T he Living Composers Project

Bowlby, Timothy J. (b. December 23, 1958, Wolfville, Nova Scotia). Canadian composer, currently residing in the USA, of mostly chamber, choral, vocal, piano, and organ works that have been performed to acclaim across the USA and abroad.

His principal composition teachers were Owen Stephens (Acadia) and William Brooks, Morgan Powell and Paul Martin Zonn (UIUC); he has also worked with Milton Babbitt, Brian Ferneyhough, Libby Larsen, Annea Lockwood, David Rosenboom, and Sheila Silver. He is himself an active composition teacher, giving lessons to students on an in-person basis and via the Internet. He is currently working for the Vermont MIDI Project as a composition mentor and is online composer-in-residence for the NETCOMM Telementoring Project at UIUC.

He has written on various aspects of 20^th-century music: his MMus thesis took the form of a contextual analysis of Arnold Schoenberg's Quintett, Op. 26 and he has published research on René Leibowitz's Fünf Stücke for clarinet and piano, Op. 29 in ex tempore. In addition, his doctoral thesis, Webern's Strongest Readers, explores the complex and occasionally contradictory relationship between such composer-theorists as Pierre Boulez, René Leibowitz, Herbert Eimert, and Karlheinz Stockhausen, and their so-called mentor. His current research focuses on the influence of Johann Sebastian Bach's Das Wohltemperierte Klavier on Dmitry Shostakovich's Opp. 34 and 87 piano works.

Throughout his tenure as a graduate and post-graduate student, he remained (and remains) active as a performer of solo vocal and choral music from all periods of musical history. He has worked with the Halifax Chamber Choir, the Nova Scotia Youth Orchestra and the University of Illinois Contemporary Chamber Singers and Graduate Chorale, and many informal ad hoc ensembles. He has collaborated with such performers as Toby Twining Music and has more than once appeared with Kenny Rogers. His research paper on the influence of Johann Sebastian Bach’s Das Wohltemperierte Klavier on Dmitry Shostakovich’s Opp. 34 and 87 piano works will appear in the fall 2002 issue of ex tempore. His current research addresses the issue of whether or not it is advisable for composition teachers to revise the creative work of their students.

Besides his musical passions, Dr. Bowlby is an avid reader and part-time writer of haiku, limericks and other short verse forms. He also enjoys cross-country skiing, hiking, rock climbing, swimming, and weightlifting, and has achieved a modest level of proficiency in the art of archery.

CONTACT INFORMATION

E-mail address: tjbowlby@hotmail.com

Street address: Dr. Timothy J. Bowlby, 402 W. Springfield Ave. #2, Champaign, IL 61820

Telephone: 217 355 2605

COMPLETE LIST OF WORKS

STAGE: Only, emotion's a way (ballet music), B-flat clarinet, B-flat trumpet, vibraphone, double bass, 1990

ORCHESTRAL: Canzona: Aequaleities, 2 alto trombones, 8 tenor trombones, 2 bass trombones, 1994; Shadow Studies, 1995; Champagne Flutes, 11 flutes, double bass

