Smith, Stuart Saunders

Stuart Saunders Smith

Biography

Born: March 16, 1948

Country: Portland, Maine, U.S.A.

Studies: Hartt College, University of Illinois (D.M.A.)

Teachers: Edward Diemente, Edward J. Miller, Salvatore Martirano, Herbert Brün, Ben Johnston

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Stuart Saunders Smith's compositions fall into four areas of creative research:

• Inventing music of extreme rhythmic and melodic complexity
  
• Making musical mobiles where there is no fixed musical score but rather instrumental parts that freely interact
  
• Composing for spoken texts
  
• Creating trans-media systems for groups of performance artists (dancers, mimes, actors, etc.).
  

Smith's music is regularly performed throughout North America, Western Europe, and has had notable performances in Asia. His music is recorded on O.O. Discs, Capstone Records, and on European labels in Austria, France, and Germany. He has received the East/West Artist Award, the Maryland State Artists Fellowship, the Pittsburgh Film Forum Grant, the National Endowment for the Arts Composer's Fellowship, and the Atlantic Center for the Arts Master Artist Award. Smith's music is published by Sonic Art Editions. Articles on Stuart Saunders Smith's music have appeared in Percussive Notes Research Edition, Perspectives of New Music, Interface, and Ex Tempore. In 1997 The Music of Stuart of Saunders Smith, by John Welsh, was published by Excelsior Press, NYC, NY. For further information see The New Groves Dictionary of Music and Musicians.

Works for Percussion

"... and points north" - Multiple Percussion
All That Is Left - Glockenspiel
As If Time Would Heal By Its Passing - Marimba
Blue - Drumset; Trumpet; Double Bass
Blue Too - Drumset
Breath - Orchestra Bells; Voice
Brush - Snare Drum
Coming and Going - Percussion Trio
Dad's time had come - Multiple Percussion
dim. - Multiple Percussion (reworked into Family Portrait: Delbert
Each Moment an Ending - Percussion Quintet
Endless - Percussion Duo; Flutes (2)
Even Song - Orchestra Bells
Family Portraits: Cubba (grandfather) - Percussion Quintet; Trumpet; Flute
Family Portraits: Delbert (great-grandfather) - Multiple Percussion
Family Portraits: Embden Pond - Percussion Duo; Flute
From one to Another - Percussion Duo
Gifts - Percussion Duo; Organ
Good night. - Marimba
Here and There - Mallets; Piano (interior)
In Common - Vibraphone; Flute
Leaving - Marimba
Links - Vibraphone
Links 2 - Vibraphone
Links 3 - Vibraphone
Links 4, (Monk) - Vibraphone
Links No. 5 (Sitting on the Edge of Nothing) - Percussion Trio
Links No. 5 (Sitting on the Edge of Nothing) v.2 - Vibraphone; Percussion Duo (Offstage)
Links No. 6 (Song Interiors) - Vibraphone; Piano
Links No. 7 (New England Night Weave) - Vibraphone; Voice (Folk Singer)
Links No. 8 (Confessions - Witness of 48 things) - Vibraphone; Flute
Links No. 9 (Mosque) - Vibraphone
Links No. 10 - Vibraphone
Links No. 11 - Percussion Trio (3 Vibraphones)
Meetings - Vibraphone; Flute; Piano
Nightshade - Percussion Duo; Voice
One for Syl - Vibraphone
Poems I, II, III - Multiple Percussion; Narrator
Poems IV, V, VI - Percussion Duo; Narrator
Polka in Treblinka - Percussion Trio
Return and Recall and Initiatives and Reactions - Percussion Duo (Indeterminate Instrumentation)
Songs I-IX - Multiple Percussion
Strays - Xylophone; Recorder/Flute
Thaw - Orchestra Bells
The Geography of Streams - Percussion Trio
The Night is Never Long (Xylo/Picc) - Xylophone; Piccolo
The Night is Never Long (Mar/BClar) - Marimba; Bass Clarinet
The Noble Snare - Snare Drum
The Noble Snare, Vol. 2 - Snare Drum
The Noble Snare, Vol. 3 - Snare Drum
The Noble Snare, Vol. 4 - Snare Drum
Thicket - Glockenspiel
Thinking About - Percussion
Thinking About Anne Sexton - Vibraphone; Voice
Transitions and Leaps - Percussion Duo (Indeterminate Instrumentation)
Tunnels - Multiple Percussion
Two for Four - Percussion Quartet
Two Lights - Drumset
Two Makes Three - Percussion Duo; Organ
Wellspring - Glockenspiel
When Music is Missing, Music Sings - Percussion Duo (Indeterminate Instrumentation)
When Music is Missing, Music Sings (1998) - Percussion