Dennis Báthory-Kitsz   home · composer · engraver · author · editor · photographer · contact


The Big List has the Latest Scores and Downloads



Electroacoustic Music Available through 2015

 



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


Electronic/Electroacoustic

(see also Vocal and Performance catalog)

Playback (Fixed Media) Only

Performers with Playback (Fixed Media)

Live Electronics

Performers with Live Electronics

Environments and Sculptures



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.

MP3 file

Alien Angels / playback / 11 minutes [OK for broadcast]

Created for the ImprovFriday project, and first performed live at the Gardner Museum in Boston. This is the studio recording.

MP3 file

Angels... Avenging... / playback (CD) / 6 minutes [OK for broadcast]

The full title is Angels (passing through on their way to the end of time) Avenging (the music of Olivier Messiaen and others of similar leanings) for Quartet of untuned or detuned instruments, all made before 1940, specifically: Two very beat upright pianos; One weak and reasonablhy silly electric organ; One single-string (G) violin, plus right-handed (only) violinist, or one with left hand tied behind the back. This has recently been restored and is available on a collection of early electronic pieces from the composer.

MP3 file

at 100 / playback / 1 minute [OK for broadcast]

Brief, intense piece created for the 60x60 2010 project using samples from a Fazioli piano, as part of the call for pieces.

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

Bales, Barrels, & Cones: Antebellum/Antibellum / Drumkit and playback (CD) / 8 minutes

Adobe PDF file (Please fill out info form) Word file Bales is a virtuoso piece for drumkit (hihat, 4 cymbals, snare, 3 toms, bass drum) and playback, written for composer/performer Michael Manion. The playback CD is available from the composer. Because of its size, this piece is not available as a Finale ETF file. The second PDF link to the left is the percussion part on 11x17 paper. Non-streaming (downloadable) MP3. Available from Frog Peak Music

bangstudy playback / 4 minutes [OK for broadcast]

With the voice of Noah Creshevsky, bangstudy was created as a study for Voices in My Night for the 2007 We Are All Mozart project.

MP3 file

bellyloops / playback (CD) / 5 minutes

Word file A four-minute danger dance! Omigod! Created out of bits of commercials for the "Commercial Ad Hoc" CD from illegal art, but never appearing on the CD.

MP3 file

blinded / playback / 1 minute [OK for broadcast]

Created for the 60x60 2010 project using noise development, low tones, and voice.

Body Language / playback (CD) / 20 minutes [OK for broadcast]

A difficult piece based on body sounds. If you like that sort of thing. Not for the queasy, squeamish, or proper. This piece is presently being restored.

MP3 file

Bomber / tape / 9 minutes [OK for broadcast]

Bomber was created for a concert in a Trans/Media series in 1974, and used in many guises to accompany poetry readings and as background music. Its latest incarnation is as the playback part to Pianaroll (see below). Play it loud!

MP3 file

Bouzavox / playback (CD) / 4 minutes [OK for broadcast]

Silly behavior created for Kalvos & Damian's New Music Bazaar, for a tongue-in-cheek essay about the bouzouki and various odd singers. Non-streaming (downloadable) MP3.

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) MP3 file

Conjim for Ed / playback / 1 minute [OK for broadcast]

Created for the 60x60 2009 project using a music box, homage to Nancarrow and Tenney in one minute. Can also be performed from the punched roll.

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

MP3 file

Detritus of Mating [OK for broadcast]

Available on MaltedMedia/Sistrum CD, and as part of the composer's mp3 collection. A brooding, hour-long piece for modified voices and synethetic instruments, created for the sculpture of Pavel Kraus. Non-streaming (downloadable) MP3. Available from Frog Peak Music
Detritus of Mating installtion
An installation of Detritus of Mating (sculpture: Pavel Kraus) at the Exquisite Corpse Gallery, Burlington, Vermont, 1990s


MP3 file MP3 file MP3 file MP3 file

The Development of the Consciousness of Space in a Child / playback / 25 minutes [OK for broadcast]


MP3 file

Driving My 1948 Limbo / playback / 1 minute [OK for broadcast]

Created for the 60x60 2010 Microtonal project using complex tones at 48 pitches per octave, equal-temperament.

