California Dreams: The piece is about the beauty and nature of California, and was composed for flute, a string quartet (Violin I, Violin II, Viola, and Cello), timpani, and piano.

Melodious Bugling #30 has a number and not a title because of the Composer’s opposition to one element of Program Music, which is the apparent hijacking of a listener’s imagination. Whatever scene or scenario that the listener imagines is appropriate for this music is their contribution to the enjoyment of the music. The composer's job is finished when s/he has composed the piece. Assigning a title (if they wish) is part of the job of the listener.

Emergency Guidelines is a poem by the contemporary poet Martha McCollough. The speaker guides us through a nightmarish emergency, suggesting at the end that there may be a way out of danger.

Object Relations is about inner life. The name references Object Relations Theory from psychoanalysis, which proposes that we all contain different internalized characters (or “objects”) that represent various aspects of our early attachment figures. These objects are alive within us and play out familiar roles on the stage of our emotions. Of course, this internal drama affects how we engage with our external world, yet changing our relationships with our most obstinate objects can be very difficult. This piece is meant to be a musical representation of the internal dialogue that might take place both during one week of psychoanalysis and, on a larger scale, over the course of a psychoanalytic treatment as a whole. In keeping with the piece's subject matter, I wanted use evocative style markings to help embody the different internal experiences I aim to convey. Monday begins with “hazy, shapeless” strings, which are joined by a “meandering” conversation between wind instruments, only to be rudely interrupted by the trumpet. The rest of the movement unfolds in a state of being “adrift” and “feeling around in the dark.” Tuesday starts with what can only be described as “a mechanical wind-up toy hitting a wall.” In this movement, there many voices chattering, including ones that are “stubborn,” “motion sick,” and full of “dread.” Listen for an “eerie” version of a Hebrew prayer quoted by the flute. By Wednesday, there is a storm brewing. “Determined” strings attempt to cut through woodwind “muttering” and “crazed” brass. Interspersed with the chaotic noise are segments of a hymn by Beethoven from the 3rd movement of his String Quartet No. 15, which he calls “Heiliger Dankgesang,” or “holy song of thanksgiving” for his recovery after a terrible illness. Finally, Thursday arrives at “freedom and relief,” with a solo violin “soaring” over soft tones “from an underground well.” I hope listeners relate to the emotional content of this piece, or at least recognize something in the musical objects' conversations.

Les Fleurs Interdites: No one who has heard Megan Cullen's magnificent soprano could resist the temptation to hear more, so I plotted and schemed with Megan about what piece I could compose that Megan would sing. We settled on settings of a series of six poems that Charles Baudelaire (1821-1867) intended for publication as part of Les Fleurs du mal ("The Flowers of Evil") in 1857. The censors fined Baudelaire 300 francs and prohibited publication of these poems due to their "immorality", a ban which the French authorities kept in place until 1949, so I dubbed them Les Fleurs Interdites ("The Forbidden Flowers"). We begin here with the first of the six censored poems, Le Léthé, named after one of the five rivers of Hades in Greek mythology. All those who drink the waters of Lethe are said to experience complete forgetfulness. Les Fleurs du mal was and perhaps still is controversial, a seminal work in the symbolist and modernist movements, dealing with themes related to decadence and eroticism. I listened to mid- to late-nineteenth century French music to find inspiration for the setting of Le Léthé, although apparently I forgot most of what I heard as you'll no doubt affirm after listening. Barring any further bouts of amnesia, the future will bring us settings of the five other censored poems in the Forbidden Flowers series.

My opera, Ishi, is the story of the last survivor of the Yahi tribe who came out of hiding in 1911 from his native culture and entered a whole new world. He was brought to San Francisco by two anthropologists and lived the rest of his life there.
In this scene from Act 2, Ishi sings Wood Duck's Love Tale. He is recorded on a wax cylinder by the anthropologist, Waterman, as a women's chorus sings. Ishi expresses his sadness about never finding a mate.

The Creation story from the biblical Book of Genesis describes how God created heaven and earth, plants, animals, and people; and later how the first people were cast out of the Garden of Eden as punishment for eating from the 'tree of knowledge of good and evil. ' In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.

Carla Brooke has collaborated with her husband John Beeman, as an author, librettist, and lyricist. Besides writing the libretto for his opera, The Answering Machine, Brooke also wrote the text for the choral Angel of Peace, performed at the Oregon Bach Festival. She co-authored Foam, a musical-dramatic work, and wrote the book and lyrics for the children's musical El Condor. As an author and poet, Carla has written Artfelt, a guide for helping children deal with grief, and recently, Hanai and I, a children's story. Her poetry and essays have been published by Insight Meditation Center in a collection called Passing It On.