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The Big List has the Latest Scores and Downloads



Chamber Music Available Through 2015

Music for Two Instruments



Dennis Bathory-Kitsz

The Four Rules of Use

    1. Download, print, study, rehearse, perform, enjoy! If you download, please tell me. Don't want to do it youself? Purchase printed scores & parts from Frog Peak Music.
    2. Report the performance to me & ASCAP (One Lincoln Plaza, New York, NY 10023 US, Attn: Indexing). Used it for teaching? Please tell me what your students thought.
    3. Send a recording if you made one to Dennis Báthory-Kitsz, 176 Cox Brook Road, Northfield VT 05663 US, or upload it. I even enjoy amateur or 'living room' performances. Don't be shy!
    4. Do not republish my music without written permission from me. This music is not public domain. The usual rules of copyright apply. Why are my scores free?
  • Looking for parts? This link is the index of all score downloads, including music not yet listed here.
  • Find manuscript scores described in the Big List. Ask me for photocopies.
  • Want scores or parts you don't see? Is the music not arranged for your ensemble? Ask me. I can make arrangements or grant you permission to do so.

Exclusive Distributor

Frog Peak Music
Box 1052, Lebanon, New Hampshire 03766

Publisher

Westleaf Edition
176 Cox Brook Road, Northfield, Vermont 05663

Catalog Index

Keyboard · Solo · Two Instruments · Three Instruments · Four Instruments · Five or More Instruments · Large Ensemble · Voice and Chorus · Performance Works · Electroacoustic · Music for Young People · Media Comments · Home Page


Chamber Ensemble: Two Instruments

(see also Vocal, Electroacoustic and Performance catalog)


Key

MIDI file to listen to a MIDI demo version of the music.
MP3 file to listen to a performance in MP3.
MP3 file to download a performance in MP3.
MP3 file to listen to an MP3 demo performance of an acoustic piece.
Adobe PDF file (Please fill out info form) to view or download an Adobe PDF file.
Real Video file to watch a RealMedia video of the music.
Windows Video file to watch a Windows Media video of the music.
YouTube link to watch a video of the music on YouTube.
Word file to read program or lecture notes in DOC format.
Available from Frog Peak Music means printed editions can be purchased.
[OK for broadcast] means broadcast rights are granted.

Adobe PDF file (Please fill out info form) YouTube link MP3 file

Air / harp & percussion / 15 minutes

Adobe PDF file (Please fill out info form) Harp Part
Adobe PDF file (Please fill out info form) Percussion Part
Airwas created for Duo Harpverk in Reykjavík. This hypnotic duo uses the performers instruments as well as singing, whistling and mouth sounds. Intense and exciting as well as mysterious. (Parts revised by the performers are available on request.) Available from Frog Peak Music

Adobe PDF file (Please fill out info form) MP3 file

Aurelia / theremin & piano / 3 minutes

Adobe PDF file (Please fill out info form) MP3 file Luscious in concept, Aurelia is derived from the orchestral piece Jameo, but recast completely as an accompanied theremin solo that can be played by anyone with moderate skills on the instrument. The demo here is using samples; the composer's skills aren't quite up to it. (Lower links are theremin part score and piano accompaniment mp3.) Available from Frog Peak Music

YouTube link MP3 file

Aveaux Gadreaux / bass clarinet & cello / 8 minutes

Adobe PDF file (Please fill out info form) Adobe PDF file (Please fill out info form) Adobe PDF file (Please fill out info form) Adobe PDF file (Please fill out info form) Cover, Reverse, Movement 1, Movement 2
Aveaux Gadreauxwas commissioned by the Vermont Contemporary Music Ensemble for their poetry concert in 2014. The two movements, "Moles" and "Chameleon", are connected to the poems by Ellen Bryant Voigt. The graphical score is large, in color and ideally to be printed on 13x19 (super B) paper. Available from Frog Peak Music

Adobe PDF file (Please fill out info form)

Binky Plays Marbles / contrabass & viola / 20 minutes

There are times when an orchestration is too wonderful to resist. Pieter Smithuysen of Amsterdam requested a work for contrabass and viola. A virtuoso work, its full title is Binky Plays Marbles: A Bruckner Boulevand Dance. Now I'll bet that makes a difference! Pieter is still working on this extremely virtuosic piece in different simultaneous time signatures between bass and viola. Note: This is a PDF copy of the inked score. Available from Frog Peak Music

Adobe PDF file (Please fill out info form) MP3 file

A Breath on the Kitchen Window / 2 violins / 1 minute

Sweet and mysterious, this piece was composed for NYME and awaits its premiere. Available from Frog Peak Music

Adobe PDF file (Please fill out info form)

coalescence / trumpet and organ / 6 minutes

Highly expressive duet for trumpet and organ, commissioned by Carson Cooman for the 2007 We Are All Mozart project. Second movement of a three-movement suite; the other movements are indigretion and eliasion.

