Diehn Composers Room New Music Performance Collection

SOCIETY OF COMPOSERS, INC. (SCI)
COLLECTION

History
Collection Scope and Contents

Key to Finding Aids Terms / Scores: Alphabetical List / DCR Exhibit Materials /
Sound Recordings, Films and Videos / Introduction

HISTORY

The Society of Composers, Inc. (SCI) is an organization of approximately 900 professional composers and performers founded in 1966. Though the group was formerly named the American Society of University Composers it includes members from both the academic and non-academic worlds. The Society promotes composition, performance, and the recognition and dissemination of new and contemporary music. It also fosters an active interest in the relationship of electronics and computers to music and composition. Semiannually it publishes the Journal of Music Scores. The headquarters of the organization is in New York, and there are eight regional groups throughout the country. URL: http://www.societyofcomposers.org.

COLLECTION SCOPE AND CONTENTS

The core of the Society of Composers, Inc. (SCI) Collection consists of fourteen scores that were selected for performance at the Society's 2001 Region III Conference, held at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia. A total of one hundred and seven pieces by sixty composers were submitted for consideration, and twenty-eight were chosen for presentation: Charles Argersinger's "Between Scylla and Charybdis,"Jennifer Baker's "Blue Waters," Julian Bryson's, "Never Handle Firearms Carelessly," George B. Chave's "Minos Fragments," Christopher Coleman's "Dark Gardens," Ian Corbett's "Contraindications," Doug Davis's "The Skylark of Many Hearts," Frank Felice's "Letters to Derrick," J. Ryan Garber's "Woodwind Trio," Ann K. Gebuhr's "In Memoriam: Dietrich Bonhoeffer," Jeraldine Herbison's "Spring, the Sweet Spring," John Hilliard's "Kado Partita," Andrey Kasporov's "Michal," Jan Krzywicki's "Come to Me," Carleton Macy's "Artrazann Trio," Frances Thompson McKay's "Rites of Passage," Timothy Melbinger's "Sinfonietta," Brian Robinson's "Unending Search" from "Tertium Organum," Erich Stem's "Metropolis for Guitar" ("Bay Images" has been substituted), Frank Stemper's "So It Goes," Harvey Stokes's "Ethnic Impressions," Vernon Taranto's "Quartet . . . for a Time of Ends," Michael Sidney Timpson's "Lip Burner," Mary Jeanne van Appledorn's "Gestures,"Alicyn Warren's "Something Else Again," John White's "Suite for Harpsichord," John Winsor's "Sonata," and Byron K. Yasui's "Touch Dance 2." Of the above list Frances T. McKay's "Rites of Passage" and Mary Jeanne van Appledorn' s "Gestures" were not performed at the Regional Conference.

Only one half of the scores that were played at the concert were collected, so the SCI Collection is incomplete. Of course, it is hoped that entire collection of scores will eventually be together. There is a list of all composers and their submissions in Box 2001-1, folder 1 in the Special Collections area of the Diehn Composers Room.

The Diehn Composers Room solicited other pieces by some of the SCI composers to add to the New Music Performance (NMP) Collection. Some of the pieces resulting from that solicitation were presented in the first new music concert that was produced entirely from works in the NMP Collection. The concert, "A Representation of the New Music Performance Collection," was held on June 8, 2003 in Chandler Hall at Old Dominion University by members of CREO, the ODU's contemporary music ensemble, and members of the Virginia Symphony Orchestra and the Virginia Chorale. Andrey Kasparov, Professor of Music at Old Dominion University, served as Music Director. Featured works include Mike McFerron's "Stationary Fronts;" Timothy Melbinger's "Fleeting Visions;" Jan Krzywicki's "Snow Night;" Frances Thompson McKay's "Rites of Passage;" Alicyn Warren's "Molly;" Frank Felice's "Autumn Portraits," "What is Beauty But a Breath," and "Heiligenstadt;" and Brian Robison's "Charmonium."