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Chronicle of the NonPop Revolution


Tom Johnson

Catalogue 1997


The Two-Eighteen Press (BMI) works jointly with Editions 75 (SACEM), the European publisher of Tom Johnson's works. Orders may be placed at either address.

Two-Eighteen Press
POB 218
Village Station
New York NY 10014

Editions 75
75, rue de la Roquette
75011 PARIS


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OPERAS

TRIGONOMETRIE (1996)
Four baritones and four percussionists look for the point "omega." Eight scenes, 80 minutes, electronic interludes.
Score: $40

UNA OPERA ITALIANA (1991)
Twelve scenes in Italian, interrupted by recitatives that translate and explain everything in the language of the audience. 20 singers, seven intellectuals, and orchestra. Two hours.
Vocal score: $40

DEUX CENTS ANS (1989)
A bicentennial opera thirty minutes long, commissioned by the Centre Acanthes for the Festival d'Avignon. A numbered edition of 200 copies.
Full score: $20

RIEMANNOPER (1988)
A comic opera in two acts, which text from the Riemann Musiklexikon, in German. Baritone, Tenor, Primadonna and Primadonna Assoluta and piano. 90 minutes.
Vocal score: $35

SOPRANOS ONLY (1984)
A procession of six sopranos with flute, violin, cello and harp. 35 minutes.
Full score: $20

DOOR (1978)
Someone is at the door, but the two singers are too tired to open it. They sing a lot of cadenzas on the word "yawn." Piano accompaniment. 15 minutes.
Full score: $10

DRAWERS (1979)
She looks for her thimble, and finally finds it on her finger. Soprano and piano. Text in English, French and German. 15 minutes.
Full score: $10

DRYER (1978)
The baritone catches fish and hangs them up to dry, while the tenor looks on wondering why. Baritone, tenor and piano.15 minutes.
Full score: $10

WINDOW (1978)
The window is dirty, and it takes 15 minutes for the tenor and the baritone to clean it. Piano accompaniment.15 minutes.
Full score: $10


ORATORIO AND CHORAL

LE CHOEUR (1993)
A commission from the French radio for their children's choir. SSAA without text. 20 minutes.
Score: $17

BONHOEFFER ORATORIUM (1988-92)
The largest work by the composer. Two hours and 20 minutes of music for four soloists, two choruses, and orchestra, in German. Premiered by the Dutch Radio orchestra and chorus in September 1996. The text comes from various books, sermons, and letters of the theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945). Orchestra material on rental.
Full score (hard cover): $200
Vocal score (hard cover): $100
Vocal score (spiral bound): $60
Choral score of Part IV, seven a capella choruses, which can be done separate from the rest of the oratorio: $14

TRINITY (1978)
Four choruses at four sides sing three anthems on three notes with three words: Creator, Son, Holy Ghost.
Score: $8


INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC

SIMULTANEOUS PROGRESSIONS (1996)
Four logical progressions for four instrumentalists, each playing independently of the others. Clarinet, trombone, piano, and cello. 10-12 minutes.
Score: $10

FORMULAS FOR STRING QUARTET (1994)
Johnson's only work for string quartet. Premiered by the Brindisi Quartet in Bern in 1994. Eight movements, each following a mathematical formula. 20 minutes.
Score: $14
Set of parts: $20

COMPOSITION WITH ASCENDING CHROMATIC SCALES IN TWELVE TEMPOS, ALL BEGINNING SIMULTANEOUSLY, THE PIANO PLAYING THE LOW NOTES, THE CLARINET THE MIDDLE NOTES, AND THE VIOLIN THE HIGH NOTES (1993)
See title. Six minutes.
Score: $12

COMPOSITION WITH DESCENDING CHROMATIC SCALES IN EIGHT-VOICE CANON PLAYED IN THREE WAYS, SEPARATED BY TWO PIANO INTERLUDES, WHICH BRING THE MUSIC BACK UP TO ITS STARTING POSITION. (1993)
See title. Six minutes.
Score: $12

SEQUENZA MINIMALISTA (1993)
A rather difficult solo for trombone. Six minutes.
Score: $8

EINSTIMMIGER POLYRHYTMUS (1992)
A trio for tenor saxophone, guitar, and bass, written for the German ensemble Ugly Culture. The title means "unison polyrhythms." 18 minutes.
Score: $14

ALEXANDRINS POUR GUITARE (1989)
Nine miniatures written in phrases of 12 and 13 notes, in reference to the rhythm of classical French poetry. 10 minutes.
$8

SIX-NOTE MELODY (1986)
An organ solo in four section, each section seven times longer than the previous one. 12 minutes
$5

CHORD CATALOGUE (1986)
All of 8178 chords possible in one octave. Playable on any keyboard in approximately two hours. A one-page score, free on request.

INFINITE MELODIES (1986)
Any melodic instrument can play these logical sequences, which get longer and longer, to infinity.
$7

PREDICTABLES (1984)
Predictible music for violin, cello and piano. String parts included with the score. 15 minutes.
Score and parts: $23

HARPIANO (1982)
The subtle differences between the colors of the two instruments continue throughout the 16 minutes of these 10 short movements.
$10

RATIONAL MELODIES (1982)
A collection of 21 systematic melodies, available as a CD in the interpretation of flutist Eberhard Blum, but playable on all melodic instruments.
$14

DOUBLINGS FOR DOUBLE BASS (1980)
Six ways to transform a melody of two notes into a melody of 4, 8, 16, 32. notes, and have a piece as long as you like. A concentration exercise which, however, may also be played in concert.
$6