Adobe PDF file (Please fill out info form) MP3 file

Composition for Tape & Soloists / clarinet, alto, & playback (CD) / 15 minutes [OK for broadcast]

Word file Composition is a distinctive period piece based on the kyrie eleison text, and is very dramatic and dark. The playback part is available on CD, and was restored in 2000. The recording here was its premiere in 1985, sixteen years after its composition. The score is finally available from its original manuscript.

Adobe PDF file (Please fill out info form)

Construction "on nix rest ... in china" / trombones & playback (DAT or CD) / 12 minutes [OK for broadcast]

MP3 file Studio Performance
MP3 file Playback Part Only
Word file Construction uses the words "nixon," "rest," and "in china" throughout this very early sample work. It's tricky, fast and fun. MP3 to the immediate left is a performance; the one above is a demo. The playback part is also available on CD. Available from Frog Peak Music

Adobe PDF file (Please fill out info form) YouTube link

Counting Myself / cello duo (student and teacher) / 5 minutes

A duet for a teacher and student, commissioned by Lydia Busler-Blais for her husband Robert for their son Tristan, for the 2007 We Are All Mozart project.

Adobe PDF file (Please fill out info form)

Earth, Air, Water, Sleep / vocalise and piano / 5 minutes

With an interestingly deceptive melodic and harmonic shape, this vocalise with piano is a lullaby, commissioned by Canary Burton for the 2007 We Are All Mozart project.

Adobe PDF file (Please fill out info form)

eliasion / trumpet and organ / 7 minutes

Third/last movement of the highly expressive duet for trumpet and organ, commissioned by Carson Cooman for the 2007 We Are All Mozart project. The other movements are coalescence and indigretion.

Adobe PDF file (Please fill out info form)

Elusive Parallels (in Time) / flute (or alto flute), bass clarinet, playback

MP3 file Live Performance
MP3 file Playback Part Only
Word file A pair of identical duoes, one for flute and bass clarinet, the other for two synthesizers in fixed playback, Elusive Parallels sees time synchronize and desynchronize with the players and playback moving from duo into dense quartet as the pairs tangle. Written for the Vermont Contemporary Music Ensemble. Left MP3 link is playback file. Available from Frog Peak Music

Adobe PDF file (Please fill out info form)

Evidently Skittles / children's flute and piano / 3 minutes

Adobe PDF file (Please fill out info form) Flute Part
A serious but funny do for children's flute and piano, commissioned by Christopher Smith for his children, for the 2007 We Are All Mozart project.

Adobe PDF file (Please fill out info form) MP3 file

Falling Into the Sun Again / two violins / 4 minutes

Not for the timid, Falling is a confrontation love song for two violins that is a struggle to play. With the parts split among four instruments (a do-it-yourself effort!), the piece is dramatic but easy. Chose your passion. Available from Frog Peak Music

Adobe PDF file (Please fill out info form) MP3 file

Grand Mirliton / bass clarinet & horn / 10 minutes

Adobe PDF file (Please fill out info form) Horn Part
Adobe PDF file (Please fill out info form) Bass Clarinet Part
Grand Mirliton -- a mirliton is a kazoo, by the way -- was written for Claudia Friedlander and Andrea Warnke, respectively bass clarinet and horn players. Shortly after this was written, they headed to different geographies, and this still awaits its premiere (for C bass clarinet, by the way). Available from Frog Peak Music

MP3 file

HighBirds (Prime) / two electric guitars & playback / 15 minutes

Adobe PDF file (Please fill out info form) First Guitar Part
Adobe PDF file (Please fill out info form) Second Guitar Part
HighBirds (Prime) -- subtitled "In Memoriam Iannis Xenakis" -- was written for performance a week after Xenakis's death, and replaced a work-in-progress which I discarded. Created from the analysis and resynthesis of the songs of five birds, the music is dense and mysterious. The playback part is available on CD from the composer. The MP3 link to the left is the playback part for listening. Available from Frog Peak Music

MP3 file

Hülfe / 2 recorders / 5 minutes [OK for broadcast]

Created for the composer and David Gunn for a storefront performance. Fun and tricky.

Adobe PDF file (Please fill out info form)

Inclined To... (also known as Intending To...) / violin & piano / 3 minutes

A short encore written for the Hahn encores project, but not included. Very tricky rhythms and multiple stops, but gratifying for the adventurous.

