails the interest immediately because it hints at mysteries, then it’s followed by the viola’s intensely Poe-ish colors and temperament, so congrats to your friend. It’s a beauty, again, of narrative imagination, a wonderful piece of writing for viola. It is virtuosic.
S: Yeah, it is. I won’t play it on my viola. I’ll let somebody else do it. I’m not that good.
D: Well, everything a violist looks for in a recital piece, you know, and it’s romantic, there are romantic bits in here, some hair-raising twilight zone intervals between notes, if that makes any sense, thrilling, kooky, mysterious, as was the man, nice new idea… that roiling keyboard stuff toward the end of the piece, does that make any sense? Under viola, that middle and low register as it goes.
“Annabelle Lee.” It’s gorgeous, that movement is just gorgeous.
S: So beautiful, it’s one of my absolute favorites, just, and the poem, too, is just absolutely, it really struck me.
D: It brings you to tears, really, that poem.
S: It really does. I really wanted to capture that complete childlike innocence, just absolutely purest childlike innocent love of a little boy and a little girl. And then the angels cruelly take her away from him, you know, and just that drama.
D: And that’s the true story, isn’t it? Doesn’t he marry her, his wife, when she was 15, and then did she die? I can’t quite remember.
S: I don’t remember. I’d have to look it up.
D: We just missed the good parts that neither of us can remember. Anyway, what I’m trying to say is, Annabelle Lee speaks to a very personal experience.
S: I do know this was his last poem that he wrote before he died. That’s also a very haunting little tidbit. So, yeah, I love this movement so much. It actually, it was the hardest to record, too, because it’s deceptively simple. But it’s because it’s kind of like Mozart in that way, where it’s so simple and exposed that the violist has to be really careful and really in tune. So it took us a little bit longer to do this one.
D: Nice. Yeah, it’s a beautiful reading. I call it magical writing. It’s exceptionally sensitive.
The Tell-Tale Heart: the intro, sufficiently terrifying. Very imaginative character development. It’s exactly creepy enough to fit the narrative, because it is that narrative, the pulsing, the clicking, and the floorboards… Then the beginning of real paranoia. I mean, you describe this tale very well.
S: Actually, I decided the best way to put it together was to take the story apart and make each of the sections of music a section of the story. So it’s probably the most narratively accurate of the three movements.
D: And that makes good sense to me.
S: Yeah, and in the music, each of the section headings has a little quote from the story. So you can kind of tell where you are in the story. But yeah, the idea of just. I wanted the opening theme that the viola starts playing is supposed to be sort of the love theme that the narrator has for his master.
“I loved the old man…It was his eye!” …you know, so it’s this really creepy. It’s a love song, but it’s twisted. It’s got something off.
So that’s where it opens. And then from there, then I get into the part where it’s for seven nights. He he peeks in at the bedroom. And so that section is like in seven four or something like that. It has odd. It’s asymmetrical. So, again, it feels a little off, you know, a little bit of the heartbeat taps and then, you know, stuff like that. And then little answering in the piano… And then you hear him murder him.
D: I call it shades of the shower scene in Psycho.
S: Yeah, yeah, exactly.
D: Brava, I say after that.
S: …yeah, thank you. Yeah. And then you just get, like you say, the paranoia as the cops won’t leave. But the narrator keeps hearing the heartbeat and he can’t get away from it. And he just has to give up.
D: And indeed, it’s an internal conflict. Yeah, that’s the order of the soundscape. It’s kind of this internal conflict that becomes, you know, insupportable, disturbingly deliberate. And it’s so well done, well done.
So that’s a beautiful sonata. And as I mentioned, here it is. It’s a, it’s a viola sonata. It’s, it’s tough. Well, you know, at a certain level, you know, you almost want it to be. So it’s not inaccessible at all. It has a it has a tremendous connection to America and American history and American literature. It is a beautiful sonata and it sounds so beautiful. The writing is so gorgeous.
So take note, everybody. Nevermore for viola and piano.
And then now the last, the grand finale on the CD, The Dark Glass Sinfonia: We see through a glass darkly. For orchestra from 2017 built upon an integrated set…Oh, here you go again.
S: I love patterns!
D: …that’s why I pulled it. Because in all of my life in the arts and even at college, these things never came up in my experience. “Built,” she says, confident, “built upon an integrated set of hexachordal formulae.” End quote. I say to myself, please explain. You will, then you go on: “Free atonality with modal harmony…In doing so, it is meant to represent the enigmatic and ongoing emotional flux of the soul.”
S: This is another…it started out as just a love affair with patterns. And one thing, I’m not a major post-tonalist. You can tell from the accessibleness of my music. But I do love some of the number patterns that come about from, you know, post-tonal exercises. And hexachordal combinatoriality is one of my favorite ideas. I just love saying it. Hexachordal combinatoriality.
D: Yeah, I bet when you have students, they just sort of collapse.
S: Yeah, I’m like, OK, learn how to say it, you can impress all of your friends.
D: But then again, formulae is rather…
S: …It’s very pompous sounding…it’s basically it’s built upon the 12-tone ideal, but it breaks up the 12 tones into six tones, hexachords. So each of the hexachords has its own unique intervallic character to it. And so in the same way that you can take kind of the same way where I cheated with DodecaFunky, where I took segments of it and like transposed it, it’s kind of like that, but I did less cheating. Hexachords kind of do their own cheating because you can take one part of the tone row and then take the second half of it and flip it or reverse it. Or, you know, all that kind of stuff. And then if you break them down into numbers, you can add them up into cool combinations and things like that. So that’s what this was. This piece was sort of a play on that and seeing what I could do with it. And that’s how I developed the main themes.
You really hear it come out, especially in the little woodwind stuff throughout the top. That’s really where it shines. But it really is woven into it.
D: The row shines?…
S: Yeah, yeah, exactly.
D: Well, you must have been in heaven putting this piece together.
S: It was very, very fun. And again, and I don’t know how my brain does this, but what starts out with a whole bunch of numbers and patterns usually comes out as something really lovely that I continue to love listening to.
D: Well, guess what? That’s exactly the whole point of the genius of autism. You just exactly described what we’ve been kind of…that autism is, is just different.
S: You know, you know, that’s another thing that shines through with this orchestral piece, too, is that one of the comments sometimes I get from other people is, oh, why can’t you just have the instruments all stacked up on top of each other? You know, why can’t they all play at once? And I’m like, I just don’t like that. I like to have the layers. Somebody’s always doing something. And so there’s kind of a medievalness to it, you know, going back to that old polyphony idea. But then I’ll integrate it with these numbers and patterns. And I just love seeing it layer.
D: Speaking of layering, did I hear I see in my notes here. Is there any kind of pyramid that you constructed a sound pyramid somewhere in the beginning of that piece? Or is it a stupid word?
S: No it’s not stupid. I like to call it a waterfall, where…
D: Yeah, ….I got the idea of what you were creating there.
S: Yeah. The hexachordal pattern is there. But what I do is I pass it starting from the top and have it kind of trickle down like that.
D: So pyramid is not quite the right way of describing it. But I was hearing a very specific concept. And of course, thinking pyramid, I’m describing it as from the bottom up. But you’ve just described it as from top to trickle down, if you will.
Let’s see… There was a lovely little brass tune. I’m hearing that I’m hearing cinematic moments. Of course, it’s an orchestral piece. I’m sure you really got your teeth into that one.
Let’s see, lovely wind section work, as we’ve discussed, nicely orchestrated. Well, it’s brilliant and wonderful and very accessible and a beautiful, beautiful orchestral piece of what? I can’t remember. Seven minutes or…
S: Yeah, it’s only like seven minutes or so, which I have found, again, economically and just competition wise…
D: That’s exactly right.
S: People like shorter, shorter pieces.
D: That’s kind of what we ask, because then the next question is how? Because I’m again thinking collegiate orchestras. And then let’s see that as we’ve discussed, there’s that thematic return, you know, that the whole thing does a perfect arc. So there you go.
S: I just really love the very, very ending of it. When I first put it together and to me, it evoked sort of almost this organ, this organ like texture with. I just love the resonance… T
D: That section with percussion. That’s toward the end. I see more complicated in narrative in terms of just the construct of the piece. Definitely descriptive, martial, perfectly accessible. It’s a perfect piece for a college orchestra if it’s in that sphere of capability.
S: Yeah. …that little fast march like scherzo thing. I kind of had a like a like a Russian, Russian romantic vibe almost or like early 20th century Russian vibe, you know, almost like kind of Shostakovich-esque, you know…
D: Each question mark was starting to rise out of my head there, the Shostakovich-ish.
S: Yeah, exactly.
D: What a great talk we’ve had. And I think just anybody could pick up that the world of our profession, of our music making, is the world at large. I mean, we speak to the wonderful, fascinating world around us. That’s the whole idea of being a creative person.
So, again, wonderful chat with composer Sarah Wallin Huff. And we’re talking about your 2023 Navona release. It’s contemporary classic chamber music for diverse instrumental combinations. You’ve heard this before. It’s called Shards. Don’t worry, anybody. It’s fine. And wonderful pieces that as we’ve discussed that are chamber works and then, of course, the orchestral piece at the very end.
But this is music that should be heard a lot more. And it’s not off the top of the charts of virtuosity. But, it’s just good, solid, wonderful music-making with enough virtuosity to keep…Why did I say those of us who are gifted…busy…you know what I’m trying to say… I’m gonna shut my mouth up here.
Anyway, great fun chatting with you.
S: Thank you so much. I really I’m really flattered, you know, that you reached out.
D: Well, I’m flattered that I heard what I heard. I’ll tell you, because it’s always a gamble. I just sort of pick up, pick up whatever. And I thought I’ve never heard of this thing. Well, who is this person and what is that stuff? And that’s got us started.
It’s been a tremendous treat and a really important and a very important CD you’ve got. So, congratulations all around.
#chamberMusic #classical #Interview #orchestra #review #StudioRecording

#chambermusic #classical #interview #orchestra #review #studiorecording
Sarah Wallin Huff @[email protected] · 2025-06-05 · 10:27 UTC

Sept. 2023 Interview with Daniel Kepl

Back in the fall of 2023, right after the release of my second solo album with Navona, I got the opportunity to sit down with longtime American conductor, arts administrator, and music/theater/dance critic, Daniel Kepl, and talk with him about my album, SHARDS.
Unfortunately, the audio in that video interview was extremely unbalanced and distorted, so I took some time to try and clean it up, to make it as listenable as possible. So… that edited video is now here, below, ready for your viewing pleasure (complete with chapter breaks, if you’d prefer to jump around)!
While the pops and crackles and background noises are mostly gone, sometimes the words are still a little garbly, so I’ve embedded captions in the video and am providing a full transcript, for those who would prefer to read the discussion. If you would like to see the original unedited video, you can do that here.

Dan Kepl’s Review Highlights
The high points of Dan Kepl’s praise, as stated in the video below.

About the Album:

[SHARDS is] a wonderful album, very interesting and very accessible, if I may say. It’s absolutely a magnificent recording of simply superb music… This music is just simply gorgeous. You use instruments in the most magical way.
This is music that should be heard a lot more…it’s just good, solid, wonderful music-making. It’s…a very important CD you’ve got.

About “Ayre of Grievances”:

It’s absolutely gorgeous. Tense, beautifully crafted, thoroughly contemporarily classical. tonalities are altogether satisfying throughout the piece. The balancing and everything is wonderful in terms of your compositional skills.

About “DodecaFunky”:

I want to tell everybody out there that’s looking for a repertoire, this is a beauty. This is a recital beauty. I think I can say it’s fun. It’s wonderful. It’s just a delicious piece, it’s aggressive in its funky way. It’s wonderful to the max. Should be on programming all over the place. This is irresistible. Audiences would love it, I think.

About “Of Roses and Lilies”:

It’s a beauty; a rich tapestry of sound and a highly romantic tonal aesthetic. …this should go off the shelf and into performance and rehearsal. A flowing, lovely, entirely tonal journey. The soprano recorder is charming. Your writing is absolutely first-class. You handle transitions of mood with smooth aplomb. The piece soars with beauty. Your compositional savvy and skill are beyond question.

About “The Oracle”:

Once in a while, I really want to play [a track of] an album, uh, for other people…you know, over a dinner or something. This is one of them. What an amazing chamber piece. Wonderful transitional writing; compositional savvy is top notch. The piece is a wonderful narrative. It’s complex. This piece is quite a journey.

About “Wabi-Sabi”:

The construct is fascinating and sensible to the intellect…quite a narrative…wonderful quartet writing.

About “Nevermore”:

An absolutely gorgeous, wonderful, magnificent Sonata for viola and piano…so American. …a fascinating piano introduction that really nails the interest immediately because it hints at mysteries, then it’s followed by the viola’s intensely Poe-ish colors and temperament. It’s a beauty, again, of narrative imagination, a wonderful piece of writing for viola. It is virtuosic, everything a violist looks for in a recital piece. There are romantic bits in here, some hair-raising twilight zone intervals between notes, if that makes any sense, thrilling, kooky, mysterious, as was the man. It has a tremendous connection to America and American history and American literature. It is a beautiful sonata and it sounds so beautiful. The writing is so gorgeous.
[For Annabelle Lee] I call it magical writing. It’s exceptionally sensitive.
The Tell-Tale Heart: the intro, sufficiently terrifying. Very imaginative character development. It’s exactly creepy enough to fit the narrative, because it is that narrative, the pulsing, the clicking…the floorboards…Then the beginning of real paranoia. Shades of the shower scene in Psycho – Brava! Disturbingly deliberate ending.

About “The Dark Glass Sinfonia”:

…wonderful piece for orchestra, “The Dark Glass Sinfonia,” gives me shivers, but it’s wonderful.
Lovely wind section work…nicely orchestrated. It’s brilliant and wonderful and very accessible…a beautiful, beautiful orchestral piece. Definitely descriptive, martial, perfectly accessible.
Sept. 2023 Interview with Daniel Kepl (Edited, with Captions)