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

MP3 file

En Trein / playback with optional string quartet / 1 minute [OK for broadcast]

Created for the 60x60 2012 project using the sound of the Amtrak, processing, and string quartet.

Euphoria Studies / playback / 18 minutes each [OK for broadcast]

MP3 file No. 1
MP3 file No. 2
The two Euphoria Studies were created in advance of Phylum Euphoria, a piece for euphonium and playback.

MP3 file

exirxion / extracted from the 90-minute Circular Screaming (CD) [OK for broadcast]

Circular Screaming was a 90-minute performance collaboration with David Gunn, and it used synethsized instruments, electronic surround, melting ice, aromas, and lights. This extract is recomposed as a gentle meditation. A distillation of my portion, the 90-minute xirx, this exirxion is a dramatic ride through percussive electronia and algorithmic clouds. Can you dance to it? Naah... but you can't stop listening!

MP3 file

Filliana Bolero: The Nine Manifolds of Aurelia's Song / playback / 9 minutes [OK for broadcast]

Manifolds on filouria, which was written for 60x60.

MP3 file

filouria / playback / 1 minute [OK for broadcast]

Created for the 60x60 2006 project using simple sine tones and spatial alterations.

Five Daydreams / playback / 20 minutes [OK for broadcast]

MP3 file No. 1
MP3 file No. 2
MP3 file No. 3
MP3 file No. 4
MP3 file No. 5
The Five Daydreams were really that -- self-indulgence with a newly modified synth and tape recorder. Interestingly, one of the themes sounds very much like a French church bell.

MP3 file

For the Invisible / available as part of "Invisible Performers" limited-edition cassette collection [OK for broadcast]

My shortest composition, For the Invisible was both the prelude to my "Invisible Performers" cassette collection, and a great answering machine tune.

MP3 file

FreeSimple / playback / 7 minutes [OK for broadcast]

This piece was initially a working sketch for Snare:Wilding, but grew a life of its own as a delicate fabric of sound. The mysterious melody arises from the comb-filtered artifacts of a single spoken syllable. Non-streaming (downloadable) MP3.

Future Remembrance playback / 1 minute [OK for broadcast]

Created with multiple natural sounds and commissioned by Rob Voisey for the Munich version of the 60x60 Project, for the 2007 We Are All Mozart project. Second set to the left is a longer remix.

Graffiti: A New Year's Celebration for Noah playback / 4 minutes [OK for broadcast]

Graffiti was commissioned by Noah Creshevsky, the first piece commissioned for the 2007 We Are All Mozart project.

MP3 file

hangle / playback / 3 minutes [OK for broadcast]

Coat hangers and more coat hangers, inspired by Mr. Wizard in the 1950s. Remember? Multitracked and reorganized for maximum randomness.

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. Available from Frog Peak Music

Adobe PDF file (Please fill out info form)

Hypertunes, Baby voice & playback / 12 minutes [OK for broadcast]

MP3 file Studio Version
MP3 file Performance Version
MP3 file Playback Part Only
Hypertunes, Baby was written for a SEAMUS concert at Middlebury College in 1994. This is a revised and extended version of a piece that is tongue-in-cheek presentation of subtitled "Seventeen Quiet Rap Haiku". PDF link is to annotated text portion. Available from Frog Peak Music

MP3 file

imanuevilla / playback / 7 minutes [OK for broadcast]

Multipart folded-together soundscape from voices and natural sounds in Portugal and the Netherlands.

MP3 file

In Bocca al Lupo / sound environment / continuous [OK for broadcast]

Word file Bocca has its own website. This is an except from a continuously evolving environment of some 18 channels of sound modified and responding to traffic within the space. It was recorded near the beginning of the installation, before the software had learned how the space would be used. Later days of the exhibit had much more colorful sound.
In Bocca al Lupo
An installation of In Bocca al Lupo (sculpture: Fernanda D'Agostino) in Billings, Montana, 1980s

MP3 file

iskajtbrz / playback / 5 minutes [OK for broadcast]

Created from skateboard sounds and released on a Japanese CD, these were processed in every imaginable piece of software until they were just right & edgy.

