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In January of last year, four wildlife rescue organizations coordinated to catch a sick half-grown coyote who had been finding refuge under my porch. Coyotes are a protected species in Massachusetts, so before attempting a rescue, they had to get permission from the state. The day that they finally received permission, he disappeared. The temperature dropped to the teens, and we watched the forecast with growing alarm, worried we had missed our chance and he had frozen to death in a hole in the woods somewhere. Finally he reappeared. I saw his feet go by under the porch, and texted the team. Within thirty minutes, six people arrived and made a whispered plan to surround the porch from all sides. Armed with old comforters and sheets of siding we ran in from three directions and blocked off his exits, while other volunteers grappled for him with a catch pole through a basement window. After several tense minutes, with only the sounds of his panicked breathing, the indoor team hauled him through the window and into my cellar, head first. Everyone agreed that if we hadn't gotten him that day, he wouldn't have made it. He was suffering from secondary rodenticide poisoning. At some point in his short life, he had already eaten enough poisoned field mice or rats to be dying of poisoning himself. He was hypothermic, dehydrated, his blood wouldn't clot, and with his immune system nearly non-existent he was almost hairless from an overgrowth in the mites, bacteria, and fungi that are normally a natural and balanced part of the skin biome. He was probably under my porch because there was a little warmth coming through the foundation, ignoring his instinct to avoid humans because he was so desperately cold. After three months of specialist care, he was healthy enough to be released to the wild again. Because coyotes are social animals, and frequently use common trails, it's very probable that members of his family passed by my house in the days after his capture and read the story in the scents on scuffed leaves and churned snow. Thanks to Newhouse Wildlife, Friends of Horn Pond, Cape Ann Wildlife, and Berkshire Wildlife for all their work to advocate for him, to catch him, and to heal him for a return to the woods of New England. Rage forest daughter; Stand and sing. He is everywhere, a scent on snow. He is the unforgiven air. He is the curled leaves. He is everything. He will come back changed. He will come back again. The lost child returns in spring, Traveling over dark water; Stand and mourn forest daughter.

Moderate difficulty and modest ranges for all vocal parts. There are a few notes of divisi for every part but the tenors. I'd love to hear what you think, and pianists, let me know if the piano reduction would be better with any notes moved to the other hand. (I'm not a pianist). Thanks for your thoughts! The text follows the lifecycle of the bumble bee. Unlike domesticated honey bees, out of the whole colony, only new bumble bee queens survive the winter each year. Each new pregnant queen must carefully select a nest site after emerging for winter dormancy and start a colony all alone. For the first few weeks of spring, she must divide her time between laying eggs, gathering and preparing nectar and pollen, and warming and caring for her new offspring. If her nest site proves to be too far from a continual succession of blooms while the weather is still cool, her babies will succumb to the cold while she is away from the nest gathering food for them. Until the first generation of workers are old enough to take over some of the tasks of caring for the group, allowing for grocery trips further from home, and warm temperatures and the flood of summer flowers makes comfort and food supplies more sure, her nest's survival is tenuous. But if all goes well, by the time summer wanes, hundreds of her children will be busy among the blooms, and her own new queens will be preparing to disperse and carry on the cycle the next year. It's also important to remember that although we may see hundreds of bumble bees out in the garden, genetically speaking, each nest counts as one individual. One reproducing queen: one set of genes being passed down. All those workers don't generally count. So when you are thinking about the survival of a bumble bee species, you need not just lots of bumble bees, but lots of bumble bee nests in an area in order to have the genetic diversity that allows the population to continue in a healthy way. Too few nests, each headed by a single reproducing queen, and even though you see tons of bees on the landscape, they may be in danger of slow local extinction from inbreeding. You can help! A mowed lawn, a sea of mulched flower bed, or a paved parking area is not bee habitat. None of these provide nesting sites or food. Bumble bees need drifts of fallen leaves to hide their nests under in summer, and for the queens to pass the winter under. So don't rake at least part of your yard, or compost your leaves in a big pile on site. Thick clumps of long grasses are also popular nesting sites. If you could hide a rabbit in it, it's probably thick and clumpy enough. Cohabitating with chipmunks in their holes is also popular, so tolerate those cute little guys in your yard. And be sure to have plenty of native flowering plants in your yard. Our local bees evolved with our local plants. Often plants from other continents don't have the right flower shape for them to access, bloom at the wrong time, or don't provide the right nutrition they need to thrive. Humans mess around with breeding flowers for color and size so much, that often we end up breeding flowers that actually contain no nectar or pollen. Oops! No food there at all!

