Michael Seyfrit

Biography

Michael Seyfrit was born in Kansas in 1947 and grew up in Pasco, Washington and Piqua, Ohio. In the course of a multifaceted career, Seyfrit did research and historical orchestrations for the Smithsonian Institution's Divisions of Musical Instruments and Performing Arts, and was Curator of Musical Instruments at the Library of Congress for four years. His writings include Musical Instruments in the Dayton C. Miller Collection at the Library of Congress, Volume I: Recorders, Fifes, and Simple System Transverse Flutes of One Key, and the articles on woodwind instruments in the 1986 edition of The New Harvard Dictionary of Music. As a composer, he received the Charles Ives Scholarship from the National Academy of Arts and Letters.

As an instrumentalist on recorder, baroque oboe and baroque flute, Seyfrit performed and recorded with the Smithsonian Chamber Players and appeared with other ensembles including Hesperus, Wondrous Machine, Berkeley Collegium Musicum, Portland Baroque Orchestra and Early Music Guild of Oregon. His final years were spent on the West Coast, where he worked as a computer programmer. Michael Seyfrit died of AIDS in Portland, Oregon at the age of 46 on May 29, 1994. —Nurit Tilles

ACE Publications

52 title(s)
Composer Title SCORING/INSTRUMENTATION Year
Michael Seyfrit AND STILL THE NIGHT STARS SHINE vln, vcl, 5-octave marimba
Michael Seyfrit ASCENDING & DESCENDING handbell choir
Michael Seyfrit BALLADE pf
Michael Seyfrit BRASS RINGS 2 tpt in C, horn, tbn, tba
Michael Seyfrit CONTINUUM,VACUUM,RESIDUUM cl,ehn,tbn,prepared pf-6hands
Michael Seyfrit DANCE OF LIFE vln,pf
Michael Seyfrit DICHROISM (Symphony No. 3) fl, ob, cl, bsn, 2 tpt(C), tbn, bstbn, perc(4), cel, strings 77683
Michael Seyfrit DUET FOR TRUMPET AND ALTO SAXOPHONE Bb trumpet, Eb alto saxophone
Michael Seyfrit DUPONT CYCLE
cl,ehn,vla,mmb,prep pf
Michael Seyfrit DUSK TO DARK cl, Ehn, hn, vcl, 12 perc
Michael Seyfrit EARTH CYCLE (musica mundana) Soprano, clarinet, and 3 ensembles
Michael Seyfrit EIGHT LOVE POEMS Oboe and Piano
Michael Seyfrit FOR ONE ALONE cl
Michael Seyfrit FOUR MORSELS FOR RECORDER QUINTET for recorder quintet (a, t, t, b, b)
Michael Seyfrit HYMENEAL (WEDDING SUITE)
2tpt, vln, 2vla, 2vcl
Michael Seyfrit IN SEARCH OF cl,mmb,cb
Michael Seyfrit INTERACTIONS pf
Michael Seyfrit INTERPLAY
vln, alto recorder, 2-channel tape
Michael Seyfrit IT IS LOVE sop,pf
Michael Seyfrit LATENT IMAGES cl,bsn,mmb,pf,vln,vcl
Michael Seyfrit LOST and FOUND organ
Michael Seyfrit LOST & WANDERING 2fl, 2ehn, cl, bsn, hn, 4tpt, tbn, mmb
Michael Seyfrit NIGHT OF THE BLUE MOON orch:pic/3fl-2-ehn-2-2-cbsn, 4-2-2-btbn-1,2perc,timp,hp,str
Michael Seyfrit NIGHT PIECE clarinet, strings (3 vln, 2 vla, 2 vc, cb)
Michael Seyfrit PAGES FROM MY DIARY Flute (or Baroque Flute)

Additional Works