COMPOSITIONS AND THEIR PERFORMANCES
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Ben writes:
"I was born (1934 in Brooklyn) at a time when no sentient person could separate personal preoccupations from the social and political urgencies of the time. That consciousness has inflected all my work as composer and writer, and undoubtedly underlies my activity as an instigator of projects such as the publication Perspectives of New Music, the creative cooperative called Open Space, and the learning program at Bard College called Music Program Zero. All the meta-musical writing I have done, from the book-length essay Meta-Variations to my decade as Music Critic for THE NATION, and many text compositions and essays since then, have been spurred by this engagement with the implications of expressive personhood in the contemporary world. And partly as a consequence of this thinking, my music has never had any referentiality at all."
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EARLY WORKS
1953-1954
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The Moon
Song for soprano and piano on a poem by Shelley -
The Miscarriage of Spring
Song for soprano and piano on a poem by Rochelle Kauffman -
Go and Catch a Falling Star
Vocalise for chorus on a poem by John Donne -
Music for Orchestra
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The Song of the Shirt
Music for a poem by Thomas Hood, for small orchestra
AT BRANDEIS UNIVERSITY
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1954-55
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Concerto Grosso I: Sinfonia
For string orchestra -
Concerto Grosso II: Nocturne
For string orchestra-
Boston Chamber Orchestra, Alfred Shardl, Conductor. Kresge Auditorium, MIT, Spring 1956
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Partita
For piano (Prelude, Gavotte, Allemande, Capriccio)-
​Score
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Ann Besser, piano, Brandeis University, 1955
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Keith Eisenbrey, piano, Seattle, WA
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Terrie Manno, piano recital, Moorhead State University, April 1998
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Michael Fowler, piano recital, Cincinnati Conservatory, March 2002
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1955-56
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Rilke: A Sonnet to Orpheus
Chamber song on a text by Rainer Maria Rilke for mezzo soprano, flute and two cellos-
MIDI performance with wordless voice
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First Donne
Holy Sonnet of John Donne for soprano and piano-
​Score
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MIDI performance with wordless voice
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As first movement of a suite in four movements for vibraphone and MIDI piano; Sascia Pellegrini, vibraphone. Recorded and released by Open Space as OSCD 35
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Divertimento
For chamble ensemble: flute, bassoon, violin, viola, cello-
​Score
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MIDI performance
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Boston Symphony Chamber Ensemble at Brandeis, 1956: Anton Winkler, flute; ??, bassoon; Robert Brink, violin; Elephtheros Elephtherakis, viola; Dorothea Jump, cello
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AT ASPEN MUSIC SCHOOL
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SUMMER 1956
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Violin Concerto (first movement)
For solo violin and orchestra-
​Score
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Stanley Hoffman, solo violin; Aspen Festival Orchestra, David Epstein, Conductor
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AT BRANDEIS UNIVERSITY
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1956-57
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Violin Concerto (movements I, II and III)
For solo violin and orchestra-
​Score
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Charles Castleman, solo violin; Eastman Composers' Orchestra, Geoffrey Pope, Conductor. Eastman School of Music, Rochester, NY, Spring 2010. Paul Coleman, audio; recorded and released as OSCD 27, 2020)
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Overture to a Cantata on Kenneth Patchen's Jezebel
For clarinet, trumpet, piano, violin, viola-
MIDI performance
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AT UCLA
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1957-59
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Two Musics for Lukas Foss
For piano four hands
1958
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String quartet I (Overture), II (Intermezzo)
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​Score
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MIDI performance
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Columbia Records Quartet: Stanley Hoffman, violin; ??, violin; ??, viola; Alex Reisman, cello. Stanford University Composers' Festival, spring 1958 (recording lost in NYC apartment theft, 1968)
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Composers' Quartet: Matthew Raimondi, violin; Anahid Ajemian, violin; Walter Trampler, viola; Seymour Barab, cello. Princeton University, 1960
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DAFO Quartet: Justina Duda, violin; Danuta Augusty, Violin; Aneta Dumanowska, viola; Anna Armatys, cello; Malgorzata Polanska, Tonmeister, Krakow-Warsaw, 2006. Recorded for Open Space (with Postlude) at Polish National Radio Studio, Warsaw, and released as OSCD 23