Full [Edited] Interview Transcript

D: I’m chatting with composer Sarah Wallin Huff and we’re going to talk about your 2023 Navona CD release. Thank you, Parma. Thank you, Navona. Thank you, all of you wonderful people out there that put this, these kind of packages together. Just a quick aside about Navona, including everything that we need as critics, really somewhat truncated, makes perfect sense, but up on a website. And very few other companies do this. I just think it’s fabulous.
I’ve seen your interview, or I’ve read your interview, I should say, with Parma. And we’re going to talk about your 2023 Navona CD release of Contemporary Classical Chamber Works and an album for diverse instrumental combinations. Anyway, the CD is called Shards. Do not run away in the night and be afraid. It’s a wonderful album of very interesting and very accessible, if I may say so, and I think it’s perfectly OK to say so.
Here, just a sampling: Ayre of Grievances, for viola, violin, flute, lovely. The flute I wondered about. Those are pretty heavy instruments and the balancing and everything is wonderful in terms of your compositional skills.
DodecaFunky, let me say that once more. DodecaFunky, for piano, and it is cute… oh, did I miss one?
S: DodecaFunky.
D: Anyway, it’s cute. I think I can say it’s fun. It’s wonderful. And it’s a wonderful, very fascinating piano piece. Audiences would love it, I think.
“Of Roses and Lilies.” This one’s a little complex for soprano, piano, soprano recorder. Nice colors. Nice. English horn, very interesting. And women’s chorus. I mean, not since Holst have I heard women’s chorus used in this way.
So, Wabi-Sabi, it’s in three movements. Juventas, the new music ensemble performs it. This is a string quartet, so four players of the Juventas ensemble. I hope I’m pronouncing that right since I live in California. Three movements: Emergence, Evolution, Entropy. Very, very interesting. And maybe even kind of the heart of who you might be. I don’t know. I’m just guessing.
The next piece, Nevermore for viola and piano, an absolutely gorgeous, wonderful, three-movement sonata for viola and piano. The movements: The Raven, Annabelle Lee, The Tell-Tale Heart. And I love Poe, what a genius, what a genius. So glad you have included this wonderful, wonderful piece for viola and piano. And I mean by that, again, your compositional skills, the way you use these, didn’t you play viola? I thought I that read somewhere. Were you a violist?
S: I double on viola. I feel more comfortable on violin, but I can pick up a viola if I need it.
D: Okay. So you got all that stuff, you know, under your fingernails, so to say.
And then the last piece, wonderful piece for orchestra, The Dark Glass Sinfonia, gives me shivers, but it’s wonderful. And with a little subtype, if I’m reading it correctly: “We see through a glass darkly.” Wonderful piece, performed by wonderful people, while you really say it right out, right, and I just want to deal with this a little bit before I get to where you know, I’m going.
We all know people with autism and what I have found in my experience with people, and you know, autism is here, there, everywhere in various variations. You’re going to speak to it, I think in a bit, but the people that I have known with autism, some people have had troubles, others have been really, really talented, clever, and innovative. Autism is not a deficit. Okay.
S: Yeah. It’s a difference.
D: It’s a difference. Thank you. That’s better. Okay. Because I too, like most of, especially like with dyslexia, in the seventies, we all thought people with dyslexia were just lazy. Just didn’t want to do a job. Well, they couldn’t help it. They couldn’t read. Everything was backwards. My, my oldest nephew, uh, is dyslexic. So I just want everybody to understand…
And, and where are you in the autism spectrum? Can I ask that question?
S: Sure.
D: Of course, you’re clearly under great control. You have mastered the magic of autism.
S: Yeah. Well, what’s funny about that is I’ve actually only just in the past year, really got confirmation. Um, I’m still don’t have, yeah, I still don’t have an official diagnosis because that’s a whole other bag of worms for adult diagnosis and it costs thousands of dollars. And, uh, some doctors still don’t believe that women have it. Um, so, but just taking several screening tests, um, I’ve taken about five of the clinical screening tests and they all point very highly to autism. Um, and thinking about my experiences growing up, it really makes a lot of sense.
D: That’s what I was going to ask you next. You must have known, you know, that something was different.
S: Well, yeah. I, I thought something was always…
D: Can you give an example or two, you know, when you were a little kid. What I remember is the kids that I’ve known have various symptoms of autism.
S: Definitely. Um, emotional dysregulation, um, is still difficult where, well, and for me, because I kind of triggered emotional response to things like, um, there’s a famous phrase that “you don’t have enough spoons”, but the phrase means basically like, I only have so many ways of coping with life and when I’m out of those ways, I have to take a nap. I have to, I have to go to the corner for a second. And for different people, there’s different levels of that.
And growing up with a family who expected me to be normal. Um, I got really good at masking. I got really good at holding it all in, but then I’d get home and just. Like, um, I didn’t want to do my homework. I didn’t want to eat. I didn’t want to do anything except just sit there after school. Um, unfortunately I had to keep pushing through. Um, and so I just got used to doing that, hiding who I really was, you know?
D: Um, as you know, we talked, I’m very openly gay and…what we’re getting to, the bottom line is you have to be who you are. To keep these things secret or to try and work around who you are is exhausting, as you said. And just mentally, you know, exactly.
S: I’ve actually, I did actually get a diagnosis like 15 years ago for anxiety disorder and what I’ve discovered since then is that it is a part of the autism masking, just, I had been masking for 40 years. And so, um, that just built up a lot of anxiety in me for everything, you know? Um, but now that I’m just past year, starting to learn who I am and learn what my triggers are.
Um, I am very sensitive to sound, ironically enough, um, disorganized sound, I really have a hard time handling with, but music is organized sounds. So for me, my brain likes it, you know? Um, but yeah, so I’m just learning a lot more about myself and how my brain works and that it’s okay that my brain has trouble where other people seem to have things worked out, you know? And that’s okay.
D: You see, if you will, with your brain, things that we don’t, and so on. So, you know, I mean, that’s the beauty of all, for all of us. Uh, it’s the tremendous beauty of diversity.
Um… Let’s talk about Ancients. This is psycho-messaging to our brains. I mean, give me a break. It’s not random. It’s pure messaging to ourselves, uh, Tarot and all the rest of it. And I love traditions that have been there for 8,000 years. We’re going to talk about it. Cause you use, you do, you do this formula for a piece with Tarot cards that drives me crazy, but often told me it, speaking of what you had spoken to, uh, just a moment ago, when one gets kind of focused, the focus becomes quite, uh, extravagant. And was that for you? You really got into constructing this piece around Tarot.
S: Oh, yeah, I tend to, this tends to be a theme that I, if I hit on something that’s been very useful for me, um, mentally and psychologically, spiritually, I tend to write a piece about it. So that’s what the Oracle, the Oracle tended to be Tarot. I fell, fell onto, um, as a way to deal with my anxiety and it really, luckily, I had a therapist at the time who was open to the idea of me exploring my subconscious through the Tarot cards.
D: It’s about this idea of finding oneself, of reveling in these discoveries, uh, you know, and so is there any, can you give me a, um, what a topography of when, where, if even you feel now, like who you are, you know what I mean? How, what, what trajectory, where did you arrive? Have you arrived yet?
S: Um, well, definitely starting roughly a little less than a year ago when I finally did those, um, screenings for autism, like is when everything really started clicking and, and I did a lot of reading and, and, um, researching and, and finding others like me, you know, um, and it just helped click, you know, uh, it helped make, help me make sense of who I am and why I am the way I am.
Um, so often, especially throughout my whole life, um, I would be upset that I didn’t seem to be like everybody else. Even as a teacher, I mean, one of my favorite compliments from a student of mine was I’m the quirkiest teacher on campus. And I wear that like a badge. You know, I don’t teach like other teachers teach. I don’t think like other people think, and I’ve learned that that’s okay. There’s nothing wrong with me. Um, that diversity is a great thing.
D: So now we’re going to deal with the, uh, the product of your, uh, satisfactions, although this is, let’s see, 2023. I know these are recorded over a rather large span of time.
S: Maybe, uh, yeah, about five years or so.
D: So in other words, I guess what now has me curious is feeling where you are feeling now. Do you see, do you hear, see things in your focus on this CD?
S: I do actually. Um, the CD actually came about simply by virtue of, um, the way the economy works in the music recording industry and classical music, et cetera, where we just recorded piece by piece by piece as we could, um, and then finally had enough and say, Hey, let’s put together an album, you know…
D: And then let’s figure out how to pay for it. That’s what everybody watching this knows all about. It’s not like it [just] happens.
S: Exactly. Uh, so now, like I said, especially after these past several months, I look at the CD and I do really see it as if it’s sort of a culmination of my past 15 years or so, um, because all the pieces have been written, I think the earliest one was. Well, I think “Roses and Lilies” was what, like 2012 or something like that. Um, 2013, maybe.
D: Oh, well, we’ll find it.
S: I don’t remember.
D: Why did you use the word, “Shards”?
S: My husband picked it. He, he actually made up the title Ayre of Grievances too. He comes up with great titles. We thought about “Shards” because there are pieces like Dark Glass Sinfonia, so glass and, and breaking, uh, Wabi-Sabi is sort of like the fractal nature of life. And so you see shards of glass reflecting, reflecting different things, um, basically it’s supposed to be sort of the fragmentations of personality and life and spirituality.
D: That’s a good definition here. I was, I was expecting, uh, the, as I told you, I was expecting a wild ride. And by the way, everybody knows it isn’t, it’s absolutely a magnificent recording of simply superb music. This is what just blew me away.
In a way, this text that’s on your CD tells us how fresh the CD is. So it’s been put together. You’ve done that. It’s been five years. You’re there. And then it’s like, son of a gun.
“One inherent trait I possess is finding my emotional fulfillment through the active, creative manipulation of music.” And this fascinates me. I’m, I’m not a fix the watch kind of guy. I don’t get into the little details. I’m, I’m the conductor. I’m the, you know, I want the big pastel, you know, horses crossing the plains or something. You know, does that speak to your autism in a way, the focus?
S: I think so. The hyper fixation. I mean, there are times when I’m working on a piece that if my husband wasn’t there to remind me, I’d forget to eat, you know, I’ll just be like focused on these patterns and what else can I do with them? And, and, oh, that sounds really cool. Let me try this. Let’s see.
D: And you say, “I’m not, I’m not seeking to impose specific emotions on listeners.” That’s something that’s very important, “…but rather to facilitate a deeper connection with their inner selves.” Now, I’m not quite sure what kind of, what kind of a labyrinth you just, you know, created with those words. “I’m not seeking to impose specific emotions on listeners” yet, “I would like them to get in touch with their deeper…” you know, you know what I mean, you’re clever, aren’t you?
S: Well, that’s a question I get a lot is, well, how do you want the audience to feel? Even, even composition teachers… “How do you want them to feel?” And, and I think that’s another part of my autism. I relate to emotions differently than some other people do from what I can tell. Um, I, for me, the emotion and joy comes from the patterns. And so that’s what it is for me. Um, you know, it can be a completely atonal piece and if the patterns are cool then I’m getting such delight out of it. Uh, but for other people that might not be the case and I totally recognize that. So I’m hoping through my music, even though I might find joy in places they won’t, um, that they’ll still find something that they can resonate with.
D: Oh, that was very well, well, spracht and I can only agree with you because as I think I mentioned to you and probably everybody else and probably about three times already by now, but that was the shock. This music is just simply gorgeous. And I was expecting a few more “shards”, something expecting something, something a little, little more fractious, if you will.
The first piece on the, on the CD is Ayre of Grievances. I love the spelling. I presume clever, uh, you know, and, and, uh, awfully medieval or something. For viola, violin, and flute. It’s from 2020. So that’s a bad year. Oh my God.
S: Hence the grievances.
D: Hence the grievances is right. Uh, composed during the worldwide COVID epidemic. And you and I’ve talked about it. People are not yet clear how profoundly we as a planet of human beings and animals have been affected. This is going to take another half dozen years if we don’t have World War Three somewhere in between to sort it out. So it’s a, this was a big thing. And the biggest thing in my life, maybe, uh, to go through. So, Ayre of Grievances, and, uh, and, you know, you set us up with all the frustrations, fear, sorrow, and anger, and I’m going, Oh, can’t wait.
And I put it on. And it’s absolutely gorgeous. I totally did not expect it. Here’s a bit of my stream of consciousness, totally not expecting such… well, tonality. It’s wonderful already. Tense, beautifully crafted, thoroughly contemporarily classical. I mean, it’s, it’s totally accessible. And I, again, I almost want to spit when I say that word, but I think it’s okay now to use that, to create accessible music, um, things get a little crazy and frustrated.
You mentioned in your program notes, there’s that frustration and you describe it very well. How, although in my case, I just went comatose and just stared out the windows for two years and allowed the checks to come in. Cause I was a freelancer unemployed and boy, the money was better than I’ve ever received. Thank you, Uncle Sam, but, but so I didn’t really experience a whole lot of frustration. I just sort of couldn’t believe what was going on for about two years.
In other words, there is a narrative to this piece, Ayre of Grievances. Um, but I think it, you know, it is much more than the sum of its narrative is what I’m trying to say. Uh, tonalities are altogether satisfying throughout the piece.
Go, give me an overview. What was this about for you?
S: During the, during the lockdowns for me, it was frustrating. Well, because… guy, giving three hour lectures on zoom, I never want to do that again. Oh my gosh. Not being able to see anybody, not being able to see family. Um, that was really frustrating, but at the same time, because I wasn’t able to play live concerts, like I had been, um, it gave me a chance to sit down and really think about who I am.
Um, up until that point, it was very much, oh, I’m a major violinist and a composer and a teacher at all at once.
D: Don’t forget viola… and viola too.
S: Yes. I love the viola. Um, but then I came to realize. I really much prefer writing, uh, and recording. Uh, so I, I allowed myself to let go of the, the things that maybe didn’t bring me quite as much joy. So when things did open back up, I’m, I’m being more careful to balance my life, uh, with what really brings me more joy and less stress, hopefully. Um, that’s, that’s what that piece really sort of represented is it was frustrating. It was lonely. I was angry at the world. Um, but at the same time, there was some beauty in there and some peace.
And, um, and I just love the interaction of the three parts. They’re both, they’re all three very independent, but they speak together and sometimes they’re arguing with each other. Sometimes they’re singing with each other and supporting each other. And, um, I just really liked that intimacy of the work.
D: Well, that whole narrative thing about what you’re very good, uh, you know, voices, uh, having discussions between each other, but I found, and I may sound like I’m an idiot or something, but when I saw that viola, violin, flute, I told you earlier, I thought, I remember thinking that’s going to be tricky, you know, that the flute doesn’t get lost, and all of that works beautifully. And that is not about, you know, microphones. It’s about the way you wrote the piece. Using those three instruments. So, so beautifully. And later you use instruments in the most magical way.
S: Yeah, we actually debuted it during the pandemic where I recorded the violin and viola part. And then I recorded a friend of mine playing the flute part and we just did one of those YouTube stitched videos where we stitched our videos together. That was the thing.
D: Yeah. Am I pronouncing it reasonably close? “DodecaFunky” And of course we’re playing, playing with, uh, dodeca cacophony or something. You can fill me in on that. There’s all this funny stuff going on. That’s all inside stuff for musicians.
It’s for flute and piano from 2015. I think you mentioned this might be the earliest piece, maybe…
S: “Of Roses and Lilies”, I actually wrote the original piece for voice and piano in like the early aughts. But then I went back and fleshed it out and sort of made it fuller.
D: So then you know, the early aughts, I love that. So DodecaFunky, uh, flute and piano. I want to tell everybody out there that’s looking for a repertoire. This is a beauty. This is a recital beauty. A funky solo for flute with piano accompaniment, this intense and spastic work. Is that me or you?
S: I think it’s me.
D: I think it was you. So it… “exploits various manipulations”. Oh, here you go. Yeah, it is you… “of a 12 tone row (dodecaphony).” I’m supposed to be a musician and I couldn’t care less how it’s pronounced or even what it is these days. It’s just the serial melody to a backdrop, et cetera, et cetera. But the point of, oh, this is why it’s so cute. A hard bop and swing and, uh, and stuff. It’s just a delicious piece. And it’s, it’s aggressive in its funky way. I say about the opening, while the piano adds to the delightful confusion with various playful styles, a pause and it starts to get feisty. Uh, now I don’t know where I am in the piece, but now some casual virtuoso boogie woogie, boogie funky, uh, it’s a delight.
It’s kind of a series of descriptive tableau. Am I closer? Cause I love dance. I, you know, I reviewed dance a lot and these are like little tableau. It’s wonderful to the max. Should be, uh, on programming all over the place. It’s a beauty.
Tell me, tell me, what do you think? What do you think of this?
S: I love this piece. It just makes, it makes me giggle.
D: It’s just a charm. Beautiful. It’s so cute.
S: Thank you, thank you.
D: Again, if you, you’ll forgive me the accessibility word. This is irresistible. Of course, you know what I’m trying to say?
S: I’m glad you like it. That one actually took a little bit of inspiration from Bernstein. Um, I, I love, uh, I was studying his symphony, Age of Anxiety. Oh, and I love how he merged, well, he merged…
D: By the way, you know, I’m a conductor. Uh, and I know all three of those symphonies very, very well. I’ve never conducted them because they’re too hard. “Jeremiah” I could conduct. That one makes sense. Uh, the, the age of anxiety for piano and orchestra is unbelievable, but it’s also unbelievably difficult to conduct, you know? And then Kaddish, he wrote the original and then tore it all to pieces and stuff. So, but anyway, I just want, I’m so glad somebody also has studied [those works]. Anyway, excuse me.
S: That’s okay. Uh, but yeah, I really loved the idea of merging modernist, modernistic tendencies as Bernstein would say, um, with jazz and other accessible popular genres. And so that’s what I did with this flute piece is I took a 12 tone row and it is an authentic 12 tone row, but I, you could say I cheated, I cheated a little bit because I used transpositions. So what I would do is it’s still the same row, but I would transpose fragments of it to places that I liked it, where it fit better.
D: Arnold [Schoenberg] is turning into his grave.
S: Well, this is true. Ah but see, Stravinsky did it first. So, you know, let’s blame him.
It’s still, it still has the same intervallic structures. Um, but then I back it up, with that really jazzy, different, like you say, different tableaus of different jazzy styles to kind of increase the…
D: It’s a great dance piece…
S: That’d be fun.
D: In other words, there’s lots of possibilities.
Okay. We’re going to move on.
“Of Roses and Lilies”, this is for soprano, piano, soprano recorder, which I don’t think I hear very often used in these kinds of chamber pieces. And it’s a perfect color. English horn… what got into you ?…and women’s chorus. And then the, are there strings there? I have this question.
S: String orchestra.
D: String orchestra, because I didn’t, you know, I didn’t see it in the, in the brief and it’s from 2013, so we’re getting closer to, to the bottom of the stack here. Tell us about it.
S: This one’s a really fascinating piece for me. I, like I said, I had first written it many, many, many, several decades ago. And this was written…
D: Don’t be so hard on yourself…It’s only been 10 years…
S: But the original piece for just soprano and piano was written, like I said, in the late nineties or early aughts, um, this was when I was still with my very Christian family, um, yeah, there you go. And so I fell in love with the song of Solomon and I thought, why don’t I write quick snippets of the song of Solomon and put it together as sort of a love song. And so I did. And, um, eventually just another like 10 years or so down the road, I’d said, you know what, I really love this piece. I’m going to flesh it out. So, um, I took the original just two parts and added the strings and added the color of the soprano recorder and the English horn, um, and, you know, added the women’s chorus as sort of this almost Greek chorus kind of response thing.
So it’s a very, it’s a very different piece. Uh, it’s a very dramatic kind of theater-esque, drama-esque kind of, uh, kind of a feel.
D: And you don’t use the word romantic. It reeks of romanticism. I see in my notes there, a rich tapestry of sound and a highly romantic tonal aesthetic. I was not ready for that.
S: Well, actually, uh, every, everybody don’t hate on me, but I actually recorded it myself. So it’s only, it’s only two microphones with, uh, the soloist, Claire is one of my best friends and she teaches at Azusa. So she was able to grab us a classroom. And so I recorded with the two microphones, her and another good friend of mine, the pianist, Lydia. Um, and at the time we weren’t sure if I was just going to put together a digital background to it and like release it online or something. But, you know, this CD was coming to the, coming toward finishing and I was like, you know, this would be really awesome if we can get the rest of it recorded.
So I, yeah, I took two more sessions. I got the strings and the winds together for one session. Uh, and then I finally got the women’s chorus together for a session.
D: So that makes sense too. Very hard undertaking just in terms of production.
S: Yeah, it’s such a good, such a good learning experience. And again, so many of my dear, dear friends are on that recording and it’s just, it was just so special to me.
D: It’s something else. And I hope you understand what I’m saying here, because we want to get this, these pieces performed. It’s a beauty. It’s very accessible. So it doesn’t sound terribly hard to put together. What do you think? Am I all wet? I don’t know, but just, it seemed very, it seemed to just flow pretty freely.
S: Here’s the… I would say, here’s the danger with my music. And, um, especially with this piece, this has happened before. There have been pianists who think they can sight read it and they suddenly quit. It’s like, oh, I can’t sight read this. So this is something my very first composition teacher warned me about is that my music seems really easy. But then you dig into it and there are some little quirks in there and some tricks that you might not be expecting. So as long as you know…
D: It shouldn’t be a big problem. If you know what I mean, so I think I’m okay in saying that I think it’s not like, you know…
S: It’s not terrible.
D: Yeah…[not] terribly virtuosic. And that is, that is to say this should go off the shelf and into performance and rehearsal. And that’s exactly what I see. Nothing but college, college ensemble. Because of the difficulty of getting, you know, professionals together in that kind of complex, you know, but, but, so I found it really very, very…a flowing, lovely, entirely tonal journey. The soprano recorder is charming. Your writing is absolutely first-class. You handle transitions of mood with smooth aplomb. Boy, that came out of my head. Geez. The piece soars with beauty. Your compositional savvy and skill are beyond question.
S: Thank you.
D: Let’s see. Now this is “The Oracle,” for violin, cello, flute and piccolo, clarinet, piano. That’s from 2016. Go ahead. Tell us, but the bottom line is you constructed this thing from random throws of tarot cards. Go.
S: Exactly. Okay. So…
D: Aleatoric indeed!
S: Uh, I really, like I said, this was the time in my life when I had just really started to latch on to tarot as a means of exploring my own subconscious.
D: Which is correct, by the way. Let’s make sure. Exactly what it’s supposed to be. No, let the self-conscious speak to us.
S: Exactly. I like to think of it, it’s like a mirror for myself. It’s a way for me to talk to myself when sometimes I’m having trouble understanding my brain. So, uh, I really love tarot and I wrote this when I first really started getting into it. And so what I did is, um, I had an opportunity. It was like a call for scores for this ensemble. Uh, and so I was like, this will be fun. Why don’t I use that as an excuse to try it out?
So, and I wanted to do sort of a homage to John Cage by using an aleatoric kind of method. And so tarot seemed like the perfect way to do it. So I set up, um, I think it was five different spreads of 10 cards. I think I did like, um, some kind of a sacred pyramid, uh, spread for each of those. Um, and what I did is I, I assigned certain, you know, in tarot, the different suits represent different aspects of life and personality.
So you have the cups, which is emotion. Um, you have, you know, the, uh, the pentacles, uh, the pentacles are, uh, earth, uh, and, um, material wellbeing and reality and such. Uh, so what I did is I attached each of the instruments to those suits. The, uh, violin was fire, uh, or wands. Uh, the, uh, the cello was water or cups and the, uh, the clarinet was earth and the flute, of course, was air. And then for the piano, uh, I made the piano, the tree of life itself. Uh, because I like to read tarot from a Kabbalistic tree of life sort of interpretation.
D: You’re starting to get over my head. I thought I was with you pretty well, but Kabbalistic something, something…with a tree of life.
S: So Jewish mysticism, basically. So on the tree of life, each of the cards have their place on that tree. And the higher up the tree you are, the closer to the divine source you are. And then you travel down the tree and experience various phases of life and emotion, et cetera, until you get to the bottom, which is material reality. Everything you’ve experienced becomes real. Uh, and then you cycle back to the top, back to the divine source again.
So for the piano, um, when I had a spread that, that spoke of being closer to the divine source, I had the piano playing up in its higher registers. And then as it got closer to the bottom, to the ground, the piano went down. So the higher, if you hear the piano going, noodling up really high, that’s up at the divine source of things. If you hear the piano kind of in the middle, that’s sort of where balance and harmony are. If the piano is down in the basement, that’s down in material reality.
And then in the meantime, you have all the other instruments that are reflecting on emotion or, um, you know, or, or thought, or power
D: …and character that may be interpreted…in countless ways. That’s the beauty of the idea of randomness, the beauty of the order, if you will, of randomness, that even random events will speak to us.
S: Exactly.
D: Once in a while, I really want to play an album, uh, for other people in my, you know, over a dinner or something. This is one of them. Um, what an amazing chamber piece. I say this is, uh, this long cello obbligato, then into the klezmer aesthetic I call, uh, with, with all of that playing. Now I understand the cabalistic, if you will, right. Uh, meaning to it all. Uh, but the klezmer, uh, aesthetic is, is clearly there. The, and of course the Oracle is a Jew, right? I say the Oracle is a Jew? Question mark.
A wonderful transition, transitional writing. And you know what I mean? Making segments and, and, uh, themes make sense. That transition material is very, very important to get it right. [Your] compositional savvy is top notch. I think I’ve been saying that, but the piece is a wonderful narrative. It’s complex. It’s a complex narrative. Um, and as you have just described the instruments are characters.
S: They’re, they’re the suits of the, of the cards, but they do have sort of, they evoke their sort of, uh, certain characteristics about it.
D: Okay. That’s much more complex. Thank you. That clarifies.
This is quite a journey. So, and, uh, and then I say, um, a jaunty section now as CODA, I assume that’s a CODA. Uh, still a fun ending. I love it. I don’t think you can get any more, you know, any, any better than that.
Okay. Next is, is, uh, Wabi-Sabi, this, uh, uh, the aesthetic and metaphysical ideals that Japanese Wabi-Sabi encapsulates. Tell us about Wabi-Sabi. Is it animist or something? Is it part of their religion? Animist religion?
S: It can be. Uh, I’m trying to remember where it historically started. It actually started with monochromatic Chinese drawings and then the Japanese sort of took that ideal and enhanced it. A lot of people think of a Zen garden when they think of Wabi Sabi.
D: I see what you mean. Now I understand exactly what you mean. Even the artwork, strokes, you know, just very spare strokes.
S: Yeah. The tea ceremony. Um, everything about that ceremony is part of their Wabi Sabi aesthetic and metaphysical ideals.
D: I’m trying to remember this [for] parties.
S: Simplicity is, is a major part of it, but it goes beyond that. This, and this is what the string quartet throughout the three movements sort of encapsulates is that, uh, the beginning that, that…you know, in the west the idea of nothing is like zero, there’s nothing there. It’s very stark, but in Wabi Sabi ideas, um, nothing is full of potential. There’s a lot that could be there, but isn’t there yet.
D: That’s so profound.
S: Um, and then you go through, especially at the beginning of the first movement, sort of these random particles where the players can choose how they want to play it.
D: I understand that. We’re talking about the first movement Emergence, what have you just said that the players have some choice and they have choices.
S: So, so each of the players have a collection of notes that they can choose from to play. Uh, and they do it in different ways. Like the cello trills all their notes, but they can choose how they want to trill and how fast they want to trill and when they want to come in, uh, and things like that. Um, until they finally come together in the middle of the first movement and it sort of builds from there. So the idea is like that of creation of these particles coming into space and slowly merging together to become something.
D: And by the way, this sounds like an homage to Stockhausen, you know?
S: Yeah, absolutely.
D: Another great. Distance… these distant sounds… I remember performance, you know, Stockhausen, and it all comes together.
S: And then, and then Evolution is a short, it’s intentionally a short little two minute burst because that’s where everything is kind of locked in.
D: This is Evolution.
S: This is the, the cells are coming together and creating fish that are coming out of the water and, you know, becoming man. Um, et cetera. Possibility.
D: Alive with possibility, yeah. …Nothingness itself…
S: Yeah, exactly. Um, and then it gives way to Entropy, uh, and Entropy starts with a very strict structure. Uh, funnily enough, I wasn’t sure compositionally how I wanted to go about the third movement, but I was in the middle of teaching about isorhythm in one of my classes. So I’m like, Hey, I can do isorhythm with this. That’d be fun. So it starts out very strict, um, but then gets really complex and starts falling apart. And again, that’s the idea of returning back to nothingness. Everything’s falling apart.
Uh, and, and that’s the idea of, um, the idea that you, um, sometimes the best course of action is to decide to do nothing, you know…
D: I think you have just described an exact, uh, arc in the, they come together. I’m looking at Emergence. The first one builds quite satisfyingly. Uh, the construct is fascinating and sensible to the intellect, I say to myself. And of course, if there, if you don’t get it off the ground, intellectually from the beginning, you’re in trouble… Ok, Evolution. Um, I love this, uh, I call it a flowing sea sort of opening. Or whatever that vibe could be. Anything, forget sea, whatever that undulating flowing thing…so mesmerizing. Again, wonderful quartet writing.
I’m going to have to stop using this word accessible, but that’s the whole idea to get these performed. And that’s exactly to be well written and also to be a happy time for an audience. Give me a break. And I, and here’s the thing about Evolution that it’s, uh, utterly accessible to the listener, though the subject, listening, but I think I got it. Although the subject matter may have sub-basements. Now a walking cello fits that, that walking cello thing. It’s wonderful to keep the piece moving and, and, uh, energetic. Um, quite a narrative.
S: It’s like a little metronome marking I have in the, uh, the second movement is “Like dancing molecules.”
D: Oh!
S: Kind of the spinning, whirling…
D: I might have to dream about that tonight. And the third movement, if you will, Entropy. It’s such a nice, uh, I, I, do I hear a little fugue…? I wanted… the stream of consciousness thing…fuguetto. You know what I mean? That opening is a, is it a genuine, but it’s a fuguetto, right?
S: Yeah, it’s, um, it starts out exactly as a canon. Then what happens is that each time the line comes back, uh, I either in diminution or augmentation. Uh, so I, I, like I said, if you see the score, um, I start doing crazy little sub meters within each of the parts just to help, just to help the players keep, keep time with each other, but yeah, that’s part of the unraveling part is they start very much together and then they start in like ratios of two to one or one to two, but yeah, then it starts getting into weird ratios…
D: …because I think I wondered about those, those asymmetrical collisions… A slightly dysfunctional intentional section. I’m toward the end here of pizz’s.
S: Well, the very ending, I go back to the beginning idea where the, each player has a selection of notes. They can pizz. whenever they want to. So each performance should be a little different than each other.
D: So the end of entropy, they go back to this idea and they can even change their mind about it.
S: Exactly.
D: Stockhausen, he’s smiling.
“Nevermore,” this major Sonata, I think for viola and piano from 2019 to 2021. Nevermore for viola and piano, also a subtitle of a Gothic Suite, so delightful, it’s an absolutely magnificent Sonata for viola and piano. It’s just absolutely, it’s so American, because we’re talking about Edgar Allan Poe and each movement is after one of his most famous pieces. But you have, I feel very powerfully about American composers choosing American subjects. The Raven, Annabelle Lee, the Telltale Heart.
S: Actually, Charlotte Goode, the violist on this recording, is actually another one of my bestest friends. And she is also a gothic nut and a fellow autistic. And she just, she was like, oh my gosh, we need to collaborate. We need to do this for viola. And I’m like, yes. So I started out with the Raven, you know, and she debuted that at a recital. And then I was like, okay, we need to come up with two other, you know, two other movements to finish it out. And the thing I love about the recording of this, again, this is so her, the viola part is so her, the subject matter is so her, and then I was lucky enough to be able to fly out with her to Boston to have her record it for PARMA. So…that day I went to Salem after we recorded it. So it was perfect.
D: You mean, the Witch Town or Salem, Oregon?
S: No, no, no, the Witch Town, yeah, Salem, Massachusetts.
D: So Poe inspired you to go to the seat of evil.
S: Exactly. It was so good.
D: Well, what I have to say is here, I worked on looking at the first movement. First of all, a fascinating piano introduction that really nails the interest immediately because it hints at mysteries, then it’s followed by the viola’s intensely Poe-ish colors and temperament, so congrats to your friend. It’s a beauty, again, of narrative imagination, a wonderful piece of writing for viola. It is virtuosic.
S: Yeah, it is. I won’t play it on my viola. I’ll let somebody else do it. I’m not that good.
D: Well, everything a violist looks for in a recital piece, you know, and it’s romantic, there are romantic bits in here, some hair-raising twilight zone intervals between notes, if that makes any sense, thrilling, kooky, mysterious, as was the man, nice new idea… that roiling keyboard stuff toward the end of the piece, does that make any sense? Under viola, that middle and low register as it goes.
“Annabelle Lee.” It’s gorgeous, that movement is just gorgeous.
S: So beautiful, it’s one of my absolute favorites, just, and the poem, too, is just absolutely, it really struck me.
D: It brings you to tears, really, that poem.
S: It really does. I really wanted to capture that complete childlike innocence, just absolutely purest childlike innocent love of a little boy and a little girl. And then the angels cruelly take her away from him, you know, and just that drama.
D: And that’s the true story, isn’t it? Doesn’t he marry her, his wife, when she was 15, and then did she die? I can’t quite remember.
S: I don’t remember. I’d have to look it up.
D: We just missed the good parts that neither of us can remember. Anyway, what I’m trying to say is, Annabelle Lee speaks to a very personal experience.
S: I do know this was his last poem that he wrote before he died. That’s also a very haunting little tidbit. So, yeah, I love this movement so much. It actually, it was the hardest to record, too, because it’s deceptively simple. But it’s because it’s kind of like Mozart in that way, where it’s so simple and exposed that the violist has to be really careful and really in tune. So it took us a little bit longer to do this one.
D: Nice. Yeah, it’s a beautiful reading. I call it magical writing. It’s exceptionally sensitive.
The Tell-Tale Heart: the intro, sufficiently terrifying. Very imaginative character development. It’s exactly creepy enough to fit the narrative, because it is that narrative, the pulsing, the clicking, and the floorboards… Then the beginning of real paranoia. I mean, you describe this tale very well.
S: Actually, I decided the best way to put it together was to take the story apart and make each of the sections of music a section of the story. So it’s probably the most narratively accurate of the three movements.
D: And that makes good sense to me.
S: Yeah, and in the music, each of the section headings has a little quote from the story. So you can kind of tell where you are in the story. But yeah, the idea of just. I wanted the opening theme that the viola starts playing is supposed to be sort of the love theme that the narrator has for his master.
“I loved the old man…It was his eye!” …you know, so it’s this really creepy. It’s a love song, but it’s twisted. It’s got something off.
So that’s where it opens. And then from there, then I get into the part where it’s for seven nights. He he peeks in at the bedroom. And so that section is like in seven four or something like that. It has odd. It’s asymmetrical. So, again, it feels a little off, you know, a little bit of the heartbeat taps and then, you know, stuff like that. And then little answering in the piano… And then you hear him murder him.
D: I call it shades of the shower scene in Psycho.
S: Yeah, yeah, exactly.
D: Brava, I say after that.
S: …yeah, thank you. Yeah. And then you just get, like you say, the paranoia as the cops won’t leave. But the narrator keeps hearing the heartbeat and he can’t get away from it. And he just has to give up.
D: And indeed, it’s an internal conflict. Yeah, that’s the order of the soundscape. It’s kind of this internal conflict that becomes, you know, insupportable, disturbingly deliberate. And it’s so well done, well done.
So that’s a beautiful sonata. And as I mentioned, here it is. It’s a, it’s a viola sonata. It’s, it’s tough. Well, you know, at a certain level, you know, you almost want it to be. So it’s not inaccessible at all. It has a it has a tremendous connection to America and American history and American literature. It is a beautiful sonata and it sounds so beautiful. The writing is so gorgeous.
So take note, everybody. Nevermore for viola and piano.
And then now the last, the grand finale on the CD, The Dark Glass Sinfonia: We see through a glass darkly. For orchestra from 2017 built upon an integrated set…Oh, here you go again.
S: I love patterns!
D: …that’s why I pulled it. Because in all of my life in the arts and even at college, these things never came up in my experience. “Built,” she says, confident, “built upon an integrated set of hexachordal formulae.” End quote. I say to myself, please explain. You will, then you go on: “Free atonality with modal harmony…In doing so, it is meant to represent the enigmatic and ongoing emotional flux of the soul.”
S: This is another…it started out as just a love affair with patterns. And one thing, I’m not a major post-tonalist. You can tell from the accessibleness of my music. But I do love some of the number patterns that come about from, you know, post-tonal exercises. And hexachordal combinatoriality is one of my favorite ideas. I just love saying it. Hexachordal combinatoriality.
D: Yeah, I bet when you have students, they just sort of collapse.
S: Yeah, I’m like, OK, learn how to say it, you can impress all of your friends.
D: But then again, formulae is rather…
S: …It’s very pompous sounding…it’s basically it’s built upon the 12-tone ideal, but it breaks up the 12 tones into six tones, hexachords. So each of the hexachords has its own unique intervallic character to it. And so in the same way that you can take kind of the same way where I cheated with DodecaFunky, where I took segments of it and like transposed it, it’s kind of like that, but I did less cheating. Hexachords kind of do their own cheating because you can take one part of the tone row and then take the second half of it and flip it or reverse it. Or, you know, all that kind of stuff. And then if you break them down into numbers, you can add them up into cool combinations and things like that. So that’s what this was. This piece was sort of a play on that and seeing what I could do with it. And that’s how I developed the main themes.
You really hear it come out, especially in the little woodwind stuff throughout the top. That’s really where it shines. But it really is woven into it.
D: The row shines?…
S: Yeah, yeah, exactly.
D: Well, you must have been in heaven putting this piece together.
S: It was very, very fun. And again, and I don’t know how my brain does this, but what starts out with a whole bunch of numbers and patterns usually comes out as something really lovely that I continue to love listening to.
D: Well, guess what? That’s exactly the whole point of the genius of autism. You just exactly described what we’ve been kind of…that autism is, is just different.
S: You know, you know, that’s another thing that shines through with this orchestral piece, too, is that one of the comments sometimes I get from other people is, oh, why can’t you just have the instruments all stacked up on top of each other? You know, why can’t they all play at once? And I’m like, I just don’t like that. I like to have the layers. Somebody’s always doing something. And so there’s kind of a medievalness to it, you know, going back to that old polyphony idea. But then I’ll integrate it with these numbers and patterns. And I just love seeing it layer.
D: Speaking of layering, did I hear I see in my notes here. Is there any kind of pyramid that you constructed a sound pyramid somewhere in the beginning of that piece? Or is it a stupid word?
S: No it’s not stupid. I like to call it a waterfall, where…
D: Yeah, ….I got the idea of what you were creating there.
S: Yeah. The hexachordal pattern is there. But what I do is I pass it starting from the top and have it kind of trickle down like that.
D: So pyramid is not quite the right way of describing it. But I was hearing a very specific concept. And of course, thinking pyramid, I’m describing it as from the bottom up. But you’ve just described it as from top to trickle down, if you will.
Let’s see… There was a lovely little brass tune. I’m hearing that I’m hearing cinematic moments. Of course, it’s an orchestral piece. I’m sure you really got your teeth into that one.
Let’s see, lovely wind section work, as we’ve discussed, nicely orchestrated. Well, it’s brilliant and wonderful and very accessible and a beautiful, beautiful orchestral piece of what? I can’t remember. Seven minutes or…
S: Yeah, it’s only like seven minutes or so, which I have found, again, economically and just competition wise…
D: That’s exactly right.
S: People like shorter, shorter pieces.
D: That’s kind of what we ask, because then the next question is how? Because I’m again thinking collegiate orchestras. And then let’s see that as we’ve discussed, there’s that thematic return, you know, that the whole thing does a perfect arc. So there you go.
S: I just really love the very, very ending of it. When I first put it together and to me, it evoked sort of almost this organ, this organ like texture with. I just love the resonance… T
D: That section with percussion. That’s toward the end. I see more complicated in narrative in terms of just the construct of the piece. Definitely descriptive, martial, perfectly accessible. It’s a perfect piece for a college orchestra if it’s in that sphere of capability.
S: Yeah. …that little fast march like scherzo thing. I kind of had a like a like a Russian, Russian romantic vibe almost or like early 20th century Russian vibe, you know, almost like kind of Shostakovich-esque, you know…
D: Each question mark was starting to rise out of my head there, the Shostakovich-ish.
S: Yeah, exactly.
D: What a great talk we’ve had. And I think just anybody could pick up that the world of our profession, of our music making, is the world at large. I mean, we speak to the wonderful, fascinating world around us. That’s the whole idea of being a creative person.
So, again, wonderful chat with composer Sarah Wallin Huff. And we’re talking about your 2023 Navona release. It’s contemporary classic chamber music for diverse instrumental combinations. You’ve heard this before. It’s called Shards. Don’t worry, anybody. It’s fine. And wonderful pieces that as we’ve discussed that are chamber works and then, of course, the orchestral piece at the very end.
But this is music that should be heard a lot more. And it’s not off the top of the charts of virtuosity. But, it’s just good, solid, wonderful music-making with enough virtuosity to keep…Why did I say those of us who are gifted…busy…you know what I’m trying to say… I’m gonna shut my mouth up here.
Anyway, great fun chatting with you.
S: Thank you so much. I really I’m really flattered, you know, that you reached out.
D: Well, I’m flattered that I heard what I heard. I’ll tell you, because it’s always a gamble. I just sort of pick up, pick up whatever. And I thought I’ve never heard of this thing. Well, who is this person and what is that stuff? And that’s got us started.
It’s been a tremendous treat and a really important and a very important CD you’ve got. So, congratulations all around.
#chamberMusic #classical #Interview #orchestra #review #StudioRecording

