Compositions
Purchase Music by William Anderson from Cygnus Press
Recent works:
This list was updated on July 29, 2011
Unexpected Reunion
I. Betrothal (2007)
II. Meanwhile (2007)
III. 2009 (just finished! August 25, 2011)
IV. Bride's Aria - a brief epilogue - should be finished soon
UR, almost finished, is based on the famous story by Johann Peter Hebel, a story that was of great interest to Richard Wagner, Wittgenstein, Kafka, Heidegger, Hesse, and Walter Benjamin, and others. Wagner made a libretto based on the story. My version is as short as Wagner's would have been long, yet my work is nevertheless a tribute to Wagner--- I am using [0167] in exactly the same way Wagner used the diminished 7 chord.
[0167] has been ignored in tonal music. In other words, it's been ignored as a mixed modal entity. Any of its 4 members can be treated as a bluesey move against the other 3. After working with this problem for a bit, I am beginning to see 0167 as the symmetry that tonal music missed. It's horribly crunchy, but wonderfully rich when explained contrapuntally as a mixed modal thing.
Folksongs 2011
dedicated to Jason Sagebiel and the NYCCGS Guitar Orchestra
guitar quartets
All written for Bodies Electric an electric guitar quartet featuring John Chang, Adam Negrin, Taro Morino, & Martin Morretto
Petit Quatuor
Vintage 2007 (d'apres Katy Perry)
Concertino (for theorbo and electric guitar quartet)
Pop Songs (for 4 electric guitars and voice)
My Morphine (d'apres Gillian Welch) for voice and electric guitar
Two Recent Songs:
My Morphine
(October, 2006, for mezzo soprano and two guitars)---covering the Gillian Welch song
--(!)the first popsong setting to employ a multiply partitioned array.
Here's a rough edit of a studio Furious Artisans recording session w/ Bill Oren & Haleh:
Quant L'Herba Fresq el Fuell Apar
(August, 2006, for mezzo and 2 guitars) ---From the Provencal of Bernart de Ventadorn, his tunes and words, trans. Pound, set by Wm. Anderson.
This is a sample from the set of Provencal settings for voice and 2 guitars and guitar/mandolin with additional texts by beat poet Paul Blackburn from his Proensa.
A first edit of the Furious Artisans Records recording session, w/ Bill, Oren & Haleh:
Various Roses
for violin and guitar, written for the Fulmer/Anderson duo.
The piece treats several tunes that refer to roses, Es Ist Ein Rose Entsprungen, Heidenroslein, and a Rolling Stones tune, creating a very bizarre Pre-Raphaelite statement. First Performances were at the Warebrook Festival in Vermont on July 8 and 9.
Here's a preliminary edit of the Furious Artisans Records recording session
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Grüne Heinrich
(2001) -2'- for guitar solo, composed September, 2001
First performance by the composer at the Sonic Boom Festival 10, Nov. 11, 2001 at the Knitting Factory; performed and recorded for broadcast throughout Spain on Nov. 22, 2001 at the Andres Segovia Festival in Lianres, Spain (2')
Of Course
for solo guitar, started in 1981, finished in 2003
The Death of Virgil
(unfinished)
A work based on the novel by Hermann Broch, for two mezzos, violin, mandolin, and piano. Performed on Dec. 22, 2005 at Weill Hall at Carnegie Hall. This work could go either way, destroyed or finished.
Scivias
(2002) for guitar solo Soon to be released on the next Oren Fader CD, entitled First Flight.
(two little pieces dedicated to Oren Fader)
Scherzo - (2001-2002) for fortepiano (2')
Scherzo - (2001-2002) for guitar solo
for David Starobin and his Stauffer
Bacchus
- (1997) for two gts, vln, fl, E.hn, vc and soprano 2'
First performance: Phyllis Bryn-Julson with Cygnus Ensemble, Merkin Hall, February 1998
Transcriptions
Astor Piazzolla's Grand Tango - arranged for 'cello and guitar (originally for 'cello and piano)
"like a duet between a pop singer and a classical one." - Anne Midgette, New York Times
Con Temor Bivo & Oya Tu Merced y Creo--two pieces from the time of Columbus, for guitar solo
Fantasie I--Anthony Holborne