Compositions

Here’s a complete collection of compositions and arrangements by Ray Fahrner. Explore an eclectic range of works for voice and chorus, mixed media, and instrumental ensembles.

Browse by instrumentation:

Chorus

A Green Mountain Songster 1987

1. To Rutland Go
2. Hubble’s New-invented Water Wheel for Cornmills
3. Logan’s Lament

Instrumentation: Wind ensemble and SATB chorus
Duration: 12:00
Commissioned by: Castleton State College, VT in commemoration of their 200th anniversary

Do-wop Orfeo (The Triumph of Love) 1996

Instrumentation: SATB and piano
Performances: Handel & Haydn Society Touring Ensemble as part of Voices of the Stage.

How Can I Keep from Singing? 2013

Arrangement of a 19th century hymn by Robert W. Lowry

Instrumentation: a cappella SATB chorus, Soprano solo
Duration: 3:08

Recorded by the Kühn Choir of Prague, on Voices of Earth and Air Vol. IV (2022), Navona Records.

VOICES OF EARTH AND AIR VOL IV - Album Cover
ALBUM: Voices of Earth & Air Vol. IV

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La Ver l’Aurora 2001

Instrumentation: a cappella SATB chorus
Duration: 3:00

Love Sonnet 1988

Instrumentation: a cappella SATB chorus
Duration: 3:15

O Magnum Mysterium 1999

Instrumentation: a cappella SATB chorus
Duration: 2:30

Poem of Joys 2013

Text by Walt Whitman

Duration: 3:20
Performances: Cambridge Chamber Singers

Prometheus Unbound 1997

Instrumentation: a cappella SATB chorus
Duration: 2:40
Performances: Cambridge Madrigal Singers in Italy and USA

Reasons for Music 1994

Performances: Cambridge Madrigal Singers in Germany, Switzerland and the United States

Rise up, Shepherd, and Follow 2002

Arrangement of a traditional spiritual.

Instrumentation: a cappella SATB chorus, Soprano solo
Duration: 3:00

Roxbury Voices 1995

Instrumentation: string orchestra and chorus
Commissioned and Performed by: Boston Chamber Ensemble

Set Me as a Seal 2021

Instrumentation: a cappella SATB chorus
Duration: 1:45
Performances: Cambridge Chamber Singers in Boston and Lexington, MA

That music always round me 2008

Text by Walt Whitman

Duration: 2:57

Recorded by the Kühn Choir of Prague, on Voices of Earth and Air Vol. IV (2022), Navona Records.

VOICES OF EARTH AND AIR VOL IV - Album Cover
ALBUM: Voices of Earth & Air Vol. IV

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Three Psalms 1988

Instrumentation: a cappella chorus, SATB
Performances: Cambridge Chamber Singers

Psalm 131

Duration: 2:20
performed at the Kennedy Center in 2007 on Sacred Ground: A Centennial Tribute to the MacDowell Colony by the Cambridge Chamber Singers

Psalm 13

Duration: 4:20

Psalm 98

Duration: 2:15

Winterfest 1990

Instrumentation: chorus and brass quartet
Commissioned by: Unicorn Singers, Hingham, MA

Proface

Instrumentation: SATB. Accompaniments available for harp, piano, or brass quartet
Duration: 1:30

Bring Us in Good Ale

Instrumentation: SSATB
Duration: 4:25

The Boar’s Head

Instrumentation: SSATB
Duration: 3:30

I Saw a Sweet and Blessed Sight

Instrumentation: SSATB, optional soprano solo
Duration: 2:15

What Cheer?

Instrumentation: SATB
Duration: 3:00

Works for Stage

CIRCLE: A Circus for Mime and Orchestra 1978, 1981

Instrumentation: Orchestra. Also arranged for 10-piece chamber ensemble.
Duration: 45:00

Produced for television by Warner Amex Cable Corp. Produced for the stage by Peanut Butter Theatre, Cincinnati, OH.