#chambermusic #classical #interview #orchestra #review #studiorecording
Sarah Wallin Huff @[email protected] · 2025-06-05 · 10:27 UTC

Sept. 2023 Interview with Daniel Kepl

Back in the fall of 2023, right after the release of my second solo album with Navona, I got the opportunity to sit down with longtime American conductor, arts administrator, and music/theater/dance critic, Daniel Kepl, and talk with him about my album, SHARDS.
Unfortunately, the audio in that video interview was extremely unbalanced and distorted, so I took some time to try and clean it up, to make it as listenable as possible. So… that edited video is now here, below, ready for your viewing pleasure (complete with chapter breaks, if you’d prefer to jump around)!
While the pops and crackles and background noises are mostly gone, sometimes the words are still a little garbly, so I’ve embedded captions in the video and am providing a full transcript, for those who would prefer to read the discussion. If you would like to see the original unedited video, you can do that here.

Dan Kepl’s Review Highlights
The high points of Dan Kepl’s praise, as stated in the video below.

About the Album:

[SHARDS is] a wonderful album, very interesting and very accessible, if I may say. It’s absolutely a magnificent recording of simply superb music… This music is just simply gorgeous. You use instruments in the most magical way.
This is music that should be heard a lot more…it’s just good, solid, wonderful music-making. It’s…a very important CD you’ve got.

About “Ayre of Grievances”:

It’s absolutely gorgeous. Tense, beautifully crafted, thoroughly contemporarily classical. tonalities are altogether satisfying throughout the piece. The balancing and everything is wonderful in terms of your compositional skills.

About “DodecaFunky”:

I want to tell everybody out there that’s looking for a repertoire, this is a beauty. This is a recital beauty. I think I can say it’s fun. It’s wonderful. It’s just a delicious piece, it’s aggressive in its funky way. It’s wonderful to the max. Should be on programming all over the place. This is irresistible. Audiences would love it, I think.

About “Of Roses and Lilies”:

It’s a beauty; a rich tapestry of sound and a highly romantic tonal aesthetic. …this should go off the shelf and into performance and rehearsal. A flowing, lovely, entirely tonal journey. The soprano recorder is charming. Your writing is absolutely first-class. You handle transitions of mood with smooth aplomb. The piece soars with beauty. Your compositional savvy and skill are beyond question.

About “The Oracle”:

Once in a while, I really want to play [a track of] an album, uh, for other people…you know, over a dinner or something. This is one of them. What an amazing chamber piece. Wonderful transitional writing; compositional savvy is top notch. The piece is a wonderful narrative. It’s complex. This piece is quite a journey.

About “Wabi-Sabi”:

The construct is fascinating and sensible to the intellect…quite a narrative…wonderful quartet writing.

About “Nevermore”:

An absolutely gorgeous, wonderful, magnificent Sonata for viola and piano…so American. …a fascinating piano introduction that really nails the interest immediately because it hints at mysteries, then it’s followed by the viola’s intensely Poe-ish colors and temperament. It’s a beauty, again, of narrative imagination, a wonderful piece of writing for viola. It is virtuosic, everything a violist looks for in a recital piece. There are romantic bits in here, some hair-raising twilight zone intervals between notes, if that makes any sense, thrilling, kooky, mysterious, as was the man. It has a tremendous connection to America and American history and American literature. It is a beautiful sonata and it sounds so beautiful. The writing is so gorgeous.
[For Annabelle Lee] I call it magical writing. It’s exceptionally sensitive.
The Tell-Tale Heart: the intro, sufficiently terrifying. Very imaginative character development. It’s exactly creepy enough to fit the narrative, because it is that narrative, the pulsing, the clicking…the floorboards…Then the beginning of real paranoia. Shades of the shower scene in Psycho – Brava! Disturbingly deliberate ending.

