- Dreaming Fire, Tasting Rain
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Anna Rubin
for flute, B-flat clarinet, violin, viola, cello, and piano
ca. 10'30"
- De Nacht: Lament for Malcolm X (1983)
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Anna Rubin
for soprano, violin, viola, violoncello, contrabass, flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, horn, and piano
- Viola a Tre
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Anna Rubin
for three violas
- Flames Rising and Falling to the Sea (1988)
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Anna Rubin
for string quartet
Flames Rising from the Sea (1988) for string quartet is a one-movement work emphasizing melismatic and florid writing in a hereophonic texture. The note D perfumes the piece anchoring the atonal language of the piece.
- Marguerite's Dance (1981)
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Anna Rubin
for flute, cello, and percussion
Marguerite’s Dance (1981)- Infusion Ensemble, is a trio for flute, cello and percussion and written while I was in residence at the American Dance Festival with the Composers Choreographer’s Workshop at Duke University led by Earle Browne in 1981. The Ear Unit premiered the work and has performed it several times since then as well as performances at Brooklyn’s . The Barge and at California Institute of the Arts. Spiky melodies emphasizing major 7ths are passed between the instruments in a 3-part slow-fast-slow succession. I am indebted to Erike Duke Fitzgerald, Dorothy Stone and Dan Kennedy for their collaboration on this piece.
- Stolen Gold (1991/rev.2007)
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Anna Rubin
versions for violin, modern oboe, baroque oboe and fixed media
ca. 5'30"
Stolen Gold (1991/rev. 2007) is a work in three versions featuring fixed media along with amplified baroque oboe, modern oboe and violin. In each case, the live instrumental was refashioned to suit the performer and the instrument. The original version for baroque oboe was done in collaboration with Deborah Nagy. Her virtuosity with the keyless instrument allowed me to compose long glissandi which are extremely difficult on the modern keyed instrument. Modern oboist Patricia Moorhead asked for a version for modern oboe and violinist Airi Yoshioka later asked for a version for violin. In all cases, the live instrument is amplified. The fixed media was composed while I was in residence at the Brooklyn College Center for Computer Music using the CSound synthesis program. Clouds of pointillistic sound contrast with drone and glissandi, acting as a counterpart to a highly decorated melodic part in the solo instrument. The piece has been performed throughout the US by a variety of performers.
The version for violin has been recorded by Airi Yoshioka on the Albany label (Troy 1305). Click here to view the recording. (YouTube)
- Ice Song: Fantasy on an Inuit Poem (1993)
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Anna Rubin
for soprano and percussion
ca. 15'00"
Ice Song (1993) is scored for soprano or mezzo and percussion (vibraphone and several small drums, rattles and metal instruments). I created the text after reading a haunting Inuit story describing one Inuit community’s struggle for food in the dead of winter. The song is sung as the story of one woman’s terrible dilemma as she gives birth while the hunters of the village are away trying to get food for their starving families. The vocal line is melismatic; the musical language atonal and the percussion used for timbral variety and intensification. Isabelle Ganz premiered the work at MusicAlaskaMusic Conference in Fairbanks in 1993; it was most recently performed in Germany in 2005 by contralto Wiebke Hoogklimmer.