Adobe PDF file (Please fill out info form)

indigretion / trumpet and organ / 4 minutes

First movement of the highly expressive duet for trumpet and organ, commissioned by Carson Cooman for the 2007 We Are All Mozart project. The other movements are coalescence and eliaision.

Adobe PDF file (Please fill out info form)

In het Donkere Bos / viola and bass clarinet / 7 minutes

Adobe PDF file (Please fill out info form) Viola Part
Adobe PDF file (Please fill out info form) Bass Clarinet Part (B-flat treble)
Elegant, energetic and dark work for viola and bass clarinet, commissioned by the Darkwood Ensemble for the 2007 We Are All Mozart project.

Adobe PDF file (Please fill out info form)

The Imagined Moons of Autumn / flute and piano / 5 minutes

Adobe PDF file (Please fill out info form) Flute Part
Virtuosic family piece for flute and piano, commissioned for Barbara Dale McIlroy and Alison Dale Parker by Doug and Peter McIlroy, for the 2007 We Are All Mozart project.

Adobe PDF file (Please fill out info form)

The Itch is Internal / cello duo / 7 minutes

An intense and lush cello duo, commissioned by Robert Bolyard for the 2007 We Are All Mozart project.

Adobe PDF file (Please fill out info form) MP3 file

Like to a Rose / baritone sax & percussion / 30 minutes

Intense set of 23 studies for sax and percussion, very difficult and exhausting. You don't have to play them all! The set was written for the phenomenal Non Zero duo that includes Brian Sacawa and Tim Feeney (and as of this writing, still awaits its premiere). Available from Frog Peak Music

Adobe PDF file (Please fill out info form) MP3 file

MixMaster's Revenge / extended viola & guitar / 7 minutes

Created for Fred Carlson and Suzy Norris -- inventors of the sympitar and suzalyne -- MixMaster was a tongue-in-cheek celtic-style dance ... for that is the music they played. Now living in Southern California, Fred and Suzy were polite. Available from Frog Peak Music

Adobe PDF file (Please fill out info form) MP3 file

My Heart at Thy Sweet Voice / arr. for alto & tenor saxophones / 6 minutes

Adobe PDF file (Please fill out info form) Alto Saxophone Part
Adobe PDF file (Please fill out info form) Tenor Saxophone Part
This arrangement of the Saint-Saëns duet from "Samson and Delilah" was written for two students at Johnson State College. The melody is in the tenor in this version. Available from Frog Peak Music

Adobe PDF file (Please fill out info form)

The Nine Rabbits of Valladolid / cello duo (student and teacher) / 4 minutes

Adobe PDF file (Please fill out info form) Cello 1 Part
Adobe PDF file (Please fill out info form) Cello 2 Part
A student-teacher duet commissioned by Nati Plasencia "Dedicado a Nati y a Amarilis", for the 2007 We Are All Mozart project.
Nine Rabbits video
Still from a video by Nati Plasencia using her performance of "Nine Rabbits".

Adobe PDF file (Please fill out info form) YouTube link

O Vox Pop / bass clarinet and bassoon / 5 minutes [OK for broadcast]

Adobe PDF file (Please fill out info form) Bass Clarinet Part (B-flat Treble)
Adobe PDF file (Please fill out info form) Bassoon Part
Utterly too much fun and virtuosity for bass clarinet and bassoon, commissioned by Steven Klimowski for the 2007 We Are All Mozart project.
O Vox Pop still
Performing "O Vox Pop" are Steven Klimowski and Rachael Elliott at St. Michael's College, 2008

Adobe PDF file (Please fill out info form) MP3 file

Parched Fields / violin & cello / 1 minute

Written for the 15MoF project, parched fields is a short, dramatic study with string effects and compelling contours. Available from Frog Peak Music

Adobe PDF file (Please fill out info form)

A Partial Summer / cello duo / 9 minutes

Commissioned by Melissa Perley for husband Paul, for the 2007 We Are All Mozart project.

Adobe PDF file (Please fill out info form)

Romance Mondo-Mando / mandocello & piano / 3 minutes

For the unusual combination of mandocello and piano, commissioned by Larry Polansky for the 2007 We Are All Mozart project.

Adobe PDF file (Please fill out info form) MP3 file

Rose Quartz Crystal Radio / baritone sax & percussion / 9 minutes

Lustrous postclassical duet for sax and percussion, feet and bells and voice. It was written for the phenomenal Non Zero duo that includes Brian Sacawa and Tim Feeney (and as of this writing, still awaits its premiere). Available from Frog Peak Music

Adobe PDF file (Please fill out info form)

Running the Traction Line / cello and contrabass / 4 minutes

Flippant and demanding cello and contrabass duo, commissioned by P. Kellach Waddle for the 2007 We Are All Mozart project.

