Stuart Saunders Smith
Biography
Born: 16 March 1948
Country: Portland, Maine USA
Studies: Berklee School of Music, Hartt College of Music (1967 to 1972), University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Teachers: Herbert Brün, Salvatore Martirano, Benjamin Johnston
Website:
Stuart Saunders Smith was born in Portland, Maine in 1948. He was raised in Portland and central Maine. Smith now resides in Baltimore, but very much still lives in Maine. His music reflects the culture, geography, and the general ethos of his home state. This is easily seen in a description of some of his compositions.
Poems I, II, III (1970) describes the Maine winter. 3 for 2 (1972) are portraits of three places in Maine that factor in the roots of his family: The Kennebec, The Forks, Caratunk. In Bingham (1985) expresses the loss of the mills in small towns. ...And Points North (1990) is about the Passamaquoddy Nation in eastern Maine. Two Lights (2002) is a sound portrait of Two Lights State Park in Cape Elizabeth, where the cliffs of granite boom into the sea in swirls of mist and spray. Smith has composed 110 compositions to date. In overt and implicit ways, each piece evokes the downeast character, and the "pine tree" soul.
Concerning his compositional process, Stuart Saunders Smith is a confessional composer. With each piece, he proclaims and reconsiders his core beliefs, sound by sound, in the context of decades of music-making. Smith holds that each sound is intelligent, and when listened to, can direct the course of events in the composition. So Smith listens to each sound to tell him what sound should come next, until the piece is finished.[1]
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
References