Philip Schuessler
Philip Schuessler recently completed his PhD. at the State University of New York at Stony Brook. He has also received degrees from Birmingham-Southern College where he studied music composition under Charles Mason and Dorothy Hindman and from the University of Miami while studying with Dennis Kam and Keith Kothman. He has had works performed by notable artists such as violinist Graeme Jennings, percussionist Daniel Kennedy, the New York-based Goliard Ensemble, New York-based TimeTable percussion trio, and cellist Craig Hultgren. He has had works performed at the June in Buffalo Festival, the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga New Music Symposium, Birmingham City Stages Festival, Festival Miami at Florida International University, the Czech-American Summer Music Workshop at Florida State University, Elliott Carter/Oliver Knussen Chamber Music Intensive Workshop at Carnegie Hall, CCMIX in Paris, MusicX in Cincinnati, the Ernst Bloch Festival in Oregon, the 2005, 2006, and 2007 SEAMUS National Conferences, Electronic Music Midwest, and Spark Festival in Minneapolis, MN. He has also been a participant in The School for Designing a Society in Urbana, IL and the 2007 Oregon Bach Festival where, as a performer, he shared the stage with pianist Lisa Moore. He currently resides in Champaign, IL. |
wheelitzo@yahoo.com and please visit www.philipschuessler.com RECENT COMPOSITIONS Towers, Clocks, and Glass (2008) for orchestra [PhD. Dissertation] UPCOMING/ONGOING COMPOSITIONS
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11/15/08 Interruptions II for piano - New Keys 2008, Lisser Hall, Mills College, Oakland, CA Paul Naughton, piano 11/15/08 Supercell for percussion and electronics - Electro-acoustic Juke Joint Festival, Delta State University, Cleveland, MS 10/11/08 Bicycle Etude No. 2 - stereo electronic playback - FrammentAzioni, Teatro San Giorgio - Udine, Italy 5/13/08 Five for five performers - American Society of Cybernetics Conference, Krannert Center for the Performing Arts, Urbana, IL 4/6/08 Hymn 320 for percussion duo and electronics - Tenri Cultural Institute, New York, NY 3/28/08 Micromovements:Book I for guitar - CMS Great Lakes SuperRegional Conference, Normal, IL (selected movements) 2/23/08 Trio for percussion trio - SCI National Conference, Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA 11/15/07 Trio for percussion trio - Festival and Conference of New Music, Queens College, Flushing, NY 11/5/07 Interruptions II for piano - Michael Ippolito Guest Performer Piano Recital - University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI 10/12/07 Supercell for percussion & electronics - Electronic Music Midwest, Kansas City, MO 8/18/07 Fairfax stereo electroacoustic digital audio - Futura Festival, Paris, France 8/16/07 Cloud of Unknowing for solo violin - New Music Forum concert, Trinity Chapel, San Francisco, CA 7/8/07 Five for five performers - Oregon Bach Festival Composers Symposium Wild Nights Cafe, Collier House, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR 7/7/07 Interruptions II - new work for solo piano - Oregon Bach Festival Composers Symposium, Beal Recital Hall, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR Philip Schuessler - piano 5/18/07 Two for two players - Artomatic, Arlington, VA performed by the Bay Players 4/27/07 Two for two players - Artomatic, Arlington, VA performed by the Bay Players 4/10/07 Theater Piece No. 2 for lecturer, performers and electronics - John Cage's "Musicircus" by ArtSounds, Kansas City Arts Institute, Kansas City, MO 3/8/07 Theater Piece No. 2 for lecturer, performers and electronics - SEAMUS National Conference, Iowa State University, Aames, IA 3/1/07 Supercell for percussion and electronics - Tarleton State Day of Percussion, Stephenville, TX 2/28/07 Supercell for percussion and electronics - Contemporary Percussion Concert, Texas Christian University, Fort Worth, TX 2/21/07 Supercell for percussion and electronics - Spark Festival, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN |
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Compositions | |||
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Fairfax for tape (2000) ca. 12 min. |
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| Fairfax for tape (2000) ca. 12 min..mp3 - excerpt | |||