Adobe PDF file (Please fill out info form)

Seven Chocolate Eclems / violin & cello / 5 minutes [OK for broadcast]

MP3 file No. 1.
MP3 file No. 2.
MP3 file No. 3.
MP3 file No. 4.
MP3 file No. 5.
MP3 file No. 6.
MP3 file No. 7.
There are always surprises. The Eclems began life as "Seven Expansion-Contraction Linear Modulation Studies in Two Parts". I sent them to Thomas L. Read, who was interested in discussing theory, and he turned around and prepared them for performance, where the audiences found them lovely. Go figure. Available from Frog Peak Music

MP3 file

s'londro / two harps / 6 minutes / in preparation

Written for my wife's mother, who loved harp music but was endlessly suspicious of anything past Brahms, s'londro gets its name from the cascading and slipping sounds of the harps. The score is in proofreading. Non-streaming (downloadable) MP3..

Adobe PDF file (Please fill out info form) MP3 file

Sonata / tuba and piano / 3 minutes

This short sonata was written for Stanley Michalowski, now a tuba player of long standing, but then a young player as the author was a young composer. It's a fresh little piece, and in the intevening 30-something years, has become a trifle to play. Enjoy! Available from Frog Peak Music

Adobe PDF file (Please fill out info form)

Souvenir de Giverny / clarinet & cello / 1 minute

Brief duet written for the 15MoF project, evocative of the town and painting of Giverny. Originally composed for the VoxNovus "15 Minutes of Fame" project.

Adobe PDF file (Please fill out info form) MP3 file

The Sub-Aether Bande / flute and percussion / 11 minutes

Adobe PDF file (Please fill out info form) Flute Part
A subtle but wild ride through drum-propelled flute sounds. For the virtuoso flutist and drummer, The Sub-Aether Bande never rises above a gentle volume level, but leaves performers and audience breathless. Composed for the Three-Two Ensemble and for Karen Kevra. Demo version only in link to the left. Available from Frog Peak Music

Adobe PDF file (Please fill out info form)

To the Secretary of Good Fortune / cello and guitar / 2 minutes

A short, delicate duo for cello and guitar commissioned by Jeremiah Reilly for the 2007 We Are All Mozart project.

Adobe PDF file (Please fill out info form)

Water No Fire / flute & soprano saxophone / 5 minutes

Adobe PDF file (Please fill out info form) Flute Part
Adobe PDF file (Please fill out info form) Soprano Sax Part
Winer of the Fujin Duo competition 2012, this elegant piece comes in two versions: a fully notated duet, and a graphical score. Each can inform the other, and both are included in the PDF.

Adobe PDF file (Please fill out info form)

We're Running Out of Time / tenor pan and cello / 4 minutes

Tricky business for pan, fer sher, commissioned by Ed Epstein for the 2007 We Are All Mozart project.

Adobe PDF file (Please fill out info form) MP3 file

Zeven Mergpijpjes / violin & cello / 8 minutes

These pieces continue the surprises of their predecessor, Seven Chocolate Eclems. Lies Muller, who runs the wonderful Atelier voor Muziek en Ambacht in Utrecht, loved them, but sought something a little more fitting for students. So she commissioned these seven new expansion-contraction linear modulation pieces, and I named them after my favorite Dutch confection, the mergpijp -- painfully sweet concoctions of marzipan and cream in a light pastry; it translates as marrowbone! Available from Frog Peak Music

Adobe PDF file (Please fill out info form)

