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


The Big List has the Latest Scores and Downloads



Vocal 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


Voice and Chorus

(see also Electroacoustic and Performance catalog)

Solo voice

Extended Voice

Chorus or Multiple Voices

Show, Mass, Operas

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.

Adobe PDF file (Please fill out info form)

Aisle Five / rapper and found percussion / 7 minutes

Aisle Five is a pseudo-rap for found percussion (cans, bottles, jars, plastic jugs, juice cartons, yogurt containers, wax paper, etc.), optional background singers, and faux rapper. Commissioned by Bill Sallak for the 2007 We Are All Mozart project.

Adobe PDF file (Please fill out info form)

The Anvil of Clytemnestra / voice, piano, anvil / 6 minutes

This is a relentless setting of the Clytemnestra text ("Nay, peace, O best beloved..."), commissioned by Barbara Touburg for the 2007 We Are All Mozart project. Available from Frog Peak Music


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

Ave Verum Corpus / SATB / 11 minutes

Reacting to the death of John Tavener, I wrote this composition in two days. There is a longer story which is available in program notes. Available from Frog Peak Music


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

Bang the Rocks Together / voices, violin, rocks, drums, & bass / 5 minutes

Long, long ago, folks actually gave concerts that celebrated the environment. I wasn't one of them. This piece was written for the University of Vermont's first (and last) environmental awareness concert, where it was taken off the program. Available from Frog Peak Music

Beepers / a cabaret for voices and piano / 30 minutes / hand-inked [OK for broadcast]

MP3 file Overture
MP3 file Color VDT Blues
MP3 file Techie Roulette
MP3 file Nerds
MP3 file (It's Just My) Biodegradable Interface
MP3 file (I've Got a) Software Surprise
MP3 file Edible Bytes
MP3 file Scene Change 1
MP3 file I Wasn't Born a Beeper
MP3 file Silicon Death Later cabaret performance
MP3 file Scene Change 2 and (She's an) Infomaniac
MP3 file (I'm a) High-Tech Wreck
MP3 file (There's a) Power Failure in My Heart Later cabaret performance
Adobe PDF file (Please fill out info form) MP3 file Finale
Still not dated, this love-triangle plot takes place in a computer emporium of disaffected workers. With 15 genuinely singable songs, Beepers was first produced to full houses at The Garage in Montpelier by Il Gruppo Nuke Jitters.
Finale of BeepersI
In this vidcap, Il Gruppo Nuke Jitters performs "Beepers" in the mid-1980s at The Garage in Montpelier, Vermont; the composer joins in the Finale

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

By Still Waters / voice & drone / 10 minutes

By Still Waters was composed for Beth Griffith for presentation at the Vox Novus composer portraits series. This lullaby, plea and lament was written in reflection of the massacre of children in Beslan, Russia, in the fall of 2004. The syllables in the vocalise are drawn from the 23rd Psalm in Russian, the microtones are in the shape of medieval fictus, and the drone is on D to be played by cello, gamba, organ, theremin, or electronic means. Available from Frog Peak Music

Adobe PDF file (Please fill out info form)

Candied Sweet Potatoes / 3 voices / 3 minutes

Long ago there was a Coney Island restaurant called Childs. David Mahler and the composer shared a love of food and funny, so the text from the Childs cookbook for candied sweet potatoes was used, and the music was commissioned by David Mahler for the 2007 We Are All Mozart project.

Adobe PDF file (Please fill out info form)

Cat Down! / round for 4 voices / 2 minutes

A simple little round -- simple in idea, but a little tricky in execution -- for four voices based on, you guess it, the behavior of the composer's cat.

Adobe PDF file (Please fill out info form)

Centering / chorus SATB / 11 minutes

The text to this piece is the Sanskrit mantra, "om ma ni pe me hun", and is long and mysterious. Centering was commissioned by Lisa Jablow for Johnson State College Choir for the 2007 We Are All Mozart project.

MP3 file

Choral Metamorphosis on Effervescence / chorus SSA / 6 minutes

A little absurdity based on a Girl Scout campfire song, this three-movement work has no redeeming value, but nevertheless was premiered by the Trenton State College Singers in Roumania. Go figure. Score in preparation, if anybody cares.