About “The Dark Glass Sinfonia”:

…wonderful piece for orchestra, “The Dark Glass Sinfonia,” gives me shivers, but it’s wonderful.
Lovely wind section work…nicely orchestrated. It’s brilliant and wonderful and very accessible…a beautiful, beautiful orchestral piece. Definitely descriptive, martial, perfectly accessible.
Sept. 2023 Interview with Daniel Kepl (Edited, with Captions)

Full [Edited] Interview Transcript

D: I’m chatting with composer Sarah Wallin Huff and we’re going to talk about your 2023 Navona CD release. Thank you, Parma. Thank you, Navona. Thank you, all of you wonderful people out there that put this, these kind of packages together. Just a quick aside about Navona, including everything that we need as critics, really somewhat truncated, makes perfect sense, but up on a website. And very few other companies do this. I just think it’s fabulous.
I’ve seen your interview, or I’ve read your interview, I should say, with Parma. And we’re going to talk about your 2023 Navona CD release of Contemporary Classical Chamber Works and an album for diverse instrumental combinations. Anyway, the CD is called Shards. Do not run away in the night and be afraid. It’s a wonderful album of very interesting and very accessible, if I may say so, and I think it’s perfectly OK to say so.
Here, just a sampling: Ayre of Grievances, for viola, violin, flute, lovely. The flute I wondered about. Those are pretty heavy instruments and the balancing and everything is wonderful in terms of your compositional skills.
DodecaFunky, let me say that once more. DodecaFunky, for piano, and it is cute… oh, did I miss one?
S: DodecaFunky.
D: Anyway, it’s cute. I think I can say it’s fun. It’s wonderful. And it’s a wonderful, very fascinating piano piece. Audiences would love it, I think.
“Of Roses and Lilies.” This one’s a little complex for soprano, piano, soprano recorder. Nice colors. Nice. English horn, very interesting. And women’s chorus. I mean, not since Holst have I heard women’s chorus used in this way.
So, Wabi-Sabi, it’s in three movements. Juventas, the new music ensemble performs it. This is a string quartet, so four players of the Juventas ensemble. I hope I’m pronouncing that right since I live in California. Three movements: Emergence, Evolution, Entropy. Very, very interesting. And maybe even kind of the heart of who you might be. I don’t know. I’m just guessing.
The next piece, Nevermore for viola and piano, an absolutely gorgeous, wonderful, three-movement sonata for viola and piano. The movements: The Raven, Annabelle Lee, The Tell-Tale Heart. And I love Poe, what a genius, what a genius. So glad you have included this wonderful, wonderful piece for viola and piano. And I mean by that, again, your compositional skills, the way you use these, didn’t you play viola? I thought I that read somewhere. Were you a violist?
S: I double on viola. I feel more comfortable on violin, but I can pick up a viola if I need it.
D: Okay. So you got all that stuff, you know, under your fingernails, so to say.
And then the last piece, wonderful piece for orchestra, The Dark Glass Sinfonia, gives me shivers, but it’s wonderful. And with a little subtype, if I’m reading it correctly: “We see through a glass darkly.” Wonderful piece, performed by wonderful people, while you really say it right out, right, and I just want to deal with this a little bit before I get to where you know, I’m going.
We all know people with autism and what I have found in my experience with people, and you know, autism is here, there, everywhere in various variations. You’re going to speak to it, I think in a bit, but the people that I have known with autism, some people have had troubles, others have been really, really talented, clever, and innovative. Autism is not a deficit. Okay.
S: Yeah. It’s a difference.
D: It’s a difference. Thank you. That’s better. Okay. Because I too, like most of, especially like with dyslexia, in the seventies, we all thought people with dyslexia were just lazy. Just didn’t want to do a job. Well, they couldn’t help it. They couldn’t read. Everything was backwards. My, my oldest nephew, uh, is dyslexic. So I just want everybody to understand…
And, and where are you in the autism spectrum? Can I ask that question?
S: Sure.
D: Of course, you’re clearly under great control. You have mastered the magic of autism.
S: Yeah. Well, what’s funny about that is I’ve actually only just in the past year, really got confirmation. Um, I’m still don’t have, yeah, I still don’t have an official diagnosis because that’s a whole other bag of worms for adult diagnosis and it costs thousands of dollars. And, uh, some doctors still don’t believe that women have it. Um, so, but just taking several screening tests, um, I’ve taken about five of the clinical screening tests and they all point very highly to autism. Um, and thinking about my experiences growing up, it really makes a lot of sense.
D: That’s what I was going to ask you next. You must have known, you know, that something was different.
S: Well, yeah. I, I thought something was always…
D: Can you give an example or two, you know, when you were a little kid. What I remember is the kids that I’ve known have various symptoms of autism.
S: Definitely. Um, emotional dysregulation, um, is still difficult where, well, and for me, because I kind of triggered emotional response to things like, um, there’s a famous phrase that “you don’t have enough spoons”, but the phrase means basically like, I only have so many ways of coping with life and when I’m out of those ways, I have to take a nap. I have to, I have to go to the corner for a second. And for different people, there’s different levels of that.
And growing up with a family who expected me to be normal. Um, I got really good at masking. I got really good at holding it all in, but then I’d get home and just. Like, um, I didn’t want to do my homework. I didn’t want to eat. I didn’t want to do anything except just sit there after school. Um, unfortunately I had to keep pushing through. Um, and so I just got used to doing that, hiding who I really was, you know?
D: Um, as you know, we talked, I’m very openly gay and…what we’re getting to, the bottom line is you have to be who you are. To keep these things secret or to try and work around who you are is exhausting, as you said. And just mentally, you know, exactly.
S: I’ve actually, I did actually get a diagnosis like 15 years ago for anxiety disorder and what I’ve discovered since then is that it is a part of the autism masking, just, I had been masking for 40 years. And so, um, that just built up a lot of anxiety in me for everything, you know? Um, but now that I’m just past year, starting to learn who I am and learn what my triggers are.
Um, I am very sensitive to sound, ironically enough, um, disorganized sound, I really have a hard time handling with, but music is organized sounds. So for me, my brain likes it, you know? Um, but yeah, so I’m just learning a lot more about myself and how my brain works and that it’s okay that my brain has trouble where other people seem to have things worked out, you know? And that’s okay.
D: You see, if you will, with your brain, things that we don’t, and so on. So, you know, I mean, that’s the beauty of all, for all of us. Uh, it’s the tremendous beauty of diversity.
Um… Let’s talk about Ancients. This is psycho-messaging to our brains. I mean, give me a break. It’s not random. It’s pure messaging to ourselves, uh, Tarot and all the rest of it. And I love traditions that have been there for 8,000 years. We’re going to talk about it. Cause you use, you do, you do this formula for a piece with Tarot cards that drives me crazy, but often told me it, speaking of what you had spoken to, uh, just a moment ago, when one gets kind of focused, the focus becomes quite, uh, extravagant. And was that for you? You really got into constructing this piece around Tarot.
S: Oh, yeah, I tend to, this tends to be a theme that I, if I hit on something that’s been very useful for me, um, mentally and psychologically, spiritually, I tend to write a piece about it. So that’s what the Oracle, the Oracle tended to be Tarot. I fell, fell onto, um, as a way to deal with my anxiety and it really, luckily, I had a therapist at the time who was open to the idea of me exploring my subconscious through the Tarot cards.
D: It’s about this idea of finding oneself, of reveling in these discoveries, uh, you know, and so is there any, can you give me a, um, what a topography of when, where, if even you feel now, like who you are, you know what I mean? How, what, what trajectory, where did you arrive? Have you arrived yet?
S: Um, well, definitely starting roughly a little less than a year ago when I finally did those, um, screenings for autism, like is when everything really started clicking and, and I did a lot of reading and, and, um, researching and, and finding others like me, you know, um, and it just helped click, you know, uh, it helped make, help me make sense of who I am and why I am the way I am.
Um, so often, especially throughout my whole life, um, I would be upset that I didn’t seem to be like everybody else. Even as a teacher, I mean, one of my favorite compliments from a student of mine was I’m the quirkiest teacher on campus. And I wear that like a badge. You know, I don’t teach like other teachers teach. I don’t think like other people think, and I’ve learned that that’s okay. There’s nothing wrong with me. Um, that diversity is a great thing.
D: So now we’re going to deal with the, uh, the product of your, uh, satisfactions, although this is, let’s see, 2023. I know these are recorded over a rather large span of time.
S: Maybe, uh, yeah, about five years or so.
D: So in other words, I guess what now has me curious is feeling where you are feeling now. Do you see, do you hear, see things in your focus on this CD?
S: I do actually. Um, the CD actually came about simply by virtue of, um, the way the economy works in the music recording industry and classical music, et cetera, where we just recorded piece by piece by piece as we could, um, and then finally had enough and say, Hey, let’s put together an album, you know…
D: And then let’s figure out how to pay for it. That’s what everybody watching this knows all about. It’s not like it [just] happens.
S: Exactly. Uh, so now, like I said, especially after these past several months, I look at the CD and I do really see it as if it’s sort of a culmination of my past 15 years or so, um, because all the pieces have been written, I think the earliest one was. Well, I think “Roses and Lilies” was what, like 2012 or something like that. Um, 2013, maybe.
D: Oh, well, we’ll find it.
S: I don’t remember.
D: Why did you use the word, “Shards”?
S: My husband picked it. He, he actually made up the title Ayre of Grievances too. He comes up with great titles. We thought about “Shards” because there are pieces like Dark Glass Sinfonia, so glass and, and breaking, uh, Wabi-Sabi is sort of like the fractal nature of life. And so you see shards of glass reflecting, reflecting different things, um, basically it’s supposed to be sort of the fragmentations of personality and life and spirituality.
D: That’s a good definition here. I was, I was expecting, uh, the, as I told you, I was expecting a wild ride. And by the way, everybody knows it isn’t, it’s absolutely a magnificent recording of simply superb music. This is what just blew me away.
In a way, this text that’s on your CD tells us how fresh the CD is. So it’s been put together. You’ve done that. It’s been five years. You’re there. And then it’s like, son of a gun.
“One inherent trait I possess is finding my emotional fulfillment through the active, creative manipulation of music.” And this fascinates me. I’m, I’m not a fix the watch kind of guy. I don’t get into the little details. I’m, I’m the conductor. I’m the, you know, I want the big pastel, you know, horses crossing the plains or something. You know, does that speak to your autism in a way, the focus?
S: I think so. The hyper fixation. I mean, there are times when I’m working on a piece that if my husband wasn’t there to remind me, I’d forget to eat, you know, I’ll just be like focused on these patterns and what else can I do with them? And, and, oh, that sounds really cool. Let me try this. Let’s see.
D: And you say, “I’m not, I’m not seeking to impose specific emotions on listeners.” That’s something that’s very important, “…but rather to facilitate a deeper connection with their inner selves.” Now, I’m not quite sure what kind of, what kind of a labyrinth you just, you know, created with those words. “I’m not seeking to impose specific emotions on listeners” yet, “I would like them to get in touch with their deeper…” you know, you know what I mean, you’re clever, aren’t you?
S: Well, that’s a question I get a lot is, well, how do you want the audience to feel? Even, even composition teachers… “How do you want them to feel?” And, and I think that’s another part of my autism. I relate to emotions differently than some other people do from what I can tell. Um, I, for me, the emotion and joy comes from the patterns. And so that’s what it is for me. Um, you know, it can be a completely atonal piece and if the patterns are cool then I’m getting such delight out of it. Uh, but for other people that might not be the case and I totally recognize that. So I’m hoping through my music, even though I might find joy in places they won’t, um, that they’ll still find something that they can resonate with.
D: Oh, that was very well, well, spracht and I can only agree with you because as I think I mentioned to you and probably everybody else and probably about three times already by now, but that was the shock. This music is just simply gorgeous. And I was expecting a few more “shards”, something expecting something, something a little, little more fractious, if you will.
The first piece on the, on the CD is Ayre of Grievances. I love the spelling. I presume clever, uh, you know, and, and, uh, awfully medieval or something. For viola, violin, and flute. It’s from 2020. So that’s a bad year. Oh my God.
S: Hence the grievances.
D: Hence the grievances is right. Uh, composed during the worldwide COVID epidemic. And you and I’ve talked about it. People are not yet clear how profoundly we as a planet of human beings and animals have been affected. This is going to take another half dozen years if we don’t have World War Three somewhere in between to sort it out. So it’s a, this was a big thing. And the biggest thing in my life, maybe, uh, to go through. So, Ayre of Grievances, and, uh, and, you know, you set us up with all the frustrations, fear, sorrow, and anger, and I’m going, Oh, can’t wait.
And I put it on. And it’s absolutely gorgeous. I totally did not expect it. Here’s a bit of my stream of consciousness, totally not expecting such… well, tonality. It’s wonderful already. Tense, beautifully crafted, thoroughly contemporarily classical. I mean, it’s, it’s totally accessible. And I, again, I almost want to spit when I say that word, but I think it’s okay now to use that, to create accessible music, um, things get a little crazy and frustrated.
You mentioned in your program notes, there’s that frustration and you describe it very well. How, although in my case, I just went comatose and just stared out the windows for two years and allowed the checks to come in. Cause I was a freelancer unemployed and boy, the money was better than I’ve ever received. Thank you, Uncle Sam, but, but so I didn’t really experience a whole lot of frustration. I just sort of couldn’t believe what was going on for about two years.
In other words, there is a narrative to this piece, Ayre of Grievances. Um, but I think it, you know, it is much more than the sum of its narrative is what I’m trying to say. Uh, tonalities are altogether satisfying throughout the piece.
Go, give me an overview. What was this about for you?
S: During the, during the lockdowns for me, it was frustrating. Well, because… guy, giving three hour lectures on zoom, I never want to do that again. Oh my gosh. Not being able to see anybody, not being able to see family. Um, that was really frustrating, but at the same time, because I wasn’t able to play live concerts, like I had been, um, it gave me a chance to sit down and really think about who I am.
Um, up until that point, it was very much, oh, I’m a major violinist and a composer and a teacher at all at once.
D: Don’t forget viola… and viola too.
S: Yes. I love the viola. Um, but then I came to realize. I really much prefer writing, uh, and recording. Uh, so I, I allowed myself to let go of the, the things that maybe didn’t bring me quite as much joy. So when things did open back up, I’m, I’m being more careful to balance my life, uh, with what really brings me more joy and less stress, hopefully. Um, that’s, that’s what that piece really sort of represented is it was frustrating. It was lonely. I was angry at the world. Um, but at the same time, there was some beauty in there and some peace.
And, um, and I just love the interaction of the three parts. They’re both, they’re all three very independent, but they speak together and sometimes they’re arguing with each other. Sometimes they’re singing with each other and supporting each other. And, um, I just really liked that intimacy of the work.
D: Well, that whole narrative thing about what you’re very good, uh, you know, voices, uh, having discussions between each other, but I found, and I may sound like I’m an idiot or something, but when I saw that viola, violin, flute, I told you earlier, I thought, I remember thinking that’s going to be tricky, you know, that the flute doesn’t get lost, and all of that works beautifully. And that is not about, you know, microphones. It’s about the way you wrote the piece. Using those three instruments. So, so beautifully. And later you use instruments in the most magical way.
S: Yeah, we actually debuted it during the pandemic where I recorded the violin and viola part. And then I recorded a friend of mine playing the flute part and we just did one of those YouTube stitched videos where we stitched our videos together. That was the thing.
D: Yeah. Am I pronouncing it reasonably close? “DodecaFunky” And of course we’re playing, playing with, uh, dodeca cacophony or something. You can fill me in on that. There’s all this funny stuff going on. That’s all inside stuff for musicians.
It’s for flute and piano from 2015. I think you mentioned this might be the earliest piece, maybe…
S: “Of Roses and Lilies”, I actually wrote the original piece for voice and piano in like the early aughts. But then I went back and fleshed it out and sort of made it fuller.
D: So then you know, the early aughts, I love that. So DodecaFunky, uh, flute and piano. I want to tell everybody out there that’s looking for a repertoire. This is a beauty. This is a recital beauty. A funky solo for flute with piano accompaniment, this intense and spastic work. Is that me or you?
S: I think it’s me.
D: I think it was you. So it… “exploits various manipulations”. Oh, here you go. Yeah, it is you… “of a 12 tone row (dodecaphony).” I’m supposed to be a musician and I couldn’t care less how it’s pronounced or even what it is these days. It’s just the serial melody to a backdrop, et cetera, et cetera. But the point of, oh, this is why it’s so cute. A hard bop and swing and, uh, and stuff. It’s just a delicious piece. And it’s, it’s aggressive in its funky way. I say about the opening, while the piano adds to the delightful confusion with various playful styles, a pause and it starts to get feisty. Uh, now I don’t know where I am in the piece, but now some casual virtuoso boogie woogie, boogie funky, uh, it’s a delight.
It’s kind of a series of descriptive tableau. Am I closer? Cause I love dance. I, you know, I reviewed dance a lot and these are like little tableau. It’s wonderful to the max. Should be, uh, on programming all over the place. It’s a beauty.
Tell me, tell me, what do you think? What do you think of this?
S: I love this piece. It just makes, it makes me giggle.
D: It’s just a charm. Beautiful. It’s so cute.
S: Thank you, thank you.
D: Again, if you, you’ll forgive me the accessibility word. This is irresistible. Of course, you know what I’m trying to say?
S: I’m glad you like it. That one actually took a little bit of inspiration from Bernstein. Um, I, I love, uh, I was studying his symphony, Age of Anxiety. Oh, and I love how he merged, well, he merged…
D: By the way, you know, I’m a conductor. Uh, and I know all three of those symphonies very, very well. I’ve never conducted them because they’re too hard. “Jeremiah” I could conduct. That one makes sense. Uh, the, the age of anxiety for piano and orchestra is unbelievable, but it’s also unbelievably difficult to conduct, you know? And then Kaddish, he wrote the original and then tore it all to pieces and stuff. So, but anyway, I just want, I’m so glad somebody also has studied [those works]. Anyway, excuse me.
S: That’s okay. Uh, but yeah, I really loved the idea of merging modernist, modernistic tendencies as Bernstein would say, um, with jazz and other accessible popular genres. And so that’s what I did with this flute piece is I took a 12 tone row and it is an authentic 12 tone row, but I, you could say I cheated, I cheated a little bit because I used transpositions. So what I would do is it’s still the same row, but I would transpose fragments of it to places that I liked it, where it fit better.
D: Arnold [Schoenberg] is turning into his grave.
S: Well, this is true. Ah but see, Stravinsky did it first. So, you know, let’s blame him.
It’s still, it still has the same intervallic structures. Um, but then I back it up, with that really jazzy, different, like you say, different tableaus of different jazzy styles to kind of increase the…
D: It’s a great dance piece…
S: That’d be fun.
D: In other words, there’s lots of possibilities.
Okay. We’re going to move on.
“Of Roses and Lilies”, this is for soprano, piano, soprano recorder, which I don’t think I hear very often used in these kinds of chamber pieces. And it’s a perfect color. English horn… what got into you ?…and women’s chorus. And then the, are there strings there? I have this question.
S: String orchestra.
D: String orchestra, because I didn’t, you know, I didn’t see it in the, in the brief and it’s from 2013, so we’re getting closer to, to the bottom of the stack here. Tell us about it.
S: This one’s a really fascinating piece for me. I, like I said, I had first written it many, many, many, several decades ago. And this was written…
D: Don’t be so hard on yourself…It’s only been 10 years…
S: But the original piece for just soprano and piano was written, like I said, in the late nineties or early aughts, um, this was when I was still with my very Christian family, um, yeah, there you go. And so I fell in love with the song of Solomon and I thought, why don’t I write quick snippets of the song of Solomon and put it together as sort of a love song. And so I did. And, um, eventually just another like 10 years or so down the road, I’d said, you know what, I really love this piece. I’m going to flesh it out. So, um, I took the original just two parts and added the strings and added the color of the soprano recorder and the English horn, um, and, you know, added the women’s chorus as sort of this almost Greek chorus kind of response thing.
So it’s a very, it’s a very different piece. Uh, it’s a very dramatic kind of theater-esque, drama-esque kind of, uh, kind of a feel.
D: And you don’t use the word romantic. It reeks of romanticism. I see in my notes there, a rich tapestry of sound and a highly romantic tonal aesthetic. I was not ready for that.
S: Well, actually, uh, every, everybody don’t hate on me, but I actually recorded it myself. So it’s only, it’s only two microphones with, uh, the soloist, Claire is one of my best friends and she teaches at Azusa. So she was able to grab us a classroom. And so I recorded with the two microphones, her and another good friend of mine, the pianist, Lydia. Um, and at the time we weren’t sure if I was just going to put together a digital background to it and like release it online or something. But, you know, this CD was coming to the, coming toward finishing and I was like, you know, this would be really awesome if we can get the rest of it recorded.
So I, yeah, I took two more sessions. I got the strings and the winds together for one session. Uh, and then I finally got the women’s chorus together for a session.
D: So that makes sense too. Very hard undertaking just in terms of production.
S: Yeah, it’s such a good, such a good learning experience. And again, so many of my dear, dear friends are on that recording and it’s just, it was just so special to me.
D: It’s something else. And I hope you understand what I’m saying here, because we want to get this, these pieces performed. It’s a beauty. It’s very accessible. So it doesn’t sound terribly hard to put together. What do you think? Am I all wet? I don’t know, but just, it seemed very, it seemed to just flow pretty freely.
