Review by www.percussionmusiconline.com

Blue Too is a Solo for Drum Set written by composer Stuart Saunders Smith.

Stuart Saunders Smith (b.1948) is an American composer, editor, and poet. Earning a DMA in composition at the University of Illinois, he studied with Edward Miller, Edward Diemente, Slavatore Martirano, Herbert Brün and Benjamin Johnston.

Smith has come to create a diverse and unusual body of musical and literary compositions. His music is impressive in both the breadth of its scope and the richness of its diversification. As a reflection of the multiplicity, his scores themselves stand out as exciting and original examples of the variety of contemporary developments in musical notation.

Stuart Saunders Smith is not an eclectic, but his style is unpredictable from piece to piece. He is, rather, in the forefront of a trend to encompass in one output the diversity of the contemporary music world. His interest in notation and in indeterminate composition has developed into pieces, which will work for any performer, even an actor or a dancer. This has led him into a kind of theater, which reintegrated the arts at their compositional roots. The unifying thread in all of his works is a primary interest in the psychology of performance.

Blue Too is published by Smith Publications:

Smith Publications has been publishing scores and recordings of serious, progressive American Music since 1974. Defining and describing such music is a challenge: terms like  Avante Garde, Experimental, Deterministic, New Music, etc, have all been used -and sometimes correctly. However, a single catchall description cannot fit the music composed by Milton Babbit, Ben Johnston, Stuart Saunders Smith, John Cage, Pauline Oliveros and so many others. These groundbreaking composers not only have invented new music, but also have created new instruments, new techniques for playing, and unique notation for performers. It is our challenge - and our deeply rewarding mission - to make this music available in printed and recorded form for performers and listeners.

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