Update 8 February 2026

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MUSIC FOR THEATER

Eclipse [Voicespace III] MULTIMEDIA (VIDEO) VERSION (1979) 17', cf. SERIES OF WORKS and MULTIMEDIA as well as MUSIC FOR THEATER
Electroacoustic vocal work with video and slides
Quadraphonic computer generated and processed sound with video and slides
Electroacoustically processed voices,
Video and Images by Ed Emshwiller
Text fragments by Issa, Melville, Stevens, Borges, Joyce, García Márquez
Recorded Voices: Carol Plantamura, Philip Larson
Recordings: Roger Reynolds
Technical assistance: Loren Rush
First performance with multiple performers, video, slides, film: 31 January 1980 25'
First Intermedia Art Festival, Guggenheim Museum, New York City
The VERSION with VIDEO was commissioned by The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum

Wise Music Classical Hire [video, sound files, projections; this work has no score]
[The video version and electroacoustic version share the same sound files.]


The Emperor of Ice Cream [rev. 1974] (1961-62) 15.5'
(Staged) 8 Voices, Perc, Pf, Db
Text: poem The Emperor of Ice-Cream by Wallace Stevens
First performance staged [premiere]: 27 April 1965
Nuova Consonanza Festival, Rome, Daniele Paris, Conductor
First performance without staging: 19 March 1965
20th Century Innovations, New York City, Gunther Schuller, conductor

Wise Music Classical Purchase [score] and Hire [3 11x17 scores are needed for instrumentalists, 8 printed scores for singers]


ILLUSION, cf. SERIES OF WORKS
2 Actors, Baritone, High Soprano
Solo Picc, Solo Cl, Solo Vc, Chamber Ensemble,
8-channel computer processed sound, Staging


I/O: A Ritual for 23 Performers, cf. MULTIMEDIA
(Staged) 9 Female Voices, 9 Male Mimes, 2 Fl, Cl,
2 Technician/Performers, live electronic processing, projections


Music for Chekhov's Ivanov (1991) 50'
8-channel computer processed sound
First performance: 3 January 1992
Art Tower Mito, Mito, Japan
Tadashi Suzuki Theatre Company
Commissioned by the Rockefeller Foundation MAP Fund and Art Tower Mito

Wise Music Classical Hire [sound files; there is no score]
Wise new entry


JUSTICE (1999-2001) 49'25", cf. SERIES OF WORKS as well as MUSIC FOR THEATER
Actress, Soprano, Percussion, Multichannel computer sound, Staging
Text: assembled by the composer from Aeschylus and Euripides
First performance (revised version) [première]: 30 November 2001
Donnah Welby, Actress, Carmen Pelton, Soprano,
Steven Schick, Percussion, Josef Kucera, Robert Pitt, Peter Otto, Spatialization and dissemination,
Henry Fonte, Director, Martha Mountain, Lighting, K Williams, Manager,
Harvey Sollberger, Musical Advisor
The Great Hall of the Library of Congress in the Thomas Jefferson Building, Washington, DC
Commissioned by the Julian E. Berla and Freda Hauptman Berla Fund in the Library of Congress for the celebration of the LOC's Bicentennial in 2000

First performances (first version): 21, 22 May 1999
Lauren Flanagan, Soprano; Ellen Lauren, Actress; Steven Schick, Percussion; Josef Kucera, Sound Engineering; Peter Otto and Timothy Labor, Real-time spatialization;
Tadashi Suzuki, Partial staging, Costumes, Lighting, Direction
AT THE EDGE, an evening at the 2nd Theatre Olympics, Shizuoka, Japan

Wise Music Classical Purchase [scores] and Hire [5 scores need for performance, sound files]

View the Library of Congress complete premiere video of JUSTICE (revised version 2001) here:

The video can also be viewed on the Library of Congress site



JUSTICE: The Arias, cf. SERIES OF WORKS as well as MUSIC FOR THEATER
Tiffany DuMouchelle, Soprano, Steve Solook, Percussion,
Paul Hembree, Computer Musician
First performance: 24 March 2016
Slee Hall, University at Buffalo - SUNY

Wise Music Classical Purchase [score (forthcoming)] and Hire [3 scores needed for performance, sound files]
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A Merciful Coincidence [Voicespace II] THEATRICAL VERSION (1976) 36', cf. SERIES OF WORKS as well as MUSIC FOR THEATER
Music theater for three vocalists, Electroacoustic montage
Text: extract from Watt, a novel by Samuel Beckett
First Theatrical performance with vocalists: 9 June 1976
Festival International de Musique Expérimentale, Bourges
Extended Vocal Techniques Ensemble
1976 Bicentennial Year National Endowment for the Arts Award

Wise Music Classical Purchase [score] and Hire [4 scores needed for performance, sound files]
Wise new entry


A Merciful Coincidence [Voicespace II ELECTROACOUSTIC VERSION, cf. ELECTROACOUSTIC and SERIES OF WORKS
Three vocalists with Quadraphonic dissemination


The Palace [Voicespace IV], cf. SOLO and SERIES OF WORKS as well as MUSIC FOR THEATER
(Modest staging) Bass Baritone, Quadraphonic computer processed sound
Text: poem The Palace by Jorge Luis Borges