●Sistere, 2019
●Lace Piece, Movement IV/Stitchomythia, 2018-19
●J’ai Plus de Souvenirs Que, Benjamin Project II, 2015-19
●Captiva, 2015-18
●Lace Piece, Movement III/Thinking in Stitches, 2017
●In Place, 2014-15
●Impossible Tasks, 2014
●Super Nature Replica, 2015
●Three Harps, Tuning Forks & Electronics, 2013
●Circles and Squares: It IS [none other than] Little Tales of Misogyny, 2013
●Wave on the Wild Stream of Being, 2012
●Spellbeamed, Fixexploded, Fixabolished, Benjamin Project I, 2011-12
●s:c:a:t:t:e:r:i:n:g, 2011-12
●Lace Piece, Movement II/Action Cards, 2009
●Lace Piece, Movement I, 2008
●Thingworld, 2008
●Daldals, 2008
●Visible/Invisible, 2006
●Persuasion, 2005
●Pan~Acousticon, 1999
●V.O.U. Valley of Unrest, 1998
●Mouth=Maul=Betrayer, 1996
●Isabelle, 1993
●La Mer, 1991
Scale
2019, 40 min.Jeff Kolar — co-composition
ILand, Jennifer Monson as bend the even — commission
Observation, embodied transferences, telepathy; Nature felt as both utopic and disruptive. Employing swipes, knocks, plucks, resonators and hypnotic tessellations, in conversation with radio waves, static, homemade synths and feedback. Inspired by the timings and sensations of natural phenomena including daylight’s slow emergence at dawn and the insistent pulsing of ocean currents. Attention is situated in an often luscious, contemplative sonic environment that shifts at varying rates from the imperceptible to sudden unexpected bursts.
Sistere
2018-19, 9 min.Solo cello and fixed media/stereo diffusion
Lace Piece, Movement IV/Stichomythia
2018-19, 68 min.ICI-Centre Choréographique National Montpeillier, Occitaine / Pyrénées Méditerranée, Fundação de Serralves Porto, Les Spectables Vivants Centre Pompidou Paris, FACE–FUSED and Contemporary Theater programs — co-commisioners
A solo harp concert with visitors made in collaboration with designer Nadia Lauro.
J’ai Plus de Souvenirs Que, Benjamin Project II
2015-19, 50 min.DAAD and Maerz Musik — co-commisioner
Written for Magda Mayas, Tony Buck, Laurent Bruttin, Zeena Parkins, Matty Ostrowkski
Multi-movement composition for clarinets, percussion, prepared piano and prepared clavinet, acoustic harp with live processing, voice, 20 speaker array installation, and electronics
Captiva
2015-18, 42 min.Multi-movement work for solo acoustic harp and live electronics
Electronics created in collaboration with Matthew Ostrowski
“In August of 2015, Zeena and I spent five weeks at the Rauschenberg Residency on Captiva Island. We developed a series of creative research methods with sound, movement, photography and drawing that led to Captiva. Our process included different types of observing and notating the horizons of the island’s landscape, through line and rhythm. Taking photographs of various points of view on the beach, framed and punctuated line. Once printed, we traced the lines of waves, tidelines and other edges of the landscape’s image, following what became less and less line, as it became more and more the movement of light on water, sand or sky. Our bodies, now positioned to look down as though from the sky, instead of outwards from a vertical stance, were reoriented to a new perspective. This changed our relationship to space, both flattening and dimensionalizing the experience of line.
Short studies were developed that created a set of conditions that were used to explore and create new systems. These investigations were part and parcel of the rhythm of our days: swimming, walking, recording rain and frogs, watching storms move across the sky, and dancing together.
Captiva transmits an understanding of a relationship between and of systems that is deeply embodied. The kind of knowing and listening created in these sonic systems holds multiple orbits of sensation, time, structure, and rhythm.”
—Jennifer Monson
Lace Piece, Movement III/Thinking in Stiches
2017-18, 44 min.A set of pieces based on Shetland lace knitting patterns written for my band Green Dome.