Monkey 1980

Instrumentation: a musical, for SATB chorus, flute, piano, and drums
Duration: 12:30

POET 1985

Lyrics by: Ruth Krauss

Instrumentation: an opera, for solo voices, SAB chorus, and piano
Commissioned by: Lima West Junior High School

Simpatica 1981

Instrumentation: electronic tape and two mimes
Duration: 12:30

Tales from the Arabian Nights 1982

Instrumentation: percussion and six mixed voices
Duration: 25:00

Produced by College Productions, funded by a grant from the Ohio Arts Council.

Ten Tense Falcons or Wilmette by Moonlight 2022-23

Instrumentation: chamber ensemble and seven mixed voices

Work in progress.

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow 1981

Instrumentation: oboe, clarinet, bassoon, violin, viola, contrabass
Duration: 20:00

Produced by Peanut Butter Theatre, supported by a National Endowment for the Arts Composer’s Fellowship.

All About Animals 1980

Lyrics by Richard Ruehrwein
Five songs for educational school program.

Instrumentation: flute, sax, synth, drums
Duration: 19:00

Beauty and the Beast 1980

Incidental music for children’s theater

Instrumentation: piano, vibraphone, and contrabass (2 players)
Duration: 20:00

Works for Film & Video

A Vanishing That Lasts 2023

One of a series of short videopoems, with words and video by Bill Yarrow

Instrumentation: clarinet, contrabass, piano (2), glockenspiel
Duration: 2:23

Celebration Suite 1986

Instrumentation: flute, oboe (English horn), violin, cello, piano
Duration: 15:00

Music for a video documentary of artist Mel Fetterolf by Bardidis Productions, Media, PA

Voice with Accompaniment

Blasphemer 2021

12 progressive rock songs with lyrics by Bill Yarrow

Instrumentation: rock band
Duration: 41:23

BLASPHEMER - Album Cover
ALBUM: Blasphemer

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Pointed Music 2015

Varied instrumental accompaniments for 38 spoken poems by Bill Yarrow

Duration: 56:42

POINTED MUSIC - Album Cover
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Two Lullabyes 1983

Lyrics by Ruth Krauss

Instrumentation: soprano and piano
Duration: 4:00

Instruments

A Jazz Portrait 1994

Instrumentation: big band
Commissioned by: Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Becoming 1978

Instrumentation: solo cello and optional electronic tape
Duration: 6:30

Colleges of Funk 2017

Instrumentation: big band
Performances: Colleges of the Fenway Jazz Band

Fahrner Fragments 1983

Graphic score

Instrumentation: flute, electric guitar and piano
Duration: 3:00

Fanfare 1987

Instrumentation: two trumpets, trombone, and timpani
Duration: 2:00

Holkenhavn Fanfare 2014

Instrumentation: string quartet
Duration: 0:45
Performances: Copenhagen Strings, Denmark

Holkenhavn Quartet 2021

Instrumentation: string quartet
Duration: 12:30

If I could only live at the pitch that is near madness 1980

Doctoral dissertation

Instrumentation: orchestra
Duration: 25:00

Kill the Bull 1985

Instrumentation: big band
Performances: Ohio Northern University Jazz Band

Samba Calleya 2022

Instrumentation: samba ensemble
Duration: 3:06

SAMBA CALLEYA - Album Cover
ALBUM: Samba Calleya

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Sonata #1 for Trumpet and Piano 1983

Instrumentation: trumpet and piano
Duration: 7:00

The Turning Point 1996

Instrumentation: orchestra
Duration: 7:12

Recorded by the Moravian Philharmonic, Olomouc, Czech Republic. Released on Ravello Records.

Two Humors for Horn and Tuba 1979

I. Freely
II. Ironically

Instrumentation: horn and tuba
Duration: 4:00

Visions and Fantasies 1984

Instrumentation: orchestra

Commissioned and performed by the Lima Symphony Orchestra in conjunction with a Meet the Composer grant.