S: Here’s the… I would say, here’s the danger with my music. And, um, especially with this piece, this has happened before. There have been pianists who think they can sight read it and they suddenly quit. It’s like, oh, I can’t sight read this. So this is something my very first composition teacher warned me about is that my music seems really easy. But then you dig into it and there are some little quirks in there and some tricks that you might not be expecting. So as long as you know…
D: It shouldn’t be a big problem. If you know what I mean, so I think I’m okay in saying that I think it’s not like, you know…
S: It’s not terrible.
D: Yeah…[not] terribly virtuosic. And that is, that is to say this should go off the shelf and into performance and rehearsal. And that’s exactly what I see. Nothing but college, college ensemble. Because of the difficulty of getting, you know, professionals together in that kind of complex, you know, but, but, so I found it really very, very…a flowing, lovely, entirely tonal journey. The soprano recorder is charming. Your writing is absolutely first-class. You handle transitions of mood with smooth aplomb. Boy, that came out of my head. Geez. The piece soars with beauty. Your compositional savvy and skill are beyond question.
S: Thank you.
D: Let’s see. Now this is “The Oracle,” for violin, cello, flute and piccolo, clarinet, piano. That’s from 2016. Go ahead. Tell us, but the bottom line is you constructed this thing from random throws of tarot cards. Go.
S: Exactly. Okay. So…
D: Aleatoric indeed!
S: Uh, I really, like I said, this was the time in my life when I had just really started to latch on to tarot as a means of exploring my own subconscious.
D: Which is correct, by the way. Let’s make sure. Exactly what it’s supposed to be. No, let the self-conscious speak to us.
S: Exactly. I like to think of it, it’s like a mirror for myself. It’s a way for me to talk to myself when sometimes I’m having trouble understanding my brain. So, uh, I really love tarot and I wrote this when I first really started getting into it. And so what I did is, um, I had an opportunity. It was like a call for scores for this ensemble. Uh, and so I was like, this will be fun. Why don’t I use that as an excuse to try it out?
So, and I wanted to do sort of a homage to John Cage by using an aleatoric kind of method. And so tarot seemed like the perfect way to do it. So I set up, um, I think it was five different spreads of 10 cards. I think I did like, um, some kind of a sacred pyramid, uh, spread for each of those. Um, and what I did is I, I assigned certain, you know, in tarot, the different suits represent different aspects of life and personality.
So you have the cups, which is emotion. Um, you have, you know, the, uh, the pentacles, uh, the pentacles are, uh, earth, uh, and, um, material wellbeing and reality and such. Uh, so what I did is I attached each of the instruments to those suits. The, uh, violin was fire, uh, or wands. Uh, the, uh, the cello was water or cups and the, uh, the clarinet was earth and the flute, of course, was air. And then for the piano, uh, I made the piano, the tree of life itself. Uh, because I like to read tarot from a Kabbalistic tree of life sort of interpretation.
D: You’re starting to get over my head. I thought I was with you pretty well, but Kabbalistic something, something…with a tree of life.
S: So Jewish mysticism, basically. So on the tree of life, each of the cards have their place on that tree. And the higher up the tree you are, the closer to the divine source you are. And then you travel down the tree and experience various phases of life and emotion, et cetera, until you get to the bottom, which is material reality. Everything you’ve experienced becomes real. Uh, and then you cycle back to the top, back to the divine source again.
So for the piano, um, when I had a spread that, that spoke of being closer to the divine source, I had the piano playing up in its higher registers. And then as it got closer to the bottom, to the ground, the piano went down. So the higher, if you hear the piano going, noodling up really high, that’s up at the divine source of things. If you hear the piano kind of in the middle, that’s sort of where balance and harmony are. If the piano is down in the basement, that’s down in material reality.
And then in the meantime, you have all the other instruments that are reflecting on emotion or, um, you know, or, or thought, or power
D: …and character that may be interpreted…in countless ways. That’s the beauty of the idea of randomness, the beauty of the order, if you will, of randomness, that even random events will speak to us.
S: Exactly.
D: Once in a while, I really want to play an album, uh, for other people in my, you know, over a dinner or something. This is one of them. Um, what an amazing chamber piece. I say this is, uh, this long cello obbligato, then into the klezmer aesthetic I call, uh, with, with all of that playing. Now I understand the cabalistic, if you will, right. Uh, meaning to it all. Uh, but the klezmer, uh, aesthetic is, is clearly there. The, and of course the Oracle is a Jew, right? I say the Oracle is a Jew? Question mark.
A wonderful transition, transitional writing. And you know what I mean? Making segments and, and, uh, themes make sense. That transition material is very, very important to get it right. [Your] compositional savvy is top notch. I think I’ve been saying that, but the piece is a wonderful narrative. It’s complex. It’s a complex narrative. Um, and as you have just described the instruments are characters.
S: They’re, they’re the suits of the, of the cards, but they do have sort of, they evoke their sort of, uh, certain characteristics about it.
D: Okay. That’s much more complex. Thank you. That clarifies.
This is quite a journey. So, and, uh, and then I say, um, a jaunty section now as CODA, I assume that’s a CODA. Uh, still a fun ending. I love it. I don’t think you can get any more, you know, any, any better than that.
Okay. Next is, is, uh, Wabi-Sabi, this, uh, uh, the aesthetic and metaphysical ideals that Japanese Wabi-Sabi encapsulates. Tell us about Wabi-Sabi. Is it animist or something? Is it part of their religion? Animist religion?
S: It can be. Uh, I’m trying to remember where it historically started. It actually started with monochromatic Chinese drawings and then the Japanese sort of took that ideal and enhanced it. A lot of people think of a Zen garden when they think of Wabi Sabi.
D: I see what you mean. Now I understand exactly what you mean. Even the artwork, strokes, you know, just very spare strokes.
S: Yeah. The tea ceremony. Um, everything about that ceremony is part of their Wabi Sabi aesthetic and metaphysical ideals.
D: I’m trying to remember this [for] parties.
S: Simplicity is, is a major part of it, but it goes beyond that. This, and this is what the string quartet throughout the three movements sort of encapsulates is that, uh, the beginning that, that…you know, in the west the idea of nothing is like zero, there’s nothing there. It’s very stark, but in Wabi Sabi ideas, um, nothing is full of potential. There’s a lot that could be there, but isn’t there yet.
D: That’s so profound.
S: Um, and then you go through, especially at the beginning of the first movement, sort of these random particles where the players can choose how they want to play it.
D: I understand that. We’re talking about the first movement Emergence, what have you just said that the players have some choice and they have choices.
S: So, so each of the players have a collection of notes that they can choose from to play. Uh, and they do it in different ways. Like the cello trills all their notes, but they can choose how they want to trill and how fast they want to trill and when they want to come in, uh, and things like that. Um, until they finally come together in the middle of the first movement and it sort of builds from there. So the idea is like that of creation of these particles coming into space and slowly merging together to become something.
D: And by the way, this sounds like an homage to Stockhausen, you know?
S: Yeah, absolutely.
D: Another great. Distance… these distant sounds… I remember performance, you know, Stockhausen, and it all comes together.
S: And then, and then Evolution is a short, it’s intentionally a short little two minute burst because that’s where everything is kind of locked in.
D: This is Evolution.
S: This is the, the cells are coming together and creating fish that are coming out of the water and, you know, becoming man. Um, et cetera. Possibility.
D: Alive with possibility, yeah. …Nothingness itself…
S: Yeah, exactly. Um, and then it gives way to Entropy, uh, and Entropy starts with a very strict structure. Uh, funnily enough, I wasn’t sure compositionally how I wanted to go about the third movement, but I was in the middle of teaching about isorhythm in one of my classes. So I’m like, Hey, I can do isorhythm with this. That’d be fun. So it starts out very strict, um, but then gets really complex and starts falling apart. And again, that’s the idea of returning back to nothingness. Everything’s falling apart.
Uh, and, and that’s the idea of, um, the idea that you, um, sometimes the best course of action is to decide to do nothing, you know…
D: I think you have just described an exact, uh, arc in the, they come together. I’m looking at Emergence. The first one builds quite satisfyingly. Uh, the construct is fascinating and sensible to the intellect, I say to myself. And of course, if there, if you don’t get it off the ground, intellectually from the beginning, you’re in trouble… Ok, Evolution. Um, I love this, uh, I call it a flowing sea sort of opening. Or whatever that vibe could be. Anything, forget sea, whatever that undulating flowing thing…so mesmerizing. Again, wonderful quartet writing.
I’m going to have to stop using this word accessible, but that’s the whole idea to get these performed. And that’s exactly to be well written and also to be a happy time for an audience. Give me a break. And I, and here’s the thing about Evolution that it’s, uh, utterly accessible to the listener, though the subject, listening, but I think I got it. Although the subject matter may have sub-basements. Now a walking cello fits that, that walking cello thing. It’s wonderful to keep the piece moving and, and, uh, energetic. Um, quite a narrative.
S: It’s like a little metronome marking I have in the, uh, the second movement is “Like dancing molecules.”
D: Oh!
S: Kind of the spinning, whirling…
D: I might have to dream about that tonight. And the third movement, if you will, Entropy. It’s such a nice, uh, I, I, do I hear a little fugue…? I wanted… the stream of consciousness thing…fuguetto. You know what I mean? That opening is a, is it a genuine, but it’s a fuguetto, right?
S: Yeah, it’s, um, it starts out exactly as a canon. Then what happens is that each time the line comes back, uh, I either in diminution or augmentation. Uh, so I, I, like I said, if you see the score, um, I start doing crazy little sub meters within each of the parts just to help, just to help the players keep, keep time with each other, but yeah, that’s part of the unraveling part is they start very much together and then they start in like ratios of two to one or one to two, but yeah, then it starts getting into weird ratios…
D: …because I think I wondered about those, those asymmetrical collisions… A slightly dysfunctional intentional section. I’m toward the end here of pizz’s.
S: Well, the very ending, I go back to the beginning idea where the, each player has a selection of notes. They can pizz. whenever they want to. So each performance should be a little different than each other.
D: So the end of entropy, they go back to this idea and they can even change their mind about it.
S: Exactly.
D: Stockhausen, he’s smiling.
“Nevermore,” this major Sonata, I think for viola and piano from 2019 to 2021. Nevermore for viola and piano, also a subtitle of a Gothic Suite, so delightful, it’s an absolutely magnificent Sonata for viola and piano. It’s just absolutely, it’s so American, because we’re talking about Edgar Allan Poe and each movement is after one of his most famous pieces. But you have, I feel very powerfully about American composers choosing American subjects. The Raven, Annabelle Lee, the Telltale Heart.
S: Actually, Charlotte Goode, the violist on this recording, is actually another one of my bestest friends. And she is also a gothic nut and a fellow autistic. And she just, she was like, oh my gosh, we need to collaborate. We need to do this for viola. And I’m like, yes. So I started out with the Raven, you know, and she debuted that at a recital. And then I was like, okay, we need to come up with two other, you know, two other movements to finish it out. And the thing I love about the recording of this, again, this is so her, the viola part is so her, the subject matter is so her, and then I was lucky enough to be able to fly out with her to Boston to have her record it for PARMA. So…that day I went to Salem after we recorded it. So it was perfect.
D: You mean, the Witch Town or Salem, Oregon?
S: No, no, no, the Witch Town, yeah, Salem, Massachusetts.
D: So Poe inspired you to go to the seat of evil.
S: Exactly. It was so good.
D: Well, what I have to say is here, I worked on looking at the first movement. First of all, a fascinating piano introduction that really nails the interest immediately because it hints at mysteries, then it’s followed by the viola’s intensely Poe-ish colors and temperament, so congrats to your friend. It’s a beauty, again, of narrative imagination, a wonderful piece of writing for viola. It is virtuosic.
S: Yeah, it is. I won’t play it on my viola. I’ll let somebody else do it. I’m not that good.
D: Well, everything a violist looks for in a recital piece, you know, and it’s romantic, there are romantic bits in here, some hair-raising twilight zone intervals between notes, if that makes any sense, thrilling, kooky, mysterious, as was the man, nice new idea… that roiling keyboard stuff toward the end of the piece, does that make any sense? Under viola, that middle and low register as it goes.
“Annabelle Lee.” It’s gorgeous, that movement is just gorgeous.
S: So beautiful, it’s one of my absolute favorites, just, and the poem, too, is just absolutely, it really struck me.
D: It brings you to tears, really, that poem.
S: It really does. I really wanted to capture that complete childlike innocence, just absolutely purest childlike innocent love of a little boy and a little girl. And then the angels cruelly take her away from him, you know, and just that drama.
D: And that’s the true story, isn’t it? Doesn’t he marry her, his wife, when she was 15, and then did she die? I can’t quite remember.
S: I don’t remember. I’d have to look it up.
D: We just missed the good parts that neither of us can remember. Anyway, what I’m trying to say is, Annabelle Lee speaks to a very personal experience.
S: I do know this was his last poem that he wrote before he died. That’s also a very haunting little tidbit. So, yeah, I love this movement so much. It actually, it was the hardest to record, too, because it’s deceptively simple. But it’s because it’s kind of like Mozart in that way, where it’s so simple and exposed that the violist has to be really careful and really in tune. So it took us a little bit longer to do this one.
D: Nice. Yeah, it’s a beautiful reading. I call it magical writing. It’s exceptionally sensitive.
The Tell-Tale Heart: the intro, sufficiently terrifying. Very imaginative character development. It’s exactly creepy enough to fit the narrative, because it is that narrative, the pulsing, the clicking, and the floorboards… Then the beginning of real paranoia. I mean, you describe this tale very well.
S: Actually, I decided the best way to put it together was to take the story apart and make each of the sections of music a section of the story. So it’s probably the most narratively accurate of the three movements.
D: And that makes good sense to me.
S: Yeah, and in the music, each of the section headings has a little quote from the story. So you can kind of tell where you are in the story. But yeah, the idea of just. I wanted the opening theme that the viola starts playing is supposed to be sort of the love theme that the narrator has for his master.
“I loved the old man…It was his eye!” …you know, so it’s this really creepy. It’s a love song, but it’s twisted. It’s got something off.
So that’s where it opens. And then from there, then I get into the part where it’s for seven nights. He he peeks in at the bedroom. And so that section is like in seven four or something like that. It has odd. It’s asymmetrical. So, again, it feels a little off, you know, a little bit of the heartbeat taps and then, you know, stuff like that. And then little answering in the piano… And then you hear him murder him.
D: I call it shades of the shower scene in Psycho.
S: Yeah, yeah, exactly.
D: Brava, I say after that.
S: …yeah, thank you. Yeah. And then you just get, like you say, the paranoia as the cops won’t leave. But the narrator keeps hearing the heartbeat and he can’t get away from it. And he just has to give up.
D: And indeed, it’s an internal conflict. Yeah, that’s the order of the soundscape. It’s kind of this internal conflict that becomes, you know, insupportable, disturbingly deliberate. And it’s so well done, well done.
So that’s a beautiful sonata. And as I mentioned, here it is. It’s a, it’s a viola sonata. It’s, it’s tough. Well, you know, at a certain level, you know, you almost want it to be. So it’s not inaccessible at all. It has a it has a tremendous connection to America and American history and American literature. It is a beautiful sonata and it sounds so beautiful. The writing is so gorgeous.
So take note, everybody. Nevermore for viola and piano.
And then now the last, the grand finale on the CD, The Dark Glass Sinfonia: We see through a glass darkly. For orchestra from 2017 built upon an integrated set…Oh, here you go again.
S: I love patterns!
D: …that’s why I pulled it. Because in all of my life in the arts and even at college, these things never came up in my experience. “Built,” she says, confident, “built upon an integrated set of hexachordal formulae.” End quote. I say to myself, please explain. You will, then you go on: “Free atonality with modal harmony…In doing so, it is meant to represent the enigmatic and ongoing emotional flux of the soul.”
S: This is another…it started out as just a love affair with patterns. And one thing, I’m not a major post-tonalist. You can tell from the accessibleness of my music. But I do love some of the number patterns that come about from, you know, post-tonal exercises. And hexachordal combinatoriality is one of my favorite ideas. I just love saying it. Hexachordal combinatoriality.
D: Yeah, I bet when you have students, they just sort of collapse.
S: Yeah, I’m like, OK, learn how to say it, you can impress all of your friends.
D: But then again, formulae is rather…
S: …It’s very pompous sounding…it’s basically it’s built upon the 12-tone ideal, but it breaks up the 12 tones into six tones, hexachords. So each of the hexachords has its own unique intervallic character to it. And so in the same way that you can take kind of the same way where I cheated with DodecaFunky, where I took segments of it and like transposed it, it’s kind of like that, but I did less cheating. Hexachords kind of do their own cheating because you can take one part of the tone row and then take the second half of it and flip it or reverse it. Or, you know, all that kind of stuff. And then if you break them down into numbers, you can add them up into cool combinations and things like that. So that’s what this was. This piece was sort of a play on that and seeing what I could do with it. And that’s how I developed the main themes.
You really hear it come out, especially in the little woodwind stuff throughout the top. That’s really where it shines. But it really is woven into it.
D: The row shines?…
S: Yeah, yeah, exactly.
D: Well, you must have been in heaven putting this piece together.
S: It was very, very fun. And again, and I don’t know how my brain does this, but what starts out with a whole bunch of numbers and patterns usually comes out as something really lovely that I continue to love listening to.
D: Well, guess what? That’s exactly the whole point of the genius of autism. You just exactly described what we’ve been kind of…that autism is, is just different.
S: You know, you know, that’s another thing that shines through with this orchestral piece, too, is that one of the comments sometimes I get from other people is, oh, why can’t you just have the instruments all stacked up on top of each other? You know, why can’t they all play at once? And I’m like, I just don’t like that. I like to have the layers. Somebody’s always doing something. And so there’s kind of a medievalness to it, you know, going back to that old polyphony idea. But then I’ll integrate it with these numbers and patterns. And I just love seeing it layer.
D: Speaking of layering, did I hear I see in my notes here. Is there any kind of pyramid that you constructed a sound pyramid somewhere in the beginning of that piece? Or is it a stupid word?
S: No it’s not stupid. I like to call it a waterfall, where…
D: Yeah, ….I got the idea of what you were creating there.
S: Yeah. The hexachordal pattern is there. But what I do is I pass it starting from the top and have it kind of trickle down like that.
D: So pyramid is not quite the right way of describing it. But I was hearing a very specific concept. And of course, thinking pyramid, I’m describing it as from the bottom up. But you’ve just described it as from top to trickle down, if you will.
Let’s see… There was a lovely little brass tune. I’m hearing that I’m hearing cinematic moments. Of course, it’s an orchestral piece. I’m sure you really got your teeth into that one.
Let’s see, lovely wind section work, as we’ve discussed, nicely orchestrated. Well, it’s brilliant and wonderful and very accessible and a beautiful, beautiful orchestral piece of what? I can’t remember. Seven minutes or…
S: Yeah, it’s only like seven minutes or so, which I have found, again, economically and just competition wise…
D: That’s exactly right.
S: People like shorter, shorter pieces.
D: That’s kind of what we ask, because then the next question is how? Because I’m again thinking collegiate orchestras. And then let’s see that as we’ve discussed, there’s that thematic return, you know, that the whole thing does a perfect arc. So there you go.
S: I just really love the very, very ending of it. When I first put it together and to me, it evoked sort of almost this organ, this organ like texture with. I just love the resonance… T
D: That section with percussion. That’s toward the end. I see more complicated in narrative in terms of just the construct of the piece. Definitely descriptive, martial, perfectly accessible. It’s a perfect piece for a college orchestra if it’s in that sphere of capability.
S: Yeah. …that little fast march like scherzo thing. I kind of had a like a like a Russian, Russian romantic vibe almost or like early 20th century Russian vibe, you know, almost like kind of Shostakovich-esque, you know…
D: Each question mark was starting to rise out of my head there, the Shostakovich-ish.
S: Yeah, exactly.
D: What a great talk we’ve had. And I think just anybody could pick up that the world of our profession, of our music making, is the world at large. I mean, we speak to the wonderful, fascinating world around us. That’s the whole idea of being a creative person.
So, again, wonderful chat with composer Sarah Wallin Huff. And we’re talking about your 2023 Navona release. It’s contemporary classic chamber music for diverse instrumental combinations. You’ve heard this before. It’s called Shards. Don’t worry, anybody. It’s fine. And wonderful pieces that as we’ve discussed that are chamber works and then, of course, the orchestral piece at the very end.
But this is music that should be heard a lot more. And it’s not off the top of the charts of virtuosity. But, it’s just good, solid, wonderful music-making with enough virtuosity to keep…Why did I say those of us who are gifted…busy…you know what I’m trying to say… I’m gonna shut my mouth up here.
Anyway, great fun chatting with you.
S: Thank you so much. I really I’m really flattered, you know, that you reached out.
D: Well, I’m flattered that I heard what I heard. I’ll tell you, because it’s always a gamble. I just sort of pick up, pick up whatever. And I thought I’ve never heard of this thing. Well, who is this person and what is that stuff? And that’s got us started.
It’s been a tremendous treat and a really important and a very important CD you’ve got. So, congratulations all around.
#chamberMusic #classical #Interview #orchestra #review #StudioRecording

