- Dancing Universe (2019)
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Linda Dusman
for piano trio
ca. 8'30"
Dancing Universe, composed in honor of my parents who both passed away in 2015, quotes fragments of their favorite hymns in memoria. While composing, I was also reflecting on T.S. Eliot’s monumental poem Four Quartets, especially these passages:
“And the bird called in response tothe unheard music hidden in the shrubbery…I said to my soul, be still and wait without hope…But the faith and the love and the hope are all in the waiting…So the darkness shall be the light, and the stillness thedancing.”
The recording heard when viewing the score was performed by the Trio des Alpes (Hana Kotková, violin, Claude Hauri, cello, and Corrado Greco, piano).
- Miss Furr and Miss Skeene (2012)
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Linda Dusman
for narrator and percussion
ca. 15'15"
The text used in the piece was written by Gertrude Stein.
The linked recording was performed by Wendy Salkind, narrator, and Tom Goldstein, percussion.
Click here to listen to the recording. (YouTube)
- What Remains (2019)
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Linda Dusman
for orchestra
ca. 11'15"
What Remains constitutes the second piece in a series of works embodying the concept of pis aller—“paths of last resort,” for me a fitting metaphor for our time of great immigrations, political extremes, and sudden local disruptive violence. What Remains explores specifically the human trait of obsession that often drives individuals to this final recourse, and that path’s potential for leading toward both great good and great evil.
What remains at its end? The air we breathe, the lives that air enables, our shared potential for good, and the possibility of an arrival at that end, rather than its opposite. What Remains stands as a reminder of humanity’s collective responsibility to walk a path away from obsessive violence and ugliness toward intentional peace and beauty.
The recording heard when viewing the score was recorded by the John Hopkins Symphony conducted by Jay Gaylin.
- 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.
- Corona Bagatelles (2021)
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Linda Dusman
for cello and piano
ca. 10'00"
Corona Bagatelles comprises a musical cryptogram of 1273 amino acids, which chained together create the spike protein of the COVID-19 virus. This protein enables the virus to bind to human cells and replicate itself, creating havoc in the human body. During the dark days of 2020, I took solace in contemplating the abstraction of this single cell, exerting a measure of control unavailable by any other means by “composing” it, imposing rhythms, melody, timbre, and form onto it. Each of the 5 movements is based on a subset of the entire amino acid chain, and its sounding motives suggested various characters or moments in my experience of the COVID quarantine (including an odd sequence where it quoted the opening notes of the Dies Irae, the mass for the dead), an experience all humanity now shares.
The final movement "Binding" celebrates the life of composer Wesley Fuller, who passed away as I was composing it. I had in mind one of my favorite compositions of his, Time into Pieces, and his joy in living expressed in his music, his poetry, and his love of family and friends. The final act of the coronavirus is to bind to our cells before it replicates itself. Binding to one another in shared purpose is perhaps our only way to survive. I also wanted to express this contradiction to close the set of bagatelles.
I offer my appreciation and thanks to the Duo des Alpes, Corrado Greco and Claude Hauri, for commissioning this piece; to Dr. Phyllis Robinson, who tutored me in biology while I composed it; and to our student Peter Bailer who as a biochemist and composer assisted with the translation into music.
- Lake, Thunder (2015)
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Linda Dusman
for clarinet in B-flat and trombone
ca. 9'30"
An I Ching hexagram entitled Lake, Thunder describes energy in a state of rest. According to this ancient text, thunder drops below the lake in winter to restore itself. As an analogue, this composition explores the concept of evoking energy without movement via the color changes in clarinet “same note” trills; the trombone as a “natural” instrument, without equal tempered adjustments; and the rhythm of beating patterns that result from coupling equal and non-equal tempered unisons. An unusual “tuning” etude for this unusual duo results. The piece was composed partially while in residence at the Gardarev Foundation in Point Reyes, California, and I am grateful for that time as well as for the suggestions from Patrick Crossland and E. Michael Richards about the special techniques employed.
The recording heard when viewing the score was performed by E. Michael Richards, clarinet, and Patrick Crossland, trombone.
- Solstice (1997)
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Linda Dusman
for wind ensemble
ca. 7'15"
Solstice was commissioned by the Hanover, Pennsylvania Southwestern High School Symphonic Band, Carey Crumling, director, in 1997. The title refers to my inspiration for the piece, which I found in the often turbulent weather changes that characterize the change from season to season. As a larger metaphor this reflects the emotional turbulence that characterizes the change from childhood to adulthood, which I expressed in the often bi-tonal language of the piece.
A recording of the piece is available on opening the score, performed by New England Conservatory Wind Ensemble, with William Drury, Director.
- 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.
- Mother of Exiles (2019)
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Linda Dusman
for flute, clarinet, violin, cello, double dass, harp, percussion, and piano
ca. 9'30"
What must our Lady Liberty be thinking? Staunchly guarding the NewYork harbor, sending a beacon of light still, but now a museum, what are her sonic memories of mothers singing to comfort their children? Mother of Exiles, your huddled masses are now at our southern borders, where there is a wall instead of a beacon of hope. How do we create a more perfect union, when we are faced so dramatically with the imperfections of our past and our present? What would that union sound like?
I want to express my appreciation to the cultures that created the lullabies quoted in this work: Syria, Nigeria, and the Andes region. My hope is that our shared concerns of caring for the young might bring these disparate voices together to forge a sustainable future. Any royalties resulting from performances of this work will be donated to Unicef, the United Nations agency for children.
The performance was recorded by the Inscape Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Richard Scerbo.
