Compositions

On Ear and Ear … takes its cue from the opening few measures of Milton Babbitt’s 1950 Composition for Viola and Piano. Heard in slow motion, there is something so tender about the timbral and registral choices in the first four measures and these become reference points for this hommage. The title is from Gerard Manley Hopkins’ sonnet, “The Sea and the Skylark”. The two “ears” become those of the composer and her mentor at Princeton (Milton Babbitt); the two instruments (piano and viola); and the sea (“low lull-off or all roar”) and lark (“his rash-fresh rewinded new-skeinèd score”). On Ear and Ear … was composed in June/July 2011 for the Perspectives of New Music / Open Space memorial tribute to Milton Babbitt.

Recordings: Centaur Records MUSICAL LANDSCAPES OF HILARY TANN; PNM/OS PNM 49/2 Supplement: Milton Babbitt: A composers’ memorial

George Herbert (1593-1633) was born in Montgomery Castle in mid-Wales. His beautiful poem, “Paradise”, has long appealed to readers both for its sentiment and for its successively “pruned” end-rhymes. When I learned that one of the root meanings of the word “paradise” is “walled garden” I knew this poem would be particularly appropriate for the 75th Anniversary of the Gregynog Festival. The straightforward (though “growing”) setting of Herbert’s poem is framed by phrases in Vulgate Latin that are gradually “pruned” to a bell-like echoing figure. – HT

Paradise was commissioned for Tenebrae with support from the Holst Foundation and Welsh Music Guild on the occasion of the 75th Anniversary of Gŵyl Gregynog Festival, Artistic Director Rhian Davies, June 15 2008.

The inspiration for this joyous organ piece is the Vulgate phrase "Qui ambulas super pinnas ventorum" translated as "who walketh upon the wings of the wind" (Psalm 104:3). The "wings of the wind" is a phrase of praise which suggests other abstract methods of praise which occur in the piece-bells and hymns.
This short work is suitable for church or concert performance. Registrations by Carson Cooman.

Small orchestra version of original organ accompaniment. An anthem whose trumpet fanfare and joyful character contributes to a festive feel. Singing Welsh translations are also provided in certain sections.

Anthem of praise for the North American Welsh Choir. Hymn tunes woven into text. May be sung alone or combined with Psalms 86 and 136 to make concert set (136-86-104).

In commissioning this work, the Eastern NY Chapter of the American Guild of Organists asked for “an anthem of praise suitable for amateur church choirs”. The stimulus for setting the opening verses of Psalm 136 was the discovery of poet John Milton’s gloss on this psalm. Verses from the Milton version are used in the 1940 Episcopal Hymnal as Hymn 308, Monktown. The opening chords of Monktown led to the echoing of Nicea within this present setting. Above all, the work is inspired by the words of James I:17 (“… the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning”). – HT

Psalm 86 (Incline thine ear) was commissioned by the Swansea Bach Choir to mark its 40th Anniversary, with additional funding from the Welsh Amateur Music Federation, which receives its funding from the Arts Council of Wales and the PRS Foundation. The piece is designed to be a slow movement between previously composed settings of Psalm 136 (Luminaria Magna) and Psalm 104 (Praise, my soul). As in the earlier compositions, the text is adapted by the composer from various sources (John Milton’s glosses on Psalms 85 and 86 and the Vulgate Latin of Psalm 85 (86)) and the music pays homage to two hymns (the Welsh melody, Bangor, and York, the Scottish Psalter melody harmonized by John Milton Sr.) – HT

The word, reibo, appears in the titles of many solo pieces for the Japanese vertical bamboo flute – the shakuhachi. Rei means “bell” and bo means “yearning”, so a rough translation is “Yearning for the Bell”. The tone poem, Reibo, takes the idea of “bells” and applies it to the bells of journeying (opening section), the bells of prayer (slow middle section), and the bells of meditation (closing section). – HT

Composed in 2009-2010, Reibo was commissioned by the Community Women's Orchestra directed by Dr. Kathleen McGuire, for its 25th Anniversary Season, with funding provided by the Open Meadows Foundation and the San Francisco Foundation, Jacqueline Hoefer Fund. – HT

Dedication: Reibo is dedicated to intrepid conductor and women’s music advocate, Karla Lemon, 1954-2009.