#studiorecording #review #orchestra #interview #classical #chambermusic
Sarah Wallin Huff @[email protected] · 2025-06-05 · 10:27 UTC

Sept. 2023 Interview with Daniel Kepl

Back in the fall of 2023, right after the release of my second solo album with Navona, I got the opportunity to sit down with longtime American conductor, arts administrator, and music/theater/dance critic, Daniel Kepl, and talk with him about my album, SHARDS.
Unfortunately, the audio in that video interview was extremely unbalanced and distorted, so I took some time to try and clean it up, to make it as listenable as possible. So… that edited video is now here, below, ready for your viewing pleasure (complete with chapter breaks, if you’d prefer to jump around)!
While the pops and crackles and background noises are mostly gone, sometimes the words are still a little garbly, so I’ve embedded captions in the video and am providing a full transcript, for those who would prefer to read the discussion. If you would like to see the original unedited video, you can do that here.

Dan Kepl’s Review Highlights
The high points of Dan Kepl’s praise, as stated in the video below.

About the Album:

[SHARDS is] a wonderful album, very interesting and very accessible, if I may say. It’s absolutely a magnificent recording of simply superb music… This music is just simply gorgeous. You use instruments in the most magical way.
This is music that should be heard a lot more…it’s just good, solid, wonderful music-making. It’s…a very important CD you’ve got.

About “Ayre of Grievances”:

It’s absolutely gorgeous. Tense, beautifully crafted, thoroughly contemporarily classical. tonalities are altogether satisfying throughout the piece. The balancing and everything is wonderful in terms of your compositional skills.

About “DodecaFunky”:

I want to tell everybody out there that’s looking for a repertoire, this is a beauty. This is a recital beauty. I think I can say it’s fun. It’s wonderful. It’s just a delicious piece, it’s aggressive in its funky way. It’s wonderful to the max. Should be on programming all over the place. This is irresistible. Audiences would love it, I think.

About “Of Roses and Lilies”:

It’s a beauty; a rich tapestry of sound and a highly romantic tonal aesthetic. …this should go off the shelf and into performance and rehearsal. A flowing, lovely, entirely tonal journey. The soprano recorder is charming. Your writing is absolutely first-class. You handle transitions of mood with smooth aplomb. The piece soars with beauty. Your compositional savvy and skill are beyond question.

About “The Oracle”:

Once in a while, I really want to play [a track of] an album, uh, for other people…you know, over a dinner or something. This is one of them. What an amazing chamber piece. Wonderful transitional writing; compositional savvy is top notch. The piece is a wonderful narrative. It’s complex. This piece is quite a journey.

About “Wabi-Sabi”:

The construct is fascinating and sensible to the intellect…quite a narrative…wonderful quartet writing.

About “Nevermore”:

An absolutely gorgeous, wonderful, magnificent Sonata for viola and piano…so American. …a fascinating piano introduction that really nails the interest immediately because it hints at mysteries, then it’s followed by the viola’s intensely Poe-ish colors and temperament. It’s a beauty, again, of narrative imagination, a wonderful piece of writing for viola. It is virtuosic, everything a violist looks for in a recital piece. There are romantic bits in here, some hair-raising twilight zone intervals between notes, if that makes any sense, thrilling, kooky, mysterious, as was the man. It has a tremendous connection to America and American history and American literature. It is a beautiful sonata and it sounds so beautiful. The writing is so gorgeous.
[For Annabelle Lee] I call it magical writing. It’s exceptionally sensitive.
The Tell-Tale Heart: the intro, sufficiently terrifying. Very imaginative character development. It’s exactly creepy enough to fit the narrative, because it is that narrative, the pulsing, the clicking…the floorboards…Then the beginning of real paranoia. Shades of the shower scene in Psycho – Brava! Disturbingly deliberate ending.

About “The Dark Glass Sinfonia”:

…wonderful piece for orchestra, “The Dark Glass Sinfonia,” gives me shivers, but it’s wonderful.
Lovely wind section work…nicely orchestrated. It’s brilliant and wonderful and very accessible…a beautiful, beautiful orchestral piece. Definitely descriptive, martial, perfectly accessible.
Sept. 2023 Interview with Daniel Kepl (Edited, with Captions)

