Eclipse
Announcement: Chamber Music Concert of my larger and multimedia works is confirmed for August 21 2026 at Hairpin Arts Center, Chicago.
Please check this page for all of the details!
Interviews and press about my compositions:
Nashville Public Radio interview about Eclipse
Nashville Public Radio interview about my Pandemic Protest Song/
Nashville Public Radio “Six questions- getting eclectic with composer Robbie Lynn Hunsinger
I write the music for all of my intermedia performances and installations, but works listed here range from standalone sound art and protest songs to larger chamber music works. I hope to have the chance to write for orchestra one day. I often incorporate unaltered field recordings of natural sounds as melodic and rhythmic content and sometimes use electronic percussion in my chamber pieces. Media projections are custom coded to respond to the pitch and volume of the music and often are changed up mid movement.
Some big news! Pavane for Palestine, Lachrimae will finally be performed Friday August 21 in Chicago! The Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs Grant is funding a concert that includes Pavane for Palestine Lachrimae plus Eclipse and Catalyst. Go to this page to learn more. I hope to add a promenade of large puppets or dancers to Pavane for this concert. It is the most recent large scale composition and had a pretty sad start. It was commissioned by Nashville’s Intersection Music with support from the National Endowment for the Arts, but one week before the concert, half of the Nashville players balked at playing a piece with Palestine in the title and the administration let them cancel me. Below is a midi/DAW export of the music. I have a Pavane page set up here and will up date with concert details.
Below left is an excerpt from Eclipse, the largest intermedia project I have composed to date. It has a 40 page score and was commissioned by Nashville’s chatterbird ensemble. I performed live with them as a VJ triggering and affecting visuals in real time. Full performance as well as excerpts are on this page
I created sound responsive animations and also live manipulated effects for this performance using video I shot of the Nashville Total Eclipse in 2017. The full performance and more information is at this link. On the right is Catalyst a sound responsive composition using live acoustic volume input to fade up the Bee video and also capturing volumes and pitches to generate geometric animations in real time. I have a Department of Cultural Affairs Grant to have these performed in 2026.
The second row shows Ebenezer Creek which has its own page here and then CatBird– linked here -both sound reactive compositions for Oboe, English Horns and Bass.
The following are a few of my protest songs, often with spoken word and sometimes synthesizer.
The newest protest song is ICECBP2025-26. I wrote it for a compilation from Centripetal Force and Seawind of Battery Records to raise funds for the National Center for Immigrant Justice. Spoken word and my new/used Korg Monolog Synthesizer. Maybe don’t turn it up in airpods till you get a sense of the synthesizer entrance…
RoeVWade22 was written for another fundraiser from Centripetal Force Records to raise money for abortion rights which had just been gutted. Spoken word and Chinese oboe/Suona and Synthesizer. You might want to keep it turned down a bit till the Synth is fully in…
Corona Corona is a protest song in support of our healthcare workers, many of whom were trying to save our lives during the epidemic by risking their own, in large part thanks to the inconceivable shortage of personal protective gear. Disposable masks were being used for a week on the front lines of Covid 19 thanks to the failure of the US government. It is composed of all spoken words creating rhythmic loops, plus additional vocals.
This next piece was created our of a challenge to create another artwork inspired by one of the public art projects in Nashville. I bowed and rang Christopher Fennell’s Tool Fire and used these sounds with upright bass along with recordings of a fortuitous rain storm (the day I was playing bass) to create this Tool Fire Rain, a programmatic composition about the 2010 Nashville Flood. Made possible by a generous grant from Metro Nashville Arts Commission, The Bonnaroo Works Fund and the Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee. On the left is a clip of me playing the sculpture! On the right is the Tool Fire Rain music.
This next recording was my response to a call from the Cornell Lab of Natural Sounds to use their bird recordings in a new composition. All sounds used are unaltered birdsong. I took their Yuba Pass bird recording workshop many years ago and it was an amazing experience. This was before I found my footing in bird conservation and started the Chicago Bird Collision Monitors.