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


The Big List has the Latest Scores and Downloads



Keyboard 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


Keyboard

(see also Vocal, Electroacoustic, Performance and the Chamber Music catalogs)

Piano

Organ

Clavichord

Note...



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.

Concerto for Piano, Winds, and Electric Bass / 20 minutes

Word file The Concerto was an enormous virtuoso piece, particularly for the brass, written as two choirs of instruments and two soloists. The first movement is through-composed, the second with sections chosen at random. Score and parts currently available in manuscript only. Please use the contact form for copies.

Adobe PDF file (Please fill out info form)

Crosscut / piano and large wind band / 24 minutes

Three-movement quasi-minimal composition for piano (difficult) and Spanish wind band, commissioned by Telmo Gadea for the Banda Sinfónica de Grau Gandía. (For parts, please see the Large Ensemble Catalog.)

Csárdás / 9 minutes (hand-inked) [OK for broadcast]

Created as a sketch for my opera-in-progress Erzsébet, this csárdás uses the traditional form but with significant re-thinking, including playing the opening inisde the piano as with a cimbalom, or (as performed by Michael Arnowitt) with a prepared piano. Difficult.

Adobe PDF file (Please fill out info form)

Delivery / 4 minutes

A four-hand or two-piano piece commissioned by Jason Armstrong for himself and his son, for the 2007 We Are All Mozart project.

Adobe PDF file (Please fill out info form)

Détente / 4 minutes

An organ prelude on "Amity" from "Southern Harmony". Commissioned by Carson Cooman for the 2007 We Are All Mozart project.

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

Étude / 3 minutes

One of the few pieces of juvenilia I keep active, this Étude is a Chopinesque exercise. For fun. Play and toss.

Adobe PDF file (Please fill out info form)

Fortune in Her Eyes / 14 minutes

Adobe PDF file (Please fill out info form) Adobe PDF file (Please fill out info form) An intimate four-hand piano piece commissioned by Emily Doolittle for herself and Samuel Vriezen for the 2007 We Are All Mozart project. At left are primo and secondo parts.

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

Framing the Sum of Three / 13 minutes

Three-movement suite commissioned by Michael Arnowitt for the 2007 We Are All Mozart project.

Adobe PDF file (Please fill out info form)

From the Mountains / 6 minutes

An organ prelude on Jeremiah Ingall's "Honor to the Hills", commissioned by Carson Cooman for the 2007 We Are All Mozart project.

Adobe PDF file (Please fill out info form)

Glistening Fury / 6 minutes

The precursor movement to Framing the Sum of Three, written for Daniel Wolf's "A Winter Album" project.

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

The Herd / 5 minutes

Word file Like the solo flute piece Noma, this short composition was written for students at the Vermont Governor's Institute. Its title comes from the players initials. It requires fast handwork to make the out-of-reach chords sound together! Available from Frog Peak Music

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

In Search of an Exit / 4 minutes

Maddening study in octaves, commissioned by Reena Esmail for the 2007 We Are All Mozart project. Also served as the foundation for part of the later Scalar Rainbows.

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

Invention / 3 minutes

Another earlier piece I still enjoy, the Invention keeps its quirky internal rhythms going all the way to the harmonically unexpected ending.

Adobe PDF file (Please fill out info form)

It's Mine, I Tell You! / 1 minutes

Madcap minute-long study in confrontation over the note D, It's Mine, I Tell You! was commissioned by David Mahler for the 2007 We Are All Mozart project.

Adobe PDF file (Please fill out info form)

King's Highway / 5 minutes

Organ prelude based on the early American tune "Jerusalem". Commissioned by Carson Cooman. One of six organ preludes on early American tunes. Available from Frog Peak Music

The Lithuanian Liniment March / 4 minutes [OK for broadcast]

The Liniment is a 5-hand piano reduction of the band version. It calls for the typical four hands, and a fifth one (a right hand) at the very bottom, plunking octaves. Everyone sits on one bench, so it's a great visual as well. The score is inked, but if a performance is imminent, I'll make a nice one. Contact me.

Adobe PDF file (Please fill out info form)

Loss of Innocence / 7 minutes

Organ prelude on Justin Morgan's "Amanda", commissioned by Carson Cooman for the 2007 We Are All Mozart project.

Adobe PDF file (Please fill out info form)

Low Clouds and Evening Wind / 7 minutes

Delicate expressive composition commissioned by Patricia Goodson for the 2007 We Are All Mozart project.

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

Mar del Platango / 5 minutes

One-minute tango created for Juan Maria Solare. Tricky and incredibly rewarding. Available from Frog Peak Music

Adobe PDF file (Please fill out info form)

Numa / easy / 3 minutes

Totally naive, Numa was part of a series of pieces for young folks. This, for an 11-year-old Lila Bennett, imitates the simple Bach pieces, but with a twist or two.

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

An Offering Borne Again / 2 minutes

Based on the electronic composition Born Again using the poetry of Shannon Williams, this piano piece was commissioned by Nate Freeman for the 2007 We Are All Mozart project.

Adobe PDF file (Please fill out info form)

Peter's Burrow / 5 minutes

Organ prelude on the tune "Peterborough," commissioned by Carson Cooman. One of six organ preludes on early American tunes. Available from Frog Peak Music

Pianaroll / with tape / 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. Available from Frog Peak Music

Adobe PDF file (Please fill out info form)

Rough Edges / 30 minutes / six continuous movements

Word file Rough Edges is one of my personal masterpieces. Faced with a challenge from pianist Michael Arnowitt to create an atonal minimalist work, I responded with this tour-de-force in six parts on six staves. He has it in his repertoire. A two-piano version is in the works. Available from Frog Peak Music
With Michael Arnowitt
With pianist Michael Arnowitt before the house premiere of Rough Edges, 1980s.