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AT PRINCETON UNIVERSITY
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1959-60
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Two Holy Sonnets by John Donne
For soprano and piano-
​Score
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MIDI performance (with First Donne and Donne III)
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As second and third movement of a suite in four movements for vibraphone and MIDI piano; Sascia Pellegrini, vibraphone; recorded and released by Open Space as OSCD 35
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IN NEW YORK CITY, 1961-71
1964-67
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Group Variations I
For chamber orchestra
For Group for Contemporary Music, Columbia University-
Score​
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Group for Contemporary Music, Charles Wuorinen, Conductor. McMillan Theater, Columbia University, October 1967
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Group for Contemporary Music, Charles Wuorinen, Conductor. Fromm Foundation concert, Town Hall, New York City, spring 1968. Released by Open Space on OSCD 33, 2015
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2006: Video performance by Russell Craig Richardson, recorded and released by Open Space, OSDVD 1
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2014: Video performance at University of California, San Diego
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IN LONDON, UK; NEW YORK CITY; PRINCETON UNIVERSITY AND BARD COLLEGE
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1972-73
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Group Variations II
For computer, realized at the Princeton University Computer Center on the IBM 360 computer using Barry Vercoe's Music 360 revision of the Music AV program written by Godfrey Winham and Hubert S. Howe (1968-1973)-
Score
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Concert of Group for Contemporary Music, Columbia University, McMillan Theater, New York City, autumn 1973
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International Society for Computer Music annual festival, New England Conservatory of Music, 1974; recorded and released on CRI LP by Composers' Recordings Inc., 1974
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Video composition/performance by Russell Craig Richardson, 2004, recorded by Open Space on OSDVD 1
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AT MACDOWELL ARTISTS’ COLONY, PETERBOROUGH, NH
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SUMMER 1974
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Liebeslied, for a pianist alone
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Score
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Keith Eisenbrey, piano, Seattle, WA
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Michael Fowler, piano recital, Cincinnati Conservatory of Music, March 2002
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AT SYCAMORE DRIVE
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1977-78
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(“…my chart shines high where the blue milk’s upset…”)
For piano, for Milton Babbitt at 60-
Score (Lingua Press, 1980, with J. K. Randall: “…such words as it were vain to close…” for piano)
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Joan Tower, piano, Carnegie Recital Hall, April 18, 1978
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Keith Johnston, piano, University of Washington, Seattle, April 18, 1978
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Jeff Presslaff, piano recital, Princeton University, 1979
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Keith Eisenbrey, piano, Seattle, WA
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Sarah Rothenberg, piano, recorded at Bard College, released by Open Space on OSCD 1, 1989
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Terrie Manno, piano, Moorhead State University, Moorhead, MN, April 1998
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Terrie Manno, piano, Moorhead State University, Moorhead, MN, Spring 2001
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Michael Fowler, piano recital, Cincinnati Conservatory of Music, 2002
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Michael Fowler, piano recital, Princeton University Taplin Hall, 2002
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Michael Fowler, piano. Open Space recording of BAB piano music, OSCD 18, 2002
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Michael Fowler, piano recital, Newcastle Conservatory of Music, Newcastle, Australia, 2004 – with music by Babbitt, Boretz, Randall
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1978
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Language ,as a music
For speaker and tape-
Score
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Score (book), Lingua Press, 1979
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BAB, Center for Music Experiment at UC San Diego, April 1980, released as OSCD 10
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Jon Forshee, UC San Diego, 2014
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1979
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A Passage, for Roger Sessions at 80 (…What I could hear, trying to crawl out from between the lines of your last ferocious sonata...)
