Stuart Saunders Smith is a notable and widely performed American composer, percussionist, and poet. He was born in Portland, Maine and grew up in Portland and central Maine, to a family that had originally come from central Maine.

He studied with Edward Diemente at the Hartt School of Music. In 1977, he received a DMA

Doctor of Musical Arts

The Doctor of Musical Arts degree is a doctoral academic degree in music. The D.M.A. combines advanced studies in an applied area of specialization with graduate-level academic study in subjects such as music history, music theory, or music pedagogy. The D.M.A...

 in composition from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

The University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign is a large public research-intensive university in the state of Illinois, United States. It is the flagship campus of the University of Illinois system...

, where his instructors included Edward Miller, Salvatore Martirano

Salvatore Martirano

Salvatore Giovanni Martirano was an American composer of contemporary classical music.Born in Yonkers, New York, he taught for many years at the University of Illinois...

, Herbert Brün

Herbert Brun

Herbert Brün was a composer and pioneer of electronic and computer music. Born in Berlin, Germany, he taught at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign from 1962 until he retired, several years before his death.-Career:...

, and Ben Johnston. He teaches at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County,http://www.umbc.edu/music/site/faculty/smith.html and has also taught at the Atlantic Center for the Arts

Atlantic Center for the Arts

Atlantic Center for the Arts is a nonprofit, interdisciplinary artists’ community and arts education facility dedicated to promoting artistic excellence by providing talented artists an opportunity to work and collaborate with some of the world’s most distinguished contemporary artists in the...

. He served as executive editor of the Percussive Arts Research Edition from 1982 to 1984.

His wife is the percussionist and music publisher Sylvia Smith, who has performed many of his works. They live together in Baltimore, Maryland. His works are published by Smith Publications.

Smith describes himself as "a confessional composer who focuses on revealing in his music the most personal aspects of his life, in the belief that the revelations of the particular speak to the universal." His music is usually chromatic, atonal, and rhythmically complex, with his pitch material selected in an intuitive manner rather than via the twelve-tone technique

Twelve-tone technique

Twelve-tone technique is a method of musical composition devised by Arnold Schoenberg...

. Many of his works are theatrical, asking the performers to speak, sing, act, and perform pantomime

Pantomime

Pantomime — not to be confused with a mime artist, a theatrical performer of mime—is a musical-comedy theatrical production traditionally found in the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Jamaica, South Africa, India, Ireland, Gibraltar and Malta, and is mostly performed during the...

 in addition to playing their instruments. His works often feature improvisation. Approximately half of his more than 130 works involve percussion, and his works are particularly popular among percussionists. He has a preference for found sounds, and often utilizes household objects (such as plates, bowls, and tin cans) and objects found in nature (such as dried leaves, logs, and pod rattles) as sound sources. Many of his works are inspired by the environment and history of Maine, including ...And Points North (1990), which is about the Passamaquoddy

Passamaquoddy

The Passamaquoddy are the First Nations people who live in northeastern North America, primarily in Maine and New Brunswick....

 nation of eastern Maine.

Recordings of Smith's music have been released on the 11 West, Capstone

Capstone Records

Capstone Records is an American classical music record label focusing particularly on contemporary classical music. It was established by Richard Brooks in 1986, and was based in Brooklyn, New York...

, Centaur, Opus One, O.O. Discs, Cadenza, BVHaast, and GAC Sweden labels. He has been awarded grants from the National Endowment for the Arts

National Endowment for the Arts

The National Endowment for the Arts is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created by an act of the U.S. Congress in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal government. Its current...

 and the Maryland State Arts Council.

His 60th birthday was celebrated with concerts on March 7 and September 22, 2008, at the University of Akron

University of Akron

The University of Akron is a coeducational public research university located in Akron, Ohio, United States. The university is part of the University System of Ohio. It was founded in 1870 as a small college affiliated with the Universalist Church. In 1913 ownership was transferred to the City of...

.

1970

• Poems I, II, II for five brake drums and narrator
• One for Syl for solo vibraphone

1971

• One for Two for alto saxophone and organ
• A Gift for Bessie for violin, piano, bassoon, and percussion

1972

• Here and There for shortwave radio, piano interior (percussion) and any melody instrument or voice
• Legacy Variations No. 1 for any three sustaining melody instruments
• Legacy Variations No. 99 for any three sustaining melody instruments
• Three for Two for violin and viola
• Two for Four for percussion quartet (orchestra bells, vibraphone, cymbal, large and medium gong, xylophone, marimba, timpani, temple blocks, and various small percussion instruments

1974

• Faces for oboe and clarinet
• Gifts for keyboard and any two melody instruments
• Links for solo vibraphone

1976

• Return and Recall / Initiatives and Reactions: Studies in the Concept of Group Composition performance systems for actors, dancers, musicians, mimes, etc.

1980

• Notebook for any instruments in any combination
• Notebook, Part II for one or two pianos (may be played with *Notebook)

1981

• Songs I-IX for percussionist-actor (small percussion instruments and various household items from kitchen)

1982

• Tunnels a solo music-text-theater composition for keyboard, string, or multiple percussion
• Links No. 4 (Monk) for solo vibraphone

1987

• Links No. 5 (Sitting on the Edge of Nothing) for solo vibraphone with offstage orchestra bells and chimes

1989

• Coming and Going for any three musicians performing shortwave radio and instruments
• Links No. 6 (Song Interiors) for vibraphone and piano
• Links No. 7 (New England Night Weave) for solo vibraphone

1990

• ...And Points North a music-theater work for solo percussionist/narrator (wood block, small Peking opera gong, Tibetan cymbal, glass wind chimes, owl hooter, hawk screamer, pod rattles, Audubon bird call, "found" instruments from the city and the woods)
• Transitions and Leaps for two or more performers performing any sounds/actions

