Munn, Zae Website of Notre Dame, Indiana Our Hands Were Tightly Clenched for string quartet Full Score 6'30" $18.00 #04187A AP-747A Parts @4.00 each $16.00 #040147B AP-747B,C,D,E Our Hands Were Tightly Clenched was written in 2003 for the La Catrina String Quartet, a graduate student quartet from Western Michigan University. The phrase "our hands were tightly clenched" is a metaphor for sustained, embedded tension and anger, and the material of the piece explores the rise of this tension and ways in which its persistence might be diffused or relaxed.

score sample (pdf)

A Fraction of Your Grace for clarinet and string quartet 8'40", $25.00 (score & parts) #040092 AP-702 Written for David Liptak in 1997, the piece was inspired by the grace with which he faced the impending death of his wife. There is an alternation of sections based on quartal chords and sections based on open fifths. Motives derived from the quartal and quintal structures provide most of the melodic material.

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In the Maze of the Moment for horn and string quartet 8', Score and parts $25.00, #040141, AP-745

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Lauber Lieder: Four Songs for Soprano and Piano 12' $10.00 (soprano) #040047 AP-326 (mezzo) #040136 AP-341 The titles are: The Slowly Opening Rose, I have Washed and Buttoned Up, Geese Along the Flowage, and The Sermon. The texts of these emotionally direct and attractive songs are by Peg Carlson Lauber, with whom Zae Munn has collaborated on other works. The poems are linked by the theme of coping with, and overcoming burdens and challenges. The songs were written in the summer of 1994, and while conceived as a set, may be performed separately.

score sample (pdf)

Two for Three for soprano, flute and viola 8', Score and parts $11.00, #040048 AP-327 Two for Three (1994) is based on two poems by Peg Carlson Lauber: For a Few Minutes Lie in the Sun and Contemplate Cliché Angels. The structure of the first song puts musical parentheses around anger and bitterness by alternating serenity, venomous emotions and a return of serenity. The second song alternates humorous music with clearly derivative jazz. The two songs may be performed separately.

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What's for Supper? four songs for soprano, viola and piano 14', Score and parts $17.50, #040049 AP-328 Composed both to entertain and educate young people about contemporary concert music as well as serve as recital pieces, What's for Supper? was written on a COSTAR Grant from Saint Mary's College. The titles of the four songs are: I'll Go Along, What's for Supper?, If I Could, and Oh no! Not Me. The individual song

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Memorial SSA a cappella 3'30" $1.25 #040001 AP-501 A positive reflection on the connectedness between the living and the dead. Memorial (1992) is based on texts from a short story by Ann Kilkelly which tells of a parade to a cemetery where a child recites In Flander's Field. A woman remembers reciting the same poem years ago, at the end of which all present feel the connection of the living to the dead.

score sample (pdf)

Symphony of the Alcoves (Full Score) 12' $35.00 #040131A AP-743A Parts (2fl, picc, 4cl [Eb, 2Bb, b.cl], 42221, timp, perc, strgs). Strings may be duplicated as needed. $40.00 #040131B AP-743B In three short movements. Completed in October of 2002. score sample (pdf)) The composer writes: "The title draws on the image of an alcoveÇ a small, recessed extension of a room, often with an arched opening. Each movement might be seen as a room in a house. The outer 'rooms' have alcoves (three in the first, two in the third), with each alcove having both its own identity and its own intimate relation to the main room. A secret passageway of sorts recurs in each of the three rooms and serves to connect them. The second room is the smallest of the three, too small for its own alcoves, and almost an alcove itself within the whole piece. It is unified by the continuous alternation of 3/8 and 7/1 meters, but with two distinct sections, rounded out by a short return to the first section." It's the Soup That Animates the Noodles (Full Score, in concert pitch) 10' $30.00 #040137A AP-744A Parts (2211, 1210, 2 perc [timp, ten. drm, roto-toms], strings). Strings may be duplicated as needed. $20.00 #040137B AP-744B In three movements. score sample (pdf)) The composer describes her piece as follows: "The title is a phrase from Tampopo, the 1986 Japanese film which tells the story of a search for the perfect noodle. The first movement deals with a kind of "reverse heterophony", carving simpler lines and pedals from a more coplex strand. The second movement uses layering techniques to build intensity andcreates new lines from short quotations of different layers. Finally, the third movement alternates intense unisons based on additive rhythm and free, expressive, contrapuntal versions of the same pitch material."

 

Zae Munn is Professor of Music at Saint Mary's College in Indiana where she has taught composition, theory, and orchestration since 1990. In the summers she teaches at Interlochen Arts Camp in Michigan. Her education includes masters and doctoral degrees in composition from the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana and a bachelors degree from Chicago Musical College. Her early musical training was as a cellist, with additional studies in piano, voice, and conducting. She has written for orchestra, string quartet, large brass ensemble and choruses including children's voices, as well as for many solo instruments. Choral projects include works for choirs at Harvard, Central Michigan, Otterbein, and the University of Illinois. Her music is published by Amoriello Guitar Publications, Earthsongs, HoneyRock, Jaymar Music and Yelton Rhodes Music and recorded by Amasong, Capstone, Centaur, and Pro Organo Records. Sisra Publications (the Arsis Press label for ASCAP composers) has published her Two for Three for soprano, flute and viola, Lauber Lieder: Four Songs for soprano and piano, Memorial for unaccompanied chorus, What's for Supper? for soprano, viola and piano, A Fraction of Your Grace for clarinet and string quartet, Our Hands Were Tightly Clenched for string quartet, In the Maze of the Momentfor horn and string quartet, and two orchestra pieces: Symphony of Alcoves and It's the Soup That Animates the Noodles.

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