Adobe PDF file (Please fill out info form)

Come, Come! / SATB chorus / 4 minutes

A text by Henry Vaughan, selected by Matthew Guerrieri, who commissioned Come, Come! for the Presbyterian Church Choir of Sudbury, Massachusetts, for the 2007 We Are All Mozart project.

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

...daar zaten wij... / extended voice / 1 minute

A dramatic single minute of vocal expression from Psalm 137 (in Dutch), written for Beth Griffith and the 15MoF project.

Adobe PDF file (Please fill out info form)

Diese Welt ist so Schön / voice, clarinet, vibes / 4 minutes

For soprano, clarinet and vibraphone, Diese Welt is based on a Frie(n)drich Schiller text re-assembled (andrébretonized) by David Gunn. Commissioned by Dov Schiller 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 harmonci 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)

An Fold-In Round / 14 voices / 2-40 minutes

This one takes some explaining. Back in the day, Mad magazine had fold-ins: images that made sense when spread out, but which took on a different meaning when folded in on themselves. An Fold-In Round works the same way. The full round (in 14 parts) can be sung; it is a crab round, meaning seven parts move front-to-back and seven back-to-front. It can then be folded down several times until it's just a minute long. It was commissioned by Larry Polansky for the 2007 We Are All Mozart project. To the left are five renderings of the fold-ins, including the full 40-minute one at the top.

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

A Fragment / chorus SATB / 4 minutes

Written on the text of high school student Patrician Guerieri, A Fragment used the twelve-tone system to create rather than lose tonality. The piece was first sung a cappela by the Ewing (New Jersey) High School Chorus. Synth demo version in link to the left. Available from Frog Peak Music

Adobe PDF file (Please fill out info form)

A Glass Clown / 5 songs for voice & piano / 10 minutes

Using text generated from algorithms I created to imitate my own poetic style, Clown was written for mezzo-soprano Sydney Allrud, but left unpremiered after she a-headed West to Waco. Short and spiky, the Clown songs are fun and elusive as well. Available from Frog Peak Music

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

How Can I Keep From Singing? / chorus SACt / 2 minutes [OK for broadcast]

Arranged for the Roxbury (Vermont) Union Congregational Church Choir. The melody is in the middle line. Each verse is sung with that successive voices louder. The first verse is repeated with all voices equal in volume. Three male voices may sing this an octave lower. The counter-tenor part can be sung by a ringing alto. This is sung without vibrato, and perfect (not tempered) intonation is needed in open fifths and major chords. 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

Adobe PDF file (Please fill out info form)

i cried in the sun aïda / 4 voices & effects / 7 minutes [OK for broadcast]

MP3 file First Performance Version
MP3 file 2006 Performance Version
Word file aïda was a dream piece -- truly. I heard it in my sleep, and awakened enough to write it down and find it complete the next morning. Dark and mistrustful and brooding, this music is rewarding and exhausting for amateurs and students to sing, and was premiered by Il Gruppo Nuke Jitters and since performed several times. Two versions at left are live performance and 1974 studio recording. Available from Frog Peak Music

Adobe PDF file (Please fill out info form)

I lift my heavy heart / soprano / 16 minutes

This is a setting of one of the "Sonnets from the Portuguese" by Elizabeth Barrett Browning ("I lift my heavy heart up solemnly"), the original was commissioned by Beth Griffith for the 2007 We Are All Mozart project. Beth requested a solo voice version the next year.

Adobe PDF file (Please fill out info form)

I lift my heavy heart / soprano, flute, guitar / 14 minutes

This is a setting of one of the "Sonnets from the Portuguese" by Elizabeth Barrett Browning ("I lift my heavy heart up solemnly"), it was commissioned by Beth Griffith for the 2007 We Are All Mozart project. Note that the flute should have a B-flat foot, or a rolled card inserted. Optionally, an alto flute may be used.

