In the spring, Hopkins grad Ryan Townsend Strand used Kickstarter to raise more than $6,000 to record a CD combining the works of 20th Century English composer Ralph Vaughan Williams and Strand’s classmate Skyler Butenshon.
Strand’s project has now come to full fruition. On Sept. 12, he released a debut album called Mending Split Seconds.
The piano and voice composition pairs Ralph Vaughan Williams’ Songs of Travel with new works by Butenshon, who went to California Lutheran University with Strand.
Each of the movements is based on one of Butenshon’s memories. Although Mending Split-Seconds isn’t derived from Songs of Travel, the pieces complement each other. The emotions range from “sheer joy to nostalgia,” said Strand, who began his graduate studies at Northwestern University’s Bienen School of Music last month. Each work even has a dark movement in the middle dealing with loss—a fifth movement called “In Dreams” for Vaughan Williams’ work and a fourth movement called “Death” in Butenshon’s work.
“I have had a lifelong affinity for the human voice and have developed a special interest in the new music that is being written each day,” a news release quoted Strand. “Without new music, we would only live in the past and not in the vibrant world that exists among living composers.”
Mending Split Seconds can be bought as a digital download on Amazon.com and iTunes. The physical CD and digital download are also available for purchase on CDBaby.com and on Strand’s Facebook page.
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Play the clips above to hear samples of “Death” and “Hidden” from Mending Split Seconds and “The Vagabond” from Songs of Travel.
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