The Big Fipple / 25 pieces for recorder ensembles

Adobe PDF file (Please fill out info form) Almost Not in Progress arranged for quartet
Adobe PDF file (Please fill out info form) MP3 file Cakewalk for duet
Adobe PDF file (Please fill out info form) Curtain for quartet, from Incidental Music to "Lysistrata"
Adobe PDF file (Please fill out info form) MP3 file Doo-Be-Doot Duet
Adobe PDF file (Please fill out info form) MP3 file Garbanzo Bean in its original quintet arrangement
Adobe PDF file (Please fill out info form) MP3 file Miniature for soprano solo
Adobe PDF file (Please fill out info form) Numa arranged from the piano piece
Adobe PDF file (Please fill out info form) MP3 file Rag Rag for duet
Adobe PDF file (Please fill out info form) Saba arranged from the vocal piece
Sanonic Conatas for duet in five movements
Adobe PDF file (Please fill out info form) MP3 file Conata #1
Adobe PDF file (Please fill out info form) MP3 file Conata #2
Adobe PDF file (Please fill out info form) MP3 file Conata #3
Adobe PDF file (Please fill out info form) MP3 file Conata #4
Adobe PDF file (Please fill out info form) MP3 file Conata #5
Adobe PDF file (Please fill out info form) The Two-Minute Sneeze arranged from the wind trio version
MP3 file Suite for quartet in six movements
Adobe PDF file (Please fill out info form) No. 1
Adobe PDF file (Please fill out info form) No. 2
Adobe PDF file (Please fill out info form) No. 3
Adobe PDF file (Please fill out info form) No. 4
Adobe PDF file (Please fill out info form) No. 5
Adobe PDF file (Please fill out info form) No. 6
Adobe PDF file (Please fill out info form) MP3 file Table Scraps for duet
Adobe PDF file (Please fill out info form) Unopposed Duet
Adobe PDF file (Please fill out info form) Waltz in No Time in the original trio version
Adobe PDF file (Please fill out info form) MP3 file when there are no words in its original soprano solo version
A collection of my favorite pieces composed for my own ensembles, Fipple has dances and songs of all kinds, and a six-movement suite as well. A downloadable version will be available soon, but don't hesitate to order the score. A bargain -- a quarter a piece! Available from Frog Peak Music Note that the mp3 demos are arranged for a variety of wind orchestrations -- a little fun.

A Booklet of Performance Bits / 30 performance pieces, 1972-1994 / No. W950

There are two versions of this -- the limited edition in a box, and the bound version. Many of the pieces are unplayable by the squeamish (like friend eggs on your chest?) or take quite a while (Cat Music and Gendarme take 12 months each), but it's worth it for the fun alone. Downloadable version coming soon.


Dennis Báthory-Kitsz

Reviews and Comments

General Comments
  • "In case you've not heard Dennis Bathory-Kitsz's music - he's on soundcloud now. I know that the relentlessly hip claim that there's no real composers anymore and that everything written large is for movies or commercials - but this fellow is a living composer that does a wide range of excellent work. Take a bit of time to check out what he does and reassure yourself that art is alive."

    --Pamela Zero, composer, on Facebook

  • "Dennis Bathory-Kitsz is an eclectic listening station all by himself!"

    --David's Eclectic Listening on mp3.com

  • "Wow. Here is a wildly eclectic, erratic, difficult, staggeringly prolific contemporary composer with 500 pieces to his name. His music ranges from medieval-influenced brass quintets to elaborately staged Avant-Garde multimedia experiences. One piece is exclusively performed by an army of forty car and truck horns honking away to a score on a flatbed truck! Bathory-Kitsz also writes in a more identifiably modernist classical vein, with harp duets, oboe solos, and choral passages. Some pieces incorporate drone with classical counterpoint techniques. He's written a suite for quarter-tone violin; it sounds almost like a Western scale, but ever so different...and eerie. He's even written a chamber opera, whose regular, pounding drumbeats and choral passages evoke a witches' sabbat. Finally, he has written some works for electronic instruments, which in their repetition of vocal snippets, percussive noises, and electronic drone recall early Steve Reich. Bathory-Kitsz's music encompasses the entire European classical tradition in its scope; it's well worth the listen."

    --Noah Enelow, on Listen.com

Specific Compositions (alpahbetical)
  • Air: "I think that is a particularly wonderful piece. I like every second of it, and I do not at all mind the repetitions. These are not gratuitous repetitions. Air is a most inspired, imaginative, successful piece. All kinds of wonders unfold all the time, from start to finish. It's my favorite new piece of yours."

    --Noah Creshevsky, composer

  • Ave Verum Corpus: "It's a work of great beauty. It's moving and it's wonderful. Very beautiful, plus an entire course in voice-leading and harmony could be taught from this piece, and I would be happy to teach that course. Most of all, it's wonderful to hear (and certainly a pleasure for them to perform, too)."

    --Noah Creshevsky, composer

  • bellyloops: "According to my personal interpretation, this is a 'field recording' of someone being chased by a chupacabra. Just when he thinks he has lost the monster and everything will be okay, it reappears suddenly and pounces and...the rest is pretty grisly, so I will leave it up to your imagination (as does the composer)."

    --Rain God's Picks on mp3.com

  • Brand 9 From Outer Space: "Journey to this fellow's page, and you'll find --among much else, a lot of it very tasty-- a couple of car horn symphonies, which (if I'm reading the notes correctly) were performed and conducted in a parking lot in Trenton, New Jersey, with an orchestraconsisting of... parked cars. THIS piece isn't like that. But it's real good anyway, despite the fact that the musicians are all playing actual musical instruments. And if you'd like to play along, there's a link that will allow you to download the score."

    --Radio Plan 9 on mp3.com

  • Car Horn Symphony No. 1: "beep beep beep. you CAN make music out of ANYTHING, anywhere."