For piano-
Score
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MIDI performance
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Jeff Presslaff, piano recital, Princeton University, 1980 – with music by BAB/JKR
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Terrie Manno, piano concert, Moorhead State University, 1998
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Terrie Manno, piano recital, Moorhead State University, 2002
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Michael Fowler, piano. Open Space recording of BAB piano music, released on OSCD 18, 2002
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Michael Fowler, piano recital, Cincinnati Conservatory of Music, 2002
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Michael Fowler, piano recital, Newcastle Conservatory of Music, Newcastle, Australia, 2004 – with music by Babbitt, BAB, JKR
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THE TIME OF THE INNER STUDIO AT SYCAMORE DRIVE (1979-2003)
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1980
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Talk: If I am a Musical Thinker
For speaker​-
Written and spoken for Texas Society for Music Theory meeting in Austin, TX, April 1980
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Recomposed and performed in multimedia as '#DoyouseewhatIhear' at Tilde New Music Festival, Melbourne, Australia, 2016. Brigid Burke (visuals), Carmen Chan (cello, percussion), Llara Goodall (tape), Clinton Green (words), Gary Verkade (recorded voice)
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1979-2003
Piano solos
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The ONE Sessions (1985-1988)
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Lament for Sarah
9/3/90 on the death of Sarah Vaughan
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1987
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Invention
For piano four hands-
Score
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Michael Fowler, piano – solo version recorded on OSCD 18
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1990
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I Say (OSCD 44)
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1991
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The Purposes and Politics of Engaging Strangers
For speaker, players, prerecorded audio-
BAB (speaker, live and recorded player and presenter); Mary Lee A. Roberts (live and recorded player). Visiting guest lecture, Willamette University, Salem, OR, with introduction by Professor of Music John Peel, 1991. Released on OSCD 6
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BAB with Mary Lee A. Roberts at colloquium, University of Washington, Seattle, 1992
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BAB with Bard College Composers' Ensemble, Wellesley College Composers' Forum, 1992
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1992
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Group Variations II.1
For computer-
Resampled at Princeton University Computer Center by Paul Lansky, 1992
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Recorded by Open Space and released on OSCD 5
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1994
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music/consciousness/gender
Text/sound/video performance piece for speaker, audiotape and video –video composed with Noel Bush, 1994-
Score published in Audible Traces, edited by Lydia Hamessley and Elaine Barkin
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Also in Being About Music
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BAB at Eastman School of Music, Rochester, NY, 1995
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BAB at Princeton University Composers' Forum, 1995
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BAB at Moorhead State University music department colloquium, 1995
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BAB, recorded for Open Space by Mary Lee A. Roberts at Moorhead State University, 1995 and released on OSCD XX
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BAB, University of California, Riverside, 1995
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BAB, UCLA Schoenberg Hall, 1995
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BAB, lecture, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 1995
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BAB, lecture series, UC Santa Cruz, 2000
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Recorded by Mary Lee A. Roberts at Moorhead State University, 1995
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1997
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Echoic /Anechoic
For piano-
BAB, piano, Sycamore Drive, 1997. Released on OSCD 33, 2014
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1998
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Black /Noise I
Electronically processed piano (Echoic /Anechoic)-
BAB, piano, 1998. Released on OSCD 19
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Black /Noise II
Audio for a video piece-
BAB, voice (text: Deleuze & Guattari's 1000 Plateaux) with electronically processed piano, 1998
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Black /Noise III
Video piece with text and audio-
BAB, voice (text: Deleuze & Guattari's 1000 Plateaux) with electronically processed piano, instruments and voices plus video images from books and domestic events and objects, 1998
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Released on OS DVD 1
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1999
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UN(-) I
For orchestra-
MIDI performance, released on OSCD 11
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Woodstock Chamber Orchestra, Luis Garcia-Renart, Conductor – six concerts in 1999
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La Jolla Symphony, Harvey Sollberger, Conductor. UC San Diego, April 2003. Recorded by Open Space, released on OSCD 19
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A C A Chamber Orchestra, Max Lifchitz, Conductor, New York, 2001
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Olympia Chamber Orchestra, Evergreen State College, Arun Chandra, Conductor, 2002
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2000
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O
For piano, for Terrie Manno-
Score
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Terrie Manno, piano recital, Moorhead State University, April 2001
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Michael Fowler, piano, OSCD 18 (BAB piano music), 2002
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Michael Fowler, piano recital, Cincinnati Conservatory, 2002
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Variations on O by other composers, recorded by Open Space and released on OSCD 33:
