Violet Burney

Audio Available

Component

Delivery

Ensemble

Eprint Folders

Grade

Instrument

Instrument Family

Item Sequence

Large Print Edition

Marketed Status

Minimum Sell Quantity

MINTS Data Available

Product Line

Prop65

Score Available

Video Available

Worker of Six Weeks takes the listeners through the lifecycle of a female worker bee. Worker bees' jobs change as they grow older which is called behavioral maturation. While young adults, they are nurses that take care of their half-sisters since honey bees are eusocial. Then they are middle-aged adults that do jobs like comb-building, fanning, guarding, and others that stay mostly within the nest. Finally, they are elders that venture out to gather resources like pollen, nectar, and water which is the most dangerous job. They die either in the nest and are carried out, or die from old age or from the hazards outside the nest. 
Each of the movements highlights parts of a particular bee's life. The first is of her chewing her way out of her cap, taking her first steps, and quickly getting to work as a nurse. The second is of her working as a guard and defending against a wasp and then a human beekeeper. The third is her venturing outside of the nest, collecting nectar, and then instructing other bees where to find the patch of flowers before dying.

Worker of Six Weeks

2 Violins, Viola, Cello Quartet

Tiger Cub was made when I took a 100-piece puzzle of a tiger cub in a field of flowers, wrote one of the 12 tones on the back of each piece evenly, then assembled the puzzle. I then wrote down each of the tones from left to right and noted whether the front of the piece had parts of the tiger, flowers, or both. Each piece is one full measure and what was on the front of the piece equated to which instrument would play and what special direction would be added if any.

Tiger Cub

Duet

Instrument Type

Kingdom Dance is inspired by Renaissance music and takes the listener to a lively square or busy tavern to forget their worries. It was written as a part of a composition and clarinet studio collaboration and for Adeline Lusk.

Kingdom Dance

Clarinet Solo

Deconstruction is a piece about stress and the toll students, especially music students, experience while in school. The performers take apart or restrict the ranges of their instruments while playing which is a metaphor for how we often feel like we are falling apart under the pressure. I also wrote a short poem in which the style changes along with the style of the piece. The beginning is structured with alternating rhyming lines and common chord progressions while in one key. The middle is free form poetry and has less patterns with no key. The ending is when they have much smaller ranges, speak one word lines, and has dissonance along with descending chromatically.

Deconstruction

Marimba Duet

I composed 5d12, 32d120 for the piano. It was created through rolling 12-side dice to get the five tones used. Taking the idea further, I wrote out each of the 120 combinations of those five tones and assigned them a number before rolling a 100-sided dice and 20-sided dice to get the order of the combinations. As a Dungeons and Dragons player, I love and have many dice on hand. I used these random combinations and wrote this piece with them, only choosing which octave, dynamics, and rhythm they would have. The title takes inspiration from the method used to make the piece. Five 12-sided dice for the tones then Thirty-two 100 and 20-sided dice. This is an early piece in my career and outside of my usual style. This piece was created for Austin White to play at the Penn State Composer's Recital in fall of 2021.

5d12, 32d120

Piano Solo

Format

Voice

Voice Category

Voice Subcategory

Sleep is about the struggles I have faced with my unknown sleeping disorder. The piece is meant to invoke both the irresistible pull of tiredness and the frustration that comes with being unable to complete tasks because of sleeping. There are many allusions to the ocean as it can be both soothing and destructive, along with being the home of sirens who also sing beautifully to disastrous results. It's about peace and resignation.

Sleep

SATB/Two-Part Full Score

Because I could not stop for death is an art song for mezzo-soprano and piano based on the poem of the same name by Emily Dickenson. I wanted to compose a piece with the words from a familiar poem and by a woman. Emily Dickenson is one of the most influential poets which was even more of a difficult accomplishment since she was a woman in that society. Her works are inspirational and thought-provoking which I hope I captured in this piece.

Because I Could Not Stop For Death

Mezzo-Soprano Solo

This is a very personal piece about my experience with weight loss, judgement, and how my body has been perceived at different points in my life. There are several sections that flow into each other and represent different points in my journey.

Weight

Clarinet, Violin, Piano Trio

Retired Life follows an elderly couple in their romanticized routine of having breakfast, dancing together in the kitchen, drinking tea, having their grandchildren visit, eating dinner early, bickering, and going to sleep. It's about living slower and enjoying the smaller moments and mundane activities with the people you love, even if they annoy you sometimes. This piece is somewhat inspired by my grandparents and by my hope for the far future with a happy and cozy life. I often have doubts about the future and if I'll make it, so I hope for the best and this is somewhat of a representation of what I can imagine part of it to be.

Retired Life

Woodwind Quintet

I wrote this piece for Caden Warner to play at the 2022 Vibraphone Festival at Penn State. Since it takes place before the spring, I thought to make this piece spring themed with happy sections like bunnies hopping around, creeks and plants rushing back to life, and thunderstorms sweeping over the land. I decided to include more non-toned percussion elements like stomping and hitting the pipes to give the piece a more interesting beat.

Raindrops on Rabbit Fur

Vibraphone Solo

I wrote this piece as a reflection on childhood and how even little children wish to create music with what they have. I went to a park and watched children play outdoor toy instruments there and notated how they sounded. The sounds they created along with the rain that started and ended my time outdoors early also inspired part of this piece. My piece takes the listener through the afternoon of a small child running outside before a thunderstorm brings them indoors. Loud crashes of thunder frighten them, but they find joy in experimenting with small instruments they find to create music.

Playtime

Multiple Percussion Solo

This piece follows four witches/warlocks summoning some sort of unknown creature in a graveyard behind a church. They have to add several ingredients including spiders, human bones, a loved toy, eyeballs, a fairy, and a live frog to their cauldron. At the end, their summoned creature is brought to this world. I enjoyed experimenting with many extended techniques using spooky props and trying out odd rhythms.

The Summoning

Multiple Percussion Quartet

This piece opens setting up the scene of the dark woods in the land of Barovia. A lost soul steps into these foggy woods to face horrors unknown, believing they will emerge on the other side unscathed. They encounter nothing but darkness along with the creatures inside, but never see the sun rise above the gloomy land. Instead, they are left to roam among the trees for eternity.

Woods of Barovia

Saxaphone Quartet Quartet

Altitude is a modular piece, meaning that any of the three movements, Plateau, Plains, and Pit, can be played in any order that the performers decide upon beforehand. Between each movement there is an indeterminate section which is dependent on which movement is played before and after. I encourage experimenting with the movements and interludes until your group finds what they enjoy the most. Each movement reflects the mental state I was in while composing it and is an analogy for the cyclical nature of my mental health which can shift based on events in life.

Altitude

Mixed Quintet

Fractures is a short harp piece exploring extended techniques.

Fractures

Harp Solo

Phoenix Dance is inspired by Renaissance/fantasy music. While it starts feeling slower with rolled chords, the melody picks up and lower arpeggios bring movement, like a phoenix twirling in the air above. Balancing between 3/4 and 6/8 along with clusters and dissonance add elements of uncertain wildness to this creature.

Phoenix Dance

Hectic is a short piano duet that layers patterns on top of each other

Hectic

Piano Duet-2 Pianos, 4 Hands

Global Sections - CORE [DO NOT TOUCH]*

Favicon

Need Help? Contact Us or call 1-800-345-6296    Live Chat

Header

Don't have a business account? Create one

Products