Treble
Build a World (2000)
SSA and Piano 4' 00" Peg Lauber, a Wisconsin poet, wrote the text for Build A World specifically for Zae Munn to set for the Madison Children's Choir. Each of three visions of a better world is followed by a rejection of something negative in our current world. The two musical characters in Build A World closely follow this alternation of text ideas. However, the music dwells on and develops some special words and phrases such as "overflows," like a spring," and "where freedom shines." The piano both supports the singers and provides subtle changes in character for each verse. Commissioned by the Madison Children's Choir (Wisconsin), Heather Thorpe, Director. Premiered by them on May 14, 2000. Advanced children; High school. "We want to build a world where peace comes down like rain and snow, so...don't give us a world of hunger and cold." Published by Yelton Rhodes Music.
The Canvas (1998)
Treble Choir and Orchestra 11' 00" Text and music suitable for both children's and women's choirs with mostly unison and two-part writing; pitch material well-supported in the instrumental parts; orchestral writing appropriate for college and community orchestras, with an emphasis on relatively simple parts for strings and more challenging parts for winds; pairs of winds plus piccolo, 3 tps, 3 hns, 2 tbns, 1 tuba, timpani, 1 percussion, strings. Text quote: "I loosen the canvas when the wind has dried it and the sun passed through it to become the unbelievable light that touches each living thing." Commissioned by Cynthia Bradford, conductor of the Southlake Children's Choir and Dennis Friesen-Carper, conductor of the Valparaiso University Symphony Orchestra. Published by Yelton Rhodes Music. High school; College; Adult women.
Come with Me (1995)
SA and Piano 4' 45" This piece plays with the idea of encouragement and resistance, for instance: "Come on! Let's skate upon a cloud." "Not on a cloud, I'm not allowed." There are passages using asymmetrical meters, clapping, and foot stomping, as well as optional maracas and rhythm sticks. The text is by Peg Lauber. Commissioned by the Southlake Children's Choir in Crown Point, Indiana, Cynthia Bradford, conductor; premiered by them at the 1996 Indiana Music Educators' Conference in Indianapolis. Advanced children; High school.
Grandma's Alleluia (1989)
SSA 10' 00" The text is pieced together from several of Ann Kilkelly's stories and poems, and presents a series of Grandma's memories as she rides the train across country. The music provides a constant reference to the rhythm of the train on the tracks, and at the same time changes character with each new memory. An Alleluia section connects each section and increases in length and complexity at each recurrence, finally ending the piece in a celebration of Grandma's long and productive life. Published by Earthsongs. Advanced high school; College; Adult women.
Like any Pilgrim (2001)
SSA 5' 00" The text for Like Any Pilgrim was written by Peg Lauber, a Wisconsin poet. A series of text similes "("Like a hawk...Like an old shell...The moon is like smoke") presents images of openness, sensitivity, expectation, and celebration. The refrain "Like any pilgrim I travel light, shining my own lantern" is presented at first as a solo statement. By the end of the piece it has transformed into a joyous chorale, many pilgrims joined together on a journey to new lands. Amasong, directed by Margot Rejskind, commissioned Like Any Pilgrim in celebration of their 10th anniversary in 2000. Premiered by them in May 2000. Published by Yelton Rhodes Music. Recorded by Amasong. College; Adult women.
Lyrical Limericks (2010)
SSA 8' 00" Lyrical Limericks is a musical setting of eight limericks written especially for this project, each intended to capture an aspect of the lives of the young women who would be singing it. Some are whimsical (piercing, vampires, Harry Potter) while others address weightier topics (dating and marriage, athletics, and feminism). A recurring section ("Once upon a time...") begins and ends the piece and also groups the limericks into three sections. The lyricists are Peg Lauber, Marilyn L. Taylor, Paul Munn, and Zae Munn. Lyrical Limericks is the result of a consortium commission headed by conductor Robert Geary.
Memorial (1992)
SSA 6' 00" Memorial uses selected texts from Memorial Day, a short story by Ann Kilkelly. The Memorial Day parade ends in the cemetery, where the onlookers and marchers gather amidst the gravestones for speeches and testimonials. Soprano and alto soloists sing together their own versions of In Flander's Field: while a child stumbles through her recitation, a grown woman, years ago chosen for the same honor, silently remembers the words, her version eloquent and mature with understanding and passion. As the recitation ends, "all of them standing there feel the connection of the living to the dead." Published by Arsis Press. College; Adult women.
The Muse, the Stove, and the Willow Plate (1988)
SSA 6' 00" Each of the three pieces presents a woman of strong character or action. In The Muse, a poet bemoans the fact that her muse is a bit more eccentric and troublesome than most. Two sections alternate, one slow and flexible with a harmonic emphasis, the other faster and more imitative. In The Stove, a woman rebels against her cantankerous old stove by pounding it to bits. The mixed meters exemplify the pounding of the sledge hammer used to do the dirty deed. And in The Willow Plate, a woman uses the images in a willow plate to sing a love song. The three vocal parts share the melody role, with the altos taking special responsibility. The songs may be performed separately or together. Published by Earthsongs. The Stove recorded by Amasong. Advanced high school; College; Adult women.
