- and numberless quotidian happenings... (2021)
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Linda Dusman
for solo bass drum
ca. 6'00"
I originally planned to compose a snare drum solo for my colleague Tom Goldstein, whose imagination for all things percussion has been a source of inspiration and joy for the 20 years we’ve worked together at UMBC. But in our sessions together trying out ideas, we began talking about the extraordinary bass drum part in Stravinsky’s Le Sacre du Printemps and then began experimenting with different approaches to that drum as a solo instrument, including making it “breathe.” In the end, the bass drum seemed a better pairing with Serena Hilsinger’s epic poem Salvage, her reflections on time as expressed in the geology and people of Cape Ann, Massachusetts, where I composed the piece. I am grateful for her permission to quote passages from the opening of that poem throughout the score.
- Dream Prayer Lullaby (2018)
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Linda Dusman
for solo violin
ca. 9'15"
When violinist Airi Yoshioka asked me to compose a new solo violin work for her, I began to study the Paganini Caprices, monumental violin works that explore many nuances of expressive possibilities on the instrument. At the same time, my heart was breaking at the news of the worldwide immigrant crisis, especially for Syrian refugees, and especially for the children. Listening to an Arabic lullaby, I discovered it used a similar mode to the 6th Paganini Caprice. Combining the two as a metaphor for peaceful and fruitful uniting of cultures became the gestalt of the work.
As I worked to finish the piece in the spring and summer of 2018, the United States government was separating children from their families at the southern US border. I decided to fold in another lullaby, this time from the Andes. The focus of Dream Prayer Lullaby ultimately became three-fold: a dream of a peaceful integration of peoples as they are forced from one land to another, a prayer that this dream might be realized, and a lullaby to comfort the children who suffer and wait.
I want to thank the peoples of Arabia, the Andes, and Nigeria whose lullabies are quoted in this piece, and whose music inspired my work.
Violinist Airi Yoshioka premiered this piece in 2018 in Piacenza, Italy, and a recording of her subsequent performance is available on opening the score.
- Interiors (2013)
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Linda Dusman
for solo piano
ca. 8'00"
- Waiting for Spring (2009)
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Linda Dusman
for solo piano
ca. 4'00"
Three short pieces for the intermediate pianist.
- Three States (2009)
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Linda Dusman
for electric guitar
ca. 6'00"
Three short pieces for an intermediate guitarist.
- Sweet Suite Errata (1997)
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Linda Dusman
for solo piano
ca. 11'00"
Suite Sweet Errata is a set of five miniatures inspired by Joan Retallack’s book of poetry ERRATA 5UITE. Retallack uses errata slips from publishers as the source material for her poetry, which references a 5-line musical staff in its form. Each short piece takes Retallack’s “errors” as the starting point for a compositional process that I apply sometimes to fragments of pre-existing works (the Brahms Op. 118 A Major Intermezzo, for example), or that I use to create new material. This piece is dedicated to my son Sam, whose life as a 6-month-old also inspired the piece.
This recording of this piece is by Jacques Linder, and can be heard when viewing the score.
- States (2002)
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Linda Dusman
for solo piano
ca. 6'15"
States was commissioned by the Summer Institute for Contemporary Piano Performance at New England Conservatory, Stephen Drury, Director, in 2002. The pieces are intended as tone studies for the early advanced pianist, and explore some contemporary notation techniques while reflecting on states of mind in adolescence.
This recording of this piece is by Jacques Linder, and can be heard when viewing the score.
- Elio: Visions of Light II (2007)
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Linda Dusman
for soprano and optional hand drum
ca. 7'15"
Elio: Visions of Light II is a setting of fragments of poetry by the Greek lyric poet Sappho for soprano solo with optional hand drum. It was arranged from the original Elio: Visions of Light from 1985 by request from the Serbian soprano Ana Spasic.
This recording of this piece is by Ana Spasic, and can be heard when viewing the score.
- Night Lantern (2014)
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Sofia Kamayianni
for piano and CD
The "dreamy textured" tape (electronic process by the composer) builds on improvisations by the great soloist Manos Avarakis, playing harmonicas, recorders and the exotic kalimba, all recorded over a period of time specially to be used in creating this piece
Click here to listen to the piece (YouTube).
- The Mirror (2007)
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Sofia Kamayianni
for solo piano
5 miniatures
This piece was commissioned by the “Living Composers Project” (London, 2007) for a concert where all the pieces had the same commitment , 5 short miniatures for solo piano. “The Mirror” was inspired by a poem with the title “It is me” written by a Greek poet-psychologist, Eirini Protopapadaki. Vagueness, detection, conflicts, shadows, contradictions, senses: each miniature follows a path related to these terms.