Full [Edited] Interview Transcript

D: I’m chatting with composer Sarah Wallin Huff and we’re going to talk about your 2023 Navona CD release. Thank you, Parma. Thank you, Navona. Thank you, all of you wonderful people out there that put this, these kind of packages together. Just a quick aside about Navona, including everything that we need as critics, really somewhat truncated, makes perfect sense, but up on a website. And very few other companies do this. I just think it’s fabulous.
I’ve seen your interview, or I’ve read your interview, I should say, with Parma. And we’re going to talk about your 2023 Navona CD release of Contemporary Classical Chamber Works and an album for diverse instrumental combinations. Anyway, the CD is called Shards. Do not run away in the night and be afraid. It’s a wonderful album of very interesting and very accessible, if I may say so, and I think it’s perfectly OK to say so.
Here, just a sampling: Ayre of Grievances, for viola, violin, flute, lovely. The flute I wondered about. Those are pretty heavy instruments and the balancing and everything is wonderful in terms of your compositional skills.
DodecaFunky, let me say that once more. DodecaFunky, for piano, and it is cute… oh, did I miss one?
S: DodecaFunky.
D: Anyway, it’s cute. I think I can say it’s fun. It’s wonderful. And it’s a wonderful, very fascinating piano piece. Audiences would love it, I think.
“Of Roses and Lilies.” This one’s a little complex for soprano, piano, soprano recorder. Nice colors. Nice. English horn, very interesting. And women’s chorus. I mean, not since Holst have I heard women’s chorus used in this way.
So, Wabi-Sabi, it’s in three movements. Juventas, the new music ensemble performs it. This is a string quartet, so four players of the Juventas ensemble. I hope I’m pronouncing that right since I live in California. Three movements: Emergence, Evolution, Entropy. Very, very interesting. And maybe even kind of the heart of who you might be. I don’t know. I’m just guessing.
The next piece, Nevermore for viola and piano, an absolutely gorgeous, wonderful, three-movement sonata for viola and piano. The movements: The Raven, Annabelle Lee, The Tell-Tale Heart. And I love Poe, what a genius, what a genius. So glad you have included this wonderful, wonderful piece for viola and piano. And I mean by that, again, your compositional skills, the way you use these, didn’t you play viola? I thought I that read somewhere. Were you a violist?
S: I double on viola. I feel more comfortable on violin, but I can pick up a viola if I need it.
D: Okay. So you got all that stuff, you know, under your fingernails, so to say.
And then the last piece, wonderful piece for orchestra, The Dark Glass Sinfonia, gives me shivers, but it’s wonderful. And with a little subtype, if I’m reading it correctly: “We see through a glass darkly.” Wonderful piece, performed by wonderful people, while you really say it right out, right, and I just want to deal with this a little bit before I get to where you know, I’m going.
We all know people with autism and what I have found in my experience with people, and you know, autism is here, there, everywhere in various variations. You’re going to speak to it, I think in a bit, but the people that I have known with autism, some people have had troubles, others have been really, really talented, clever, and innovative. Autism is not a deficit. Okay.
S: Yeah. It’s a difference.
D: It’s a difference. Thank you. That’s better. Okay. Because I too, like most of, especially like with dyslexia, in the seventies, we all thought people with dyslexia were just lazy. Just didn’t want to do a job. Well, they couldn’t help it. They couldn’t read. Everything was backwards. My, my oldest nephew, uh, is dyslexic. So I just want everybody to understand…
And, and where are you in the autism spectrum? Can I ask that question?
S: Sure.
D: Of course, you’re clearly under great control. You have mastered the magic of autism.
S: Yeah. Well, what’s funny about that is I’ve actually only just in the past year, really got confirmation. Um, I’m still don’t have, yeah, I still don’t have an official diagnosis because that’s a whole other bag of worms for adult diagnosis and it costs thousands of dollars. And, uh, some doctors still don’t believe that women have it. Um, so, but just taking several screening tests, um, I’ve taken about five of the clinical screening tests and they all point very highly to autism. Um, and thinking about my experiences growing up, it really makes a lot of sense.
D: That’s what I was going to ask you next. You must have known, you know, that something was different.
S: Well, yeah. I, I thought something was always…
D: Can you give an example or two, you know, when you were a little kid. What I remember is the kids that I’ve known have various symptoms of autism.
S: Definitely. Um, emotional dysregulation, um, is still difficult where, well, and for me, because I kind of triggered emotional response to things like, um, there’s a famous phrase that “you don’t have enough spoons”, but the phrase means basically like, I only have so many ways of coping with life and when I’m out of those ways, I have to take a nap. I have to, I have to go to the corner for a second. And for different people, there’s different levels of that.
And growing up with a family who expected me to be normal. Um, I got really good at masking. I got really good at holding it all in, but then I’d get home and just. Like, um, I didn’t want to do my homework. I didn’t want to eat. I didn’t want to do anything except just sit there after school. Um, unfortunately I had to keep pushing through. Um, and so I just got used to doing that, hiding who I really was, you know?
D: Um, as you know, we talked, I’m very openly gay and…what we’re getting to, the bottom line is you have to be who you are. To keep these things secret or to try and work around who you are is exhausting, as you said. And just mentally, you know, exactly.
S: I’ve actually, I did actually get a diagnosis like 15 years ago for anxiety disorder and what I’ve discovered since then is that it is a part of the autism masking, just, I had been masking for 40 years. And so, um, that just built up a lot of anxiety in me for everything, you know? Um, but now that I’m just past year, starting to learn who I am and learn what my triggers are.
Um, I am very sensitive to sound, ironically enough, um, disorganized sound, I really have a hard time handling with, but music is organized sounds. So for me, my brain likes it, you know? Um, but yeah, so I’m just learning a lot more about myself and how my brain works and that it’s okay that my brain has trouble where other people seem to have things worked out, you know? And that’s okay.
D: You see, if you will, with your brain, things that we don’t, and so on. So, you know, I mean, that’s the beauty of all, for all of us. Uh, it’s the tremendous beauty of diversity.
Um… Let’s talk about Ancients. This is psycho-messaging to our brains. I mean, give me a break. It’s not random. It’s pure messaging to ourselves, uh, Tarot and all the rest of it. And I love traditions that have been there for 8,000 years. We’re going to talk about it. Cause you use, you do, you do this formula for a piece with Tarot cards that drives me crazy, but often told me it, speaking of what you had spoken to, uh, just a moment ago, when one gets kind of focused, the focus becomes quite, uh, extravagant. And was that for you? You really got into constructing this piece around Tarot.
S: Oh, yeah, I tend to, this tends to be a theme that I, if I hit on something that’s been very useful for me, um, mentally and psychologically, spiritually, I tend to write a piece about it. So that’s what the Oracle, the Oracle tended to be Tarot. I fell, fell onto, um, as a way to deal with my anxiety and it really, luckily, I had a therapist at the time who was open to the idea of me exploring my subconscious through the Tarot cards.
D: It’s about this idea of finding oneself, of reveling in these discoveries, uh, you know, and so is there any, can you give me a, um, what a topography of when, where, if even you feel now, like who you are, you know what I mean? How, what, what trajectory, where did you arrive? Have you arrived yet?
S: Um, well, definitely starting roughly a little less than a year ago when I finally did those, um, screenings for autism, like is when everything really started clicking and, and I did a lot of reading and, and, um, researching and, and finding others like me, you know, um, and it just helped click, you know, uh, it helped make, help me make sense of who I am and why I am the way I am.
Um, so often, especially throughout my whole life, um, I would be upset that I didn’t seem to be like everybody else. Even as a teacher, I mean, one of my favorite compliments from a student of mine was I’m the quirkiest teacher on campus. And I wear that like a badge. You know, I don’t teach like other teachers teach. I don’t think like other people think, and I’ve learned that that’s okay. There’s nothing wrong with me. Um, that diversity is a great thing.
D: So now we’re going to deal with the, uh, the product of your, uh, satisfactions, although this is, let’s see, 2023. I know these are recorded over a rather large span of time.
S: Maybe, uh, yeah, about five years or so.
D: So in other words, I guess what now has me curious is feeling where you are feeling now. Do you see, do you hear, see things in your focus on this CD?
S: I do actually. Um, the CD actually came about simply by virtue of, um, the way the economy works in the music recording industry and classical music, et cetera, where we just recorded piece by piece by piece as we could, um, and then finally had enough and say, Hey, let’s put together an album, you know…
D: And then let’s figure out how to pay for it. That’s what everybody watching this knows all about. It’s not like it [just] happens.
S: Exactly. Uh, so now, like I said, especially after these past several months, I look at the CD and I do really see it as if it’s sort of a culmination of my past 15 years or so, um, because all the pieces have been written, I think the earliest one was. Well, I think “Roses and Lilies” was what, like 2012 or something like that. Um, 2013, maybe.
D: Oh, well, we’ll find it.
S: I don’t remember.
D: Why did you use the word, “Shards”?
S: My husband picked it. He, he actually made up the title Ayre of Grievances too. He comes up with great titles. We thought about “Shards” because there are pieces like Dark Glass Sinfonia, so glass and, and breaking, uh, Wabi-Sabi is sort of like the fractal nature of life. And so you see shards of glass reflecting, reflecting different things, um, basically it’s supposed to be sort of the fragmentations of personality and life and spirituality.
D: That’s a good definition here. I was, I was expecting, uh, the, as I told you, I was expecting a wild ride. And by the way, everybody knows it isn’t, it’s absolutely a magnificent recording of simply superb music. This is what just blew me away.
In a way, this text that’s on your CD tells us how fresh the CD is. So it’s been put together. You’ve done that. It’s been five years. You’re there. And then it’s like, son of a gun.
“One inherent trait I possess is finding my emotional fulfillment through the active, creative manipulation of music.” And this fascinates me. I’m, I’m not a fix the watch kind of guy. I don’t get into the little details. I’m, I’m the conductor. I’m the, you know, I want the big pastel, you know, horses crossing the plains or something. You know, does that speak to your autism in a way, the focus?
S: I think so. The hyper fixation. I mean, there are times when I’m working on a piece that if my husband wasn’t there to remind me, I’d forget to eat, you know, I’ll just be like focused on these patterns and what else can I do with them? And, and, oh, that sounds really cool. Let me try this. Let’s see.
D: And you say, “I’m not, I’m not seeking to impose specific emotions on listeners.” That’s something that’s very important, “…but rather to facilitate a deeper connection with their inner selves.” Now, I’m not quite sure what kind of, what kind of a labyrinth you just, you know, created with those words. “I’m not seeking to impose specific emotions on listeners” yet, “I would like them to get in touch with their deeper…” you know, you know what I mean, you’re clever, aren’t you?
S: Well, that’s a question I get a lot is, well, how do you want the audience to feel? Even, even composition teachers… “How do you want them to feel?” And, and I think that’s another part of my autism. I relate to emotions differently than some other people do from what I can tell. Um, I, for me, the emotion and joy comes from the patterns. And so that’s what it is for me. Um, you know, it can be a completely atonal piece and if the patterns are cool then I’m getting such delight out of it. Uh, but for other people that might not be the case and I totally recognize that. So I’m hoping through my music, even though I might find joy in places they won’t, um, that they’ll still find something that they can resonate with.
D: Oh, that was very well, well, spracht and I can only agree with you because as I think I mentioned to you and probably everybody else and probably about three times already by now, but that was the shock. This music is just simply gorgeous. And I was expecting a few more “shards”, something expecting something, something a little, little more fractious, if you will.
The first piece on the, on the CD is Ayre of Grievances. I love the spelling. I presume clever, uh, you know, and, and, uh, awfully medieval or something. For viola, violin, and flute. It’s from 2020. So that’s a bad year. Oh my God.
S: Hence the grievances.
D: Hence the grievances is right. Uh, composed during the worldwide COVID epidemic. And you and I’ve talked about it. People are not yet clear how profoundly we as a planet of human beings and animals have been affected. This is going to take another half dozen years if we don’t have World War Three somewhere in between to sort it out. So it’s a, this was a big thing. And the biggest thing in my life, maybe, uh, to go through. So, Ayre of Grievances, and, uh, and, you know, you set us up with all the frustrations, fear, sorrow, and anger, and I’m going, Oh, can’t wait.
And I put it on. And it’s absolutely gorgeous. I totally did not expect it. Here’s a bit of my stream of consciousness, totally not expecting such… well, tonality. It’s wonderful already. Tense, beautifully crafted, thoroughly contemporarily classical. I mean, it’s, it’s totally accessible. And I, again, I almost want to spit when I say that word, but I think it’s okay now to use that, to create accessible music, um, things get a little crazy and frustrated.
You mentioned in your program notes, there’s that frustration and you describe it very well. How, although in my case, I just went comatose and just stared out the windows for two years and allowed the checks to come in. Cause I was a freelancer unemployed and boy, the money was better than I’ve ever received. Thank you, Uncle Sam, but, but so I didn’t really experience a whole lot of frustration. I just sort of couldn’t believe what was going on for about two years.
In other words, there is a narrative to this piece, Ayre of Grievances. Um, but I think it, you know, it is much more than the sum of its narrative is what I’m trying to say. Uh, tonalities are altogether satisfying throughout the piece.
Go, give me an overview. What was this about for you?
S: During the, during the lockdowns for me, it was frustrating. Well, because… guy, giving three hour lectures on zoom, I never want to do that again. Oh my gosh. Not being able to see anybody, not being able to see family. Um, that was really frustrating, but at the same time, because I wasn’t able to play live concerts, like I had been, um, it gave me a chance to sit down and really think about who I am.
Um, up until that point, it was very much, oh, I’m a major violinist and a composer and a teacher at all at once.
D: Don’t forget viola… and viola too.
S: Yes. I love the viola. Um, but then I came to realize. I really much prefer writing, uh, and recording. Uh, so I, I allowed myself to let go of the, the things that maybe didn’t bring me quite as much joy. So when things did open back up, I’m, I’m being more careful to balance my life, uh, with what really brings me more joy and less stress, hopefully. Um, that’s, that’s what that piece really sort of represented is it was frustrating. It was lonely. I was angry at the world. Um, but at the same time, there was some beauty in there and some peace.
And, um, and I just love the interaction of the three parts. They’re both, they’re all three very independent, but they speak together and sometimes they’re arguing with each other. Sometimes they’re singing with each other and supporting each other. And, um, I just really liked that intimacy of the work.
D: Well, that whole narrative thing about what you’re very good, uh, you know, voices, uh, having discussions between each other, but I found, and I may sound like I’m an idiot or something, but when I saw that viola, violin, flute, I told you earlier, I thought, I remember thinking that’s going to be tricky, you know, that the flute doesn’t get lost, and all of that works beautifully. And that is not about, you know, microphones. It’s about the way you wrote the piece. Using those three instruments. So, so beautifully. And later you use instruments in the most magical way.
S: Yeah, we actually debuted it during the pandemic where I recorded the violin and viola part. And then I recorded a friend of mine playing the flute part and we just did one of those YouTube stitched videos where we stitched our videos together. That was the thing.
D: Yeah. Am I pronouncing it reasonably close? “DodecaFunky” And of course we’re playing, playing with, uh, dodeca cacophony or something. You can fill me in on that. There’s all this funny stuff going on. That’s all inside stuff for musicians.
It’s for flute and piano from 2015. I think you mentioned this might be the earliest piece, maybe…
S: “Of Roses and Lilies”, I actually wrote the original piece for voice and piano in like the early aughts. But then I went back and fleshed it out and sort of made it fuller.
D: So then you know, the early aughts, I love that. So DodecaFunky, uh, flute and piano. I want to tell everybody out there that’s looking for a repertoire. This is a beauty. This is a recital beauty. A funky solo for flute with piano accompaniment, this intense and spastic work. Is that me or you?
S: I think it’s me.
D: I think it was you. So it… “exploits various manipulations”. Oh, here you go. Yeah, it is you… “of a 12 tone row (dodecaphony).” I’m supposed to be a musician and I couldn’t care less how it’s pronounced or even what it is these days. It’s just the serial melody to a backdrop, et cetera, et cetera. But the point of, oh, this is why it’s so cute. A hard bop and swing and, uh, and stuff. It’s just a delicious piece. And it’s, it’s aggressive in its funky way. I say about the opening, while the piano adds to the delightful confusion with various playful styles, a pause and it starts to get feisty. Uh, now I don’t know where I am in the piece, but now some casual virtuoso boogie woogie, boogie funky, uh, it’s a delight.
It’s kind of a series of descriptive tableau. Am I closer? Cause I love dance. I, you know, I reviewed dance a lot and these are like little tableau. It’s wonderful to the max. Should be, uh, on programming all over the place. It’s a beauty.
Tell me, tell me, what do you think? What do you think of this?
S: I love this piece. It just makes, it makes me giggle.
D: It’s just a charm. Beautiful. It’s so cute.
S: Thank you, thank you.
D: Again, if you, you’ll forgive me the accessibility word. This is irresistible. Of course, you know what I’m trying to say?
S: I’m glad you like it. That one actually took a little bit of inspiration from Bernstein. Um, I, I love, uh, I was studying his symphony, Age of Anxiety. Oh, and I love how he merged, well, he merged…
D: By the way, you know, I’m a conductor. Uh, and I know all three of those symphonies very, very well. I’ve never conducted them because they’re too hard. “Jeremiah” I could conduct. That one makes sense. Uh, the, the age of anxiety for piano and orchestra is unbelievable, but it’s also unbelievably difficult to conduct, you know? And then Kaddish, he wrote the original and then tore it all to pieces and stuff. So, but anyway, I just want, I’m so glad somebody also has studied [those works]. Anyway, excuse me.
S: That’s okay. Uh, but yeah, I really loved the idea of merging modernist, modernistic tendencies as Bernstein would say, um, with jazz and other accessible popular genres. And so that’s what I did with this flute piece is I took a 12 tone row and it is an authentic 12 tone row, but I, you could say I cheated, I cheated a little bit because I used transpositions. So what I would do is it’s still the same row, but I would transpose fragments of it to places that I liked it, where it fit better.
D: Arnold [Schoenberg] is turning into his grave.
S: Well, this is true. Ah but see, Stravinsky did it first. So, you know, let’s blame him.
It’s still, it still has the same intervallic structures. Um, but then I back it up, with that really jazzy, different, like you say, different tableaus of different jazzy styles to kind of increase the…
D: It’s a great dance piece…
S: That’d be fun.
D: In other words, there’s lots of possibilities.
Okay. We’re going to move on.
“Of Roses and Lilies”, this is for soprano, piano, soprano recorder, which I don’t think I hear very often used in these kinds of chamber pieces. And it’s a perfect color. English horn… what got into you ?…and women’s chorus. And then the, are there strings there? I have this question.
S: String orchestra.
D: String orchestra, because I didn’t, you know, I didn’t see it in the, in the brief and it’s from 2013, so we’re getting closer to, to the bottom of the stack here. Tell us about it.
S: This one’s a really fascinating piece for me. I, like I said, I had first written it many, many, many, several decades ago. And this was written…
D: Don’t be so hard on yourself…It’s only been 10 years…
S: But the original piece for just soprano and piano was written, like I said, in the late nineties or early aughts, um, this was when I was still with my very Christian family, um, yeah, there you go. And so I fell in love with the song of Solomon and I thought, why don’t I write quick snippets of the song of Solomon and put it together as sort of a love song. And so I did. And, um, eventually just another like 10 years or so down the road, I’d said, you know what, I really love this piece. I’m going to flesh it out. So, um, I took the original just two parts and added the strings and added the color of the soprano recorder and the English horn, um, and, you know, added the women’s chorus as sort of this almost Greek chorus kind of response thing.
So it’s a very, it’s a very different piece. Uh, it’s a very dramatic kind of theater-esque, drama-esque kind of, uh, kind of a feel.
D: And you don’t use the word romantic. It reeks of romanticism. I see in my notes there, a rich tapestry of sound and a highly romantic tonal aesthetic. I was not ready for that.
S: Well, actually, uh, every, everybody don’t hate on me, but I actually recorded it myself. So it’s only, it’s only two microphones with, uh, the soloist, Claire is one of my best friends and she teaches at Azusa. So she was able to grab us a classroom. And so I recorded with the two microphones, her and another good friend of mine, the pianist, Lydia. Um, and at the time we weren’t sure if I was just going to put together a digital background to it and like release it online or something. But, you know, this CD was coming to the, coming toward finishing and I was like, you know, this would be really awesome if we can get the rest of it recorded.
So I, yeah, I took two more sessions. I got the strings and the winds together for one session. Uh, and then I finally got the women’s chorus together for a session.
D: So that makes sense too. Very hard undertaking just in terms of production.
S: Yeah, it’s such a good, such a good learning experience. And again, so many of my dear, dear friends are on that recording and it’s just, it was just so special to me.
D: It’s something else. And I hope you understand what I’m saying here, because we want to get this, these pieces performed. It’s a beauty. It’s very accessible. So it doesn’t sound terribly hard to put together. What do you think? Am I all wet? I don’t know, but just, it seemed very, it seemed to just flow pretty freely.
S: Here’s the… I would say, here’s the danger with my music. And, um, especially with this piece, this has happened before. There have been pianists who think they can sight read it and they suddenly quit. It’s like, oh, I can’t sight read this. So this is something my very first composition teacher warned me about is that my music seems really easy. But then you dig into it and there are some little quirks in there and some tricks that you might not be expecting. So as long as you know…
D: It shouldn’t be a big problem. If you know what I mean, so I think I’m okay in saying that I think it’s not like, you know…
S: It’s not terrible.
D: Yeah…[not] terribly virtuosic. And that is, that is to say this should go off the shelf and into performance and rehearsal. And that’s exactly what I see. Nothing but college, college ensemble. Because of the difficulty of getting, you know, professionals together in that kind of complex, you know, but, but, so I found it really very, very…a flowing, lovely, entirely tonal journey. The soprano recorder is charming. Your writing is absolutely first-class. You handle transitions of mood with smooth aplomb. Boy, that came out of my head. Geez. The piece soars with beauty. Your compositional savvy and skill are beyond question.
S: Thank you.
D: Let’s see. Now this is “The Oracle,” for violin, cello, flute and piccolo, clarinet, piano. That’s from 2016. Go ahead. Tell us, but the bottom line is you constructed this thing from random throws of tarot cards. Go.
S: Exactly. Okay. So…
D: Aleatoric indeed!
S: Uh, I really, like I said, this was the time in my life when I had just really started to latch on to tarot as a means of exploring my own subconscious.
D: Which is correct, by the way. Let’s make sure. Exactly what it’s supposed to be. No, let the self-conscious speak to us.
S: Exactly. I like to think of it, it’s like a mirror for myself. It’s a way for me to talk to myself when sometimes I’m having trouble understanding my brain. So, uh, I really love tarot and I wrote this when I first really started getting into it. And so what I did is, um, I had an opportunity. It was like a call for scores for this ensemble. Uh, and so I was like, this will be fun. Why don’t I use that as an excuse to try it out?
So, and I wanted to do sort of a homage to John Cage by using an aleatoric kind of method. And so tarot seemed like the perfect way to do it. So I set up, um, I think it was five different spreads of 10 cards. I think I did like, um, some kind of a sacred pyramid, uh, spread for each of those. Um, and what I did is I, I assigned certain, you know, in tarot, the different suits represent different aspects of life and personality.
So you have the cups, which is emotion. Um, you have, you know, the, uh, the pentacles, uh, the pentacles are, uh, earth, uh, and, um, material wellbeing and reality and such. Uh, so what I did is I attached each of the instruments to those suits. The, uh, violin was fire, uh, or wands. Uh, the, uh, the cello was water or cups and the, uh, the clarinet was earth and the flute, of course, was air. And then for the piano, uh, I made the piano, the tree of life itself. Uh, because I like to read tarot from a Kabbalistic tree of life sort of interpretation.
D: You’re starting to get over my head. I thought I was with you pretty well, but Kabbalistic something, something…with a tree of life.
S: So Jewish mysticism, basically. So on the tree of life, each of the cards have their place on that tree. And the higher up the tree you are, the closer to the divine source you are. And then you travel down the tree and experience various phases of life and emotion, et cetera, until you get to the bottom, which is material reality. Everything you’ve experienced becomes real. Uh, and then you cycle back to the top, back to the divine source again.
So for the piano, um, when I had a spread that, that spoke of being closer to the divine source, I had the piano playing up in its higher registers. And then as it got closer to the bottom, to the ground, the piano went down. So the higher, if you hear the piano going, noodling up really high, that’s up at the divine source of things. If you hear the piano kind of in the middle, that’s sort of where balance and harmony are. If the piano is down in the basement, that’s down in material reality.
And then in the meantime, you have all the other instruments that are reflecting on emotion or, um, you know, or, or thought, or power
D: …and character that may be interpreted…in countless ways. That’s the beauty of the idea of randomness, the beauty of the order, if you will, of randomness, that even random events will speak to us.
S: Exactly.
D: Once in a while, I really want to play an album, uh, for other people in my, you know, over a dinner or something. This is one of them. Um, what an amazing chamber piece. I say this is, uh, this long cello obbligato, then into the klezmer aesthetic I call, uh, with, with all of that playing. Now I understand the cabalistic, if you will, right. Uh, meaning to it all. Uh, but the klezmer, uh, aesthetic is, is clearly there. The, and of course the Oracle is a Jew, right? I say the Oracle is a Jew? Question mark.
A wonderful transition, transitional writing. And you know what I mean? Making segments and, and, uh, themes make sense. That transition material is very, very important to get it right. [Your] compositional savvy is top notch. I think I’ve been saying that, but the piece is a wonderful narrative. It’s complex. It’s a complex narrative. Um, and as you have just described the instruments are characters.
S: They’re, they’re the suits of the, of the cards, but they do have sort of, they evoke their sort of, uh, certain characteristics about it.
D: Okay. That’s much more complex. Thank you. That clarifies.
This is quite a journey. So, and, uh, and then I say, um, a jaunty section now as CODA, I assume that’s a CODA. Uh, still a fun ending. I love it. I don’t think you can get any more, you know, any, any better than that.
Okay. Next is, is, uh, Wabi-Sabi, this, uh, uh, the aesthetic and metaphysical ideals that Japanese Wabi-Sabi encapsulates. Tell us about Wabi-Sabi. Is it animist or something? Is it part of their religion? Animist religion?
S: It can be. Uh, I’m trying to remember where it historically started. It actually started with monochromatic Chinese drawings and then the Japanese sort of took that ideal and enhanced it. A lot of people think of a Zen garden when they think of Wabi Sabi.
D: I see what you mean. Now I understand exactly what you mean. Even the artwork, strokes, you know, just very spare strokes.
S: Yeah. The tea ceremony. Um, everything about that ceremony is part of their Wabi Sabi aesthetic and metaphysical ideals.
D: I’m trying to remember this [for] parties.
S: Simplicity is, is a major part of it, but it goes beyond that. This, and this is what the string quartet throughout the three movements sort of encapsulates is that, uh, the beginning that, that…you know, in the west the idea of nothing is like zero, there’s nothing there. It’s very stark, but in Wabi Sabi ideas, um, nothing is full of potential. There’s a lot that could be there, but isn’t there yet.
D: That’s so profound.
S: Um, and then you go through, especially at the beginning of the first movement, sort of these random particles where the players can choose how they want to play it.
D: I understand that. We’re talking about the first movement Emergence, what have you just said that the players have some choice and they have choices.
S: So, so each of the players have a collection of notes that they can choose from to play. Uh, and they do it in different ways. Like the cello trills all their notes, but they can choose how they want to trill and how fast they want to trill and when they want to come in, uh, and things like that. Um, until they finally come together in the middle of the first movement and it sort of builds from there. So the idea is like that of creation of these particles coming into space and slowly merging together to become something.
D: And by the way, this sounds like an homage to Stockhausen, you know?
S: Yeah, absolutely.
D: Another great. Distance… these distant sounds… I remember performance, you know, Stockhausen, and it all comes together.
S: And then, and then Evolution is a short, it’s intentionally a short little two minute burst because that’s where everything is kind of locked in.
D: This is Evolution.
S: This is the, the cells are coming together and creating fish that are coming out of the water and, you know, becoming man. Um, et cetera. Possibility.
D: Alive with possibility, yeah. …Nothingness itself…
S: Yeah, exactly. Um, and then it gives way to Entropy, uh, and Entropy starts with a very strict structure. Uh, funnily enough, I wasn’t sure compositionally how I wanted to go about the third movement, but I was in the middle of teaching about isorhythm in one of my classes. So I’m like, Hey, I can do isorhythm with this. That’d be fun. So it starts out very strict, um, but then gets really complex and starts falling apart. And again, that’s the idea of returning back to nothingness. Everything’s falling apart.
Uh, and, and that’s the idea of, um, the idea that you, um, sometimes the best course of action is to decide to do nothing, you know…
D: I think you have just described an exact, uh, arc in the, they come together. I’m looking at Emergence. The first one builds quite satisfyingly. Uh, the construct is fascinating and sensible to the intellect, I say to myself. And of course, if there, if you don’t get it off the ground, intellectually from the beginning, you’re in trouble… Ok, Evolution. Um, I love this, uh, I call it a flowing sea sort of opening. Or whatever that vibe could be. Anything, forget sea, whatever that undulating flowing thing…so mesmerizing. Again, wonderful quartet writing.
I’m going to have to stop using this word accessible, but that’s the whole idea to get these performed. And that’s exactly to be well written and also to be a happy time for an audience. Give me a break. And I, and here’s the thing about Evolution that it’s, uh, utterly accessible to the listener, though the subject, listening, but I think I got it. Although the subject matter may have sub-basements. Now a walking cello fits that, that walking cello thing. It’s wonderful to keep the piece moving and, and, uh, energetic. Um, quite a narrative.
S: It’s like a little metronome marking I have in the, uh, the second movement is “Like dancing molecules.”
D: Oh!
S: Kind of the spinning, whirling…
D: I might have to dream about that tonight. And the third movement, if you will, Entropy. It’s such a nice, uh, I, I, do I hear a little fugue…? I wanted… the stream of consciousness thing…fuguetto. You know what I mean? That opening is a, is it a genuine, but it’s a fuguetto, right?
S: Yeah, it’s, um, it starts out exactly as a canon. Then what happens is that each time the line comes back, uh, I either in diminution or augmentation. Uh, so I, I, like I said, if you see the score, um, I start doing crazy little sub meters within each of the parts just to help, just to help the players keep, keep time with each other, but yeah, that’s part of the unraveling part is they start very much together and then they start in like ratios of two to one or one to two, but yeah, then it starts getting into weird ratios…
D: …because I think I wondered about those, those asymmetrical collisions… A slightly dysfunctional intentional section. I’m toward the end here of pizz’s.
S: Well, the very ending, I go back to the beginning idea where the, each player has a selection of notes. They can pizz. whenever they want to. So each performance should be a little different than each other.
D: So the end of entropy, they go back to this idea and they can even change their mind about it.
S: Exactly.
D: Stockhausen, he’s smiling.
“Nevermore,” this major Sonata, I think for viola and piano from 2019 to 2021. Nevermore for viola and piano, also a subtitle of a Gothic Suite, so delightful, it’s an absolutely magnificent Sonata for viola and piano. It’s just absolutely, it’s so American, because we’re talking about Edgar Allan Poe and each movement is after one of his most famous pieces. But you have, I feel very powerfully about American composers choosing American subjects. The Raven, Annabelle Lee, the Telltale Heart.
S: Actually, Charlotte Goode, the violist on this recording, is actually another one of my bestest friends. And she is also a gothic nut and a fellow autistic. And she just, she was like, oh my gosh, we need to collaborate. We need to do this for viola. And I’m like, yes. So I started out with the Raven, you know, and she debuted that at a recital. And then I was like, okay, we need to come up with two other, you know, two other movements to finish it out. And the thing I love about the recording of this, again, this is so her, the viola part is so her, the subject matter is so her, and then I was lucky enough to be able to fly out with her to Boston to have her record it for PARMA. So…that day I went to Salem after we recorded it. So it was perfect.
D: You mean, the Witch Town or Salem, Oregon?
S: No, no, no, the Witch Town, yeah, Salem, Massachusetts.
D: So Poe inspired you to go to the seat of evil.
S: Exactly. It was so good.
D: Well, what I have to say is here, I worked on looking at the first movement. First of all, a fascinating piano introduction that really nails the interest immediately because it hints at mysteries, then it’s followed by the viola’s intensely Poe-ish colors and temperament, so congrats to your friend. It’s a beauty, again, of narrative imagination, a wonderful piece of writing for viola. It is virtuosic.
S: Yeah, it is. I won’t play it on my viola. I’ll let somebody else do it. I’m not that good.
D: Well, everything a violist looks for in a recital piece, you know, and it’s romantic, there are romantic bits in here, some hair-raising twilight zone intervals between notes, if that makes any sense, thrilling, kooky, mysterious, as was the man, nice new idea… that roiling keyboard stuff toward the end of the piece, does that make any sense? Under viola, that middle and low register as it goes.
“Annabelle Lee.” It’s gorgeous, that movement is just gorgeous.
S: So beautiful, it’s one of my absolute favorites, just, and the poem, too, is just absolutely, it really struck me.
D: It brings you to tears, really, that poem.
S: It really does. I really wanted to capture that complete childlike innocence, just absolutely purest childlike innocent love of a little boy and a little girl. And then the angels cruelly take her away from him, you know, and just that drama.
D: And that’s the true story, isn’t it? Doesn’t he marry her, his wife, when she was 15, and then did she die? I can’t quite remember.
S: I don’t remember. I’d have to look it up.
D: We just missed the good parts that neither of us can remember. Anyway, what I’m trying to say is, Annabelle Lee speaks to a very personal experience.
S: I do know this was his last poem that he wrote before he died. That’s also a very haunting little tidbit. So, yeah, I love this movement so much. It actually, it was the hardest to record, too, because it’s deceptively simple. But it’s because it’s kind of like Mozart in that way, where it’s so simple and exposed that the violist has to be really careful and really in tune. So it took us a little bit longer to do this one.
D: Nice. Yeah, it’s a beautiful reading. I call it magical writing. It’s exceptionally sensitive.
The Tell-Tale Heart: the intro, sufficiently terrifying. Very imaginative character development. It’s exactly creepy enough to fit the narrative, because it is that narrative, the pulsing, the clicking, and the floorboards… Then the beginning of real paranoia. I mean, you describe this tale very well.
S: Actually, I decided the best way to put it together was to take the story apart and make each of the sections of music a section of the story. So it’s probably the most narratively accurate of the three movements.
D: And that makes good sense to me.
S: Yeah, and in the music, each of the section headings has a little quote from the story. So you can kind of tell where you are in the story. But yeah, the idea of just. I wanted the opening theme that the viola starts playing is supposed to be sort of the love theme that the narrator has for his master.
“I loved the old man…It was his eye!” …you know, so it’s this really creepy. It’s a love song, but it’s twisted. It’s got something off.
So that’s where it opens. And then from there, then I get into the part where it’s for seven nights. He he peeks in at the bedroom. And so that section is like in seven four or something like that. It has odd. It’s asymmetrical. So, again, it feels a little off, you know, a little bit of the heartbeat taps and then, you know, stuff like that. And then little answering in the piano… And then you hear him murder him.
D: I call it shades of the shower scene in Psycho.
S: Yeah, yeah, exactly.
D: Brava, I say after that.
S: …yeah, thank you. Yeah. And then you just get, like you say, the paranoia as the cops won’t leave. But the narrator keeps hearing the heartbeat and he can’t get away from it. And he just has to give up.
D: And indeed, it’s an internal conflict. Yeah, that’s the order of the soundscape. It’s kind of this internal conflict that becomes, you know, insupportable, disturbingly deliberate. And it’s so well done, well done.
So that’s a beautiful sonata. And as I mentioned, here it is. It’s a, it’s a viola sonata. It’s, it’s tough. Well, you know, at a certain level, you know, you almost want it to be. So it’s not inaccessible at all. It has a it has a tremendous connection to America and American history and American literature. It is a beautiful sonata and it sounds so beautiful. The writing is so gorgeous.
So take note, everybody. Nevermore for viola and piano.
And then now the last, the grand finale on the CD, The Dark Glass Sinfonia: We see through a glass darkly. For orchestra from 2017 built upon an integrated set…Oh, here you go again.
S: I love patterns!
D: …that’s why I pulled it. Because in all of my life in the arts and even at college, these things never came up in my experience. “Built,” she says, confident, “built upon an integrated set of hexachordal formulae.” End quote. I say to myself, please explain. You will, then you go on: “Free atonality with modal harmony…In doing so, it is meant to represent the enigmatic and ongoing emotional flux of the soul.”
S: This is another…it started out as just a love affair with patterns. And one thing, I’m not a major post-tonalist. You can tell from the accessibleness of my music. But I do love some of the number patterns that come about from, you know, post-tonal exercises. And hexachordal combinatoriality is one of my favorite ideas. I just love saying it. Hexachordal combinatoriality.
D: Yeah, I bet when you have students, they just sort of collapse.
S: Yeah, I’m like, OK, learn how to say it, you can impress all of your friends.
D: But then again, formulae is rather…
S: …It’s very pompous sounding…it’s basically it’s built upon the 12-tone ideal, but it breaks up the 12 tones into six tones, hexachords. So each of the hexachords has its own unique intervallic character to it. And so in the same way that you can take kind of the same way where I cheated with DodecaFunky, where I took segments of it and like transposed it, it’s kind of like that, but I did less cheating. Hexachords kind of do their own cheating because you can take one part of the tone row and then take the second half of it and flip it or reverse it. Or, you know, all that kind of stuff. And then if you break them down into numbers, you can add them up into cool combinations and things like that. So that’s what this was. This piece was sort of a play on that and seeing what I could do with it. And that’s how I developed the main themes.
You really hear it come out, especially in the little woodwind stuff throughout the top. That’s really where it shines. But it really is woven into it.
D: The row shines?…
S: Yeah, yeah, exactly.
D: Well, you must have been in heaven putting this piece together.
S: It was very, very fun. And again, and I don’t know how my brain does this, but what starts out with a whole bunch of numbers and patterns usually comes out as something really lovely that I continue to love listening to.
D: Well, guess what? That’s exactly the whole point of the genius of autism. You just exactly described what we’ve been kind of…that autism is, is just different.
S: You know, you know, that’s another thing that shines through with this orchestral piece, too, is that one of the comments sometimes I get from other people is, oh, why can’t you just have the instruments all stacked up on top of each other? You know, why can’t they all play at once? And I’m like, I just don’t like that. I like to have the layers. Somebody’s always doing something. And so there’s kind of a medievalness to it, you know, going back to that old polyphony idea. But then I’ll integrate it with these numbers and patterns. And I just love seeing it layer.
D: Speaking of layering, did I hear I see in my notes here. Is there any kind of pyramid that you constructed a sound pyramid somewhere in the beginning of that piece? Or is it a stupid word?
S: No it’s not stupid. I like to call it a waterfall, where…
D: Yeah, ….I got the idea of what you were creating there.
S: Yeah. The hexachordal pattern is there. But what I do is I pass it starting from the top and have it kind of trickle down like that.
D: So pyramid is not quite the right way of describing it. But I was hearing a very specific concept. And of course, thinking pyramid, I’m describing it as from the bottom up. But you’ve just described it as from top to trickle down, if you will.
Let’s see… There was a lovely little brass tune. I’m hearing that I’m hearing cinematic moments. Of course, it’s an orchestral piece. I’m sure you really got your teeth into that one.
Let’s see, lovely wind section work, as we’ve discussed, nicely orchestrated. Well, it’s brilliant and wonderful and very accessible and a beautiful, beautiful orchestral piece of what? I can’t remember. Seven minutes or…
S: Yeah, it’s only like seven minutes or so, which I have found, again, economically and just competition wise…
D: That’s exactly right.
S: People like shorter, shorter pieces.
D: That’s kind of what we ask, because then the next question is how? Because I’m again thinking collegiate orchestras. And then let’s see that as we’ve discussed, there’s that thematic return, you know, that the whole thing does a perfect arc. So there you go.
S: I just really love the very, very ending of it. When I first put it together and to me, it evoked sort of almost this organ, this organ like texture with. I just love the resonance… T
D: That section with percussion. That’s toward the end. I see more complicated in narrative in terms of just the construct of the piece. Definitely descriptive, martial, perfectly accessible. It’s a perfect piece for a college orchestra if it’s in that sphere of capability.
S: Yeah. …that little fast march like scherzo thing. I kind of had a like a like a Russian, Russian romantic vibe almost or like early 20th century Russian vibe, you know, almost like kind of Shostakovich-esque, you know…
D: Each question mark was starting to rise out of my head there, the Shostakovich-ish.
S: Yeah, exactly.
D: What a great talk we’ve had. And I think just anybody could pick up that the world of our profession, of our music making, is the world at large. I mean, we speak to the wonderful, fascinating world around us. That’s the whole idea of being a creative person.
So, again, wonderful chat with composer Sarah Wallin Huff. And we’re talking about your 2023 Navona release. It’s contemporary classic chamber music for diverse instrumental combinations. You’ve heard this before. It’s called Shards. Don’t worry, anybody. It’s fine. And wonderful pieces that as we’ve discussed that are chamber works and then, of course, the orchestral piece at the very end.
But this is music that should be heard a lot more. And it’s not off the top of the charts of virtuosity. But, it’s just good, solid, wonderful music-making with enough virtuosity to keep…Why did I say those of us who are gifted…busy…you know what I’m trying to say… I’m gonna shut my mouth up here.
Anyway, great fun chatting with you.
S: Thank you so much. I really I’m really flattered, you know, that you reached out.
D: Well, I’m flattered that I heard what I heard. I’ll tell you, because it’s always a gamble. I just sort of pick up, pick up whatever. And I thought I’ve never heard of this thing. Well, who is this person and what is that stuff? And that’s got us started.
It’s been a tremendous treat and a really important and a very important CD you’ve got. So, congratulations all around.
#chamberMusic #classical #Interview #orchestra #review #StudioRecording

