HORIZON LINE Album Featuring Robert Honstein's Compositions to be Released in June
The album will feature works composed by Mivos Quartet, Bergamot Quartet, and percussionist Abby Fisher.
Horizon Line, an album of music by Robert Honstein, features three compositions exploring landscapes and the pastoral - in nature, visual art, and urban space. The "horizon line" orients perspective and by implication, how we situate ourselves and derive meaning from the world around us. A conceptual through-line and a linear melodic line that carries through the album.
Within these landscapes, a common theme emerges - that of the "pastoral," as a way of searching and being. The eponymous Great Marsh Reservation, the inspiration for the central work, comprises 25,500 acres of barrier beach, dunes, saltmarsh, and water bodies, is situated on the North Shore of Massachusetts; reflectively, the classical concept of pastoral is front-and-center in the music, evoking yearnings for connection to the natural expanse. Arctic, influenced by the artist Chris McCaw's Sunburn series, approaches the sublime, where the human perspective is overcome by the brutality of nature. Continuous Interior attempts to reconcile the pastoral with interior modern expanse, beauty and meaning through contemporary experience.
Featuring three works that span a decade of the composer's career, the instrumental throughline of the album could be the String Quartet itself, representing a culmination of Honstein's long engagement with the genre. Arctic was recorded in 2013 by Mivos Quartet, longtime collaborators of the composer, while Continuous Interior features the youthful Bergamot Quartet with percussionist Abby Fisher. The Great Marsh features New England artists who performed the work in the iconic coastal-adjacent Rockport Music-Shalin Liu Performance Center.
Track Listing
- Continuous Interior: I. Flickering, light [05:45]
- Continuous Interior: II. Languid, dreamy [05:36]
- Continuous Interior: III. Urgent, breathless [05:45]
- The Great Marsh: 1. Salt Hay [05:25]
- The Great Marsh: 2. Mudflats [03:56]
- The Great Marsh: 3. Seaside Sparrow [02:03]
- The Great Marsh: 4. Estuary [07:36]
- Arctic: I. Midnight Sun [03:07]
- Arctic: II. Polar Night [13:56]
Length: 53:09
Performers
Bergamot Quartet [Continuous Interior]
Abby Fisher, vibraphone [Continuous Interior]
Mivos Quartet [Arctic]
Alyssa Wang, violin [The Great Marsh]
Kiyoshi Hayashi, violin [The Great Marsh]
Beste Tiknaz Modiri, viola [The Great Marsh]
Jacques Lee Wood, cello [The Great Marsh]
About Robert Honstein, composer
Robert Honstein (b. 1980) is a New York-based composer of orchestral, chamber, vocal, and film music. Recent accolades include the 2023 Andrew Imbrie Award from the American Academy of Arts & Letters and a 2022 Emmy-nomination for his debut film score The Real Charlie Chaplin.
Ensembles and performers of Robert's music include the Albany Symphony, Dayton Philharmonic, Orchestre Symphonique du Mulhouse, Eighth Blackbird, Ensemble Dal Niente, Mivos Quartet, Del Sol Quartet, Argus Quartet, TIGUE, New Morse Code, Colin Currie, Theo Bleckmann, Doug Perkins, Michael Burritt, Karl Larson, Ashley Bathgate, among others. Interdisciplinary collaborators include choreographer Omar Román De Jesús, photographer Chris McCaw, projection designer Hannash Wasileski, graphic designer Laura Grey, and director Daniel Fish. His music has also been programmed by numerous dance companies including the National Ballet of Canada (Alysa Pires, choreographer), Ballet Collective (Omar Román De Jesús, choreographer), and the Alberta, Cincinnati, and Orlando Ballets. His music has been released by New Focus Records, Soundspells Productions, Cedille Records, and New Amsterdam Records, as well as his independent label Up in the Attic Records.
As an educator Robert has taught composition seminars and workshops around the country and is Program Director of Concert Composition and Composition Faculty at NYU, Steinhardt. For more information, visit roberthonstein.com
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