MP3 file

krikisque / playback / 1 minute [OK for broadcast]

Created for the 60x60 project from the chirp of a single cricket (which can be heard at the very end).

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

LiquidBirds / 3 Theremins, voices, video / 9 minutes [OK for broadcast]

LiquidBirds was created for me, David Gunn, and Eric Ross, and is an environmental piece for the players' voices and video. The playback DVD is available from the composer. Available from Frog Peak Music

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

Llama Butter / performance piece for tuba & tape / 20 minutes

Word file Written for tubist Mark Nelson, Llama Butter is a half-hour work with optional dance and staging. In its full-blown version, the tubist is cloaked in furs on a stage with flaming torches, playing an all-black tuba. Nelson gave it a brilliant premiere -- but without the painted instrument. Non-streaming (downloadable) video in lo-res Windows media or lo-res Real media. Available from Frog Peak Music

MP3 file

Manifold Warblers / playback (CD) / 15 minutes [OK for broadcast]

Eleven spectral variations of The Warbler's Garden, dovetailed and overlain, created for my own listening pleasure and, I hope, yours.

MP3 file

Meditations on the Llama Sutra / playback (CD) / 20 minutes [OK for broadcast]

Llamas do this. And with the addition of sampled and concrète sounds, it gives a rich atmosphere of rut. For the amorous only. (Original llamas were recorded at play in the high mountains of Colorado.) Non-streaming (downloadable) MP3.

Adobe PDF file (Please fill out info form)

Memento Mori, for Noah Creshevsky voice & playback / 7 minutes [OK for broadcast]

MP3 file Studio Version
MP3 file Playback Part Only
Word file Memento Mori for Noah Creshevsky is an exploration of Creshevsky's techniques of hyperrealism in multiple channels and with the Báthory-Kitsz density in the forefront. The piece exists in a stereo version and in a version for 8-channel diffusion. The following individual mono files are also available for download, in a circular array beginning with front left (once auditioned, please request the files in .wav or .aiff format for performance): Available from Frog Peak Music

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

MiddelBurd / fl., b.cl., pno., 2 elec. guitars, playback. / 3 minutes

Sits between LowBirds and HighBirds, and makes a transition from one to the other in order to create a single, half-hour-long quasi-meditative, quasi-confrontational bird piece developed from thrushes. Available from Frog Peak Music

Morning Steps (to Parnassus) playback / 1 minute [OK for broadcast]

A very short piece made from an entire morning compressed into a few seconds, commissioned by Rob Voisey for the 2007 We Are All Mozart project. Second set of links is a longer remix.

MP3 file

No Money (Lullaby for Bill) / playback / 5 minutes [OK for broadcast]

Word file When I interviewed Bill Gates in March 1980, I had no idea that his statement "There's nobody getting rich writing software" would end up being so ironic. Here's a piece made up entirely of sounds created from his words from 20 years ago.

MP3 file

nysuca hanei / playback / 1 minute [OK for broadcast]

Created for the 60x60 project using an emulation of a Performer Ionic synethsizer..

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

Phylum Euphoria / euphonium and playback / 18 minutes each

This wonderfully evocative Phylum Euphoria was created at the request of Jiri van der Kaay in the Netherlands. In the same realm as Llama Butter, it explores the abilities and timbres of the instruments in a bed or rushing sounds. The MP3 link is for the playback part; there is no performance yet.

Pianaroll / piano and playback (CD) / 9 minutes / hand-inked

This temporally difficult piece makes piano and tape equal in an unrelenting shower of notes and rhythms. Extremely difficult, Pianaroll has not yet received its premiere. The playback part was restored in 2002. Available from Frog Peak Music

MP3 file

Prometheus Variations / playback / 7 minutes

These variations were dedicated to Christopher deLaurenti, whose new music radio show was going off the air. It is derived from the Beethoven overture and processed through AudioMulch.

