Soul House (2017)
FOR Flute, Clarinet, Violin, and Cello
35 minutes
Program Notes
In the ancient world a ‘Soul House’ was a model home buried with the dead. Intended as a vessel for the soul to inhabit in the afterlife, often stocked with clay food, tiny furniture, and even small servant figurines, these otherworldly structures provided sustenance and comfort, a connection to loved ones, and a spiritual home as the soul moved beyond the material world. While writing Soul House I thought about these ancient funerary objects and began to think of my own childhood home as a Soul House. Not for my soul, but rather for memories of family and childhood. Walking through the house now, it’s impossible not to feel decades of memory infusing the house itself, seeping into the walls and floorboards, the air and soil. It is a constant reminder of all that life and living we shared. With that feeling in mind, I wrote this piece: a love letter to the house I grew up in.
Cast in nine movements the piece is a series of vignettes depicting various parts of the house with little dramas unfolding along the way. Each movement is a fragmented story representative of feelings and memories from that part of the house: a contemplative nook in a sun filled Bay Window; a cozy Alcove; the rush of action through the Hallway down the Stairs and a triumphal arrival on the Landing; the running, chasing play of the Backyard; the morning rush (and endless struggle for the ‘front seat’) of the Driveway; a stately old Copper Beech, majestic and noble in its rooted splendor; and finally a Secret Place, somewhere just for myself where all the dreams and frustrations of childhood mingle in private, a wondrous cocktail of confusion and delight.
Soul House was commissioned by Hub New Music with the generous support of the Cricket Foundation and premiered January 22, 2018 by Hub New Music at Good Shepherd Chapel, Seattle, WA.
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Recent Performances
August 9, 2022 Del Mar International Composer Symposium, Powerhouse Center, Del Mar, CA. Hub New Music.
July 31, 2021 Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, North Adams, MA. Bang on a Can Summer Festival.
October 7, 2020 Williams Center for the Arts, Lafayette College, Easton, PA. Hub New Music.
January 18, 2020 1 Rivington Street, New York. Hub New Music.
November 9-10, 2019 Harwood Museum of Art, Toas, NM. Hub New Music.
October 29, 2019 Kenosha Creative Space, Kenosha, WI. Hub New Music.
October 19, 2019 Ruth Gant Recital Hall, St. Cloud, MN. Hub New Music.
October 5, 2019 Celebrity Series’s Neighborhood Arts, Boston, MA. Hub New Music
July 8, 2019 Space City New Music Festival, Houston, TX. Hub New Music.
April 24, 2019 Short North Stage, Columbus, OH. Hub New Music.