Modern Notebook

On the final episode of Modern Notebook with Tyler Kline: Hideaki Aomori’s Split stretches the bass clarinet to its limits, exploring the full breadth of its sound world. This hour also features Baljinder Sekhon’s Drifting Seeds for cello and harp, along with music by Anna Mieke, Vivian Fung, and more. Then: chamber music by Jessica Ackerley called Spark Surge — one of the highlights of the final...

On the next Modern Notebook with Tyler Kline: Aart Strootman’s Descend is a gentle tide of sound — slow, glassy, and immersive. Strings drift in silvery layers, surfacing and folding back on themselves in waves that feel tactile and luminous. There’s a quiet, rhythmic shimmer beneath it all, like a faraway rattle rolling in with the current. Then: How do we hold on, even as everything changes? Tha...

On the next Modern Notebook with Tyler Kline: Andrea Casarrubios wrote Herencia — meaning both “heritage” and “inheritance” — not with a genre in mind, but with specific performers. She imagined the musicians of Sphinx Virtuosi stepping onstage, each carrying their own personal and cultural history, converging into a collective intention to illuminate the world through music. Then: Martin Bresnick...

On the next Modern Notebook with Tyler Kline: How do we process loss, or even violence — collectively or alone? In his piece Manusa , composer Dorian Wallace turns to the five stages of grief as a guide, crafting a deeply human meditation through sound. Then: After dark, the world transforms — and in Moth x Human , composer Ellie Wilson gives voice to that unseen world. Using real moth activity da...

On the next Modern Notebook with Tyler Kline: Precision meets pulse in Seven Eleven — a hypnotic piece by Swiss composer Nik Bärtsch, known for fusing minimalism, jazz, and groove into something entirely his own. Built on interlocking rhythmic cycles, the music moves with the quiet intensity of a ritual: calculated, entrancing, and alive in the hands of percussion. Then: For composer Sinan C. Sava...

On the next Modern Notebook with Tyler Kline: Composer Daniel Thomas Davis calls What if We’re Beautiful an experiment in musical gift-craft — a set of movements stitched together like handmade sonic objects. With its boisterous charm and delicate sincerity, the piece includes a hurdy-gurdy tune that’s as playfully heartfelt as the friendships it honors. Lila Meretzky’s For Linda Catlin Smith is a...

Drawing from the Korean folk song Jeongsun Arirang , Hyunjoo Byon’s Arari unfolds in five variations — blending traditional modes and modern textures. With oboe and piano weaving between tonalities, the piece becomes a quiet dialogue between Eastern roots and Western technique. Then: Combining solo viola and percussion might seem unlikely — but Kalevi Aho leans into that contrast in his Moonlight...

On the next Modern Notebook with Tyler Kline: Memories of friendship linger beneath each short movement in Hugi Gudmundsson’s Coniunctio — moments on park benches, in bars, on quiet walks. Composed for cello, the piece unfolds in brief, focused chapters that reflect intimacy through gesture, space, and shared experience. Then: Luciano Berio once described a utopian dream: to build a bridge between...

On the next Modern Notebook with Tyler Kline: Steven Mackey’s Stumble to Grace traces a journey with the piano: from clumsy beginnings to a confident, contrapuntal fugue. Inspired by his toddler’s early steps, the piece moves through stages of progress and play — a portrait of growth shaped by both joy and challenge. Then: Rhythms passed from father to son form the heart of Murmurs in Time — a rar...

On the next Modern Notebook with Tyler Kline: Rhythmic collisions, layered textures, and long melodic arcs — Autumn Equinox channels the energy of Sebastian Fagerlund’s opera-in-progress into a charged and expressive octet. Though written as a standalone piece, the music carries the imprint of that larger work: a reflection of seasons changing, and ideas taking new shape. Then: Kevin Puts began hi...

Reena Esmail’s Saans began as a gift — a piano trio woven from the slow movement of her clarinet concerto, reimagined for a dear friend’s wedding. But over time, it became something more personal, tying together friendship, love, and the quiet breath of life that music can carry across time and distance. Then: There’s a particular kind of memory that holds fast — not the dramatic, but the quietly...

From the spiny lobster’s tango-like hunt to the lullaby of eelgrass nurseries, Jenni Brandon’s Sea Songs: California Coast dives into the vibrant ecosystems off the California coast. Inspired by her scuba adventures, each movement brings marine life to the surface — with clarinet and piano painting a world full of movement, mystery, and life beneath the waves. Then: Like a flower that only blooms...