    --myra ellen moo's fluffy thingie on mp3.com

  • Car Horn Symphony No. 2: "I own a CD featuring a Car Horn Organ. This is not that, not even similar in fact, but the point is that yes, car horns make perfectly good musical instruments. The evidence accumulates, in spite of the not entirely pleasant circumstances under which we often hear them. Dennis says he had a lot of fun writing this. It sounds like the players and conductor had a lot of fun. Now the only missing ingredient is YOU. Listen and I think you will have fun, too!"

    --Rain God's Picks on mp3.com

  • Crosscut: "Crosscut is a 20-minute concerto for piano and winds with a gratifying shape: the three movements are loud/soft/loud, but contain enough recurring figures to suggest the sense of a one-movement work. Once again, the piece starts off with rather minimalist repeated chords and arpeggios, but becomes so rhythmically complex in the piano and dissonant in the brass as to gradually give a more muscular impression. Then, after an abrupt cutoff comes an almost stationary slow movement with a couple of rhythmically complex figures that keep recurring every few measures. The unity they produce is remarkable, though the repetitions are too complex to become predictable. The third movement smoothly quotes material from both its predecessors. If Bathory-Kitsz’s style varies considerably from work to work, each movement is always unified by a clear concept.".

    --Kyle Gann, Chamber Music Magazine

  • Csárdás: "Immediately compelling ... The almost demonic qualities and grand proportions of the work evoke memories of ... Franz Liszt."

    --Barre-Montpelier Times-Argus

  • Detritus of Mating: "Adding to the [Pavel Kraus at Bond Gallery] show's ambience was a sound component, an almost ecclesiastical compositon with several movements of altered voices by new-music composer and frequent Kraus collaborator Dennis Bathory-Kitsz"

    --Edward Leffingwell, Art in America

    "At the deepest level this music lulls and intrigues, irritates and begs your answers. Ambient for sure ... further than that, always. Growing and moving, wiggling in your ears, this sound creates a basket of safety and insecurity. Knowledge of gods and goddesses way back coming through present life."

    --Difficult Listening on RTR Radio, Perth

    "Those addicted to the new-music radio show and Web site Bathory-Kitsz cohosts will find interest in his sound sculpture, a sample of which is caught here. Glistening tones ring in the air, bits of deconstructed voices float by, a dark bass pulse starts up that's more felt than heard, in large-scale periodic cycles that would replicate the opening if allowed to continue for some 27 years. You don't get a distinct idea of his creative personality from this first disc, but it's enjoyable how the exquisite rings continually modulate even when nothing seems to be happening."

    --Kyle Gann, The Village Voice

  • Emerald Canticles, Below:
    "There is an ethereal quality to the accompaniment resulting in an effect that is indeed surreal. But, rather than atmospheric, the work is made of clearly delineated lines that, with the work's tightly knit rhythms, lead it to a dramatic climax and coda. The new work proved difficult listening..., but ultimately fascinating."

    --Barre-Montpelier Times-Argus

    "What can I say but nice music!"

    --Contemporary New Music Radio on mp3.com

  • Erzsébet: "A powerful new one-woman opera... The overall effect was powerful, due in large part to the evocative music. The soprano vocal line ranged from lyrical to edgy to forcefully spoken. This was accompanied by a score that ranged from Medieval and Renaissance styles to Hungarian folk melodies to uncomfortable edgy atonal atmospheric moments, all woven itno a very effective whole. The production was sophisticated and elegant."

    --Barre-Montpelier Times-Argus

    "It sounds terrific: colorful, mysterious, and very operatic."

    --Lisa Hirsch The Iron Tongue of Midnight

  • L'Estampie du Chevalier: "Bathory-Kitsz can also exhibit intense single-mindedness. One of my favorite of his works is his third string quartet titled L’Estampie du Chevalier (2005), a breezy essay in endless melody. Two of the strings (and which two they are keeps changing) are always playing a duo melody in ever-changing note values with insouciant disregard for the bar line, while the other two appear and disappear, punctuating or filling in with running eighth notes or pizzicato double-stops. It’s a single thirteen-minute idea played out with very little change yet continually self-renewing variety, one of the most unified quartet movements you’ll ever hear."

    --Kyle Gann, Chamber Music Magazine

  • Eventide: "Perhaps the most colorful use of the instruments was by ... composer Dennis B&aathory-Kitsz ... the three pieces form his eight-part "Eventide" employed piccolo, small clarinet and contrabassoon. The composer explored the contrasting sounds emanating from this unusual combination in a surprisingly consonant and attractive way. The moods ranged from hauntingly beautiful to exciting."