Percussion/trap, acoustic harp, prepared piano, electronics
In Place
2014-15, 50 min.DAAD — commission
Electric and acoustic harps, piano, multiple e bows, MAX patch, 3 speakers
Solo for 3 instruments in 3 adjacent spaces, in very close proximity to the audience.
Impossible Tasks (sometimes part of In Place)
2014-ongoing, 15 min.Solo for acoustic harp whose focused task is to ‘bend the pitch’ using pedal manipulations.
Super Nature Replica
2015, 25 min.Body Cartography Project as Supernature — commission
Brass sextet, 3 Foley artists, field recordings, 4-6 loud speaker diffusion of fixed media.
A re-imagining of Parkins original score for Supernature.
Three Harps, Tuning Forks & Electronics
2013, 42 min.Dance by Neil Greenberg as Really Queer Dance with Harps — commission
Three harps, tuning forks, objects, live electronics and fixed media playback
Circles and Squares: It IS[none other than]Little Tales of Misogyny
2013, 20 min.Either/Or Ensemble and Ensemble Son — co-commission
Piano, acoustic guitar, vibraphone, cimbalum, saxophone, voice, trombone, fixed media
Wave on the Wild Stream of Being
2012, 6 min.Christof Dienz Quadratsch — commission
Zither, hammered dulcimer, double bass, acoustic guitar, acoustic harp, various percussion
Spellbeamed, Fixexploded, Fixabolished, Benjamin Project I
2011-12, 57 min.Ne(x)tworks Ensemble — commission
String quartet, trombone, piano, 2 acoustic harps, percussion, glass instruments, electronics, voice, 600 objects, projections and quad diffusion
s:c:a:t:t:e:r:i:n:g
2011-2012, 27 min.Eclipse Quartet and William Winant — commission
String quartet, marimba, Lou Harrison bell instrument, tomtoms, snare, chimes, various metal percussion, surround sound audio
Lace Piece, Movement II/Action Cards
2010, 1-20 min.Open instrumentation
Lace Piece, Movement I
2008, 20 min.Merce Cunningham Dance Company, Music Mondays Series — commission
Written for Zeena Parkins, Fast Forward, George Lewis, John King
Varied orchestration for varied number of performers
Thingworld
2008, 9 min.Roulette Intermedium — commission
Steel pan, marimba, vibes, glockenspiel, ondes martenont, acoustic harp
Daldals
2008, 19 min.Roulette Intermedium — commission
Piano, organ 2 trombones, 2 flutes, electronics, percussion (3 players needed)
Visible/Invisible
2006, 17 min.The Eclipse Quartet — commission
String quartet
Persuasion
2005, 17 min.Compaigne Sui Generis as Croisees — commission
String quartet and live electronics
Pan~Acousticon
1999The Gangster Band — commission
Violin, 2 cellos, piano, sampler, accordion, electric harp, percussion, vibes, electric guitar, saxaphone
V.O.U. Valley of Unrest
1998Bang on a Can — commission
Chamber Orchestra and electric guitar soloist (for Mark Stewart)
Mouth=Maul=Betrayer
1996The Gangster Band — commission
Electric harp, piano, sampler, violin, 2 cellos, electric guitar, mandolin, drums, vibes, voice
Isabelle
1993, 28 min.A multi-movement worked based on the life of Swiss explorer/writer/traveler, Isabelle Eberhardt for piano, cello, violin, sampler, electric harp, and snare drum.
La Mer
1991, 30 min.Whitney Museum New Ventures in American Music — commission
2 acoustic harps, electric harp, sampler, bass trombone, turntables
Reimagines the first movement of Debussy’s La Mer, foregrounding the harp parts to hold the centerpiece of the work. From this vantage point, the composition uses Debussy’s diaries, desires, and critiques to glean sonic, social, and historic source materials that are translated into musical events. Written for Carol Emmanelle, Christian Marclay, David Weinstein, Jim Staley, and Zeena Parkins.