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Zeke Morgan (L) and Jonathan Gold (R)
Jonathan Gold (MM ’26), Classical Composition, is an American composer based in New York City. Beginning as a drummer in heavy metal bands around New Jersey, Gold devoted himself solely to composition when he was eighteen. He holds a bachelor’s degree in composition from Berklee College of Music and is currently a master’s student at Manhattan School of Music, studying composition with J. Mark Stambaugh.
“My latest work is essentially meditation. It concentrates on the collective psychology of an ensemble through the way they communicate within indeterminate structures. It is an invitation to slow down and sense all of the interdependent and inseparable elements that condition a musical situation. Looking deeply gives rise to insight and understanding, which in my view, is the basis of awakening.”
Zeke Morgan (MM ’26), Classical Composition, is a composer, violinist, and fiddle player from Jackson, Mississippi. He is currently a master’s student at Manhattan School of Music studying composition with Reiko Fueting. He holds two bachelor’s degrees from Bard College-Conservatory in composition and the written arts. Through his studies in both music and poetry, Zeke has developed a special interest in narrative and the voice. He credits many sources of external inspiration including folk music, mythology, and post-structuralist philosophy. Zeke’s one technical goal when writing music is creating a single amorphous but simultaneously multitudinous body that is comprised of individual entities: a representation of the burgeoning human organism.
Jonathan and Zeke: Resurrection is a three-hour concert conceived of and produced by Zeke Morgan and Jonathan Gold, featuring two large scale works, each over an hour in length: KOL and Vir Heroicus Sublimis, respectively. The concept of the concert is about the necessity for a change in perspective on human connection and self understanding – from individualism to global unity as a means of restoring compassion and the sanctity of all life, without discrimination.
Jonathan and Zeke: KOL is a mass for soloists, choir, and chamber ensemble. The choir represents the cosmos, or rather angels. Each soloist (Law, Love, Work, Freedom) is a representative of humanity. KOL, like much of my music, imagines humanity as an all-encompassing undulating organism with a single unifying and unstoppable Will, as described in many of the writings of Schopenhauer. I chose the Catholic mass to express this idea because with such inherent curiosity and desire, there will always be thresholds broken which creates such moments where it is clear that the world will never be the same again.
Just as Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit, humanity has crossed many lines to remake itself and has fundamentally changed itself and the world many times over. One could say we’ve forgotten ourselves, but did we ever know what we were? We worshipped gods once, but only progress and consumption themselves are allowed that honor now. KOL posits a theoretical future where humanity finally gains the ultimate divine knowledge it was never meant to have, and in doing so, remakes and ends everything.
Jonathan and Zeke: Vir Heroicus Sublimis, is strictly modeled after Barnett Newman’s 1951 massive 17-foot color field painting of the same name, translating its scale, colors, and proportions into sound and time. Newman’s painting is composed of five large fields of red paint and five thin lines which divide the canvas. The question however, is whether these horizon points are moments of separation, or unification. The openness of my composition creates a necessary interdependence and inseparability in the performers’ interactions and responses to one another, mirroring how Newman’s abstraction allows all experiences to equally exist within it. Nothing is excluded and everything (and everyone) is unified and inseparable through the shared experience of seemingly infinite space.
The music is meant to capture the completely enveloping sensation of Newman’s giant painting and its way of dissolving the boundaries between the self and the other through abstraction – losing oneself in the field and becoming one with it. To do this, I knew I needed to convert every element of the painting’s composition very closely into sound, and form, to match it objectively.
“We hope the audience ideally enters with an open mind and leaves with a full heart. We are not in the business of telling anyone how to feel, but we hope that there is a shared understanding of unification and community.” Zeke Morgan (MM ’26) and Jonathan Gold (MM ’26)
“We hope the audience ideally enters with an open mind and leaves with a full heart. We are not in the business of telling anyone how to feel, but we hope that there is a shared understanding of unification and community.”
Zeke Morgan (MM ’26) and Jonathan Gold (MM ’26)
Zeke: I’d ask Iannis Xenakis if I could buy him a beer.
Jonathan: I’d ask Arvo Pärt the secret to a happy marriage.
Zeke: I am looking forward to a relaxing but invigorating final semester making music with friends. I’m specifically excited about a piece I’ll be writing for the fourth Tactus concert.
Jonathan: I am looking forward to composing the last bit of music during my final semester and doing it gently and patiently, since I will have no more real deadlines. I anticipate having more space this semester to focus on my personal goals outside of music and academics.
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