Music

Recordings of notated compositions, experimental folk performances & collaborative improvisations.

Vicky Chow, piano
Stone Residency premier performance
Glass Box, The New School, NYC
February 12, 2019
Sara Louise Callaway (Sara Soltau), violin
featured on the cassette album In Parts
Kentucky, 2017
Kevin Zetina, percussion, guitar & voice
1:2:1 New Music Intensive
webcast premieres concert
January 18, 2021
Brandon Simmons, flute
Robert Scott-Celedón, piano
Classical Revolution RVA Incarnations
The Hof, Richmond, VA
September 19, 2021
Sara Louise Callaway, violin
Matilda Ertz, piano
concert performance at Sisters of Loretto chapel
Nerinx, Kentucky
March 4, 2018
from concert performances—
Appalshop theater, Whitesburg, KY
December 2016
Sediment Gallery, Richmond, VA
February 2018
first improvisation session
Ben Jaffe, tenor sax
Dave Desmeaux, bass
Robert Scott-Celedón, guitar, viola
Bed Stuy, Brooklyn
September 2015
1. three live selections
live at the Highpoint, Richmond, VA, 2019
2. Whisper Wish, January 2017
home demo recording, November 2020
3. Winters Eve, from old Welsh verse
home demo recording, June 2021
4. Fair & Tender, traditional lyric/tune
reharmonized, remetered & reworded
home demo recording, April 2021
Anna Koch, bass clarinet
Robert Scott-Celedón, harpsichord
premier, presented by RVA Baroque & Raphael Seligmann
for international project connecting-the-dots.at
September 17, 2023
Myra Hinrichs, violin
Carrie Frey, viola
Chicago, IL
August 5, 2019
live performance of 2, 3, 4 & 5
(1a & 1b not included)
Classical Revolution RVA Incarnations
The Hof, Richmond, VA
February 20, 2022
Katharine Moore Tibbetts: flute, cello
Robert Scott-Celedón: composition, arrangement, guitar
Cameron Welke: theorbo
Zsuzsanna Emodi: viola
Gary White: recorder
Raphael Seligmann: production, arrangement, viola
for RVA Baroque
live at The Branch Museum, Richmond, VA
July 16, 2022
Sediment Gallery, Richmond, VA
June 2019
Round House Concert Series, Richmond, VA
October 2018
rehearsal recordings—
Elegy-Meditation, 2015/rev. 2018
Myrick Crampton, tenor sax
Amos Goldie, viola
Robert Scott-Celedón, piano
Accords, 2010/rev. 2017
Caleb Paxton, viola
Daniel Stipe, piano
Robert Scott-Celedón: untuned piano
live at Bellevue School, Richmond, VA
June 6, 2022
Kelly MacDonald, guitar [1,2], bass [3]
Caleb Flood, percussion, voice, flute [1]
Dave Desmeaux, bass guitar [2]
Pinson Chanselle, drumset [3]
Robert Scott-Celedón, guitar [1,3], synth [2]
Brooklyn, NY, November 2015
Richmond, VA, December 2015
recorded in Pine Mountain Settlement School’s chapel
Pine Mountain, Kentucky
November 2016
recorded outdoors with assorted acoustic instruments
Letcher County, Kentucky, 2017
Hanover County, Virginia, 2018

Writing

A selection of short poems.



Last night, across
a dusty street corner
I reach
a junk shop—
the sort whose racks & shelves of
old tools & metal signs
are dragged daily outside—

& eventually
realize
I’m perusing Lou Harrison’s bookshelf.

The owner
walks up
& explains he
once’d been hired
to clear out Lou’s home

In the middle of one side
of the shelf
there’s a staircase
which I follow
up & into
a modest
concert hall mezzanine

inside the house
I find myself casually
in the presence
of Lou’s friends
who seem not to know he has died

—Perhaps, an earlier time, before
he’d gone


September 14, 2021
Leaving work,
prison
in a sunny   little rush

I savor this warmth
on my back

&
what is written.

But more
the play of light

&
chain-link shadow—

ripplings
upon the page


January 22, 2024
The other night
I fell asleep wondering
if any future
or past tenant
of this house we rent

would ever keep their bed
in the room
we use as the living room

How bout a bed
in what serves as our dining room?

I don’t hate these possibilities
but find them kind of appealing, refreshing.

I loved nights spent
in the common space

with friends, from out of town.

As a kid, sleepovers
were a birthday or weekend treat
Or with my siblings
on the living room floor,

sleeping bags
by the fireplace my dad mostly tended,
cartoons on tv in the morning.

My parents sometimes
would use the foldout sofabed,

five of us ending up
in some combination of these placements

*

Our couch pops
so easily out
It’s a signifier
of our lack
of fealty to the coming morning

We have no roommates
to contend with, or to irritate
—just kids
who we could share this with, but haven’t yet
They still are learning
to get to sleep.

I’ve always loved slumber parties
& insist
the inability of grown people
to make a habit
of socializing
without time constraint

makes much the loneliness
of adulthood

*

Would any person keep their bed in our house’s kitchen?