Recording: Community Women's Orchestra WOMEN’S WORK AND PLAY

Sarsen is in three movements, each inspired by a particular “standing stone” or “sarsen.” The first movement, “Adirondack,” suggests the powerful presence of a wind-swept erratic in the Adirondack Mountains of upstate New York. The Bat Rock in the Garden of the Master of the Nets in Suzhou, China, inspired the second movement. The standing stone of the last movement, “Avebury,” is part of an avenue of such stones leading to the largest stone circle in Europe. It is a ritual stone set in a ceremonial landscape, quite different from the natural wilderness setting of the first movement and the stylized, formal garden of the second movement. Each of the movements nay be performed separately, although there are echoes of the first in the second and third; in particular, the brass fanfare which opens “Adirondack” returns at the conclusion of “Avebury.” – HT

Sarsen was composed during the autumn of 2001 in response to a joint commission from the Saratoga Springs Youth Orchestra and the St. Croix Valley Symphony Orchestra at the University of Wisconsin-River-Falls.

Seven Poems of Stillness for violoncello solo with poems by R. S. Thomas was composed in response to a request from Dr. Rhian Davies, Artistic Director of the Gŵyl Gregynog Festival, to whom the work is dedicated. The work was written to be premièred at Manafon Church, where poet R. S. Thomas was Rector, on the occasion of the centennial of his birth. In this continuous cycle, (c. 16 minutes without narrator, c. 24 with optional narrator) each of the seven poems presents an aspect of the poet’s relationship to God. The movement titles are evocative and are taken from the following poems:

I. “the air / a staircase for silence” (Kneeling)
II. “the great brush has not rested” (The View from the Window)
III. “like some huge moth out of the darkness” (The Empty Church)
IV. “as the interior of a cathedral” (The Moorland)
V. “Bright Field / lit bush” (The Bright Field)
VI. “the possibility of your presence” (Cones)
VII. “nights that are so still” (The Other)

The central slow movement contains echoes of the Welsh hymn Llef (IV). The faster movements, II and V, suggest stillness at the center of a spinning motion 'renewed daily' (II), 'the stars themselves gyring down … the cone’s point toward towards which we soar' (V). The darkest movement is III, paralleling the poem The Empty Church. Movements I and VI are poems of spiritual listening. Reflecting the sentiment of R. S. Thomas’ poem The Other, the final movement (VII) evokes 'wave on wave on the long shore'. © Hilary Tann

Recording: Ty Cerdd SEVEN POEMS OF STILLNESS

“Shakkei,” a term used in Japanese landscape design, means “borrowed scenery.” Two well-known examples of shakkei underlie the oboe concerto. The first movement, marked “slow and spacious”, is inspired by Mount Hiei as viewed from Shoden-ji, a temple with a dry landscape garden. The second movement, marked leggiero, is inspired by the hills of Arashiyama as viewed from Tenryu-ji, a temple with a lush stroll garden. In musical terms, the sparse landscape of the first movement is complemented by an “overgrown” second movement. In both movements the composer could not resist lightly “borrowing” from Debussy’s Nuages since the idea of borrowing was part of the identity of the piece and a cor anglais was at hand. – HT

Recording: MSR Classics THE LOTUS POND

Shôji are sliding Japanese latticed screens, usually covered with opaque white paper. The composer imagined images on three such screens – I. Autumn mist (mesto), II. Butterflies (leggiero), and III. Kimono (eguale). The composition consists of a succession of meditative “bamboo leaf shaped” phrases which record the way these images might be seen to interact. – HT

Shôji was commissioned by oboist Shannon Spicciati for the 2010 IDRS Conference in Oklahoma.

