The “Muse Room” is the room in my house where I make music and my wife makes visual art. Published the first Friday of the month, each issue of Letters from the Muse Room includes news and updates about my music, as well as something that has inspired me creatively over the past month.
Dear friends,
I hope you are surviving and thriving at home as quarantines and stay-at-home orders continue. As I wrote last month, I am very blessed to have a job I can continue to work from home, as well as having the Muse Room as a home office.
The mayor of Kansas City has announced the first phase of a plan to reopen the city beginning next week. I hope your local governments are making similar plans, and you’re able to start working back toward normal life safely.
One thing that has provided some hope and joy for me has been the arrival of spring. I always love seeing the colors of spring after a long, cold winter, but it has felt even more important this year.
I also shared last month that I’ve started working on a new choral piece, Adventus, with text by my brother Mark Harbison.
I am stoked to announce that the text is now finished! Here it is (though it will display best on computer or tablet screens):
Adventus
by Mark Harbison
Adventus
A coming
Poor son of man,
Yet Word of God made flesh:
The promised Messiah, King of kings.
Born without fanfare in the dirt and the hay,
His only proclamation a sign in the sky for kings from afar,
His only attendants livestock and shepherds, the least of these—
While the greatest slaughter the innocent, and voices weep and mourn.
In the fullness of time, the Redeemer has come at last: the Son of God Himself,
Who died but conquered death; who ascended to heaven and shall come again with glory.
When the course of time is finished, and the days of mourning are ended,
Despite hard-hearted pharaohs, weeping and rumors of wars—
The least of these wait, certain of the unknown day and hour
When his sign streaks like lightning across the sky,
When “how long, O Lord” is at last no longer:
When the Lord of lords returns triumphant,
Word of God crowned in glory,
Great Son of Man,
O Savior come
Adventus
When I first had the idea for the piece, I specifically wanted the text to be in this shape: each line gets longer and longer until the central line, which is the longest, and then each line gets shorter and shorter until we’re back to the single word “Adventus.”
In addition to bookending the piece with “Adventus” — looking back to Jesus’ first coming, and ahead to His second coming — the shape will lend itself well to the chant-like music.
I will share more about the piece, including an audio clip, in June!
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Something that has inspired me over the past month is connecting with musical colleagues I haven’t spoken to in a while. I wrote in the very first Letter from the Muse Room that my piano piece Five Scenes had won first prize in the Belvedere Chamber Music Festival Composition Contest, and I got to attend the festival in June 2018 and hear the piece performed (excellently!) by Perry Mears.
I got to meet many of the Luna Nova musicians who perform regularly at the festival (and some fellow composers), and very much enjoyed spending time with them.
Along with completing three compositions and listening to a ton of Beethoven, one of my goals for this year is to send out more of my music to musicians I know and ask if they would be interested in performing it. I determined I’d send out the piano trio I just finished, Always Be Clipping, as well as the Requiem I wrote at the end of 2018, and I emailed a couple of the pianists I had met (including Perry) as well as a soprano.
I didn’t quite know how the pieces would be received, especially at a time when live performances aren’t happening and when I hadn’t talked to these people in a while. But I was pleasantly surprised. Everyone said they were happy to hear from me, and were excited to take a look at the music and program it for concerts in the future. And it gave me a chance to learn more about how the pandemic has affected them and their families and how they were coping. It was great to reconnect with them, not only musically but personally.
We live in an age of amazing communication technology. Don’t let staying at home keep you from community.
Be well.
Peace,
AJ Harbison
P.S. The musicians of the Kansas City Symphony are still posting videos of home performances on social media, and I am still encouraging you to go and watch them. Search Facebook, YouTube and Instagram for the hashtag #KCSisStillMakingMusic and enjoy!