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

I think of thee! / soprano, bass flute, guitar / 8 minutes

Adobe PDF file (Please fill out info form) Bass Flute
Adobe PDF file (Please fill out info form) Guitar
Adobe PDF file (Please fill out info form) Soprano
This is a setting of another of the "Sonnets from the Portuguese" by Elizabeth Barrett Browning. It was commissioned by Laurel Maurer and the Vermont Virtuosi. It is a companion piece to the "I lift my heavy heart", and is the second of an ongoing series.

Adobe PDF file (Please fill out info form)

The Ideal / voice and piano / 4 minutes

Highly expressive song on a text by Zabel Khanjian Assatour ("It is the moonlight, clear and soft..."), commissioned by Nora Tombalakian for the 2007 We Are All Mozart project.

MP3 file

Le Jardin / voice and piano / 5 minutes [OK for broadcast]

Written for Linda Kay on a text by Jacques Prévert, and sung in the performance linked at the left at its premiere in 1972. Score in preparation.

MP3 file

Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence / voice and organ / 5 minutes

Arranged for my own voice, and typically sung badly in the performance linked at the left. Score in preparation.

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

Loyalcat Motet / flute, oboe, horn, 2 voices / 3 minutes

Adobe PDF file (Please fill out info form) Alto Flute in G
Adobe PDF file (Please fill out info form) Oboe
Adobe PDF file (Please fill out info form) Horn in F
Composed for the Kalvos & Damian Komposer Kombat, Loyalcat Motet is a vocalise for two voices and winds. Note: This mp3 is a rehearsal reading at the Kombat. Available from Frog Peak Music
Loyalcat Motet
Preparing "Loyalcat Motet" for performance during Komposer Kombat on WGDR-FM, 2005.

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

Melisma / voice or English Horn & small ensemble / 5 minutes

It was the birthday of Sandy Mond's daughter, and Sandy wanted a song for her. This was the result, a sweet little piece written on her husband's poetry. Available from Frog Peak Music

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
Memento Mori in Cologne
The composers performs "Memento Mori" at Feedback Studios in Cologne, 2005.

Missa da Camera / vocal ensemble with small instruments, in 5 sections / 25 minutes / hand-inked [OK for broadcast]

MP3 file Kyrie
MP3 file Gloria
MP3 file Credo
MP3 file Sanctus & Benedictus
MP3 file Agnus Dei
Word file First heard in a New Jersey parking garage, Missa da Camera is one of the highlights of the early post-fluxus/ritual era, with lines sounding like the Renaissance amidst a whirl of small, personal instruments. Pencil score, now in preparation.
Missa da Camera at DVFAG78
Premiere of "Missa da Camera" at Delaware Valley Festival of the Avant-Garde, 1978.

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

The Moon / male or female vocal solo / 5 minutes [OK for broadcast]

Another student workshop piece, this one on a text by Geof Hewitt, The Moon was first heard in my own performance, nestled among folk music and soft rock. A work for virtuoso singer, The Moon rivets the audience. Available from Frog Peak Music

Adobe PDF file (Please fill out info form)

Mountains of Spices / soprano, violin, viola and piano / 8 minutes

The Song of Solomon has come recently back into fashion as a text, but in the 1960s the composer first heard a setting by early American William Billings. This time the Hebrew text (with optional English) is used. Mountains of Spices was commissioned by Willie Docto in memory of his father for the 2007 We Are All Mozart project. See the 4-part chamber catalog for instrumental parts.

Adobe PDF file (Please fill out info form)

Mouth Piece (Peace) / tantric voices, tuba, 2 trombones / 30 minutes / hand-inked

Using texts by Allen Ginsburg, this extended chantlike mantra has no antecedents in my work. The tantric voices require very talented singers, and the trombones are played with reed mouthpieces.

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

Nine Lessons from "Flatland" / 3 and 4 voices / 12 minutes

How could Edwin Abbott have known the influence of his little book on geometry called Flatland? It has entered the culture. Here are nine texts from the book set up as 'lessons', each a round. Round six is a bit stolen, and round nine is maddening. Commissioned by Larry Polansky for the 2007 We Are All Mozart project. To the left are two PDFs, one for letter size and one for half-letter with just the melodies and entrance points. And watch it! Some are irregular entrance points.