    --Barre-Montpelier Times-Argus

  • Exequy: "A dark and powerful homage ... a strident brass shell driven from within by quieter, more complex and precise sounds."

    --Barre-Montpelier Times-Argus

  • Fanfare:Heat: "Bathory-Kitsz's "Fanfare: Heat," written for the VYO, was also complex. At some 11 minutes long, it's a short work but a lot happens. Opening brilliantly, it begins a journey, first a turgid one, then a more joyful one, building all the time to a brilliant finale. The harmonic language and rhythms were spicy and occasionally jarring, but Peters and his young players managed them with feeling. It was quite exciting."

    --Barre-Montpelier Times-Argus

  • For Fog is the Promise of Cloud: "It's very beautiful. There's a wonderful sense of acceptance at the end, and i would not have been surprised if that had not happened, although it's encouraging (and beautiful) that it does move to that resolution. I often think 'glacial' in connection with your music, but I don't mean cold. I mean massive, like sculpture. Worldly and other-worldly too. That is, of this world and also of another (hypothetical) world. This piece has quite an overt schizophrenic aesthetic, simultaneously aligning contrasting kinds of musical gestures."

    --Noah Creshevsky, composer

  • Fuliginous Quadrant: "Fuliginous Quadrant for violin, cello, clarinet, and piano is written almost entirely in the A-harmonic-minor scale, yet every one of its texturally varied phrases cadences on a high F in the violin, which really messes with your large-scale perception of the tonality."

    --Kyle Gann, Chamber Music Magazine

  • I think of thee!: "It’s most unusual, when there is music by justly famous composers on a program, that the highlight of a concert is a new work by a local composer. But that’s just what happened at Friday’s Vermont Virtuosi concert, “Poetic License,” at Montpelier’s Bethany Church. Northfield composer Dennis Báthory-Kitsz’s “I Think of Thee!” which received its premiere, proved a beautiful and powerful experience. Báthory-Kitsz set the Elizabeth Barrett Browning poem, from “Songs of the Portuguese XXIX,” unusually for soprano, bass flute and guitar, hence a truly exotic feel. More importantly, the work exudes the rich depth of emotion of the poem. Soprano Gail Whitehouse delivered the simple lyrical melody line with a quietly nuanced expressiveness. Underscoring that line was the soft bassoon-like warmth of Laurel Ann Maurer’s bass flute and the driving punctuation of Peter Matthews’ guitar. What made this largely tonal song riveting were the richly undulating sounds of the bass flute and guitar behind the haunting but inviting vocal line."

    --Barre-Montpelier Times-Argus

    Your song is a beauty! I like everything about it, like the melody, harmony, florid rhythms (how masterfully you do that), and the exceptional degree of independence between the parts.

    --Noah Creshevsky, composer

  • Icecut: "He was full of energy and excitement, which would be a good way to describe his piece "Icecut," too. The music had some demanding string writing, which the players handled like a shortstop making a tough play look easy. I was really thrilled to hear such high quality music."

    --David Ludwig, composer, in his blog

    "It was Bathory-Kitsz's 10-minute work, commissioned by the VSO, that proved most striking. Beginning with a darkly driving force of strings, the brass introduces a haunting melody, then taken up by the strings; the strings subside, becoming a restless bed for the exuberant brass; the cellos take over, receding to a quiet but relentless agitation so a gentle woodwind melody can be heard above; the violins take over with cellos and basses continuing to provide a driving rhythm; all builds to a grand moment – then subsides and fades out. ... The work proved compelling, and its nature could easily have been inspired by Vermont's difficult winters. The work is largely tonal and accessible despite some intricate writing. But most important, its driving force – loud or quiet – compels the listener to go along for the ride, a quite exciting one."

    --Barre-Montpelier Times-Argus

  • Into the Morning Rain:
    "A masterpiece worthy of Stravinsky."

    --Louis Moyse

    Broadcast January 17, 2001, on Dutch Radio 4 Live, "A New Stage"
    "A fascinating and earthy work ... its quiet drive and gentle rhythm seduced the listener into an almost primal state. Báthory-Kitsz continues to be one of the state's most fascinating and sophisticated composers."

    --Barre-Montpelier Times-Argus

    "This is an A-1 Blue-ribbon piece of music. Download it!"

    --Psycronic Oscillations on mp3.com

  • The Lily and the Thorn: "The audience warmly applauded the difficult and modern work ... after the concert, people could be heard talking about the new work throughout the hall."

    --Barre-Montpelier Times-Argus

  • LiquidBirds: "LiquidBirds proved beautiful in its sound and sound movement. ... This work, like most of the composer's, had the feel of form, and gave the listener something to hold onto. The result was beautiful music."

