Unremembered (for 3 voices and octet) (2016)

Songs
1. Prelude
2. The Estate
3. The Barn
4. The Guest
5. The Slaughterhouse
6. The Girl
7. The Swan
8. The Witch
9. The River
10. The Speakers
11. The Orchard
12. The Song
13. The Past

Songs can be performed separately.

Note
Unremembered is an hour-long, thirteen-movement song cycle inspired by poems and illustrations by writer and visual artist, Nathaniel Bellows. The piece was originally conceived for seven live voices and chamber orchestra; this arrangement of the piece requires three wide-ranged vocalists and puts the remaining four voices on pre-recorded tracks which are incorporated into the electronic sound design.

A meditation on memory, innocence, and the haunted grandeur of the natural world, Unremembered recalls strange and beautiful happenings experienced during a childhood in rural Massachusetts: a houseguest takes sudden leave in the middle of the night; a boy makes a shocking discovery on a riverbank; a girl disappears in woods behind a ranging farm; ghosts appear with messages for the living. The cycle explores the ways in which beguiling events in early life can resonate in — and prepare us for — the subtler horrors that lie beyond the realm of childhood.

An early version of five songs from Unremembered was commissioned by Roomful of Teeth in 2011. The next five songs were commissioned by the Ecstatic Music Festival and Kaufman Music Center in 2012. Three songs followed, and the entire cycle was newly orchestrated in 2013.