Elliott Schwartz, "Signals"

ELLIOTT SCHWARTZ
(geb. 1936)
Signals (1968) (9'38)
James Fulkerson, Posaune (Trombone)
Nicholas Molfese, Kontrabass (Dou b l a
bass. Contrebasse)
Elliott Schwartz, Musikalische Leitung
(Musical Supervision . Supervision
musicale)

Elliott Schwartz: Signals
"Signals", composed in 1968, attempts a fusion of musical sounds, percussive use of the instruments. and words spoken by the performers. The piece is focused about two extended passages calling for a high degree of performer choice. in which the players respond to "signals" from each other. Other areas of the work, more tightly controlled, often ask the two players to become "four" (pitches both sung and played), or, conversely, ask the two to become "one" (duets upon a single instrument, first the trombone and finally the double-bass).

Ellioft Schwarfz teaches at Bowdoin College in Maine, and has also held visiting lectureships at Trinity College of Music, London, and the University of California at Santa Barbara.

The Center of the Creative and Performing Arts in the State University of New York at Buffalo, directed by Lukas Foss and Lejaren Hiller, is widely recognized for its skillful performances of contemporary music. Over the past six years, more than 100 composers have received performances on the Center's "Evenings for New Music" presented in Buffalo, New York City and elsewhere in the United States and Canada. The young virtuosi who make up the group have come to Buffalo from all over the Americas as well as from both Western and Eastern Europe and Japan.