- Mia fora ki enan kero... (Once Upon a Time) (2006)
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Sofia Kamayianni
for cello and tape
- RCSC (2001)
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Annea Lockwood
for solo piano
ca. 4'15"
RCSC was commissioned by Sarah Cahill as one of a set of seven short pieces by women composers in honor of Ruth Crawford Seeger. The title is a near palindrome of their names and for its pitch content the piece draws on a ten note row from the Final movement of Crawford Seeger’s second string quartet.
Video recording was performed by Ricardo Descalzo.
Click here to watch a performance (YouTube).
- Gone! (2007)
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Annea Lockwood
for music-box piano, and 20 helium balloons
Gone! was commissioned by pianist Jennifer Hymer.
- Ear-Walking Woman (1996)
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Annea Lockwood
for prepared piano and amplification
Ear-Walking Woman for prepared piano and exploring pianist, uses the classic piano preparations: coins (to detune the strings), screws, wiring insulation sheathing, plus bubble wrap, a rubber ball and small wooden balls, two round stones, a bowl gong, mallets and a water glass. The piece was commissioned by Lois Svard, to whom it is dedicated and who has given many superb performances of it.
When I started experimenting with these objects on my own piano, I found that even slight changes in the method of producing a sound evoked striking variants in sonic detail, for example: rocking a stone gently between two sets of strings brings out several pitches and their overtones, iterating in unpredictable rhythms. Getting the stone to rock really hard adds higher pitches and at times the stone will turn over, setting off a new set of strings and pitches, which gradually fade away as the stone comes to rest.
The work is set up as an open-ended exploration, in which I have determined which ‘tools’ are to be used in each section, and the pianist is asked to listen closely to the sounds created by each action, and to explore further the variants which arise when s/he uses a little more pressure and change of speed, a slightly different wrist position, a different make of piano. I think of this experience as “ear-walking”, like a hiker exploring a landscape.
- Commentaries (1988)
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Ruth Lomon
for solo organ
1. Alpha and Omega
2.Bow in the Cloud
3. When it came to pass
Commissioned in 1988 for the organ dedication of the Central United Methodist Church, Detroit, MI.
- Awake! (2002)
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Ruth Lomon
for solo organ
Lively with colorful registration.
Composed in 2002 for Carson Cooman, organist.
- Sweet Sixteen (2003)
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Ruth Lomon
for solo flute
‘Sweet Sixteen’ was composed for flutist Nina Assimakopulos’ project ‘Contemporary Works for Solo Flute by American Women Composers’ in 2003. The Music for this project is literature-based; musical sounds and ideas expressed through a solo instrument. ‘Sweet Sixteen’ is based on a poem by Vera Weislitzova, a poem about her 16th birthday in the Theresienstadt concentration camp.
The work is in two brief movements 1. Behind the Wall 2. The Ball
The linked video recording was performed by Emily Hinz.
Click here to view a performance (YouTube).
- Red (2001/2010)
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Jane Rigler
for solo piccolo
Red: in English this word refers to a vibrant color. Throughout different cultures in the world this color represents: blood, wine, danger, war, violence, the devil, love, embarrassment, happiness, good luck, purity, joy, etc… In the Spanish language red means “network” or “net”. If played fast enough, one can perceive the network (i.e., Morse-code-like effect) of the patterns. Perhaps there is a hidden or not so hidden meaning in them? There is no “net” for the piccoloist to fall into for safety and the performer should push to his/her extremes: feeling the sensation of being on the edge…and perhaps even the audience might feel that at any moment everything will fall apart…
Click here to listen to the piece. (SoundCloud).
Click here for Jane Rigler's website.
- Banish Gloom! (2007)
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Anna Rubin
for soprano recorder, alto recorder, tenor recorder, ankle bells, and tambourines
ca. 5'45"
- Taming the Beast (1985)
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Anna Rubin
for solo percussion and fixed media
Taming the Beast (1985) is a work for solo percussionist and fixed media. The percussionist is surrounded by a battery of metallic instruments ranging from the triangle to large gongs and tam-tams. In the course of the piece, the percussionist emerges from this ‘cage’ and ends playing the magical ‘stroke rods,’ long aluminum rods which are stroked to produce high ringing tones. The work in is in 3 large sections the first of which features Buddhist chant in the fixed media portion which has been modified and altered electronically. Metallic sounds dominate the middle section while a wide-spectrum synthesized rainbow of sound dominates the ending. The soloist has semi-improvisational sections throughout the work along with strickly somposed sections. The piece has been featured in concerts in the U.S., the Netherlands and Belgium with performers including Jim Pugliese, Jeff Kershner, Paul Koek and Max Van Der Beek.