Hi all, Any comments would be greatly appreciated, particularly on the piano part as I'm not a pianist. I wanted to write something that would give the pianist a chance to shine, but also am aware that pay for professional accompanists is low for all that they do, and that it just isn't possible to ask them to spend hours practicing a single three-minute piece for a single concert if they are going to make a living. If thinning down some of the fast chords would be a good idea for the sake of practicality, pianists, let me know. I don't want to go any slower than this tempo; the choir would risk running out of air. There is a lot of beautiful, slow music for choirs, so fun, fast pieces are always in demand to balance out a concert program. The text describes the mating dance of a cloud of solitary wasps, observed by American husband and wife entomology team Phil and Nellie Rau near St. Louis in the early 1900s. "The whole was not a helter-skelter commotion, but a merry whirl to the music of a faint, eerie hum of many wings, with every few moments a rather musical crescendo, which sounded like “zip!”, when a whirling pair would suddenly dash off at triple speed on the wing, in the final fling of joyful abandon..." - from"Wasp Studies Afield," published 1918. Furtak-Sun Dancing.pdf

Program Note: Each movement of this piece is inspired by and musically depicts the plot of a poem with the same name by Robert Frost. These poems tend to reflect on the sentiment of individuals as they observe and react to events taking place in nature. Spring Pools These pools that, though in forests, still reflect The total sky almost without defect, And like the flowers beside them, chill and shiver, Will like the flowers beside them soon be gone, And yet not out by any brook or river, But up by the roots to bring dark foliage on. The trees that have it in their pent-up buds To darken nature and be summer woods - Let them think twice before they use their powers To blot out and drink up and sweep away These flowery waters and these watery flowers From snow that melted only yesterday. Fireflies in the Garden Here come real stars to fill up the upper skies, And here on earth come emulating flies That, though they never equal stars in size (And they were never really stars at heart), Achieve at times a very starlike start. Only, of course, they can't sustain the part. Gathering Leaves Spades take up leaves No better than spoons, And bags full of leaves Are light as balloons. I make a great noise Of rustling all day Like rabbit and deer Running away. But the mountains I raise Elude my embrace, Flowing over my arms And into my face. I may load and unload Again and again Till I fill the whole shed, And what have I then? Next to nothing for weight; And since they grew duller From the contact with earth, Next to nothing for color. Next to nothing for use. But a crop is a crop, And who's to say where The harvest shall stop? Dust of Snow The way a crow Shook down on me The dust of snow From a hemlock tree Has given my heart A change of mood And saved some part Of a day I had rued.

A two minute score for chamber, written to accompany underwater and coastal footage. Hope you like it! These are fun to put together 🙂 Would welcome any and all feedback!

Come critique me! This 10-minute piece is my 4th complete piece over the past year (ever) and is in 3 movements, which are shown in-video. Inspired by the mountains of the world, this piece is a way to express my love for nature and my desire to explore the world around me. Video :https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1GcnyomDeMk&feature=youtu.be Score: https://www.dropbox.com/s/h1zs3c4acoxht17/Mountains_Suite.pdf?dl=0 Thanks to anybody who provides constructive feedback! (This was copy and pasted from a reddit post on r/composer, so excuse the fact that it links to a dropbox. If this is against the rules or it needs verification (it's a pdf file), please let me know in the comments.)

Hello Everybody, This is my latest work, about the power of nature. I hope, you'll like it, and share it. If you don't want to miss my newest tracks, follow me on Facebook! Write your opinion below! https://www.facebook.com/olivercomposing/

Hi all! I've been busy with small business busy season, but I'll be a bit more present on this site after the Christmas rush is over. Here's a short fall piece I managed to put together. I'd love to hear any feedback, particularly any comments about my piano reduction notation, since I don't actually play piano. I simplified a few rhythms to try to make the choral counterpart actually playable, but if you can think of better solutions, let me know. If anything looks like it would be easier played with the other hand, or my enharmonic equivalents should be switched from sharps to flats or the reverse, please let me know. Notation that's just a little "off" always slows down rehearsals so I do want to do it right, but I don't always know the best way to do it. I've attached a pdf of the score. And here's a video with the score rolling by: -pateceramics Furtak-The Rake.mid