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

Scalar Rainbows / 14 minutes

Large-scale classic developmental composition, commissioned by André Posman of De Rode Pomp for pianist Leonard Duna, for the 2007 We Are All Mozart project.

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

A Second Search / 8 minutes

An elegant piano étude based on a solo viola composition entitled In Search of the Lightness of Horizon.

Adobe PDF file (Please fill out info form)

Six Senses of Twilight / 11 minutes

This piece for organ and live electronics was commissioned by Carson Cooman for the 2007 We Are All Mozart project. AudioMulch is used for this piece; there is a structure and an AudioMulch patch image.

Adobe PDF file (Please fill out info form)

Sonatine / 7 minutes / juvenilia for your amusement

This Sonatine is the earliest and most embarrassing of my compositions that survives (barely). That's the only reason it's here ... play it and hold yer head!

Adobe PDF file (Please fill out info form)

Soundings / 5 minutes

An organ prelude on Justin Morgan's "Sounding Joy", commissioned by Carson Cooman for the 2007 We Are All Mozart project.

Adobe PDF file (Please fill out info form)

Starry Night / 8 minutes

Partially graphical impressionistic composition, commissioned by Patricia Goodson for the 2007 We Are All Mozart project. Joe Pepper plays here.

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

Strong to Save / 4 minutes

Based on the Sailor's Hymn, this was commissioned by Eleanor Fisher for the 2007 We Are All Mozart project. Eleanor, an old friend, died before the piece was finished.

Adobe PDF file (Please fill out info form)

Syrens of the Collective Unconscious / 10 minutes / one to three pianos/pianists

Word file Syrens is a wildly entertaining piece for up to three pianists, with crossing melodies and dancing swing rhythms. Imagine scratchboard art with the entire keyboard world under the black wax. So put your hands in the mix with this one! Available from Frog Peak Music

Adobe PDF file (Please fill out info form)

Tangents / 6 minutes

This was a wonderful challenge -- how to create a piece for two clavichords for public performance. It was commissioned by Eric Somers for the 2007 We Are All Mozart project.

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

Thirteen Triple X / 1 minute

Commissioned by Carson Cooman to be the most difficult 30 seconds or so of piano music that was still playable; commissioned for the 2007 We Are All Mozart project.

Adobe PDF file (Please fill out info form)

Tïrkíinistrá: 25 Landscape Preludes / 25 minutes

Word file This set of 25 one-minute preludes is based on photographic images of the land surrounding the composer's home in Vermont. Lovely but difficult to perform, Tïrkíinistrá includes miniatures of the original images as well as a set of dynamic maps to guide the performance. (The scores here are still waiting for the final edit -- the notes are correct, but the 8va markings need cleanup.) The files to the left: The top link containing all 25 preludes performed by Jesse Feinberg. There are two are performances of some of the preludes. Available from Frog Peak Music

Adobe PDF file (Please fill out info form)

Toccata: Delle Montagne Verdi / 3 minutes

A delicate exploration of a old-tinged contemporary toccata, commissioned for Marianna Rosett for the 2007 We Are All Mozart project.

Adobe PDF file (Please fill out info form)

Toccata: The Tides of Wales / 4 minutes

Based on the Welsh hymn "Ton-Y-Botel", this organ piece was commissioned to be Widor-like by Patricia Goodson for her brother, for the 2007 We Are All Mozart project.

Two Pieces After Stravinsky / easy / 2 minutes each

Adobe PDF file (Please fill out info form) Adobe PDF file (Please fill out info form) YouTube link No. 1 & No. 2 scores, plus both played
Enjoyable homages to the master, these two short pieces can be played by amateurs and have just enough showoffiness to them to reward the effort.

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

Unhigh Fives / 3 minutes

Notationally maddening three-minute rhythmic étude for five-key piano. The notes in the piece are all D ... with accidentals to raise of lower them across the five chromatic tones. Fun, but a very real study. Played here by Jesse Feinberg. Available from Frog Peak Music

Adobe PDF file (Please fill out info form)

Variations / 7 minutes

Word file If ever there was a misunderstood piece of mine, this is it. The original theme is enigmatic, making the form (and technique) tricky. (RealAudio version was created in Sonar.) Available from Frog Peak Music

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

Vexation Blues / 4 minutes

A reverse deconstruction of a piano blues and based on a generative algorithm, Vexation was commissioned by Dante Oei for the 2007 We Are All Mozart project. Jesse Feinberg plays here.

Wedding Music / 4 minutes / hand-inked

Four-hand piano piece for a wedding processional, to be played by bridge and groom as others process. Available from Frog Peak Music

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

Willey Hey Toccata & Fugue / organ / 7 minutes

Commissioned by Josh Perschbacher, whose Midi rendition of Icecut was the highlight of his previous CD, Willey Hey has a strong Disneyesque character, and was performed on the organ at the Disney Hall in California. This score can be played by a few people on lots of manuals, but is intended for Midi rendering on a pipe organ. Available from Frog Peak Music

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

Yer Attention, Please / organ / 9 minutes

Carson Cooman is one of the most dedicated contemporary organists and composers. He commissioned Yer Attention, Please, and got his hands (and feet) full. This is a powerful and virtuoso work that will shake the rafters. Available from Frog Peak Music


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

Home