The Angel (from Blake’s Songs of Innocence & of Experience)

William Blake’s Songs Of Innocence and Of Experience dwells in the realm of nuance, with multiple, even conflicting interpretations. This ambiguity is what attracted me to his poem, The Angel. In the beginning an idealistic young girl, in the glow of wonderment, dreams of being a “maiden queen.” As the poem unfolds, her music moves from chaste pop song simplicity to complexity. Was her Angel over-protective, even misleading? Did the Angel abandon her in her time of need? Did she mislead her Angel? The question whether she needlessly sacrificed her youth and desires leads her to doubt, then anger, but also independence. Aware, and armed with gray-haired wisdom, she has no need of an Angel. After an intense instrumental interlude, the opening simple drum groove returns and then is embedded in the pitched instruments, creating a faint funereal echo. The song’s rueful weariness is disrupted by a last rush of unresolved sound, which hangs questioning in the air. I’m proud to take part in this joint student-faculty composition project designed by Dr. Stephen Gorbos. I’d also like thank my performers Balance Campaign, and mezzo-soprano Carolyn Shaffer. You can hear the premiere performance (4/24/24) here or view it here:

Sweet Stillness

Sweet Stillness is a plea for peace and understanding, to find that sorely needed space for contemplation, grounding, kindness, and grace through humility in our dark and troubled world. The music creates a neutral space to contemplate, center, feel, and extend grace to one another, not just react via invective. I compiled the text from an excerpt of Barthold Heinrich Brockes’ poem Süße Stille, sanfte Quelle, in a translation my dear friend and colleague Kay (Dr. K. M. Knittel) offered to me years ago, and newly written words of my own. The work is scored for SATB soloist, SATB chorus, piano, and strings and is dedicated “To Kay Knittel who still lights the world around us.” Sweet Stillness was commissioned by Catholic University of America’s Rome School of Music, Drama and Art.

Dream – words & music by Joel Phillip Friedman (featuring Alex Gallows/vocals, Scott Thureen/video)

Uncle Hokum’s Fiddle for TWO violins (2022)

Uncle Hokum’ s Fiddle is a fun, virtuosic solo violin “fiddle” piece with a Blue Grass flavor – think Wieniawski meets Orange Blossom Special! – originally commissioned for the 2013 Irving M. Klein International String Competition and performed by all the semifinalists (and some finalists). The title comes from two main sources. The first is the word “hokum,” which basically means nonsense, bunk, or something silly. It was also used in theater to describe some sort of stage gimmickry designed to elicit a response from a jaded audience. Perhaps a crowd pleaser? The second source is a type of bowing typical of virtuosic country fiddling pieces: hokum bowing (also referred to as the “double shuffle”). Check out Orange Blossom Special as an example of this “trick bowing.” I wanted to graft the traditions of 19th Century virtuosic violin writing with country or bluegrass fiddling. In 2022 Karen Bentley Pollick asked for a 2 violin version for her Virtuosos De Camara’s Fiddlefest  (Karen Bentley Pollick and Philip Brezina, violins) which will be rescheduled in 2023. Video will be posted on Virtuosos De Camara’s YouTube page. Audio is HERE.

The score is available through Grey Bird Music. To see a perusal score click here.

Both the revised solo (V. 2.0) & duo (with parts) versions are now bundled together as one 10×13″ PDF download for purchase for a total of $8.00 USD. Please contact me directly due to the recent changes in PayPal’s coding that have disabled the creation of new payment buttons. Payment can be accepted via Venmo until this site is updated.

The Horizon Beyond

There is a long history behind the genesis of this brief work. “The Horizon Beyond” has its roots in works that I composed for the Klein International String Competition (“Triptych,” for solo cello), and a work commissioned by Maestro Angel Gil-Ordoñez for his Georgetown University Orchestra premiered in 2014 (“The First Step of the Journey”). With “The Horizon Beyond,” I revisited the earlier works and fashioned a new brief, concert opener. “The Horizon Beyond” is in an arch form – moving from a quiet restlessness to more joyful, buoyant, and declamatory music, and then back to a quiet, unsettled close. The piece captures a mixture of hope and unease, a sense of reaching for something that’s just out of reach – the horizon beyond. It is dedicated to my friend and colleague, Angel Gil-Ordoñez

“Right In Front Of Our Nose!”

Inferno: Double Concerto for Viola, Cello, and Chamber Orchestra

Hear about Inferno from the members of the team…

One Into One – for soprano & piano

One Into One (lyric: Seth Friedman)
Instrumentation: soprano & piano
Duration: Ca. 5 minutes
Read more…

Johansen

From: All Things Are Set Ablaze (2017)

All Things Are Set Ablaze (text by Hildegard von Bingen, compiled by Joel Phillip Friedman and based upon translations by Nathaniel Campbell and Barbara Newman)

Instrumentation: soprano, soprano, & mezzo-soprano, plus hand percussion

Duration: 8:00

From: All Things Are Set Ablaze (excerpt) ModernMedieval at the Virginia Arts Festival LISTEN HERE

Review in The Washington Post HERE.

All Things Are Set Ablaze (soprano, soprano, & mezzo-soprano, plus hand percussion) was commissioned by Jacqueline Horner-Kwiatek for her new ensemble ModernMedieval Trio of Voices (Martha Cluver & Eliza Bagg, sopranos; Jacqueline Horner-Kwiatek, mezzo-soprano) and is based on the writings of famed German abbess, writer, composer, philosopher, Christian mystic, visionary, and polymath Hildegard von Bingen.

I am imagining my own made-up and modernized version of Hildegard von Bingen rising up and returning to warn us all: we have lost our way, are facing destruction, and we must listen to her now, or face the consequences as she warns … “all things are set ablaze… from me!” My invented Hildegard is a mixture of the real and prescient woman of many enormous talents and startling visions, Wagner’s Valkyrie warrior Brünnhilde, the Oracle of Delphi prophesying the future, and perhaps a bad-ass Wonder Woman. Most of the words I set are Hildegard’s own, in English translations by Medieval Latin scholars Nathaniel Campbell and Barbara Newman. Perhaps Hildegard’s writings initially had…a slightly different context, but it doesn’t take much to feel the potent currency of her words as we look at what is happening today. I have added some non-Hildegard text: short cautionary Latin fragments (“Monitum… Praedictum… Ignifer… Audi me”) as well as, fittingly, a single line from Wagner’s opera Die Walküre – the famous Valkyrie war cry (“Hojotoho! hojotoho! heiaha! Heiaha!”). If Hildegard were to return today I imagine she would like the spirit of these added words. Perhaps she’d join singing them as well!

I’d like to thank Nathaniel Campbell and Barbara Newman for allowing me to use and adapt their Hildegard translations, and for Nathaniel’s invaluable help wordsmithing the Latin portions.

World Premiere: ModernMedieval Trio of Voices on the Shenson Chamber Music Series, Gilan Tocco Corn, Artistic Director, National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington D.C. on May 9, 2018.