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1.
Howard Hersh, composer; Tod Brody, flute - Howard Hersh: Solo 07:22
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2.
Howard Hersh, composer; Daniel deSimone, marimba - Howard Hersh: Jitterbug 07:44
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3.
Howard Hersh, composer; Lois Bliss Herbine, piccolo - Howard Hersh: I Had to Go Down in the Mines to Climb Up to the Sky 11:27
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4.
Howard Hersh, composer; Liana Bérubé, violin - Howard Hersh: A Crown of Feathers 13:49
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about

WORKS FOR SOLOISTS

1) Solo for flute (2006)
Performed by Tod Brody.

2) Jitterbug for marimba (2016)

“Jitterybug” might be an even more descriptive title for this piece, with its abrupt shifts of character and mood, offbeat metrics and inability to settle into a calm place, except – perhaps – at the very end, and probably not even then.

Daniel deSimone gave its premiere in Germany in 2019, and recorded it later that year in California.

3) I Had to Go Down in the Mines to Climb Up to the Sky for solo and
16 pre-recorded piccolos (2013)

I Had to Go Down in the Mines to Climb Up to the Sky was composed for Lois Bliss Herbine, and inspired by her family history, which is rooted in the coal mines of Wales and America

The piece pays homage to America’s great immigrant experience and its newcomers, who sacrificed so much to provide a better life for future generations. It explores a polyphonic tapestry of overlaid voices, and a dialogue between the soloist and the disembodied choir, the kindly ghosts, on whose shoulders, contemporary America stands.

All the parts In this recording were realized by Ms. Herbine.


4) A Crown of Feathers for violin (1992)

A Crown of Feathers memorializes the Jewish communities that were destroyed in the Holocaust.

Its fabric is woven from threads of Yiddish songs, recalled through the haze of remembrance that enhaloes these moving documents of the diaspora. They appear, first as lively fragments that collide with one another, then as two slow melodies – the haunting Tsvey Taybelech (Two Little Doves) and the popular Oyfn Pripetchik (On the Hearth), with which the piece closes.

Two Little Doves tells the story of parted lovers. During the Nazi occupation, it became enormously popular in the Vilna ghetto, thanks to the interpretation of the singer Luba Levitski, who, as legend has it, sang the melody as she was led to her death.

Mark Warshawsky’s Oyfn Pripetchik begins with a cozy depiction of a rabbi teaching children the Hebrew alphabet, and ends with an allusion to the tragic struggle to which the letters bear witness.

A fire’s burning in the hearth,
And the room is warm,
And the rabbi is teaching the little children
Their ABC’s.

When you grow older, children,
You’ll learn on your own,
How many tears lie in these letters,
And how much sorrow.

A Crown of Feathers was recorded by Bay Area artist Liana Bérubé on the 1775 Giovanni Batista Guadagnini “Bryant” violin and 1825 Francois Xavier Tourte “ex Millant” bow, and is dedicated to Benjamin Lyon.

It's title is taken from a short story by Yiddish author and Nobel laureate Issac Bashevis Singer.

* * * * * * * * * *

Tracks 1,2 and 4 were recorded and mixed by David Luke at Opus Studios in Berkeley and edited by James Frazier (1 and 4) and Robert Shumaker (2).

I Had to Go Down in the Mines to Climb Up to the Sky was co-produced in Philadelphia by recordist Drew Taurisano and Lois Bliss Herbine and mixed by the composer and David Luke at Opus Studios.

Album mastering by David Luke.

Produced by Howard Hersh, Justin Hersh and Benjamin Lyon.

Album design by Gillian Hersh.

Snow Leopard Music 301
© ℗ 2022 Howard Hersh

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released December 19, 2022

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Howard Hersh Nevada City, California

California-born composer Howard Hersh studied piano in Los Angeles and composition at Stanford University. Terry Riley calls him "one of the masters of California's thriving new music scene," and Pauline Oliveros adds, "his sensitive and exciting music belongs in the American canon."

He lives in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains. ... more

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