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

O: Eleven Songs for Chorus / chorus SATB / 30 minutes

MP3 file MP3 file MP3 file Eleven beautiful songs with text by Gary Barwin, suitable for good amateur choruses. Demo version is above. Links to the left are workshop performances of songs 2, 3 4 and 7; "Small Apes and White Feet" and "Sparrows:" respectively. Video link is also songs 2, 3, 4 and 7.Available on Lulu.com

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

O Crewell Fortune / chorus SATB / 5 minutes [OK for broadcast]

A takeoff on the long-lined Renaissance madrigals, this music was extracted from the second movement of my Triple String Quartet, where the third quartet plays in an quasi-Elizabethan style. The music's text implies that the singers can't ever breathe ... which is true. Fun, for good madrigalists. Available from Frog Peak Music

MP3 file

Orange, orange / voice and piano / 3 minutes [OK for broadcast]

A short, amusing song about a real orange that had petrified. Text by L. Kay.

MP3 file

Permutrance VII / extended voice / 4 minutes [OK for broadcast]

Originating as a vocal improvisation, Permutrance VII is part of a series composed for opportune locations. It was premiered by the composer at Zaal 100 in Amsterdam.

Plasm over ocean / a chamber opera / 30 minutes / hand-inked [OK for broadcast]

MP3 file Scene 1
MP3 file Scene 2
MP3 file Scene 3
Word file The character Maximus is followed in various incarnations as he moves through this existential opera with text by David Gunn. First produced at the New Jersey State Museum, Plasm calls for several unique, hand-built instruments, costumes, and multiple roles for the singer/instrumentalists during the three scenes. Contact the composer for performance options. In three scenes.
Plasm at World Trade Center
"Plasm over ocean" at the World Trade Center, New York Avant-Garde Festival, 1977.

Adobe PDF file (Please fill out info form)

The Pretty Songs / voice and alto saxophone / 15 minutes

This set of songs is without words, and captures the clangorous beauty of English bell peals. The voice uses strong harmonic singing, and the sax part works in quarter-tones. Tricky and beautiful, it was written for Claudia Friedlander and Steven Stusek.

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

Psalm 84 (How Lovely is Thy Dwelling Place) / chorus SATB / 3 minutes [OK for broadcast]

This Psalm is one of a long series of compositions created for the Roxbury Union Congregational Church Choir when I was its director. How Lovely celebrated the installation of Ed Fisher as minister in East Randolph, Vermont. Singable for all choirs. Available from Frog Peak Music

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

Psalm 100 (Jubilate Deo) / chorus SATB / 4 minutes

Also written for the Roxbury choir, Psalm 100 is a kind of quodlibet of styles from baroque and classical eras -- but a serious piece nonetheless, so much so that it's been heard many times, including in Vienna ... but never got a good recording, so synth demo version only in link to the left. Available from Frog Peak Music

MP3 file

Psalm 137 (We Hanged Our Harps on Willows) / voice and piano, #1 / 5 minutes / hand-inked [OK for broadcast]

Psalm 137 (We Hanged Our Harps on Willows) / voice and piano, #2 / 5 minutes / hand-inked

Two short settings of this powerful Psalm, the first in a strict serial style, requiring an extended vocal range, and the second for lower voice in free tonality.

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

Puer Natus in Bethlehem / chorus SATB / 6 minutes

Reaching back to a piece 20 years earlier, I composed Puer Natus when I was quite sick, in an early Renaissance style. It was also written for and sung by the Roxbury choir, but asks more than the average anthem does. A demo version is on the link to the left. Available from Frog Peak Music

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."

Rock of Ages / chorus TTBB / 4 minutes [OK for broadcast]

MP3 file During Service
MP3 file In Studio
Arranged for the Grace Baptist (Trenton) Church. The melody is in the tenor. Simplistic 19th century/barbershop harmonies, but very effective when taken seriously. Original group and 15 years later.