For medical reasons?
Out of obsession
maybe… with baking?

It’d be tight in there… but a cot
or a ‘single’ would fit.

I may
have misheard some principle
from thermodynamics, or cosmology

that given infinite time for wandering,
the elements in a space
will configure in every possible arrangement,

So, a thousand times…
Ten thousand…
A hundred thousand times…?


If we re & re-booted the tenancy
of this house,

how many tries

until
some person puts a bed in the kitchen


May 1, 2024


It could not be congenial
(even with some
magic windfall)

to live
in luxurious isolation

I am too homey
(of a person)
to guard
any fortune

I am too lonely a person
for a mansion


October 4, 2021


I was hoping it was thunder I was hearing
& soft joy when I was certain

A few flashes
assure more   to come.

As a voice near-forgotten,
or morning’s dove cooing   from Maryland
—recollection.

Night
patters   on gutters
& trees & roof,

& through the ceiling
onto two attic steps,

Makes me silent.

to give   all the space
to low rumblings


March 18, 2021


Swattin mama,
battin—
your paws outstretched,

Like a cat
boxin n
wearin backward
the unbuttoned
summershirt’chu gave me

It keep yer tummy warm
this evenin’,
beige-to-blue ombré
I would not
’ve likely chosen.

Goldenhour sun
’s glowin up
yer tan arms n cheek skin,

Shinin   Vy’s braids
you done today
like a girl of Swiss summer, out

for pickin alps-
meadow wildflowers,   but

in a dress—coral-pink
with highlighter-luminous tufting,
& tough black
gloves, fingerless

*

Up schoolyard hill
old gnarled
maples tower
& watch us,
vaguely menacing

We sneak
past ’em, post-picnic,
on our way back home
cross the street

*

You two   in
a pre-bedtime bath routine

—sweet,

Till Violet’s
expression
twists deep, disturbed

Misheard   us
discussing

whether or not
it is “time

to take out her brains”


Shakily, she ask now
if we’re gonna need

ta remove “Robert’s brains, too?”

*

We all crack up

at the frightful
mistake made

’cause it’s just—
her hair’s
a little tangled


July 16, 2024


It is no wonder
no spirit
& no magic
are alive

in a house
without cracks
in the floors   or folds

in old
upholstery
(for it)
to hide   in  -  side

No wonder


March 17, 2021



Small fly on my hand

white butterfly, wasp

bees   on the mountain mint

& milkweed.


Tall, white-flowered cosmos

bend in the breeze


All the way

All of this sways

All these wave   in the sunheat

end-a-summer midday.



End-a-summer, midday

kalanchoe, sedum.


& coffee grounds, deer shit


What a break, a gift


to be free to see this,

to sleep past eleven,

to sit & watch
this all


—What a freedom

The bee weighing down

the speedwell branch
—Wow…

& then
the rebalance, rebound


So many on the mint

White butterfly weaves
through our backyard junk

Birds are quiet;

the crickets not.



For the first in a long   time
we last night drank a lot

Then had a mix
of good   & bad dreams,
lying beside you

They remind me
you were so tough
to trust

Hard to ask
for honest response.


But earlier
last night

I put all that aside,

behind us,

to treat the night like a date.

  (& we’ll enjoy   that same treat today)


We were initiated
into a strange room

at our familiar
spot below the street     (—“if ya know you know”)


& wandered over to a late show, late.


I’ve had a lifelong thing
’gainst trying too hard


Complete acceptance, it seems

Couldn’t depend on games,

calculations,


behavior

Guess what I’m askin   & offerin
’s somethin unusual:

to live outside
social valuation



Of all people
knew
you could be different, dude!

& our small olive tree looks good


Pokeweed’s almost contained;

squash vine not.


Wildly, lively   it

has overtaken

the old clothesline post
& bird feeders   hangin there.


Our wood windchimes

would soon’ve been soundless,
engulfed


We had ta move ’em
to that evergreen branch.


Now they click/clunk   lovely


It’s my cue
to be quiet



There’re the birds


There’re the birds


words & music
September 15, 2024


After one
solitary yester-
day of observation

this one
is filled   with communion

Mostly unexpected, but
none   more so

than when on the metro
as I star the corner
of a page of poetry

the guy
sitting next to me
says:   wait,

you like that one


July 9, 2021


One green wrap
on near-black
backdrop,
twisted
around a barren branch

& another strand
outstretched & swaying,
just an inch
(or two) away
from a second
leafless limb

Watering   the mimosa tree,
recovering in the evening


June 8, 2021


Auggie’s shining a small light through a hole
near the bottom hem   in
the old secondhand t-shirt I’m wearing.

He asks
why there’s a hole there

& I show him the dozen-ish little ones
beginning to form up on the chest

He says, “oh,
why is your shirt breaking?”

I tell him I wish it wasn’t, but also
it is old.

“You wish it would stay like it is forever”

I do wish that

“But everything breaks,” he says

We agree

houses, & people, & plants
& even the rocks
all break, eventually

Nothing lasts forever & everything breaks eventually
he reconfirms for me

“No one told me, I just knew that.”


