From the C3lestial Gr0ve
From the C3lestial Gr0ve explores the disillusionment of encountering AI-generated art,
inspired by my own experience of reading a story that felt inspiring, only to discover on the
same webpage that it was created by AI. The work delves into the experience of
encountering something that is almost human, touching on the uncanny valley phenomenon.
This piece not only reflects on that experience, but actually examines its own creation, as
searching for stories began my creative process for this work.
The piece is divided into two halves. In the first, the harp narrates the story, with electronics
enhancing the ethereal qualities of the narrative. The moment of revelation—when the
story’s AI origins are uncovered—triggers a dramatic shift in timbre and tuning, symbolizing
the loss of the story’s resonance with me. The second half reimagines the writing, distorting
it into unexpected forms and highlighting the disconnection I felt with the tale.
    – Brady Wolff

In Theory
In Theory is a work for harp and fixed media written by Chris Harris in the early months of
2025. It was written for Kaitlin Miller as a part of Praecepta’s 2024 Call for Proposals for
harp.
In Theory is a composition looking to explore emotions based around the perceived
calculation and realized outcome of a situation. This can include any situation in your life,
such as estimated time spent to finish homework, estimated time to grab coffee and run
back to work while on break, estimated time in which you can wait to take your dog out to
use the bathroom before they have an accident in your home, how much food the recipe for
a party actually calls for, or in another lens, if I ask this person to marry me on valentine’s
day in the middle of a vacation in Cabo will they say yes. All of these experiences come with
expectations, and most of the time we as humans have our expectations subverted,
sometimes gently, and others not so gently.
So I ask you now, In Theory, have you had the day you planned for?
    – Chris Harris

Behind the Brilliance
The concept for this piece stems from a report I once read: during festivals, beautiful
fireworks light up the sky. However, the explosions and the smoke disturb birds resting for
the night. Some birds take flight in panic, circling for hours, exhausting their precious energy,
which sometimes puts them in danger, even leading to death. This deeply saddened me, and
I wish to express my sorrow for the birds that perished.
In this piece, I first depict fireworks and birds separately. For the fireworks, I use a
progression from consonant to dissonant harmonies, along with expanding registers and
extended techniques, to illustrate their transformation from beauty to danger. For the birds, I
use repetitive rhythms and pitches to imitate birdsong and use constantly shifting speeds to
capture their lively and agile nature. After introducing the themes of fireworks and birds
separately, I combine the two to depict the birds' escape after being startled by the fireworks,
then a scene where they assemble after being attacked, and finally departure into the
distance.
    – Szu-An Chen