Purchase Music by William Anderson from

Cygnus Press

Recent works:

Unexpected Reunion
based on the famous story by Johann Peter Hebel,
a story that was of great interest to Wittgenstein, Kafka, Heidegger, Hesse, and Walter Benjamin

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:

Morphine.mp3

-----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:

Provencal.mp3

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

Roses.mp3

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')

Grüne Heinrich.mp3

The Death of Virgil--a 7' 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. See Schedule for details.

Amerarcana, Book II--(2003) - 7.5'--folksong settings for guitar duo.

So Far Away -(2003) -7'- First performance: October 25, 2003 in Miyonichikan, Tokyo. A treatment of the Carol King song for cl, vln, pno. Composed for Trio Spark (This work is temporarily withdrawn for revisions)

Eine Gezupfteweltanshauung - (2000-2001) for mandolin and piano or mandolin and electronic plucked sounds. For pianist Joan Forsyth and the Theater Chamber Players.

First Performance: March 10, 2001, Terrace Theater, Kennedy Center (9') Performed at the May, 2002 and May 2003 Brandeis Electro-Acoustic Festival

sometimes - (1998) for percussionist Peter Jervis - vibraphone solo. (7')

Commissioned by the Composers Guild of New Jersey

Variations - (1992) for fl, vln, vc, mand, gt, pno, perc 8'

First performance: Feb., 1999, Merkin Hall, NYC, with Cygnus Ensemble with Mark Shapiro, conductor, Margaret Kampmeier, piano

Variations - (1993) for gt solo 8'

First perfomance: 1994, DeKikker, Utrecht, Netherelands, also heard at the Festival of Guitar Hispanoamericano, Tijuana, Mexico; throughout Michoacan, Mexico for the Morelia International Festival of Guitar; and the Rotenburg Festival in Germany which was broadcast on Radio Bremen.

Hear this piece on Furious Artisans Disc FACD6802 - William Anderson, Hausmusik

"William Anderson’s own Variations is idiomatic, though, as one would expect. There are four variations of diverse character, from lyric and soulful to pointillistic, with the fourth containing the theme itself, Jerome Kern’s Long Ago and Far Away." - Nov/Dec 2000 Fanfare

Amerarcana, Book I (settings of four popular American songs) - (1997) for 2 gts, fl, ob, vln, vc 8'

First performance: vocal version with Phyllis Bryn-Julson, Merkin Hall, February 1998; instrumental sextet first performed at the Moscow Union of Composers, March 1998, also performed at the Europe/Asia Festival in Kazan, March 1998

“The mindful voice of Ives, of Stravinsky and of Mr. Wuorinen’s music would not seem to be implied much by such a song as “Night and Day,” but Mr. Anderson’s extraordinary arrangements of this and other numbers by Jerome Kern and Richard Rogers set them squarely and astonishingly in the same tradition...” - Paul Griffiths, New York Times

Amerarcana, Book 3 (folksong settings) - (1994-1997) for voice, gt doubling mand, fl doubling alto fl and picc

Performed numerous times in the Catskills, excerpts broadcast on Public Radio in the Catskills

Commissioned by the Weekend of Chamber Music for Judith Pearce & Annie Hat

Ear Conception - (1995) for 2 gts (mand), vln, fl, E.horn, vc, glass harmonica 10'

First performance: Merkin Hall, April 1996 with Joan Forsyth, glass harmonica, Michael DeCola, conductor. Other performances in Amsterdam, Groningen, and Danish National Radio.

Hear this on CRi disc 834 - Cygnus Ensemble Broken Consort

“William Anderson, one of Cygnus’s two guitarists, wrote Ear Conception in 1994-95. The relatively static first section (the notes describe it as an “oscillating stillnesss”) is succeeded by a tenderly flowing second section, with a noticeable increase in the emotional temperature.” - Raymond Tuttle, Fanfare Nov/Dec 2000

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

"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