Solo Music III: "Bill at Colonus"
Musical Journeys in Celebration of Bill Smith's 70th
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SKU: PR.114409100
Musical Journeys in Celebration of Bill Smith's 70th. Composed by Robert Suderburg. Edited by William Smith. Brief quotes from William O. Smith's Mosaic for Clarinet and Piano. Performance Score. With Standard notation. Composed 1996. 12 pages. Duration 16 minutes. Theodore Presser Company #114-40910. Published by Theodore Presser Company (PR.114409100).ISBN 9781491112717. UPC: 680160013821. 9 x 12 inches. Brief quotes from William O. Smith's "Mosaic for Clarinet and Piano".
William O. Smith's and Robert Suderburg's musical relationship began in 1966 when both came to the University of Washington to found The Contemporary Group along with William Bergsma, Director of the School of Music. The Group was made up of unique performers and composers, including Stuart Dempster, Elizabeth Suderburg, The Philadelphia String Quartet, and the Soni Venturum Woodwind Quintet. In 1967, The Contemporary Group received a major Rockefeller Grant, followed by a Naumberg Award in 1972. Among Smith and Suderburg's many collaborations was the CRI recording of Smith's MOSAIC for clarinet and piano and STONES for singer and piano, written for Elizabeth and Robert Suderburg. The composition of Solo Music III: Bill at Colonus was supported by a National Endowment of the Arts fellowship and was completed in August 1996. This work of musical and stylistic journeys is dedicated to Bill Smith and was written in celebration of his 70th birthday. The work's three movements present a diversity of stylistic archetypes which are representative of the extent, breadth, and expressive-depth of Smith's pervasive artistry. For example: Movement 1: Journey from the 50s & 60s presents the blues, hard-bop, some swing, and Smith's own advanced instrumental techniques. Movement 2: Journey from the 70s is a Presto which is somewhat reflective of a creative artist's sense of the nerved-rush, the anxious politics, and the stylistic polyglot of the time. Movement 3: Journey from the 90s to Beyond is both a cycle of flashbacks to preceding movements and, hopefully, moments of ecstatic and meditative calm. The reference to Colonus in the title honors the blessings that Bill Smith has given with his artistry not only in a mythical Colonus in 1996, but in all those places from New York's 52nd Street to San Francisco, Los Angeles, Rome, Seattle, London, Paris, Berlin, Japan, Australia, and all the rest, over all those brilliant years. SOLO MUSIC III was premiered by Bill Smith on October 11, 1996 during the inaugural Berkshire New Music Festival.