MOVEMENTS (1980)
Four movements for wind quintet (flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, horn). 20 minutes.
Score: $12

DRAGONS IN A (1979)
Five movements for orchestra, each movement following the dragon formula. 18 minutes. Orchestra materials on rental.
Full score: $14

NINE BELLS (1979)
One of the key works in the evolution of the composer, who often presented it himself on his set of suspended bells, and which is now played by some other percussionists with athletic tendencies. Nine movements in 50 minutes.
$14

EIGHT PATTERNS FOR EIGHT INSTRUMENTS (1979)
A suite of short pieces for non-specified treble instruments. 20 minutes.
Score: $16
Set of parts: $20

60-NOTE FANFARES FOR FOUR TRUMPETS (1976)
Nine movements in eight minutes, always with the same sequence of 60 notes.
Score and parts: $20

ACTION MUSIC IV (1968)
The music is placed on 12 different music stands. The solo violist makes the rounds, playing each fragment in 6-8 minutes.
$10


MUSIC WITH TEXT

CLING CLANG (1993)
A radio piece for actors who speak and a percussionist that plays the cling-clang. 30 minutes.
$8

MAXIMUM EFFICIENCY (1991)
Three instruments in three octaves produce the most possible with the least material, in order to be as efficient as possible. To be played in less than 7 minutes.
$14

NARAYANA'S COWS (1989)
A formula taken from Narayana, a 14th century Indian mathematician, produces a music in three lines for an ensemble of non-specified instruments and a narrator. 16 minutes.
$8

MUSIC AND QUESTIONS (1988)
There are 120 permutations of five notes, to be played with bells or glockenspiel, and a question to pose to the audience after each one. The text is given in English, French and German, and the piece lasts 25 minutes.
$10

EGGS AND BASKETS (1987)
An explanation of how many ways there are to put six eggs in two baskets, with the help of a narrator and two non- specified instruments. 12 minutes.
$8

BEDTIME STORIES (1985)
Twelve pieces for clarinet with narration. Also available in French as Histories à dormir debout.
$14

SELF-PORTRAIT (1983)
There are eight notes on eight cardboard boxes. The box mover / composer tries placing them in different positions, and 2 to musicians play what they see. 20 minutes.
$8

COUNTING DUETS (1982)
Five movements, spoken by two voices, with numerals as text.
$8

MONOLOGUE FOR TUBA (1978)
A tubist speaks to and plays with his instrument. 7 minutes.
$8

FAILING, A VERY DIFFICULT PIECE FOR SOLO STRING BASS (1975)
Perhaps the most frequently played chamber music by the composer, recorded recently by Robert Black (CRI), 7 minutes.
$15


PIANO

FULL ROTATION OF 60 NOTES THROUGH 36 POSITIONS (1996)
Piece for player piano. Roll produced by Wolfgang Heisig.
$60

COSINUS FOR PIANO (1994)
Four movements with a mathematical melody in one, two, three, and finally four voices.6 minutes.
$7

SEPTAPEDE (1973-1993)
Closer to "repetitive music" than anything else by the composer, this piece goes through an ever-changing loop on its seven keys. Written in 1973 but revised in 1993, two minutes.
$7

SYMMETRIES (1981-1990)
49 symmetrical miniatures for piano four hands. 50 minutes.
$40

MUSIC FOR 88 (1988)
Nine pieces written in '88 for the 88 keys of the piano, including The Mersenne Numbers, Pascal's triangle and The Multiplication Table. Also available on CD in the composer's own interpretation.
$16

VOICINGS (1984)
Four pianist repeat a single phrase. The music is always the same, but the distribution of the notes between the four players, the "voicings," are always different.
Full score: $20

TANGO (1984)
120 Permutations of a five-note melody in an Argentine accompaniment. Written for Yvar Mikashoff.
$5

COUNTING KEYS (1982)
Four arithmetical movements in 14 minutes.
$7

TRIPLE THREAT (1979)
A challenge for a pianist/actor/technician, who must record one channel and then add a second channel, all on stage. 10 minutes.
$7

PRIVATE PIECES (1976)
Prose instructions to follow at the piano - in private. A useful score for students who aren't yet able to read notes, and for others who enjoy scores that leave room for interpretation. 52 pages.
$8

AN HOUR FOR PIANO (1971)
Exactly 60 minutes of piano music.
$35

SCENE FOR PIANO AND TAPE (1969)
The pianist speaks and plays with his collaborator, a loudspeaker, for 20 minutes. A performance tape made by the composer in 1969 is available for $20, but is preferable that interpreters create their own loudspeaker parts.
Score $8

SPACES (1969)
Twelve minutes of tranquil music, where one can fell the influence of Morton Feldman, with whom the composer had been studying during this period.
$10


CD

RATIONAL MELODIES (1982)
The collection of 21 melodies is a kind of summary of the logical and mathematical techniques used by the composer. All melodic instruments can play this music, but this recording of the complete set on HatHut (HatArt CD 6133) is the interpretation of the German flutist Eberhard Blum.
$20

MUSIC FOR 88 (1988)
Nine pieces for piano recorded by the composer for Experimental Intermedia (XI 106): Eighty-Eights, Mersenne Numbers, Multiplication Table, Squares, Triangles, Abundant Numbers, Euler's Harmonies, Pascal's Triangle, and Eratosthene's Sieve.
$20


NEW BOOK

SELF-SIMILAR MELODIES (1996)
The musical theory of the logical and mathematical techniques used by the composer: finite and infinite automata. the paper folding formula, sequences taken from Pascal's triangle, etc. A rather detailed treatment, 291 pages long, with many short melodies written to demonstrate the techniques employed.
$24


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