Recording: Arizona University Recordings OF ERTHE AND AIR

Solstice was commissioned by the Ricochet Duo to honor Adirondack woodswoman, Anne LaBastille. LaBastille's four woodswomen books are the direct inspiration for the composition. The title, Solstice, comes from book IIII/p.19 ("the sense of full circle"). The "full circle" of the piece, from Breakup ("prelude to spring" I/p.146) to Freeze-up ("prelude to winter" I/p.1), is as follows:
Breakup "imperceptible dissolution"
I. WHITE PINES "this strange attunement"
II. LILYPAD LAKE "Sainte Terre - my holy land"
III. KESTREL "flying into the wind"
Freeze-up "icy slivers and darts"
First Performance: August 17 2014, Lake Placid Arts Center NY, by the Ricochet Duo (Rose Chancler, piano, and Jane Boxall, marimba)

Recording: Ravello Records KID STUFF

As a composer my work is strongly influenced by the natural world. In recent pieces I've become interested in the particulars of the ways in which nature affects the viewer ... and in how much the viewer brings to the scene. Commissioned by the Lunar Saxophone Quartet, Some of the Silence is a slow movement based on a haiku by John Stevenson -- "a deep gorge / some of the silence / is me.” During the course of the piece the gorge is viewed three times. Each time a different aspect of the gorge is seen and each aspect affects the viewer in a different way. – HT

Premiere: Millennium Center, Cardiff, Wales by the Lunar Saxophone Quartet, October 2010.

Recordings: Arizona University Recordings OF ERTHE AND AIR; Signum Classics THESE VISIONS

The cycle, Songs of the Cotton Grass, evolved over six years with all texts by Welsh poet Menna Elfyn. These “reverse lullabies” -- in which a daughter lulls her mother to sleep -- recall the open, high moorland of South Wales, near the composer’s home. The first song, A Girl’s Song to Her Mother was written for mezzo-soprano Mari Morgan and premiered July 30, 1999 during a Celtic Weekend at the Pan-American Games in Winnipeg. The second song, Wings of the Grasses was composed for "A Garland for Presteigne” and received its first performance August 25, 2003 by soprano Gillian Keith with Simon Lepper, piano. In 2004 the “Girl’s Song” was slightly revised for soprano Janeanne Houston who recorded the two completed songs (on So Much Beauty, Elmgrove productions) and subsequently commissioned and recorded a third song, Vale of Feathers (on The Shining Place, Elmgrove Productions). Vale of Feathers opens with a slow, tolling figure inspired in part by the then-recent passing of Pope John Paul II in April 2005; the refrain “take me to the vale of feathers” echoes back to the first song of the cycle. – HT

(Audio excerpt is from an soprano/oboe version of The Vale of Feathers performed by Janeanne Houston, soprano; and Shannon Spicatti, oboe.)

Recordings: Arizona University Recordings OF ERTHE AND AIR; Deux-Elles SONGS OF THE COTTON GRASS; CD Baby THE SHINING PLACE

Text by composer. Lyrical/challenging. Oxford University Press (out-of-print – please contact composer)

That Jewel-Spirit was commissioned by Lick-Wilmerding High School to commemorate the life of former student Moe Christie Nakamura. Sacred Mount Haguro links the words of contemporary American poet Penny Harter and the Japanese haiku by Matsuo Bashô (tr. W. J. Higginson). Bashô's haiku was written at Mount Haguro as a memorial poem; Penny Harter wrote "At the Top of Mount Haguro, Japan" while she and her husband W. J. Higginson were part of an international party following the Dewa section of Bashô's "Narrow Road of the Interior." The connections between “Momo” (the nickname of the beloved student who was an accomplished singer in her own right), Japan, and the USA are many. – HT