Molly Herron Portfolio
An Opening Goodbye (2023)
for large mixed ensemble
duration: 5’
Performed by Contemporaneous
Program Note
AN OPENING GOODBYE is the first movement of a work in progress. It was written for Contemporaneous in 2019 and premiered by them at the Taplin Auditorium at Princeton University on April 15 , 2019. It was updated in 2023 and recorded by Contemporaneous at Douglass Street Recording in Brooklyn, NY.
Through Lines: New Music for Viola da Gamba Consort (2021)
for three and four viols
full album duration: 40’
Science Ficta: Loren Ludwig, Zoe Weiss, Kivie Cahn-Lipman, bass viola da gamba
Molly Herron, additional bass viola da gamba on interludes 1, 2, 3, and 4
Program Note
In Through Lines, I explore the modern voice of the viola da gamba as situated in the context of its history. Each piece focuses on a different “found” element: a gesture, articulation, form, tuning, or aspect of physicality. As an amateur viol player myself, the music I’ve written is deeply influenced by the physicality and historical repertoire of the viol. The seven pieces in this collection exist as individual works, but are strongly connected to each other. They may be played in order, selected and reordered in any way, or performed as standalone pieces. I conceived of them from the beginning as an album and these works are ideally represented on Through Lines: New Music for Viola da Gamba Consort (New Amsterdam, 2021).
“Canon No. 2” is a staggered entrance unison canon that explores the result of different melodic overlays through entrance delays and the stretching of the canon melody. “Lyra” is a nod to the great English viol tradition of alternate tunings, traditionally called lyra tunings. This tuning is a D major seventh chord and the piece mainly relies on the harmonics the strings provide. “Drone” is presented in the score as one piece, though on the album it appears as a series of interludes. This work focuses on the great temperament potential of the viol. Due to the mobility of the frets and their easy addition or subtraction, adjusting to new temperaments comes easily and is a historically rooted practice. “Canon No. 3” is a studio piece not intended to be recreated in a live performance. The rule of this canon is that each melody shares a simultaneous note with the melody that precedes it, though the rest of the melody may be entirely misaligned.
Spin, Span, Spun (2023)
for chamber orchestra
duration: 12’30”
1. Spin (0:00-4:15)
2. Span (4:16-7:29)
3. Spun (7:30-12:20)
About the work
Spin, Span, Spun was commissioned by Orchestra of St. Luke’s for the 2023 DeGaetano Composer’s Institute. It was first performed by Orchestra of St. Luke’s, conducted by Brad Lubman, on July 25th, 2023.
Program Note
When I first encountered the poems of Jean Gallagher, I immediately felt a resonance with my own work. While writing in a thoroughly modern voice, Gallagher engages with (or as she would say, collides with) old stories and artifacts (often quite old, as with her poem “To Noah, from Wife, Some Years After”). I see my work too as a collision between old compositional ideas (such as those of Vivaldi and Haydn) and my contemporary ears. In the case of “Spin, Span, Spun” I am colliding with Gallagher's motion-filled poem “Spin” as well.
Wilding
Orchesography (2022)
for bitKlavier (the “prepared” digital piano invented by Dan Trueman)
duration: 8’
1. An open Step outwards
2. Sink and Rise in moving
3. The Presence of the Body
performed by Cristina Altamura
About the work
Long ago I came across a digitized version of a manuscript called “Orchesography. or, the Art of Dancing,” by John Weaver, published in 1706. Orchesography is a word for dance notation and according to the manuscript, “the whole Art” of dancing “is explain’d; with compleat Tables of all Steps us’d in Dancing, and Rules for the Motions of the Arms.” I found the language in the manuscript both precise and poetically evocative of specific ways that a body can move. Music is usually connected to motion for me, and as I read through the manuscript, musical ideas started popping. When Dan asked me to write for bitKlavier, I felt that it was the perfect format for these ideas because of the ways that bitKlavier expands the range of techniques available on the piano. Each movement: An open Step outwards, Sink and Rise in moving, and The Presence of the Body, takes its title from Weaver’s text and aims to give a sense of embodied motion and sensation.
Each of these make subtle use of bitKlavier’s capabilities; on hearing alone, it might be unclear that there is anything other than a conventional piano at work (though the last one, The Presence of the Body, has a delightful and unmistakable tuning wobble, from bitKlavier’s spring tuning; and the end of the first one time travels in a distinctly bitKlavierien way).
Wilding
for solo marimba
duration: 4’45’
view score
About the work
"Wilding” explores the environmental concept of re-wilding: restoring a human controlled area to its natural ecosystem. The landscape of the music is initially simple and sparse, but soon new melodies enter and create a world popping with life.
Written for Ji Hye Jung
Compare the way we move
for solo percussion
duration: 7-10 min
view score
About the work
This piece uses flower pot shards, a metal ruler, and a doorstop to explore the counterpoint of overlapping ricochets.
Sun Changes
for Saxophone Orchestra
Sun Changes strives to capture the quality of shifting light cast from an irregular surface. The performers move between different fingerings for the same pitch in order to achieve an ever changing texture.
2 Soprano Saxophones
4 Alto Saxophones
2 Tenor Saxophones
2 Baritone Saxophones
Bass Saxophone
released November 4, 2022
Sun Changes, composed by Molly Herron
Produced by Pascal Le Boeuf
Mixed and Mastered by Dave Darlington, Bass Hit Studio
Remy Le Boeuf, Soprano, Tenor, Alto Saxophones
Jay Rattman, Baritone Saxophones
Nick Zoulek, Tenor, Alto, Bass Saxophones
Reviews, Radio Shows, and Podcasts
a closer listen
Bandcamp (Best of Bandcamp)
Bandcamp: What the Instrument Remembers
BBC Radio 3 Late Junction
CBC Listen
Headphone Commute
I CARE IF YOU LISTEN
There Stands the Glass
KGNU: After FM
WCPE The Classical Station: Interview with Molly & Dan McHugh
WMBR The New Edge: Played "Canon No. 3," "Interlude 1," and "Hammer and Pull" on July 13.
WNYC New Sounds (1) (2)
WMBR Not Brahms & Liszt
Oberon’s Grove
New York Concert Review
The St. Louis American
Bach Track
The Scorekeepers Podcast
mollyherron@gmail.com
+1 917 623 3663