1991

• "as if time would heal by its passing for solo marimba
• Family Portraits: Sylvia (wife) for solo piano
• Family Portraits: Ivy (grandmother) for solo piano
• Family Portraits: Earle (father) for solo piano
• Hawk for solo oboe
• In Common for flute and vibraphone
• Links No. 8 (Confessions-Witness to 48 Things) for vibraphone with flute
• Nightshade for violin or medium voice and two percussionists, each playing orchestra bells (glockenspiel), tam-tam or gong, two cymbals, two triangles

1992

• Good Night for solo marimba
• From one to another for amplified forest and musicians
• Links No. 9 (Mosque) for solo vibraphone
• Meetings for flute, vibraphone and piano

1993

• Each Moment and Ending for keyboard percussion quintet
• Part for flute, piano, and cello
• Thaw for solo orchestra bells (glockenspiel)
• Links No. 10 (Who Are We? Where Are We?) for solo vibraphone

1994

• Family Portraits: Brenda (first cousin) for solo piano
• Links No. 11 (Regions I-XXI) for three vibraphones
• WInd in the Channel for solo tenor recorder

1995

• Family Portraits: Delbert (great-grandfather) for percussionist/narrator (playing woodblock, logs, and newspaper)
• Strays for xylophone and tenor recorder or flute

1996

• Family Portraits: Cubba (grandfather) for trumpet, flute, and five percussion (tom-toms and triangles)
• Family Portraits: Mom and Dad Together for solo double bass
• Polka in Treblinka for percussion trio (bass drum, xylophone, snare drum and high hat)
• Said, Nearly for solo cello

1997

• Family Portrait: Self (in 14 stations) for solo piano
• The Night is Never Long for piccolo and xylophone

1998

• Closing for solo guitar
• Fences in Three Tragedies for solo piano
• When Music is Missing, Music Sings for two percussionists playing five "found" instruments each

1999

• All That is Left orchestra bell (glockenspiel) duet
• And Sometimes the Ears for solo tenor steel drum
• Even Song for solo orchestra bells (glockenspiel)
• Leaving for solo marimba
• Many Women for xylophone/narrator
• Went Forth for xylophone/narrator

2000

• Books of Flutes for solo flute
• Bones for percussion, piano, and 3 or 4 melody instruments
• Endless for two flutes and two vibraphones
• Sitting in the Crowd for xylophone/narrator
• The Geography of Streams for percussion trio (xylophone solo with two sets of orchestra bells, two bass drums, claves, and woodblocks)
• Thinking About Anne Sexton duo for vibraphone and speaking voice

2001

• And Cold for xylophone/narrator
• Breath for mezzo-soprano and orchestra bells (glockenspiel)
• Family Portraits: Ligeia (daughter) for soprano voice and piano
• Light Dew for solo double bass
• Madness for xylophone/narrator
• Minor for solo violin
• Pond for xylophone/narrator
• Sometime Then for xylophone/narrator

2002

• Asleep in Thorns for guitar and flute
• Brush for solo drum set
• Dad's Time Had Come for solo xylophone
• Dead Reckoning for tenor recorder trio
• Further Than Now for clarinet and piano
• Mingus for xylophone/narrator
• Things That Grow Smaller for flute, clarinet, bassoon, piano, and percussion
• Two Lights for solo drum set

2003

• Family Portraits: Embden Pond for solo alto flute with two vibraphones
• Still Slowly for xylophone and piano
• Willow for solo cello
• Wounded an antiphonal composition for 3 or 4 xylophones

2004

• Hearts for solo violin
• Ground for solo orchestra bells (glockenspiel)
• Plenty thirty-four movements for solo vibraphone

2005

• Clay Singing for solo percussion with spoken text
• Family Portraits: Erika (daughter) for vibraphone and violin
• In Hours Like These for soprano voice and orchestra bells (glockenspiel)
• A River, Rose for violin and vibraphone
• When The Body Betrays for tenor voice and double seconds steel drums
• Winter Taps vibraphone duet with spoken text
• Women in Meeting flute duet

2006

• The Authors for solo marimba with spoken text
• Bethany for low voice and piano
• Big Falls, Little Falls for percussion quartet
• Castine for marimba with offstage voice
• Lace orchestra bell (glockenspiel) duet with voice
• Magdalene for soprano saxophone and two percussion
• Over for solo orchestra bells (glockenspiel)
• Rose for flute with spoken text and movement
• Still...Alive for voice and guitar
• A Vietnam Memorial opera for speaking voice and vibraphone

2007

• Among Us for solo piano
• Beats for baritone voice and piano
• Light for two voices
• Light in Each One for solo alto flute
• The Lines of Ageing for solo vibraphone
• The Narrow Path trio for two vibraphones and orchestra bells (glockenspiel)
• Past for solo tenor voice
• Quilt for vibraphone and marimba
• Seven Seasons for contralto voice and vibraphone
• Angels for percussion trio, three triangles each
• (as the days get shorter) for solo bass clarinet

Books

• Smith, Stuart Saunders. Twentieth Century Scores. Prentice-Hall.
• Smith, Stuart Saunders, and Thomas DeLio
  Thomas DeLio
  Thomas DeLio is an American experimental music composer, music theorist and author. He is currently Professor of Music in theory and composition at the University of Maryland in College Park.-Biography:...
  
  (1989). Words and Spaces: An Anthology of Twentieth Century Musical Experiments in Language and Sonic Environments. University Press of America. ISBN 0819174254. ISBN 9780819174253.

External links

• Stuart Saunders Smith page
• Stuart Saunders Smith page
• Faculty page from UMBC site
• List of works from Smith Publications site

Listening

• Breath (2001)