    --Barre-Montpelier Times-Argus

  • Llama Butter: "Nothing even comes close to the uniqueness of Llama Butter... It is a fascinating study in multi-media for the tuba... New music fans would love this work and it deserves more performances."

    --Mark Nelson, Tuba Review

  • LowBirds: "Wind and piano gestures flit through this 'mysterious soundscape.'"

    --Chamber Music Features on mp3.com

  • Meta-Dream Twice: "Although a knotty work, its linear simplicty and straightforward nature made it attractive and rewarding."

    --Barre-Montpelier Times-Argus

  • Mirrored Birds: "It would be possible for a 30-minute piece that lacks the formal trappings of melodic development (or even much melody at all) to be, well, boring. But [the composer's] 'Mirrored Birds' didn't strike us that way at all. ... the horns and especially the timpani were extremely busy (in a quiet way) ... the flute solo was a virtual sonic aviary of birdcall."

    --The Herald of Randolph

  • Mountain Dawn Fanfare: "Start your day the mountain way, with this serene fanfare for winds."

    --Symphonic Features on mp3.com

  • Mountains of Spices: "Lovely!"

    --Alison Cerutti, pianist.

  • No Money (Lullaby for Bill): "A symphonic piece made entirely out of a speech by bill gates by a very talented composer."

    --Recombinant Sounds on mp3.com

  • O
    "En perle fra øresneglen! Marvellous collaboration & a masterpiece!"

    --Anne Sophie Bertelsen, composer

    "Dennis Báthory-Kitsz ... known for his thorny music, surprised with the premiere of his ethereally beautiful 'O: 11 Choruses,' of which seven were performed. Here again, a wide variety of styles was employed in these settings of poems by Gary Barwin. ... interior machinations — often very complex — flowed under the music’s seemingly tonal flow. 'The Birds' was hauntingly lyrical; quietly clashing harmonies made 'Sparrow’s Song' haunting; a sustained bass by the men with lyricism from the women above made 'Fish' 'swim'; and the music of the text created the final chorale of 'Regret.'

    --Rutland Herald

  • O Vox Pop
    "The VCME premiered one of its own commissions, 'O Vox Pop,' a spicy confection by Northfield composer Dennis Báthory-Kitsz. Klimowski on bass clarinet and Elliott on bassoon enjoyed the wonderful colors of the lyrical first part, as well as the light chase of the second. It was more than fun it was expertly written."

    --Barre-Montpelier Times-Argus

    "Largely uncharacteristic of the skillful composer, best know for his well-crafted but complex and difficult music, the two-movemente work ... was lovely and lyrical -- but, of course, not all that simple."

    --Barre-Montpelier Times-Argus

  • Somnambula: "The best works [at the New York Avant-Garde Festival] were the biggest and the smallest... [The composer] sat far out in a field playing a recorder, accompanied by a tinny cassette machine... The effect was like a Chinese Pan."

    --John Rockwell, The New York Times

  • Sourian Slide:
    "Sublimely beautiful is the only way to describe Sourian Slide for strings ... also heard for the first time ... it builds quietly and achieves a quiet but powerful drama with ne'er a loud note. Pretty tonal for Bathory-Kitsz, who frequently writes difficult and cutting-edge music, Sourian Slide is splendidly written."

    --Barre-Montpelier Times-Argus

    "Lose yourself in this..."

    --Consolations on mp3.com

  • Starry Night "Another big success was the premiere of Northfield composer Dennis Báthory-Kitsz’s hauntingly beautiful 2007 “Starry Night.” The atmospheric work opens with dark bass notes setting the scene, with “stars” appearing and “sparkling”, asymmetrically working their way through the night. Pepper showed real sensitivity toward this short but attractive work, using excellent tonal control descriptively.

    --Barre-Montpelier Times-Argus

  • Teething Rings: "A room full of screaming babies and a nanny with not enough teething rings to go around. An avant-garde 'classic' in the fluxus tradition."

    --There is No Radio on mp3.com

  • Thièle: "Clearly the work that stretched its audience the most was Kitsz's powerful Thièle for quarter-tone violin. [It] took some getting used to. People do get used to it: Some even thought that the slow movement was traditionally whole- and half-tone..."

    --Barre-Montpelier Times-Argus

  • A Time Machine: "[The] composer went for broke with [the] ambitious work for nine musicians that alternates sung verse with orchestral improv, ancient sounds and avant-garde ones."

    --Burlington Free Press

Dennis Báthory-Kitsz (ASCAP) is recorded on Ursa Minor, Frog Peak Music, Malted/Media, Three's Film Works, PressTheButton, and Capstone Records

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