REFLECTED REVERBERATIONS
Coming Early 2023!
Reflected Reverberations is an album by composer Elizabeth Rudolph and features performances by
Sarah Thompson Johansen, Megan Elizabeth Cook, Beck Buechel, Teresa Jiseung Kang, Dalia Chin, Rachel Schuldt and Theresa Lams. Conductor for The Lake is Christopher Owen.
The album is produced by Emily Cox of Cox Productions and is recorded and engineered by Matthew Peckham and Shelby Lock at Peckham Media Productions.
finding self
Old Oaken Table
Megan Elizabeth Cook, soprano
Theresa Lams, clarinet
Miniatures
Theresa Lams, soprano sax
Broken
Dance
Cliff
The Lake
Christopher Owen, conductor
Sarah Thompson Johansen, soprano
Dalia Chin, flute
Rachel Schuldt, cello
January
Sub-Zero Snow
April Floods
Echoes
Aurora Borealis
Irrevocable Trust
Superior
In Autumn
The Lake
4Nov2002
Megan Elizabeth Cook, soprano
Theresa Jiseung Kang, piano
Trivialities
Theresa Lams, clarinet
Theresa Jiseung Kang, piano
Surreptitious
Catachrestic
Time Stops
Megan Elizabeth Cook, soprano
Theresa Jiseung Kang, piano
Family Relations
Beck Buechel, mezzo-soprano
Theresa Jiseung Kang, piano
Orange Elevators
Suddenly Summer
Mothers Shoes
featuring
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How do I get scores and permissions to perform Elizabeth’s works?Either contact me or go to the Lulu shop. If you buy a score on the shop, please let me know when/if you are performing my works.
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How do I commission a piece from Elizabeth?Contact me! Be sure to have some information avaialbe about the type of piece you are looking for, including but not limited to length, theme, timeline and any specific instrumenation or voice types that are desire.
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I want to collaborate with Elizabeth!I am open to many sorts of collaborations. Contact me and we’ll see if we’d make a good team!
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Where can I hear Elizabeth’s music?Check out my YouTube channel! Many of my recent works are featured here. You can also take a look at the works featured on this site.
Program Notes
Old Oaken Table
By Elizabeth Rudolph
Written for clarinet and soprano, this song is intended to be a meditative reflection on both the poet’s origins and how they are reflected in her daily life. A teacher of literature, Julie Ball spent many hours reading (and grading) the work of her high school students at the table she inherited from her grandmother. The clarinet weaves into and around the vocal line, sometimes finishing the melody, sometimes beginning it, sometimes offering counterpoint or harmony.
Miniatures
By Elizabeth Rudolph
These three short movements are intended to be playable by any solo instrument. We have chosen Theresa Lams on soprano saxophone for this premiere. The first and third movement are more contemporary classical in nature, while the second movement is heavily influenced by jazz. The instrumentalist is asked to change their approach and timbre for each movement.
The Lake
Music by Elizabeth Rudolph
Text by Julie Ann Ball
Julie Ball’s poetry is often inspired by nature and especially by the nature of the upper Midwest and the Great Lakes, as she grew up in northern Wisconsin and raised her children in Duluth, Minnesota. As an artist, I appreciate the idea of changing seasons as a metaphor for the cycles of history and of life. This cycle begins in January and ends the following winter. We follow the poet through a whole year of nature, while also reflecting on some personal events in her life. The composer has used a variety of techniques to reflect the various moments, including some extended techniques for the instrumentalists and some extremely difficult moments for the vocalist.
4nov2002
Poems by Julie Ann Ball
This song features a great deal of text-painting, or trying to mirror the meaning of the words within the music. 4nov2002 is written in a more traditional ABA form, with the thematic material of the opening returning toward the end. It is a gentle text, about the first snow over Lake Superior looking forward to a long Duluth winter.
Trivialities
Music by Elizabeth Rudolph
For clarinet and piano, this piece was written for Theresa Lams. It is intended to be evocative and graceful, chromatically melodic and jovial. Like so many of my pieces, it’s somewhat traditionally structured, but not strictly adhering to traditional rules. Surreptitious is related to a song I wrote for high soprano (Queen Elizabeth’s Enlightenment, premiered by Alex Salas and Josh Quinn on the album A Horse With Wings), but in this case I allowed myself to give the clarinetist more instrumental gestures than in that song. Catachrestic, like Dance from the Miniatures, is heavily influenced by Jazz and requires a change of timbre from both instrumentalists.
Time Stops
Music by Elizabeth Rudolph
Text by Julie Ann Ball
This poem was written by my aunt (Julie Ball) in the week after my grandmother died. It deals specifically with the feeling of hollowness when someone you care about leaves this life. Suddenly the mundane things you used to do with that person take on this preciousness and meaning that one may or may not have noticed before. In this time of pandemic, with so many people dying, I wanted to write a song dedicated to those of us who have lost loved ones. It's especially difficult in this time because we're so isolated, which means a lot of people are dying (not necessarily of COVID) without the opportunity to say goodbye. I did try to keep the musical language of this piece as accessible as possible in order to allow it to speak to a wider range of people.
Family Relations
Music by Elizabeth Rudolph
Text by Julie Ann Ball
Julie Ball is my father’s sister and these three poems deal with the relationships between my father, his sisters, and their parents. The time comes in every child’s life when they find that they are no longer the child. The torch is passed. Adulthood looms. These poems and songs were written soon after the passing of my paternal grandmother, and while my paternal grandfather was transitioning into the later stages of life. The poetry is direct, unflinching in the face of major emotional upheaval, and I tried to allow the music to take a backseat in the first and third songs, providing a foundation but minimal commentary on the lyrics. The second song is acapella (without accompaniment) and not easy for the singer as it is relatively chromatic. I gave myself permission in this second song to do some text-painting, trying to convey with the music what my imagination perceived in the poetry.