Monday, July 11, 2016

Curtis Curtis Smith - Etude I Chords in Canon


C. Curtis Smith, piano

Curtis Curtis Smith was the composer to whom William Bolcom dedicated the second of the Dance Portraits posted here the other night.   I wasn't familiar with Curtis Smith's music until reading Bolcom's recommendation of it.  It is, indeed, very individual, very original, beautiful and with all of the attributes of greatness.  He was also a very fine pianists who wrote a number of really wonderful works for the instrument.   I'd put him on a list of most unjustifiably neglected composers, his music should be very widely known, it should have been more known during his lifetime.  

The recording of his Twelve Etudes on the Albany label also has his fantastic, original, audacious and outrageous Great American Symphony (GAS!).  You really have to hear it to believe how original it is.

I didn't realize that he died a year ago last October and that he'd been suffering from Parkinson's disease for some time.  Such a loss to  music.

Etude II Passacaglia


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