Instrumentation: Clarinet with string quartet.

Citizen 13660 - Vignettes explores illustrations from the eponymous book by Miné Okubo, an artist of Japanese ancestry who experienced the World War II Japanese American Internment. Performance time: 15:00. It has eight movements:

• "We were outnumbered."
• The wind was playing havoc with the fine dust particles"
• "Trying to forget...just staring up at the sky."
• "Rumors: ...the San Francisco Bay Bridge had been blown up."
• "The clanging of thirty-six makeshift iron bells."
• "We were close to freedom and yet far from it."
• "A memorial service to honor a Japanese American soldier."
• "There was only the desert now."

Premiere performance by the Farallon Quintet.

Listen: https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/farallon-quintet-originals/id1049994763

Watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JfntoAT5IZk

For clarinet with string quartet.

The Farallon Islands are a set of islands about twenty-five miles off the coast of San Francisco, known for their rugged and dangerous waters and wildlife, and for the huge numbers of seabirds that nest there. Each movement takes its inspiration from poetry by ornithologist and botanist Mitlon S. Ray, who explored the islands on several visits in 1904. Movement 5, Birds, utilizes pre-recorded bird sounds of many species found on the islands (mp3 recording included with purchase).

Eight movements:

• Dawn
• Strange Shores
• Sea Gardens
• Birds
• When the Steamer Came
• Sea Folk (and the White Sharks)
• Solitude
• Night (and the Warming Sea)

Performance time: 20 mins

Listen (Birds movement): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NiBHb_1eIpU

Read Susan Casey's book about the islands: https://www.amazon.com/Devils-Teeth-Obsession-Survival-Americas/dp/0805080112

Commissioned by the Beijing Modern Music Festival 2015. In Haruki Murakami's book, The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, the main character loses track of his wife, Kumiko, who goes missing in the endless Tokyo urban sprawl. This piece explores the concept of human memory: at first things are clear, but the memories of a loved one can fade and become distorted over time. Optional video accompaniment by Stephen Earnhart, who directed the multi-media stage play Wind-Up Bird Chronicle in New York City. Please contact the composer if video is desired.

Performance time: 9:30

Instrumentation: Flute/Alto Flute, Clarinet, Piano, and String Quartet

Live performance with Asia / America New Music Institute at Snow College, Utah: https://hearthis.at/chad-cannon-97/07-fragments-of-kumiko/

Read Murakami's book: https://www.amazon.com/Wind-Up-Bird-Chronicle-Novel/dp/0679775439

Using poetry from Hiromi Ito (with translations by Jeffrey Angles), Wild Grass on the Riverbank explores the experiences of immigration through the metaphor of wild grass (which is, in the case of Southern California, often not native to the region). Ito's homeland, Kumamoto, Japan, is contrasted in its overwhelming greenery with the desolation of the California deserts. See images to the left for poetry details and composer notes.

6 Movements:

• In the Wasteland
• Winter
• Ferns and Moss
• Wild Grass on the Riverbank
• Transplanted
• Budding in the Wasteland

Performance time: 12 minutes

Instrumentation: Flute (Piccolo/Alto Flute); Clarinet; Horn in F; Percussion; Piano, Solo Baritone, 2 Violins, Viola, Cello, Contrabass

Live performance by Davóne Tines and the Asia / America New Music Institute (AANMI) with conductor Kah Chun Wong at the USC Pacific Asia Museum in Los Angeles: https://soundcloud.com/chadcannon/wild-grass-on-the-riverbank

Read Ito's book: https://www.amazon.com/Wild-Grass-Riverbank-Hiromi-Ito/dp/0989804844

Harlem 1951 uses poetry from Langston Hughes' Montage of a Dream Deferred, and creates a drama between soprano and baritone soloists in the context of a racially charged post-WWII New York City. Premiered in Lincoln Center (Juilliard) by opera stars Julia Bullock and Davóne Tines. Piano/vocal version available also (see separate listing).

9 songs:

• Good Morning
• Subway Rush Hour
• 125th Street
• Movies
• Green Memory
• Tag
• Juke Box Love Song
• Island
• Mellow
• Tell Me

Watch: Hollywood Chamber Orchestra live at the Montalban Theater in Los Angeles with Garth Neustadter, baritone, and Franchesca Retford, soprano.

Listen:

Popular Japanese melody by Kosaku Yamada, arranged for solo violin. More on the original melody: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akatombo

Live performance by Muneko Otani at Tenri Cultural Institute: https://hearthis.at/chad-cannon-97/aka-tombo-improv-muneko-otani-at-tenri/

Written for the birthday celebration of shakuhachi player James Nyoraku Schlefer.

Traditional Christmas carol, arranged for three violins (beginner, intermediate, advanced) and piano. This tune become more prominent after Gustav Holst arranged it in 1916. Commissioned by the Gerona Rose Violin Studio.

Listen: https://hearthis.at/chad-cannon-97/personent-hodie-audio/

Hymn tune originally by George Coles. Popular among Mormon congregations as the tune sung prior to the death of Joseph and Hyrum Smith. For unaccompanied violin. Performance time: 6:30.

Listen here: https://hearthis.at/chad-cannon-97/poor-wayfaring-man-violin-solo/

String quartet, inspired by flocks of birds, who travel together but are not synchronized exactly, and whose calls sometimes accidentally align and harmonize.

Because most of the score is not in tempo, players must use iPads or poster-sized score layouts so as to be able to see all players' parts at once.

Performance time: 8:00

Hear a Juilliard student performance here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IiV_yQpkjzI

Setting of Revelation 21:1-7, for full SATB Chorus with Organ

Performance time: 8'30"

Written for the Harvard University Choir

Debut performance in 2011 at Harvard Memorial Church, conducted by Edward Elwyn Jones.

Listen: https://hearthis.at/chad-cannon-97/cannon-and-i-saw-a-new-heaven/