August 26, 2023


The moon lit
the far wall of the ravine, full bright
& the falls
were deafening

Mountain laurel
heaven, lush you
knew it happened somehow

& now
I wish badly
we could have let that child be

& better than me

I would cede my place
with you, in this world
that she could grow
more rightly than we grew


September 9, 2023
Don’t need to avert
our eyes, you & I have
a different sight

a special practice—
Of Seeing

what is radiant
                      && troubled   (in the world);

what is both bleak
                           && vital

We, together
don't be down-weighed,
not dull & sullen

These days, I’ve treasured
a feeling in my gut
—like hunger, psilocybin

don’t bury—cultivate
our Difference

It’s not what is (or how it’s) served up—
It is the bravery;
It’s   the not recoiling.

Look—there is something stirring!,
shimmering
in All of it!   We know
how to look


March 20, 2023

About

I’m Robert Scott-Celedón. I make poems and music that grow out of daily life—conversations, parenting, teaching, moments half-felt, half-thought. A glance in the park. A tension in the room. A familiar scent or sound. I follow undercurrents to see where they lead, what value they might hold.

Since 2022, I’ve taught music to incarcerated youth in a maximum-security facility, encouraging reflection, reframing, and conversation as ways to build agency and resilience. Whether studying the vibrations of a guitar string or sitting with the weight of a single word, I believe intentional creative practice can help us stay in the room with our own life.

I’ve taught traditional music in Eastern Kentucky public schools, was a Gilman Scholar at Tbilisi State Conservatoire, a community FM radio host, an electronics designer at Death By Audio, and a composer fellow at the Bang on a Can Summer Festival. I’ve also worked as an editor, including for Tonality: An Owner’s Manual by Dmitri Tymoczko.

Community is central to my work. Collaborations with RVA Baroque, Classical Revolution RVA, the RAIC improvisation collective, kroncong group Rumput, composer Peni Candra Rini, clarinetist Anna Koch, percussionist Kevin Zetina, pianist Vicky Chow, and violist Carrie Frey reflect an ongoing commitment to shared meaning-making across forms, genres, and traditions.

I live in Richmond, Virginia near Maymont Park, with one unfriendly cat, a friendly cat, my partner, and two human children.

latechimes@gmail.com

Richmond Avant Improv Collective
free improvisation recording & performance collective

latechimes.blogspot.com
writings & excerpts from articles & books

youtube channel
arrangements, compositions (& some curated playlists)

Rumput
Richmond-based Indonesian Kroncong music ensemble

Rediscovering the 20th Century
incomplete archives of WRIR radio program (2012–2014)

hickory house
experimental improvisation trio

latechimes.bandcamp.com
personal composition bandcamp

instagram.com/robertscottceledon
John Dombroski
nomadic improviser & sound artist

Norma Jean Haynes
folklorist, singer, banjoist

Carrie Frey
NYC-based violist

Vicky Chow
NYC-based pianist

Kelly MacDonald
KY/OH-based guitarist & improviser

Sara Louise Callaway (Soltau)
Louisville-based violinist

RVA Baroque
committed to bringing pre-classical music to Richmond

Classical Revolution RVA
committed to bringing composed music to Richmond

Peni Candra Rini
Indonesian composer & vocalist

Larry Polansky
CA-based composer

Benjamin Broening
Richmond, VA-based composer

Pill
collaborator Ben Jaffe’s no wave band

Death By Audio
radical music electronics

Studio Two Three
Richmond’s community print studio

WRIR 97.3 FM
Richmond community radio

WMMT FM
mountain community radio

Cowan Creek Mountain Music School
traditional summer music program in eastern KY

Bang on a Can
contemporary music organization

Appalachian Luthiery
instrument workshop in eastern KY
folkloretanznoten.de
approximately 2500 international traditional tunes

hopp-zwei-drei.de/noten.html
approximately 200 international traditional tunes

spillefolk.dk/nodesamling/
focus on Northern European & Scandinavian tunes

goldov.com/butterw/emdb/scores.html
focus on Bulgarian tunes

stammtischmusik.at/noten/noten.shtml
German & Austrian tunes

digitalarchive.wm.edu/handle/10288/13782
Middle Eastern Music Archive (MEMA) at William & Mary

bouzoukispot.com/tabs.php
int’l Bouzouki tunes

celticscores.com
many tunes from Ireland & Brittany

crab.rutgers.edu/~pbutler/music.html
focus on English dance tunes

tunearch.org/wiki/Category:Tune
Traditional Tune Archive (TTA)

larkinthemorning.com/blogs/articles/lark-in-the-morning-free-music-library
several international & many English tune collections

bluegrassmessengers.com/ballads--child-ballads-other-english-american.aspx
lyrics & tunes to child ballads & other traditional music
PennSound archive
recordings of modern & contemporary poets

Tom Johnson’s Music by my Friends
audio programs introducing a range of experimental composers

Matt Marble’s Secret Sound podcast
diverse esoteric influences on American music