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Robert Morris: ODE for piano (2014) ​
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2001
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I/O
For two speakers-
Score (Published as a text in The Open Space Magazine and Being About Music)
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BAB, solo version, SEAMUS conference, Baton Rouge, LA (2001)
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BAB with Karen Eisenbrey, Seattle, WA (2002)
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BAB with Mara Helmuth, CCM Cincinnati Composers' Forum (2002)
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BAB with Tildy Bayar, Princeton University Composers' Forum (2002)
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BAB with Mary Lee A. Roberts, UC San Diego Critical Studies and Experimental Practices Forum (2004)
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Jean-Charles François, French version, online at Paalabres (2019)
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Doroto Czerner, solo version, recorded 2021 for Open Space
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2002
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2004
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Poppies ​
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Video by Russell Craig Richardson with Dorota Czerner reading her text; sound by BAB derived from (“…my chart shines high where the blue milk's upset…”) performed by Sarah Rothenberg
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Projected at PAFME (Polish American Festival of Electronic Music), Krakow Conservatory of Music, December 2006
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Released on OSDVD 1
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Postlude, With Jim Randall in Mind
For string quartet-
Movement III of 1958 String quartet
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Score
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MIDI performance on Open Space OSCD 21 (Music for Jim Randall at 75 by His Friends; Music by Jim Randall for His Friends), 2005
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Instrumental performance recorded for Open Space by DAFO Quartet (2006) at Polish National Radio Studio in Warsaw; Malgorzata Polanska, Tonmeister; released on OSCD 23
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2005
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Downtime
For solo piano and (electronic) percussion ensemble-
Score
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Electronic performance in Music Around Benjamin Boretz at 70 (Perspectives of New Music, includes Open Space OSCD 20)
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Piotr Grodetzky, piano; Marek Cholonewski, board (PAFME Festival, Krakow Conservatory). Video recording from concert, 2008
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Michael Fowler, piano. Sydney, Australia Opera House Electronics concert, 2009
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Ian Pace, piano; Russell Craig Richardson, video; Eric Lyon, board. BAB concert, Queens University Belfast, May 2012
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Ian Pace, piano; Newton Armstrong, board and audio engineer. London, UK, 2013. Released on OSCD 31 and Open Space DVD1 with video by Russell Craig Richardson
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Ian Pace, piano; Newton Armstrong, board. Concert at London City College, 2013
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2009
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Caves
Poem by Dorota Czerner with electronic sound by BAB
2011
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St. Andrews Night
Poem by Dorota Czerner with electronic sound by BAB-
Dorota Czerner, voice; BAB, electronic sound. Recorded on OSCD 29
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Fireflies
​Poem by Dorota Czerner with electronic sound by BAB-
Dorota Czerner, voice; BAB, electronic sound. Recorded on OSCD 29
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The Memory of All That
A Holy Sonnet of John Donne for Mezzo-soprano and Piano in Memory of Milton Babbitt (2011)-
Score
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Eastman students at colloquium, Eastman School of Music, 2012
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Megan Berti, mezzo-soprano; Zuzanna Szevzyk, piano; Paul Coleman, engineer. Eastman School of Music 2012; on OSCD 31; also on Perspectives of New Music/Open Space CD album Milton Babbitt: A Composers' Memorial, 2012
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Sascia Pellegrini, vibraphone with MIDI piano, 2017, released on OSCD 35
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2012
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With respect to George (A Postcard for George Quasha At 70)
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Sascia Pellegrini, vibraphone, released on OSCD 35
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Qixingshan
For string quartet-
Score
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Momenta Quartet, Open Space recording session, Eastman School of Music 2014, released on OSCD 32
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2013/14
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“The sun poured molten glass on the fields”
For piano (for Bob Morris at 70)-
MIDI piano on Perspectives of New Music/Open Space CD album for Robert Morris at 70, 2014
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Stephen Gosling, piano concert, NYU, 2016
2015
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Fantasy on an Improvisation by Jim Randall
For banjo, mandolin, alto flute, English horn, violin, cello
For the Cygnus Ensemble
2017
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One on One
For a clarinet alone​, in memory of S. Kelly Avants -
Looking
Video/sound piece-
Score
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MIDI ensemble music released on OSCD 44, 2020
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2018
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A Question, A Rose
For John Rahn, for violin alone-
Score
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Scot Moore, violin. Open Space recording session, 2019, Ian Turner, sound engineer. Released on OSCD 42
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Olivia di Prato, violin, Octaven Recording Studio, Mount Vernon, NY, 2020. On Perspectives of New Music YouTube channel
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Pauline Kim Harris, recording session, New York City, 2020
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2020-22
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A viola piece for Elaine Barkin (unfinished)
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