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They Were Mysterious Guests
Zae Munn composer
Timothy McAllister, Kimberly Burja, Jill Heyboer,
David Jackson, Sandra Jackson, George Sakakeeny,
Henry Skolnick, Lucia Unrau, Daniel Vega-Albela,
David Murray, Tracy Satterfield, Chet Baughman,
Jeffrey Siegfried, Thomas Snydacker
On her debut Navona Records release THEY WERE MYSTERIOUS GUESTS, composer Zae Munn showcases works for alto saxophone in eclectic chamber combinations, featuring internationally-renowned saxophonist Timothy McAllister.
Broken Tulip, which features Henry Skolnick on the contraforte, a modern reworking of the contrabassoon, is inspired by the notion that the perception of an idea or an object can undergo a radical shift while the idea or object itself remains static. Music: A Love Story is a musical narrative that depicts the ironic process of creating and writing music, while the three movements of They Were Mysterious Guests, Hard to Capture illustrate the unbidden nature of emotions, such as grief and the pain of remembrance. In Cascade, the composer addresses two associations of the word – interconnectedness found in electronic circuits and series of waterfalls over rocks. The themes in Disclosure focus on the non-static nature of personal discourse and how, as the composer says, “the act of disclosing inevitably changes what is disclosed, reveals new connections and implications, is nuanced by the one to whom the disclosure is made, and by the context of the disclosure.” Various images of vines and hanging, from Tarzan swinging in the jungle to references of the fruit-bearing branches in the Gospel of John, are presented in Hanging onto the Vine. The Old Songs, Scena for Soprano and Three Instruments is a small drama in 12 Italianesque pieces, the text taken from a poem by Munn’s brother Paul Munn about memories and memory loss.
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Artist Information
Zae Munn
Zae Munn is Professor of Music at Saint Mary's College in Notre Dame, Indiana where she has taught composition and theory courses since 1990. She is the Director of the Summer Composition Intensive at Saint Mary's College and has taught at Interlochen Arts Camp, Bowdoin College, Transylvania University, and Lehigh University. Her DMA and MM degrees in composition are from the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana and her BM in composition is from Chicago Musical College of Roosevelt University.
