Choose artist...
Home   >   Projects   >   'Lost At Home' from Dawn
Vonn Vanier

'Lost At Home' from Dawn

Montclair Records
Release Date: May 17, 2025

Press Release

Read press

Artist Details

Read bio

Tour Dates

View

Website

Visit
Shimmer
Shimmer - Behind the Scenes
OPCI - pianist Brenda Vahur
Behind the Scenes of 'OPCI'
Lost At Home
Lost At Home - Behind The Scenes
Interview w/ WGTE
1 OPCI  
2 Shimmer  
3 Rhapsody In Cminor  
4 Lost At Home  
5 Bloom  
6 Jagged  
7 Rhapsody In C minor  
8 Witching Hour  
Show all tracks
Hide

Bright, new composers offer the best kind of promise for American music, and Vonn Vanier – at the age of 17 – is well on his way. With his quiet confidence, thoughtful ambition and rapidly evolving talent, he is an emerging voice within the world of classical music. The proof is in the remarkably varied compositions Vanier has written in his recording debut on the new album Dawn from Montclair Records. Dawn introduces listeners to the young composer's initial orchestral, chamber and solo works that reflect his interest in bringing together the intellectual innovation of contemporary music with the sounds of classical tradition.

Coming on April 18 is the third single from ‘Dawn’ - ‘Lost at Home' for Piano

“Lost at Home” reflects on the brutality and horrors of World War I. Inspired by Remarque's novel All Quiet on the Western Front, it is written in three parts, meant to illustrate the physical and mental state of the main character, Paul Baumer, in different areas of the book.

The first section of “Lost at Home” portrays Paul in battle. Inspired by the style of postmodernist composers, I utilized a short quotation from Shostakovich’s Eleventh Symphony to represent Paul’s memories of the war. Noises from the battlefield, including gunshots and airplanes, imitated by snare drums and brass glissandi, give a vivid and overwhelming quality to this first section.

The next part of “Lost at Home” portrays Paul at home on leave. A familiar melody, the theme from Johannes Brahms's Variations on a Theme by Haydn, sounds soothingly in the string section. This tranquil quality does not last, however. Memories of the battlefield haunt Paul, represented by sudden outbursts of the motif from the opening section. The music, as if uncertain or astray, wanders through different keys and eventually escalates to a climax, when the word “lost” appears, transformed alphabetically into the musical notes E-A-E-F, which are then repeated in chromatic transpositions. As the orchestra comes into unison, the piece transitions into the final section.

This last part begins with the same musical material as the first, but it quickly moves to one final theme: another melody from Variations on a Theme by Haydn, but from one of the movements in B-flat minor. By using this familiar quotation, this final touch represents how, at the end of All Quiet on the Western Front, Paul only feels familiar with war. He becomes veritably crushed, as the quote describes. The Brahms melody repeats and escalates, representing the never-ending nature of World War I, and the piece ends on a dramatic minor chord.

  • KUSC/KDFC - Classical Californians with Jeremy Cohen features Vonn Vanier's 'Shimmer' and 'Lost at Home'
    Posted At: May 9, 2025
    Vonn Vanier is an 18 year old composer and pianist. He received his primary musical training in the professional San Francisco Grace Cathedral Choir of Men and Boys, after which he began composing music. He continued to develop his compositional voice while attending the Boston University (BU) Tanglewood Institute composition program in the summers of 2022-2024. His music has been performed and/or recorded ...

  • Vonn Vanier chats about 'Dawn' with Ohio's FM91:WGTE
    Posted At: April 18, 2025
    Bright, new composers offer the best kind of promise for American music, and Vonn Vanier – at the age of 17 – is well on his way. With his quiet confidence, thoughtful ambition and rapidly evolving talent, he is an emerging voice within the world of classical music. The proof is in the remarkably varied compositions Vanier has written in his recording debut on the new album Dawn from Montclair Records. Dawn...

  • 17 year old American composer Vonn Vanier, will release first recording: 'Dawn' in 2025
    Posted At: November 21, 2024
    Bright, new composers offer the best kind of promise for American music, and Vonn Vanier – at the age of 17 – is well on his way. With his quiet confidence, thoughtful ambition and rapidly evolving talent, he is an emerging voice within the world of classical music. The proof is in the remarkably varied compositions Vanier has written in his recording debut on the new album Dawn from Montclair Records.Dawn ...
Go to artist details