- Triptych of Gossips - soprano version (2009)
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Linda Dusman
for soprano and violin
ca. 14'45"
Fifteen years ago, mixed in among mundane official forms and memos, I received in my campus mailbox Serena Hilsinger’s Triptych of Gossips. I recall that it was a “weak day of bad month,” and so this gesture of artistry was a great gift, a poem I have turned to many times since for inspiration. With the opportunity to compose a piece for the Chiu/LaBarbara Duo (who premiered the piece in 2010) I returned to it to explore its musical possibilities. After considering a number of different directions, I embarked on a path creating an homage to the 1970’s—combining the exuberance of second wave feminism with the playfulness and enthusiasm with which composers of that era explored the expressive potentials of extended techniques for instruments and voices. The piece is dedicated to Serena Hilsinger and Lois Brynes, great friends who never cease to inspire.
A recording of the 2018 performance by Duo della Luna (Susan Botti, soprano, and Airi Yoshioka, violin) is available for listening on opening the score.
Click here to watch the performance video (YouTube).
- Thundersnow (2014)
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Linda Dusman
for violin, cello, and piano
ca. 11'45"
This piece is dedicated to Trio des Alpes.
Thundersnow explores the concept of transformation and the union of opposites. Coarse, rock-like fragments twist in counterpoint, melting into metallic surfaces that eventually take flight.
The recording, available upon opening the score, is performed by Trio des Alpes.
- Interiors (2013)
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Linda Dusman
for solo piano
ca. 8'00"
- Skra (2013)
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Linda Dusman
for B-flat clarinet and fixed electronic media
ca. 10'00"
I found the inspiration for Skra in the artist Mary McDonnell’s Red Line Drawings (marymcdonnellart.com). The meditative quality of these works, seemingly simple “parallel” lines, upon contemplation feel as though one may be seeing their intimacy from a great distance. I also love the beauty of their “primitiveness,” a sense of a work of art in the act of becoming itself. Creating the composition followed a similar conceptual process, as I used recordings of Mary making the drawings and the ambient sounds in her studio to accompany somewhat “primitive” sound on the clarinet—keys clicking, air passing through the instrument colored in various ways—creating the sense of a sonic landscape becoming itself. There is one basic gesture in the piece, moving from hearing pen scratches from inside the paper (from recordings made using contact mics) gradually to the external environment in and outside of the artist’s studio. I am grateful to Alan Wonneberger for technical assistance in making this piece, and to E. Michael Richards for his imaginative work on extended techniques for the clarinet, another important inspiration for the work.
The piece was recorded by E. Michael Richards, and can be heard when viewing the score.
- Waiting for Spring (2009)
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Linda Dusman
for solo piano
ca. 4'00"
Three short pieces for the intermediate pianist.
- Triptych of Gossips - contralto version (2009)
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Linda Dusman
for contralto and violin
ca. 14'45"
Fifteen years ago, mixed in among mundane official forms and memos, I received in my campus mailbox Serena Hilsinger’s Triptych of Gossips. I recall that it was a “weak day of bad month,” and so this gesture of artistry was a great gift, a poem I have turned to many times since for inspiration. With the opportunity to compose a piece for the Chiu/LaBarbara Duo (who premiered the piece in 2010) I returned to it to explore its musical possibilities. After considering a number of different directions, I embarked on a path creating an homage to the 1970’s—combining the exuberance of second wave feminism with the playfulness and enthusiasm with which composers of that era explored the expressive potentials of extended techniques for instruments and voices. The piece is dedicated to Serena Hilsinger and Lois Brynes, great friends who never cease to inspire.
- 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.
- O Star Spangled Stripes (2004)
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Linda Dusman
for piano and percussion
ca. 6'15"
The e.e. cummings poem “next to of course god America i” sourced O Star Spangled Stripes, which begins from parodies of American patriotic songs (including Stars and Stripes Forever, Johnny Comes Marching Home, It’s a Grand Old Flag, and The Star Spangled Banner). In the piece, I created a system for performers to progress through the musical material based in oppositional ideas of “democracy” and “advancing freedom,” two terms touted by the George W. Bush administration as hallmarks of US foreign policy. “Democracy” in its Greek origins translates loosely to “people working together,” while “advancing freedom” seems to me to be completely individualistic, perhaps even narcissistic, in pursuing a definition of freedom with disregard for others. To begin the piece, each player decides whether he will begin by cooperating with the other player (“true democracy”), or by disregarding the other player—exhibiting a self-involved narcissism (”advancing freedom”). The performers change their modes of ensemble playing asynchronously throughout the piece, and, in an ultimately non-utopian gesture, create a chaotic mix reflecting the American political system and its potential impact on world events.
This recording of this piece is by the Hoffmann-Goldstein Duo (Paul Hoffmann, piano; Tom Goldstein, percussion) and can be heard when viewing the score.
- magnificat 4: Ida Ida (2009)
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Linda Dusman
electroacoustic (2-channel and 5.1 surround available)
ca. 6'15"
magnificat 4: Ida Ida is the final work in my magnificat series, which I began in 2001 around the time of the terrorist attacks in New York City and completed on the eve of the Obama inauguration. The composition reflects back on the darkness of this period in American history amid hope for the future. I quote passages from Gertrude Stein’s novels The Making of Americans and Ida, and include quotations from my own composition An Unsubstantial Territory (Lisa Cella, alto flute, and Jane Rigler, piccolo) to evoke a dreamlike collage of emerging self-awareness. Special thanks to Wendy Salkind, Susan McCully, and Philip Maki, performers, and Alan Wonneberger, who collaborated on the surround mix and was the mastering engineer for the piece.
Click here to listen to the piece.