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

RatGeyser / MalletKat and playback / 8 minutes [OK for broadcast]

Adobe PDF file (Please fill out info form) Word file RatGeyser is a virtuoso piece for MalletKat (or other pitched percussion) and playback, written for composer/performer Michael Manion. The playback CD, as well as a Cakewalk 9 bundle file with samples, is available from the composer. Because of its size, this piece is not available as a Finale ETF file. The second link at the left is for the MalletKat file without the complete sequencer score included. Non-streaming (downloadable) MP3. Available from Frog Peak Music
RatGeyser
Michael Manion performs "RatGeyser" in Den Haag, 2003 (Barbara Okma photo).

Adobe PDF file (Please fill out info form)

Return to Nineveh / extended voice with processing / 7 minutes

An extended voice composition (with electronic effects) based on excerpts from Nahum ("Nineveh is of old a watery pool..."). It uses a microphone with reverb and looper. Commissioned by Taylan Susam for the 2007 We Are All Mozart project. The commentary reads, "In ancient times, it is said that the city of Nineveh on the Tigris River was brought down by the wrath of a vengeful God. In modern times, its people have suffered again through great wars and civil strife. And now they suffer again through the vengeance of a small man who would be God."

MP3 file

sárábándól / playback / 1 minute [OK for broadcast]

Created for the 60x60 2012 project using samples of a Bach Sarabande.

Adobe PDF file (Please fill out info form)

Six Senses of Twilight organ and electronics / 11 minutes

Adobe PDF file (Please fill out info form) Adobe PDF file (Please fill out info form) Piece for organ and electronics commissioned by Carson Cooman for the 2007 We Are All Mozart project. It uses an AudioMulch patch set with a live feed from the organ. Electronic/organ demo mix and score on the top links; lower set of links are organ only and electronic mix only, and below a structure and Mulch patch set image.

MP3 file

smuttle / playback / 1 minute [OK for broadcast]

Created for the 60x60 2009 project using voice alone. NSFW, so originally rejected for the project. Later reinstated with the dance version.

MP3 file

Snare: Wilding / playback / 4 minutes [OK for broadcast]

Word file Created from a library of vocal sounds, Snare:Wilding is a terrifying but brief study in sound and fear. It was creating in response to that year's "wilding" in Central Park.

Somnambula / recorder and playback (CD) / 90 minutes / hand-inked; new edition in progress

This composition was originally created for the New Jersey State Museum Planetarium, where it was performed by John Burkhalter on soprano and alto recorders. The sound surrounds the listener. John Rockwell of the New York Times called it one of the best works at that year's New York Avant-Garde Fesitval.

Adobe PDF file (Please fill out info form)

Spammung / voice and playback / 12 minutes [OK for broadcast]

MP3 file Live Performance
MP3 file Playback Part Only
Spammung is created from interesting and odd subject lines from spam received by the composer. Spoken by computer speech systems and modified into many tracks, the dense playback part is an interesting soundscape in itself. With the extended vocal part (not yet available in detailed score; sketch score available), it is a demanding and remarkable virtuosic performance piece. Available from Frog Peak Music

MP3 file

Syrenical / electronics / 7 minutes [OK for broadcast]

Syrenical is one of a series of acoustic and electronic pieces based on fractal patterns. It is a luscious, spinning sound, ultimately exhausting.

Three Songs for Manuela / 4 minutes [OK for broadcast]

Built on the sounds heard during a residency at the Binaural Institute in Nodar, Portugal, in 2007. The three sections are "A Simple Song," "Through a Garden Gate," and "Who is the Father?"

A Village on the Wind / 3 minutes [OK for broadcast]

The sounds of Nodar in Portugal and Utrecht in the Netherlands are mixed and modified in this portrait of two cultures. Commissioned by the Bregman Studios of Dartmouth College for the 2007 We Are All Mozart project.

Voices in My Night / 3 minutes [OK for broadcast]

On of the last pieces from the 2007 We Are All Mozart project, Voices was commissioned by Noah Creshevsky and created from the Latin version of the Song of Solomon ("Veniat dilectus meus in hortum suum...") .

Xirx / electronics / 90 minutes [OK for broadcast]

Xirx (pronounced "shersh") was part of a collaborative 90-minute multimedia environment performance done in Montpelier, Vermont, including live electronic sound, voices, lights, melting ice, and aromas. A musical excerpt called exirxion (above) was developed from my portion. David Gunn, the other collaborator, developed his piano piece Fogwalls from it.

