Tag: New Mexico

Posted on

Fallen Star (2017/arr. 2020, 2022)

Voice and piano. 6 1/2 mins.
— Arrangement for baritone, soprano, mezzo-soprano, SATB chamber choir, flute, acoustic guitar, cello, and piano. 7 1/2 mins.

Lyrics by Mashuq Mushtaq Deen.

Arrangement for large ensemble included in Sauntering Songs: a concert-length cantata on the theme of walking, commissioned by Skylark Vocal Ensemble.

Perusal Score

View perusal score (baritone and piano version).

Performance score available for purchase. Please direct inquiries to Nell Shaw Cohen at nell@nellshawcohen.com.

Version for solo voice and piano also available as part of NewMusicShelf Anthology of New Music: Trans & Nonbinary Voices, Vol. 1. May be transposed to any key.

Program Note
Watercolor painting of starry night sky and shooting star over Western mountains.
Painting by Nell Shaw Cohen.

The first version of Fallen Star was written in 2017 during the New Dramatists Composer-Librettist Studio, an intensive laboratory for music-theater collaborations directed by Nautilus Music-Theater.

Mashuq Mushtaq Deen and I created Fallen Star in response to a prompt from baritone Joshua Hinck to write a song with themes from Classical mythology. In doing so, Deen also incorporated our shared love of the American West, and the transcendent night skies of Northern New Mexico, into his brilliant lyric.

Fallen Star was later arranged and incorporated into Sauntering Songs: a concert-length cantata on the theme of walking, commissioned by Skylark Vocal Ensemble. 

Related Content

Performance History

Voice and piano version:

Nashua Pride Festival, Melina Jaharis, mezzo-soprano. Nashua Community Music School, Nashua, NH, 6/25/22.

New Dramatists, version for three voices presented as part of music-theater workshop. Blake Friedman, Nicole Mitchell, and Camille Harris, vocalists, with Charity Wicks, piano. New York NY, 4/19/18.

New Dramatists, version for three voices presented as part of public working session at culmination of the New Dramatists Composer-Librettist Studio. Joshua Hinck, Mallory Hawks, and Lucia Rodrique, vocalists, with Roger Ames, piano. New York NY, 02/03/17.

Large ensemble version:

Visit the Sauntering Songs page for performance history.

Posted on

The Faraway Nearby: Georgia O’Keeffe and The New Mexico Landscape (2010)

Video with flute, clarinet, piano, violin, cello.  10 mins.

(The music in this work is also the first movement of Into nowhere).


Video and music inspired by the paintings of Georgia O’Keeffe. Filmed on location in New Mexico, with original animations and motion graphics. Over 19,000 views on YouTube. Continue reading “The Faraway Nearby: Georgia O’Keeffe and The New Mexico Landscape (2010)”