#chambermusic #classical #interview #orchestra #review #studiorecording
Angry Metal Guy @[email protected] · 2025-04-05 · 13:39 UTC

Deafheaven – Lonely People with Power Review
By Doom_et_Al
You never forget your first love. The sense of wonder and excitement, a world you had only heard and read about, opening up to you like a flower on a Summer’s day. Deafheaven was my first (in a metal sense). The combination of furious black meal, searing post metal, and fuzzy shoegaze, mixed with a dollop of genuine longing, totally rewired my brain. Which means that if you’re looking for a coldly analytical review of a band’s sixth album, you should probably go elsewhere. Deafheaven is part of my DNA, and a new album will always be a big deal, even if we’ve drifted apart over the years. You see, while I’ve enjoyed the band’s output since the wondrous Sunbather, it’s been clear that Deafheaven and I have been moving in different directions. And this was confirmed with Infinite Granite. I respected the band’s bravery in trying something new; I just didn’t like the result much. Shiny, pretty post-rock is nothing to be ashamed of. But the Deafheaven I loved were all about embracing the fury of black metal to highlight their emotional beats. Without that tension, Infinite Granite felt weightless. And my relationship with Deafheaven almost went from “It’s complicated” to “Splitsville”…
… Except, there was “Mombasa,” the final song on Infinite Granite. Specifically, the final 3 minutes of “Mombasa.” Deafheaven broke the shackles, George Clarke’s shrieks roared forth, and within was a reminder of what the band was capable of. Was that denouement a farewell to a style they were abandoning, or a promise that they had not forgotten their roots? Lonely People with Power answers, and boy does it answer.
After a brief intro, the band kicks off with “Magnolia,” which is one of the meaner cuts of Deafheaven’s oeuvre, and completely devoid of the shininess of anything on Infinite Granite, including the clean vocals. On first listen, I wondered if this was a repudiation of that album; an abandonment of that sound and an acknowledgement that “mistakes were made.” But as “Heathen” hits its chorus, you realize Lonely People with Power is a lot more interesting than that. You see, the post-rock sounds of Infinite Granite have not been abandoned; they’ve just been folded into Deafheaven’s existing aesthetic. Which means that not only is Lonely People with Power their most complete and harmonious record to date, but it also retroactively improves Infinite Granite.
Although Deafheaven have always been comfortable with what they are not – i.e., a “trve kvlt” black metal band, it has sometimes felt that they were less comfortable with what they are. After the stunning Sunbather, the band oscillated between “mean” (New Bermuda), “pretty” (Ordinary Corrupt Human Love), and “post rock” (Infinite Granite). Lonely People with Power somehow finds a way to incorporate all these elements in a cohesive, stunning whole. Its gnarly tracks (“Magnolia,” “Revelator”) are gnarly, it’s pretty tracks (“Heathen,” “Winona”) are downright gorgeous, and the hybrids (“The Garden Route”, “The Marvelous Orange Tree”) feel natural and complementary. What ties all of these together is the emotional core that Deafheaven bring. Among contemporaries, perhaps only Gaerea are anywhere near them in terms of the ability to achieve that ecstatic, cathartic release this music thrives on. Lonely People with Power is brimming with pain and longing and wonder and fury. For the first time, the band has the musical language to convey all of these and then some.
Performances across the board are top-notch. Dan Tracy’s exceptional drumming brings power and force to the harder tracks, and wisely cuts back during the gentler moments. George Clarke’s howls and shrieks have never been the strongest attribute of the band, but he brings a unique intensity and connection that anyone who has attended one of their live shows will attest to. But the real star of the show is lead guitarist Kerry McCoy. McCoy has battled his own demons and writer’s block to create these furious, gorgeous, compelling gems. His guitar soars and dives, and he is able to find beauty in even the ugliest, more twisted compositions.
Sunbather, for all the ridiculous accusations of being “hipster metal,” had that thing. That thing that is impossible to define but is sprinkled liberally on all the best albums. There’s a reason Sunbather remains iconic. It is too early to say whether Lonely People with Power is a match for that masterpiece, but it has that thing, too. It is Deafheaven’s most mature and complete work to date; a synthesis of everything that has come before without being derivative or overly reliant. It plays to the band’s strengths, and wears its unironic heart on its sleeve. If Deafheaven aren’t your vibe, this won’t change your mind – it is, above all, a defiantly Deafheaven album through and through. For everyone else, this is an essential and timeless collection of tracks. It reminds us of the power of metal music to connect and move. But it also fucking reminds us that Deafheaven are not just back; they never left.

Rating: 4.5/5.0
DR: 6 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Roadrunner Records
Website: deafheaven.com
Releases Worldwide: March 28th, 2025
#2025 #45 #AmericanMetal #BlackMetal #Blackgaze #Deafheaven #LonelyPeopleWithPower #Mar25 #Review #Reviews #RoadrunnerRecords

#americanmetal #blackmetal #blackgaze #deafheaven #lonelypeoplewithpower #mar25
Angry Metal Guy @[email protected] · 2025-04-05 · 13:39 UTC

Deafheaven – Lonely People with Power Review
By Doom_et_Al
You never forget your first love. The sense of wonder and excitement, a world you had only heard and read about, opening up to you like a flower on a Summer’s day. Deafheaven was my first (in a metal sense). The combination of furious black meal, searing post metal, and fuzzy shoegaze, mixed with a dollop of genuine longing, totally rewired my brain. Which means that if you’re looking for a coldly analytical review of a band’s sixth album, you should probably go elsewhere. Deafheaven is part of my DNA, and a new album will always be a big deal, even if we’ve drifted apart over the years. You see, while I’ve enjoyed the band’s output since the wondrous Sunbather, it’s been clear that Deafheaven and I have been moving in different directions. And this was confirmed with Infinite Granite. I respected the band’s bravery in trying something new; I just didn’t like the result much. Shiny, pretty post-rock is nothing to be ashamed of. But the Deafheaven I loved were all about embracing the fury of black metal to highlight their emotional beats. Without that tension, Infinite Granite felt weightless. And my relationship with Deafheaven almost went from “It’s complicated” to “Splitsville”…
… Except, there was “Mombasa,” the final song on Infinite Granite. Specifically, the final 3 minutes of “Mombasa.” Deafheaven broke the shackles, George Clarke’s shrieks roared forth, and within was a reminder of what the band was capable of. Was that denouement a farewell to a style they were abandoning, or a promise that they had not forgotten their roots? Lonely People with Power answers, and boy does it answer.
After a brief intro, the band kicks off with “Magnolia,” which is one of the meaner cuts of Deafheaven’s oeuvre, and completely devoid of the shininess of anything on Infinite Granite, including the clean vocals. On first listen, I wondered if this was a repudiation of that album; an abandonment of that sound and an acknowledgement that “mistakes were made.” But as “Heathen” hits its chorus, you realize Lonely People with Power is a lot more interesting than that. You see, the post-rock sounds of Infinite Granite have not been abandoned; they’ve just been folded into Deafheaven’s existing aesthetic. Which means that not only is Lonely People with Power their most complete and harmonious record to date, but it also retroactively improves Infinite Granite.
Although Deafheaven have always been comfortable with what they are not – i.e., a “trve kvlt” black metal band, it has sometimes felt that they were less comfortable with what they are. After the stunning Sunbather, the band oscillated between “mean” (New Bermuda), “pretty” (Ordinary Corrupt Human Love), and “post rock” (Infinite Granite). Lonely People with Power somehow finds a way to incorporate all these elements in a cohesive, stunning whole. Its gnarly tracks (“Magnolia,” “Revelator”) are gnarly, it’s pretty tracks (“Heathen,” “Winona”) are downright gorgeous, and the hybrids (“The Garden Route”, “The Marvelous Orange Tree”) feel natural and complementary. What ties all of these together is the emotional core that Deafheaven bring. Among contemporaries, perhaps only Gaerea are anywhere near them in terms of the ability to achieve that ecstatic, cathartic release this music thrives on. Lonely People with Power is brimming with pain and longing and wonder and fury. For the first time, the band has the musical language to convey all of these and then some.
Performances across the board are top-notch. Dan Tracy’s exceptional drumming brings power and force to the harder tracks, and wisely cuts back during the gentler moments. George Clarke’s howls and shrieks have never been the strongest attribute of the band, but he brings a unique intensity and connection that anyone who has attended one of their live shows will attest to. But the real star of the show is lead guitarist Kerry McCoy. McCoy has battled his own demons and writer’s block to create these furious, gorgeous, compelling gems. His guitar soars and dives, and he is able to find beauty in even the ugliest, more twisted compositions.
Sunbather, for all the ridiculous accusations of being “hipster metal,” had that thing. That thing that is impossible to define but is sprinkled liberally on all the best albums. There’s a reason Sunbather remains iconic. It is too early to say whether Lonely People with Power is a match for that masterpiece, but it has that thing, too. It is Deafheaven’s most mature and complete work to date; a synthesis of everything that has come before without being derivative or overly reliant. It plays to the band’s strengths, and wears its unironic heart on its sleeve. If Deafheaven aren’t your vibe, this won’t change your mind – it is, above all, a defiantly Deafheaven album through and through. For everyone else, this is an essential and timeless collection of tracks. It reminds us of the power of metal music to connect and move. But it also fucking reminds us that Deafheaven are not just back; they never left.

Rating: 4.5/5.0
DR: 6 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Roadrunner Records
Website: deafheaven.com
Releases Worldwide: March 28th, 2025
#2025 #45 #AmericanMetal #BlackMetal #Blackgaze #Deafheaven #Mar25 #Review #Reviews #RoadrunnerRecords

#americanmetal #blackmetal #blackgaze #deafheaven #mar25 #review