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,
Happy Third of July. I hope you have been staying safe and have seen some real, significant change in your community. Here in Kansas City, my family is healthy and I have greatly appreciated the diligent work of our mayor guiding the city through the health crisis and the protests with wise leadership. I hope you’re able to say the same.

It is good to be back with you this month and I am looking forward to sharing some music and inspiration with you.

I’ve written the last couple of months about my new choral piece, Adventus, and it is now finished! It’s posted on my website, complete with program notes and a perusal score (like all my pieces).

I wanted to share an audio clip with you as well. It’s just MIDI, so the “choir” is all “ah”s with no words, but you can get a general idea of how it sounds. Plus, it’s longer than the audio clip that’s posted on the website. You can listen to it here! https://www.ajharbison.com/wp-content/uploads/adventusdemo.mp3

With Adventus finished, next up is the third and final piece I plan to finish in 2020. It will be a short orchestral work entitled Rainlight. More to come on that next month!

—-

I’ve been inspired over the last two months by three people who have done some very cool creative things during their quarantines. Let me introduce you to:

1. Mac Barnett.

Mac is a New York Times-bestselling author of children’s books, a favorite author of my wife and my daughter (and myself). During the quarantine, he started Mac’s Book Club Show — “home of the Mac’s Book Club Show Book Club” — where he read one of his books on Instagram every weekday. He’s naturally funny and a blast to watch, and the book club reached literally every continent — there were three people who watched the show from Antarctica. You can see all the episodes on Mac’s Instagram account, in his IGTV posts.

2. Dessa.

Dessa is a rapper, singer/songwriter and author whom I recently discovered. (If you haven’t heard her album Chime you should really check it out.) During her lockdown, she hosted a Show of Force Majeure (a brilliant title) every Thursday night. She read original poems and stories, with the occasional musical performance as well. She’s written a book, but I didn’t know any of her work besides her music, and I loved the poems and stories she read on the show. Sadly, it looks she doesn’t have her shows archived on her Instagram page. So you’ll just have to listen to her music and read her book.

3. A man who needs no introduction: Sir Patrick Stewart.

Patrick Stewart, probably best known (at least to American audiences) as Captain Jean-Luc Picard in Star Trek: The Next Generation, started his acting career with the Royal Shakespeare Company and is an acclaimed Shakespearean actor. During his period of quarantine, he has been reading one Shakespeare sonnet every day, and I’ve found they’re a great way to kick off my mornings. You can see all of the sonnets on his Facebook page and/or his Twitter account and/or his Instagram account.

I hope these three awesome people inspire you the way they’ve inspired me. Even with all of the anger and pain and grief in the world right now, there’s still so much that is funny and beautiful and uplifting. Think on these things.

Be well.

Peace,
AJ Harbison

View full newsletter (with pictures and links)