Adobe PDF file (Please fill out info form)

She Who Saves / soprano and two natural horns / 7 minutes [OK for broadcast]

For two natural horns -- a new request for the composer -- "She Who Saves" was commissioned on the text "om tare tuttare ture svaha" by Michael H. Dixon for the 2007 We Are All Mozart project.

MP3 file

Sinnerman / chorus SATB / 5 minutes [OK for broadcast]

Arranged for the Roxbury (Vermont) Union Congregational Church Choir. This is based on the standard spiritual style of the early 20th century.

Song from Isaiah / voice and playback / 4 minutes / hand-inked

MP3 file Performance Version
MP3 file Playback Part Only
Isaiah 5:18-24 in a powerful and raw setting for solo voice and electronic playback.

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

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

Specimen / 6 performers / 6 minutes [OK for broadcast]

Word file The most-played performance piece in the composer's opus, Specimen has been performed seriously and laughingly by groups of all ages and in many locales -- once in hazmat suits. Do it! Here is an excellent different performance.

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

A Spiky Lullaby / vocalise, flute, cello, piano / 5 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) Score as Two Lullabies, flute part, cello part respectively
First of two lullabies commissioned by Janet Brand for the birth of a neighbor child.Available from Frog Peak Music

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

A Spiral Lullaby / vocalise, flute, cello, piano / 5 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) Score as Two Lullabies, flute part, cello part respectively
Second of two lullabies commissioned by Janet Brand for the birth of a neighbor child.Available from Frog Peak Music

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

Super Flumina Babylonis / 12-part chorus SATB / 7 minutes / hand-inked [OK for broadcast]

"By the waters of Babylon" is a frequently set text, with this version cascading quasi-aleatorically through the words. Not difficult, but exquisitely evocative. Available from Frog Peak Music

MP3 file

Twelve Songs / voice and regal or piano / 15 minutes

Short settings of twelve poems by E. E. Cummings. Can be done with chromatic regal or piano. Four songs are heard in this premiere performance by L. Kay from 1976.

Adobe PDF file (Please fill out info form)

Vermont Chess Camp! / 5 voices / 2 minutes

Not much to this really -- just a little fun for kids at the annual Vermont Chess Camp. Commissioned by the camp for the 2007 We Are All Mozart project. Pardon the singing. It's a demo for the kids to learn, and will be replaced if we ever get them to do it without falling into laughter.

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

Warebrook / sacred harp chorus SATB / 9 minutes

Written on verses from Nahum (3:1-5,7,11,15,18,19), one of the bizarrest and bloodiest of the Old Testament minor prophets. Wild and quartal and tonal, with dark and disturbing words. Scary if you keep a straight face! Available from Frog Peak Music

Adobe PDF file (Please fill out info form)

when Something has changed / quarter-tone chorus SATB / 4 minutes

Written on a 'found text', when something has changed uses a simple harmonic system inspired by the Ives quarter-tone piano pieces. Note: If you download this piece before February 12, 2000, please take the corrected version. The PostScript conversion was incorrect. Thanks! Available from Frog Peak Music

Winter Rain / SATB (also version with solo violin) / 4 minutes

This solstice carol brings a freshness with crossing voices and tricky sounds, on the text by Christina Rossetti. Available from Frog Peak Music

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

Withered / solo voice & percussion / 10 minutes [OK for broadcast]

Powerful and distressing, Withered, on a text by Maureen E. Gibbons, sighs mournfully over the death of a parent and the pain of continued existence. Set for unusual percussion, including juice cans and lentils. Virtuoso for voice. Available from Frog Peak Music

Adobe PDF file (Please fill out info form)

XLII: Adeste Hendecasyllabi / soprano and piano / 7 minutes [OK for broadcast]

A rough-and-tumble text by Catullus that argues with syllables and calls words whores. Commissioned by David Bremner for Elizabeth Hilliard on Christmas for the 2007 We Are All Mozart project.

Adobe PDF file (Please fill out info form)

You Spotted Snakes / three voices and strings / 4 minutes

Written for the Johnson State College theatre department as part of a production of Midsummer Night's Dream.


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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