Elliott Schwartz

pianist, singer, narrator, other instrumentalist

A suite of 12 movements for piano solo, with optional assistants. Four of the movements are theatrical.

In one movement, a narrator selects a poem (in the language of the audience) not longer than 8 - 10 lines; He/she does not inform the pianist of the poem ahead of time.

Composer's note (excerpt from score instructions): The individual movement titles are all autobiographical. (Consider the suite a series of "memoirs""¦) They reflect the following facts/memories: I was once very tall, but as I've aged, my stature (physical, that is) has diminished -- from 6'4" to barely 6'00." I grew up in Brighton Beach, Brooklyn, a block away from the boardwalk, and attended Columbia. In 1960 I married a young artist named Dorothy (or Deedee), and after four years in Massachusetts we moved to Maine when I began teaching at Bowdoin College. Deedee went on to direct the Maine Humanities Council, and was praised as a "national treasure" by the director of the NEH. Her Memorabilia movement uses a musical spelling of the letters in her name -- the only movement in the set to use a name in this way. My teaching career at Bowdoin lasted more than 40 years; the "Doxology" and "There's No Such Place" movements refer to campus and classroom events etched into my memory. (Details on request!) While within the "Bowdoin Bubble" I've been privileged to work many gifted student composers and performers (Abriel, Peter, Libby, Francis, Akiva, Mikyo, Nate, Richard and D.J. Spooky are just a few). This group also includes an exceptionally talented new-music pianist named Katie, for whom I've composed three pieces. And two particularly beloved students are no longer with us: Ezra Lamdin, a retired physician who audited many of my classes and became a dear friend, and the very talented composerperformer- electronic studio virtuoso David Gamper. I've dedicated one of the Memorabilia movements to their memory.