MP3 file

The Warbler's Garden / playback / 1 minute [OK for broadcast]

Created for the 60x60 project from one bird call and one footfall in a covered bridge.

MP3 file

zéyu, quânh, sweeh / available on Frog Peak Music CD. [OK for broadcast]

Word file Three minute-long pieces on the sound text of Chris Mann, these appear on the Frog Peak collection of 115 compositions. Available from Frog Peak Music

MP3 file

Zonule Glaes II / string quartet & electronics / 64 minutes [OK for broadcast]

Adobe PDF file (Please fill out info form) Full score
Adobe PDF file (Please fill out info form) Violin 1 Part
Adobe PDF file (Please fill out info form) Violin 2 Part
Adobe PDF file (Please fill out info form) Viola Part
Adobe PDF file (Please fill out info form) Cello Part
Adobe PDF file (Please fill out info form) Cues Sheets to Accompany Sequence Score
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) Electronic Sequence Score Pages 1-4
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) Electronic Sequence Score Pages 5-8
Written for installation at the Manes Museum in Prague, to accompany the sculpture of Pavel Kraus. Electronic part available on CD from the composer or Westleaf Edition. A limited-edition version of the premiere on CD with the Styx Quartet is available from the composer. Available from Frog Peak Music
Rehearsal of Zonule Glaes II
A rehearsal of Zonule Glaes II by the Styx Quartet before its premiere in Prague, 1990s

Electronic Studies & Minor Pieces

MP3 file Electronic Construction No. 1 / tape / W705 [OK for broadcast]
MP3 file Electronic Construction No. 2 / tape / W707 [OK for broadcast]
MP3 file Electronic Construction in Glass / tape / W70A [OK for broadcast]
MP3 file Construction in Glass / tape / W70G [OK for broadcast]
MP3 file Construction in Sliding Tones / tape / W70H [OK for broadcast]
MP3 file Construction in Chorus and Sounds / tape / W70I
MP3 file Three Concrete Constructions / tape / W70K [OK for broadcast]
MP3 file Praeludium (All White) / tape / W729
MP3 file D'a'lpp / tape / W72A [OK for broadcast]
MP3 file Stomach Music / tape / W72E [OK for broadcast]
MP3 file Telephone Trip / tape / W72F [OK for broadcast]
MP3 file Autoharp / tape / W73B [OK for broadcast]
Outtake Rodemas / playback / W758
MP3 file Ah, Minimalism! / playback / W858 [OK for broadcast]
MP3 file Glossolalia 15 / playback / W00A [OK for broadcast]
MP3 file Williams Audio Mix 26 / audio soundtrack / W00B [OK for broadcast]
Williams Video Mix 14 / audio soundtrack / W00C
MP3 file Williams Video Mix 24 / video soundtrack / W00D [OK for broadcast]
QaXing I / playback / W022A
MP3 file QaXing II / playback / W022B [OK for broadcast]
MP3 file Glossolalia 18 / playback / W03A [OK for broadcast]
MP3 file Glossolalia 19 / playback / W03B [OK for broadcast]
MP3 file Glossolalia 20 / playback / W03C [OK for broadcast]
MP3 file Glossolalia 21 / playback / W03D [OK for broadcast]
MP3 file Glossolalia 22 / playback / W03E [OK for broadcast]
MP3 file felungia / playback / W06B [OK for broadcast]
MP3 file Office Equipment Symphony / playback / W08A [OK for broadcast]
MP3 file Capn Hookpik / playback / W08B [OK for broadcast]
Full Whistlestop / playback / W08C
MP3 file inVoice / playback / W09A [OK for broadcast]
MP3 file agRoin / playback / W09B [OK for broadcast]
MP3 file ilianaSoor / playback / W09C [OK for broadcast]
MP3 file cryingHard / playback / W09D [OK for broadcast]
MP3 file Outside at the Ruined Piano / playback / W09A [OK for broadcast]
A collection of major and minor electronic pieces will be released on a 2-CD set in 2010. It will be available from Frog Peak Music. More information to follow. Look for an announcement before attempting to order from Frog Peak.


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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