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Fairfax is a collage piece that interweaves and layers a series of dramatic narratives. Approximately 85 –90 percent of the sounds were derived from raw or manipulated vocal sources. The work is a study in the relaying of a story and how the devices of dramatic storytelling can become a story in and of themselves. Furthermore, the work explores the inherent musical qualities implied in the inflected human voice. These are spliced excerpts from the 12 minute work. | |||
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One More Moment for piano trio (2000) ca. 7 min. |
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| One More Moment for piano trio (2000) ca. 7 min..mp3 - complete | |||
| One More Moment for piano trio (2000) ca. 7 min..pdf - complete | |||
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One More Moment was written as an implicit study in the potentialities of quiet music as an expressive medium for delicacy and urgency. The music exists as unassuming events – intuitively conceived and coexisting, equal in importance, neither driving towards nor fighting against the next event (although the piano does coerce a sort of dialogue with the strings by introducing certain interrupting, harmonic gestures). All devices of rhythm, timbre, and pitch are designed to convey an essentialness and simplicity of change. One More Moment was selected for performance at the 2001 June in Buffalo Festival in Buffalo, New York. | |||
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Wisdom and Surprise for contrabass and tape (2003) ca. 12 min. |
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| Wisdom and Surprise for contrabass and tape (2003) ca. 12 min..mp3 - complete | |||
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Wisdom and Surprise considers the ethereal qualities of the contrabass through the explorations of various timbral and frequential continua. The work is intuitively structured using rhythmic breath cycles in order to intone a certain inward meditative breadth of motion. Furthermore, certain spectral ideas, both harmonic and inharmonic, are hinted at in order to suspend the notion of internal contemplation. A general fluidity and intermingling of micro-intervals is perpetually established between the timbral and harmonic variances of the live bass and the processed sounds of the bass and the singing bowl on the tape. | |||
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Roadside Picnic for two pianos (2002) ca. 20 min. |
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| Roadside Picnic for two pianos (2002) ca. 20 min..mp3 - excerpt | |||
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Roadside Picnic is a work that evokes a sense of vacillation between an illusory stasis and a temporal nature of inevitable change. The piece does this by interweaving different cellular blocks with certain limiting features of dynamic, texture, tempo, and development. It embeds isolated “imaginary quotations” constructed of underdeveloped, stunted tonal structures within a more abstract, stark framework. The title of the work is in reference to a short story by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky upon which the film Stalker by Andrei Tarkovsky is based. Both the story and the film explore the uncertainties of the nature of found, alien artifacts and the dangers inherent in exploring the beautiful yet treacherous territories within which the artifacts may be found. Furthermore, these works investigate human interplay, history, and memory that taints the purity of natural dispositions due, in part, to the excess of goal-oriented agendas. An English translation from a portion of the Russian short story: A picnic. Picture a forest, a country road, a meadow. A car drives off the country road into the meadow, a group of young people get out of the car carrying bottles, baskets of food, transistor radios, and cameras. They light fires, pitch tents, turn on the music. In the morning they leave. The animals, birds, and insects that watched in horror through the long night creep out from their hiding places. And what do they see? Gas and oil spilled on the grass. Old spark plugs and old filters strewn around. Rags, burnt-out bulbs, and a monkey wrench left behind. Oil slicks on the pond. And of course, the usual mess - apple cores, candy wrappers, charred remains of the campfire, cans, bottles, somebody's handkerchief, somebody's penknife, torn newspapers, coins, faded bowers picked in another meadow. These are spliced excerpts from the 20 minute work. | |||
©2006 by Philip T. Schuessler
All Rights Reserved
Philip T. Schuessler is a member of Society of Composers, Inc. SCI is dedicated to the promotion of composition, performance, understanding and dissemination of new and contemporary music.