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This past month, I was thankful to have a residency in Hong Kong with The Upstrike:Project, culminating in a Portrait Concert. Working with them on the new work Yet in my sad heart was a highlight. Here’s some photos and videos from their rehearsals!
The work is now available here: https://www.roberthonstein.com/yet-in-my-sad-heart
Program Notes
Yet in my sad heart for percussion quartet and track draws inspiration from the opening of Chopin’s Prelude No. 8 in F sharp Minor. The title comes from pianist Alfred Cortot’s vivid description of the prelude: “The snow falls, the wind screams, and the storm rages; yet in my sad heart,the tempest is the worst to behold.”
Chopin’s Prelude, marked Molto agitato, is a powerful and technically demanding work. It features a continuous flow of thirty-second notes in the right hand against triplet sixteenths in the left, creating a tempestuous, virtuosic soundscape. Within this intricate polyrhythm, a melancholic melody emerges, giving voice to the “sad heart” described by Cortot.
My piece, Yet in my sad heart, offers a hazy, dream-like reinterpretation of the Chopin. Fragments of the Prelude arise from the keyboard percussion instruments, slowed down and stretched out against long, sustained synth tones. Meanwhile, as the music shifts into different key areas, the same four chords that began the Chopin, slowly cycle in the background. We stay in this space, a web of percussion, long synth chords and pulsating rhythms, until eventually a delicate cloud of piano arpeggiations in the track take over, slowly enveloping the live musicians. Finally, the piece culminates in a stream-of-consciousness soundscape of swirling, ghostly tones mixed with real world audio samples, eerily concluding this strange, Chopin-inspired fever dream.
SONNETS: Robert Honstein Composer Portrait Concert
Delighted to announce this concert featuring all works of Emmy-nominted composer Robert Honstein, including new arrangements of his works, AND A BRAND NEW PERCUSSION QUARTET written for Up:Strike. This concert will mark Robert’s 7-day residency in Hong Kong. He will be working with the students at the HKAPA and members of Up:Strike. Get your TIX NOW!
2025. June 7 (SAT) 8 pm Sheung Wan Civic Centre Theatre (5/f)
Louisville’s Music for a Purpose recently premiered my arrangement of Olmsted’s second movement for string quartet. Enjoy!
Here’s some wonderful photos from my work with BalletCollective., who premiered my 20-minute ballet Love Me While I’m Here, with choreography by Omar Román De Jesús.
Image of Kennedy Targosz, Ruby Lister, David Gabriel, Devin Alberda and Sebastián Villarini-Vélez in Love me while I’m here by Brendon Cook/BFA.com
Ruby Lister and David Garcia in “Love Me While I’m Here.” Photo © Whitney Browne.
Ruby Lister, David Gabriel, Devin Alberda, and Sebastián Villarini-Vélez in Love me while I’m here captured by Brendon Cook/BFA.com
Kennedy Targosz, Ruby Lister, David Gabriel and Devin Alberda in “Love Me While I’m Here.” Photo © Whitney Browne.
David Gabriel and Ruby Lister in rehearsal for Love me while I’m here.
Hi friends,
Hope you all have been able to stay cool for this scorcher of a summer! I was lucky enough to make a quick trip to Finland for a performance of my new Endless Landscape at Avanti's Summer Sounds festival, followed by a short visit to MASS MoCA for a stellar performance of An Economy of Means by Doug Perkins at the Bang on a Can Loud weekend, and finally an amazing week in Del Mar, California, teaching at the Del Mar International Composers Symposium. As we head into the fall, I'm excited to give you a season preview and share some new music, upcoming performances and albums in the works.
If you've been following my Facebook Page or Twitter, you'll know that my score for The Real Charlie Chaplin was honored with a News & Documentary Emmy Nomination for Outstanding Music Composition! It continues to be a fun adventure and hope to be able to share more news about the soundtrack soon.
No Exit New Music will premiere a new work of mine for soprano and chamber ensemble in April, and you can check out the ever-expanding season calendar here.
For all the saxophonists and sax/perc. duos out there, Echolocate for alto/soprano sax and marimba is now available for purchase. More info here.
Lastly, an album featuring my An Index of Possibility, Down Down Baby, and Lost and Found, will be released in the spring, with superb performances by TIGUE, New Morse Code, and Michael Compitello. More info coming soon.
Other News
Check out new score follow videos of Olmsted and Arctic, and subscribe to my YouTube channel for new releases.
Other Sheet Music Releases: Evergreen for two percussionists and Endless Landscape for eleven instruments are both now available in PDF and Print Formats.
Alysa Pires's choreography to Conduit: II. Pulse will be programmed by the Alberta Ballet in the Fall. Tickets here.
thanks for tuning in,
Robert
We are excited to let you know about three important releases this fall!
Evergreen, for two percussionists, had its live premiere in September, featuring the outstanding Seattle-based Arx Duo. They have upcoming performances in Bellevue, WA (livestreamed), Omaha, NE, and Mission Woods, KS.
The brand new Echolocate, commissioned for saxophone and percussion by the Hutchens/Myers Duo, receives its premiere October 26th at the University of South Carolina.
My first film score for The Real Charlie Chaplin is making the festival rounds this Fall. See a review here. It premiered a Telluride and will be released in theaters this fall and then air on Showtime.
THE REAL CHARLIE CHAPLIN. Courtesy of SHOWTIME / TELLURIDE FILM FESTIVAL
New Music USA announces:
CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE VIBRAPHONE: PAMELA Z AND ROBERT HONSTEIN
The year 2021 brings the unique opportunity to celebrate the first centennial of the vibraphone, an instrument developed in Indianapolis, IN by the Leedy Manufacturing Company, that has become a globally-recognized fixture in a wide variety of genres spanning from classical, pop, jazz and everything in between. To mark this occasion, a team of performers, composers, educators and music administrators have founded Vibraphone Project Inc. (VPI), whose first major endeavor is to facilitate a 3-day festival in Indianapolis, the instrument’s birthplace, to promote, support, educate and nurture artists and audiences associated with the vibraphone. One of the many ways we will accomplish this is by commissioning new works of integrity and substance for the instrument by prominent American contemporary composers, Pamela Z and Robert Honstein.