Spirit's Taking Flight (1995)
SSA 3' 30" Song for Saint Mary's College Arrangement of Sesquicentennial
Touched to Apocalypse (2001)
2-4 Part Treble Choir, piano, optional harp 6' 00" The text for Touched to Apocalypse was excerpted from a poem by Sister Madeleva, a founding member of the Sisters of the Holy Cross. It is a series of images of music ("Music: bare, destrously patterned air; music is key to ecstatic liberty") which seemed to the composer to suggest the prophetic, non-literal powers of music. Musical material generated by fourths alternates with sections based on more traditional triadic structures, but returning material is never exactly literal. Rather, it uses the "image" of its earlier self as it evolves with each new text image. The piano, while supporting all the sung material, also features black note clusters and long black note glissandos. All harp parts are cued in the piano part. Though the harp is optional, it adds a great deal to timbral variety, glissando gestures, and general resonance. Commissioned by the Saint Mary's College Women's Choir, Nancy Menk, Director, in celebration of the new millennium. It was premiered by them in 2001. Published by Yelton Rhodes Music. Recorded by Pro Organo. College; Adult women.
Mixed
And Dawn Tangled into Darkness (1983)
Mixed Choir and Chamber Orchestra 17' 00" Coming Soon
Care-Charmer Sleep (1985)
SATB and 4-part Drone 16' 25" A number of concepts drawn from the scientific literature on sleep contributed to the organization of Care-Charmer Sleep, including: the alternation of periods of synchronized sleep and dreams throughout a single night of sleep; bodily movements are often associated with the periods between dreams; large, slow delta waves characterize synchronized sleep; and, each dream may be built up slowly, with eye movements at first slow, then gradually becoming rapid (REM sleep). Structurally, there are three dreams separated by synchronized sleep. Dream 1 uses texts listing the qualities of sleep; Dream 2 uses texts based on a sleep-death simile--sleep as a miniature, a rehearsal, of death; in Dream 3 the texts use sleep as a direct metaphor for death--sleep is death. The choir moves into different groupings during synchronized sleep sections. The drone can be played by a synthesizer or wind instruments. Commissioned and premiered by the Transylvania University Concert Choir (Lexington, KY), Gary Anderson, conductor. (not currently available)
Certainty of Stone, a young person's guide to the orchestra (1996)
SATB and Piano 6' 00" Commissioned by the South Bend Chamber Singers to open their May 11, 1997 children's concert, this piece functions as the choral equivalent to Britten's Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra. Text was commissioned from Peg Lauber. Published by Yelton Rhodes Music. Advanced college; Professional quality.
Five Animal Songs (1998)
SATB and Piano 17' 00" The five individual songs are titled Mouse, Shrew, Vole; Bird; Merry-go-round; Horses; and Mice. They are all characterized by powerful text images, mixed meter, and a strong tonal basis. The third song is for 3-part women only. Text quote from Horses: "Our water was almost gone when the captain said the horses must go overboard." Commissioned by Constance DeFotis at Harvard University, Nina Nash-Robertson at Central Michigan University, Chet Alwes at University of Illinois, and Craig Johnson at Otterbein College. Intended for performance by good college choirs. Published by Yelton Rhodes Music. Recorded by Capstone. College and beyond.
Hushed Haiku (2017)
SATB and Piano 5' 30" Hushed Haiku, written for the South Bend Chamber Singers and completed in 2017, is a musical setting of five unpublished haiku by Karen Hesse, an American author of historically based books for young adults. As with traditional haiku, Hesse’s five evoke images of the natural world, and these five have a particular focus on the season of winter. Haiku syllabic structure requires five syllables in the first and third lines of each three-line haiku, and the number five figures prominently throughout Hushed Haiku—five sections, five-part chorus, 5/8 and 5/4 meters in alternating sections, and a five-word phrase, built of one significant word from each of the five haiku, provides the text for a unifying musical ostinato. In her choral and vocal works, Munn typically sets texts by living writers, including Peg Lauber, Marilyn Taylor, and Karen Hesse. One of Hesse’s young adult novels, Witness, was the basis of the libretto for Zae’s 2006 full-length opera of the same name and her very short opera, Night of Blue Magic, sets 22 haiku by Hesse.
To be like Music (1993)
SATB 9' 00" This piece is subtitled "Women Mystics Speak: Dame Julian of Norwich, Diotima in Plato's Symposium, and Beatrice of Nazareth." The piece begins with Julian of Norwich's words about the soul and body being enclosed in the goodness of God. Diotima, from Plato's Symposium, then speaks of the eternal sameness of God's beauty, with the music expressing this sameness by returning always to the same pitch. Beatrice of Nazareth's ecstatic vision is the centerpiece of the work: a mechanistic, mixed meter pattern sets the words "the whole machine of the world as if it were a wheel" and a glissando effect emphasizes the turning of a large wheel. The machine image recedes to reveal Beatrice's intense longing for unity with God, expressed in a series of solos sung over an intense and unresolved choral chord. The machine image comes to the foreground once more, then recedes again to allow Julian to speak of the image of a hazelnut and to end the work with the essential words of the opening: "soul and body, clad in the goodness of God and enclosed." The Whole Machine requires an accomplished choir. It has demanding rhythmic counterpoint and a number of solos for each voice part. Commissioned and premiered by the South Bend Chamber Singers, Nancy Menk, conductor. Published by Yelton Rhodes Music. Professional quality.
The Whole Machine of the World (1992)
SATB 9' 00" Two separate entities mutually and continually act upon each other while maintaining their individual integrities. Change and development, brought about by both immediate and long-term responsiveness to each other, are continuous. In the last of four sections, the old tune Fascination grows out of the pitch material and is quoted, with very thick harmonies, several times. This is a demanding, virtuoso piece.