On the next Modern Notebook with Tyler Kline: What begins as a lullaby becomes something deeper. In her piece Out Came the Sun , Shuying Li reflects on the overwhelming joy of new motherhood — and the unexpected grief that followed. Through music, she traces the arc from bliss to sadness to peace, honoring the complex emotional landscape of early parenthood. Then: Inspired by the life of British s...

On the next Modern Notebook with Tyler Kline: Out of conversations and community, a phrase stayed with composer Nicky Sohn: “a fresh breath of hope.” Written for violinist Mary Grace Johnson and inspired by the stories of women rebuilding their lives, this piece becomes a gesture of resilience — breathing color into darkness. Then: In the journals of Canadian painter Emily Carr, composer Tawnie Ol...

On the next Modern Notebook with Tyler Kline: What happens when our obsession with spectacle turns dangerous? Michael Abels’s Nope Suite , drawn from his score written for Jordan Peele’s genre-blending film, rides the line between sci-fi, horror, Western, and family drama — with a score that gallops, pursues, and holds space for both awe and fear. Then: Waves crash, skies open — and the piano beco...

On the next Modern Notebook with Tyler Kline: Conrad Tao’s Undone reimagines the myth of Undine — a water spirit who longs for a soul, only to be betrayed and dissolve back into the sea. But in Tao’s telling, she returns not as a victim, but a force — newly powerful, her waves rising higher in a world reshaped by climate change. Then: Written during the pandemic, Chan Ka Nin’s Harp Concerto is a t...

On the next Modern Notebook with Tyler Kline: Marie A. Douglas’s Tray is both symphonic and cinematic — weaving shifting time signatures, Dorian-mode melodies, and spirituals in clashing tonal centers. It traces the story of Trayvon Martin, from the night of his death through the aftermath of the trial, and honors lives lost to violence rooted in racial injustice. Then: Inspired by the poetry of E...

On the next Modern Notebook with Tyler Kline: In Listen to the Earth , James Grant takes us aboard Apollo 11 — from liftoff, through orbit, all the way to the lunar surface. Drawing from NASA transcripts, environmental texts, and his own poetic reflections, Grant’s music becomes a call to witness our planet’s beauty from space — and to care for it with everything we’ve got. Then: Inspired by a Mar...

Modern Notebook for July 28, 2025

On the next Modern Notebook with Tyler Kline:   Satoshi Yagisawa’s Clarinet Concerto doesn’t just spotlight the soloist — it weaves them into a vibrant sound world of contrast and color. Intimate, expressive, and thrillingly fast, it’s a standout in today’s wind repertoire. Then:   What if a fugue could swing with jazz harmony? Or a Medieval chant twist in on itself through microtonal layers? In C...

On the next Modern Notebook with Tyler Kline: Inspired by dance, Daniel Pesca’s Gestures of Grace explores movement in sound — spinning, gliding, and unfolding with a sense of elegance and surprise. It’s a vibrant duo for flute and piano, written as a tribute to a long musical friendship. Then: The double bass takes center stage in Sarah Louise Bassingthwaighte’s Concerto for Double Bass , a sweep...

On the next Modern Notebook with Tyler Kline: Field recordings, flowing strings, and blues-infused melodies shape Trevor Weston’s Legacy Works . These reimagined spirituals, from There is a Balm in Gilead to Run to Jesus , blur the lines between tradition and transformation. Then: What does up sound like? D. Riley Nicholson explores the idea from every angle in his piece UP — spiraling up the circ...

On the next Modern Notebook with Tyler Kline: Beneath the forest floor, trees and fungi share a secret language — exchanging nutrients through delicate underground pathways. That symbiotic relationship comes to life in Wood Wide Web II by Miriama Young, where marimba and flute trace an imagined conversation between roots and mycelium. Then: Thierry Escaich’s Double Concerto for oboe and violin is...

On the next Modern Notebook with Tyler Kline: A tender farewell, a storm of emotion, and a swirl of nostalgia — Isidora Žebeljan’s final work, Three Curious Loves , is a violin concerto that moves from gentle lyricism to wild, virtuosic energy. It’s a deeply intimate piece that feels like memory set to music. Then: Hayden Carruth’s Emergency Haying is a poem about labor — about the hard, physical...

On the next Modern Notebook with Tyler Kline: Hear music by Valerie Coleman that embodies the common threads of community and empathy, reminding us that we are one people; a violin and flute duo by Carlos Simon that's stir crazy ; and a piece for two saxophones by Katahj Copley called K-R-O-N-O . Then: Hear Lalin by Nathalie Joachim — a piece conceived under the moon and stars on her family’s farm...