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Hannukah Medley for Flute Choir (2016)
Baltimore Flute Choir
Towson MD December 15, 2018
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Angles and Archways (2018)
L'Abri Trio
Baltimore, November 17, 2018
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Mosaic (2017)
West Shore Piano Trio
Baltimore, November 18, 2017
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On A Golden Morning (2017)
Baltimore Philharmonia Orchestra
Towson, MD April 30, 2017
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Companions (2017)
Harriet Katz, composer/cello
George Wiese, trombone
Baltimore, March 22, 2017
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Skein of Silk (2017)
Samira Phillips, violin
Ellen Schwindt, piano
Baltimore, March 22, 2017
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Our Species (2016)
Annie Gill, soprano
Joseph Regan, tenor
Tim McReynolds, piano
Baltimore, November 19, 2016
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Lyrics

Our species
leaves a lot, a lot, a lot to be desired

We like to think that we were good guys at the start.
We had groups, not troops.

We were hunting, gathering, talk talk talk talk talking,
Making jewelry and music and art.

But because of the recent discovery of a 10,000-year- old massacre
That view is coming apart.

Farming's also to blame.
People with lots of crops could store and hoard
Others had less while they had more
Et voila! War! Forever
On and on and on and on and on..

And war-- along with its companion rape--
Functions as an evolutionary tool
To diversify and thereby strengthen the human gene pool.

Today, still more of the same, the same, the same.
Plus, since the Industrial Revolution, Pollution!

New York puts its garbage on barges.
Plastic's wreaking havoc with the ocean.

"Nature's Balance" now is just a brand name.

Our species leaves so much, so much to be desired,
We should be fired!

"Our Species" words and music © 2016 by Harriet Katz

Some Points Eve Would Like To Make (2016)
Annie Gill, soprano
Tim McReynolds, piano
Baltimore, November 19, 2016
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Lyrics

You know my namesake's story.
It has no glory.
It's even gory,
this tale told way back when
by men.

Eve gets all the blame.
They say she started shame.

They claim
because she didn't heed what the man at the top said,
and shared a piece of fruit instead,
that she unleashed the peril:
our knowledge of good and evil.

I'd like to make a point
about the myth they coined.
Evil would still exist
even if Eve did desist.

It's all around us,
it's deep within us.

The worst thing about humanity--
the fact that we kill each other--
is blamed on our supposedly first family,
especially the mother.

I'd like to make a point about my family.
Our lives are not a hell.
I raised my sons well!
Cain is a landscape architect
and Abel a veterinarian.
Some sibling rivalry when they were very young,
but now they're decent, caring men.
Fratricide? No way!

Fratricide, sororicide,
matricide, patricide, infanticide,
homicide, genocide!

Eve didn't start this.
Let's hope we can end it.

I'd like to make just one more little point.
I'm sure my namesake's story's made of fibs.
But just in case, here's my advice:
Don't order spareribs.

words and music © 2011, 2016 by Harriet Katz

Following A Thread
for string quartet (2016)
Azimuth String Quartet, May 21, 2016, Baltimore
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Hanukkah Medley for Orchestra (2015)
Baltimore Philharmonia Orchestra, December 2015, Towson MD
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Hanukkah Medley for Flute Choir (2015)
Baltimore Flute Choir, December 2015
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Suite for Brass Quintet 2015
1. Processional 2. Courante 3. Pavane 4. Recessional
Lyric Brass Quintet, November 2015, An die Musik, Baltimore
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Scrollwork
for cello duo, 2011
(this performance May, 2015)
Jason Love and Harriet Katz, An die Musik, Baltimore
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Among the Reeds
for wind quintet, 2014
pre-concert talk
Atlantic Reed Consort, An die Musik, Baltimore
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Along the way
for violin-clarinet-piano trio, 2013
Trio Musai, Howard University, Washington DC
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Al(l)ways (audio)
for soprano, clarinet, violin, viola, and cello, 2012
commissioned by Shirley Katz Cohen
Ever, Never, If Only, But, No, Maybe, Yes
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Lyrics
  1. Ever (clarinet, violin, viola, cello)
  2. Never (soprano, clarinet, violin, viola, cello)
    text: Emily Dickinson, "There is a Pain"

    There is a pain - so utter -
    It swallows substance up -
    Then covers the Abyss with Trance -
    So Memory can step
    Around - across - upon it -
    As one within a Swoon -
    Goes safely - where an open eye -
    Would drop Him - Bone by Bone.

  3. If Only (soprano, clarinet, cello)
    text: Matthew Arnold, stanza from "Longing"

    Come to me in my dreams, ...
    For so the night will more than pay
    The hopeless longing of the day

  4. But (soprano, cello)
    text: Shalom Freeman, from "Despair" (used by permission)

    Despair ... the realization that one has done what one could - and one is not going anywhere else ...

  5. No (violin, viola)
  6. Maybe (soprano, clarinet)
  7. Yes (soprano, clarinet, violin, viola, cello)
    text: Rainer Maria Rilke, from "The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge"

    "It is not enough to have memories. ...One must have great patience. ... For it is not yet the memories themselves. Not until they have turned to blood within us, to glance, to gesture, nameless and no longer to be distinguished from ourselves - not until then can it happen that in a most rare hour the first word of a verse arises in their midst and goes forth from them."


Some Points Eve Would Like to Make (audio)
for soprano, violin, and cello, 2011
commissioned by Jewish Women's Theatre
Close audio

Lyrics

You know my namesake's story.
It has no glory.
It's even gory,
this tale told back then
by men.

Eve gets all the blame.
They say she started shame.

They claim
because she didn't heed what the man at the top said,
and ate a piece of fruit instead,
she unleashed the peril:
our knowledge of good and evil.

I'd like to make a point
about the myth they coined.
Evil would still exist
even if Eve did desist.

It's all around us,
it's deep within us.

The worst thing about humanity -
the fact that we kill each other -
is blamed on our supposedly first family,
especially the mother.

I'd like to make a point about my family.
Our lives are not a hell.
I raised my sons well!
Cain is a landscape architect
and Abel a veterinarian.
Some sibling rivalry when they were very young,
but now they're decent, caring men.
Fratricide? No way!

Fratricide, sororicide,
matricide, patricide, infanticide,
homicide, genocide!

Eve didn't start this.
Let's hope we can end it.

I'd like to make just one more little point.
I'm sure my namesake's story's made of fibs.
But just in case, here's my advice:
Don't order spareribs.



©2011,2013,2015,2017,2018 Harriet Katz. All Rights Reserved.