CHAMBER MUSIC: Three Different Winds, oboe, B-flat clarinet, bassoon, 1983; Septet, flute, B-flat clarinet, French horn, tuba, violin, cello, vibraphone, 1987; Duo in C, C-trumpet, piano, 1989; Cross'd, soprano saxophone, 2 alto saxophones, tenor saxophone, baritone saxophone, 1989; None(xemp)t, 8 diverse instruments/voices, piano, 1990; 5 Canons, violin, cello, 1990; 4: by 2, string quartet, 1990; According to Hoyle, flute, 1991; E.D.G.E., tuba, 1991; Music for Solo Violin, 1991; Another Season's Promised, viola, piano, 1991; Aftermaths (Reflections on Shelley's 'Ozymandias'), C-trumpet, 1991; 4 Tr. R.'s (for T.R.R.'s), flute, B-flat clarinet, C-trumpet, trombone, bass trombone, percussion, 1992; A View of You, flute (+ piccolo), C-trumpet, 1992; Homonyms, cello, 1992; Elegy, baritone saxophone, 1992; Bluenosed, flute, oboe, B-flat clarinet, French horn, bassoon, 1992; True North, flute, oboe, B-flat clarinet, French horn, bassoon, 1992; Eventual Memories, flute, guitar, 1992; Just One More, oboe, 1992; In Probabilities, bass clarinet, 1993, revised 1995; Circumstances, alto flute, harp, 1993; Persuasions, viola, 1993; Concentricities, tuba, piano, percussion, 1994; Meditation: Upon Olde Coynes, 4 saxophones, 1994; Permutations of a Theme by Johannes Brahms, flute, piano, 1995; Soliloquy: Grey Matters, bassoon, 1995; Quartetto profundo, 4 double basses, 1995; Polacca, vibraphone, 1996; Not Just North, flute, violin, 1996; for There, a Rose Patterns, C-trumpet, tenor trombone, violin, double bass, vibraphone, 1996; Duo Concitato, bass trombone, 6 timpani, 1997; String Quartet No. 3, 1997; Sentence and Doubles, double bass, vibraphone, 1997; Given to Younger Angels, 2 harps, 1997 (adapted from BEA, harp, an earlier withdrawn work); Imprints, piccolo/flute, flute/alto flute, oboe/English horn, piano, percussion, 1998; Sonatina, trumpet, tuba, 1998; TEAR (…of Two Minds), alto saxophone, 6 timpani, vibraphone, 1998; Preliminaries, trombone, 1998; In Memoriam Harry Somers, flute, 1999; Rondo, 2 clarinets, 1999; Trio, violin, cello, piano, 1999; Seconds and Endings, flute, oboe, 2000; Anterior Landscapes, oboe, bassoon, piano, 2000; Ghosts in the Early Frost, flute, violin, double bass, vibraphone, 2000; Rondo Capriccioso, alto saxophone/A-clarinet, piano, 2000-01; Traces for Solo Horn, 2001; Cross Purposes, double bass (with scordatura)/cello, 2001; Saltarello, oboe, violin, cello, accordion, 2001; A Joyful Noise, handbell chorus, 2001; Beware the People Weeping, 10 B-flat/C-trumpets, 2001; Trio in F minor, flute, oboe, organ, 2001; Sonata in 3 Movements, trombone, piano, 2002; Trio for Trumpet, Trombone and Piano, 2002; Beguine in C, flute, saxophone, double bass, Hammond organ; Chorale Tune in G major, 2 clarinets, French horn, tuba; Elaborate in Latin, trumpet, guitar, double bass, Hammond organ, percussion; Fanfare in G, 5 trumpets; Fugue in B minor, string quartet; Fugue in D major, flute, oboe, violin, viola, cello; Fugue in E minor, 2 clarinets, French horn, tuba; Habañera in G minor, clarinet, 4 trumpets, bass guitar, strings (also arranged for bandoneon, guitar, 2 violins, double bass); Minuet in A major, 2 violins, 2 violas, cello; Trio in A minor, 2 violins, cello; Toast 'n' Jam, alto saxophone, bass guitar, keyboards, drumkit, percussion; Waltz in G major, clarinet, 4 French horns, violin, double bass; Chime Tune No. 1 in D major, chime chorus; Passacaglia in C, chime chorus, 2 violins; Trio in C major, 3 flutes (arrangement of work for organ)

CHORAL: Two Elizabethan Lyrics (texts by Robert Herrick, anonymous), chamber mixed chorus, piano, 2 percussion, 1987; None(xemp)t, 8 diverse instruments/voices, piano, 1990; Stillborn Silence! (text by Richard Flecknoe), double mixed chorus, 1994; Three Choral Introits on Psalm Fragments (texts from Psalms 96-97, 57), double mixed chorus, 1998; Behold, How Good and How Pleasant it Is (text from Psalm 133), mixed chorus, 1999; A Pilgrim's Cantata (text by John Bunyan, arranged by the composer), alto, tenor, mixed chorus, French horn, piano, 1999; Praise His Name! Sing Alleluia! (text by the composer), children's voices, piano, 2000

VOCAL: Three Shakespearean Sonnets, mezzo-soprano, violin, 1989; Four Songs on Poems by Thomas Hardy, mezzo-soprano, violin, viola, double bass, piano, 1990; Two Songs of Experience (text by William Blake), mezzo-soprano, piano, 1991; Two Songs on Texts by Robert Herrick, mezzo-soprano, piano, 1992; Two Songs on Poems by A.E. Housman, soprano, bassoon, piano, 1992; Out of an Old Poet (texts/translations by Barnabe Googe), soprano, piccolo/flute/alto flute, piano, 1993; The Africa We Knew (texts by Claude MacKay, William Plomer), soprano, clarinet/bass clarinet, trumpet, piano, percussion, 1994; Three Songs of Shattering (text by Edna St. Vincent Millay), soprano, oboe, piano, 1994; Dickinson Song Set (text by Emily Dickinson), soprano, oboe, piano, 1994; Two Songs on Texts by Charles Tennyson Turner, soprano, A-clarinet, vibraphone, 1994; Three Songs on Sacred Texts (text by George Herbert), mezzo-soprano, viola, piano, 1996; Two Songs on Texts by A.E. Housman, mezzo-soprano, piano, 1997; Four Songs on Texts by Richard Crashaw, mezzo-soprano, flute, guitar, double bass, percussion, 1998; Three Songs on Shakespeare Texts, soprano, flute, French horn, cello, vibraphone, 1999; To Music Bent is my Retirëd Mind (text by Thomas Campion), baritone, piano, 1999; The Heavens Reward Thee Manifold (text by Anne Bradstreet), soprano, baritone, piano, 1999; The Cuckoo of a Worse July (text by Lord Alfred Tennyson), soprano, French horn, double bass, vibraphone, 2000; Two Imaginary Sonnets (text by Eugene Lee Hamilton), soprano, clarinet, piano, 2001; As the Wounded Hart, Embost (text by Francis Quarles), soprano, oboe, clarinet/bass clarinet, French horn, cello, piano, 2001

PIANO: 3 4 88, 2 pianos, 1989; Tested Metals, 1991; In Her Moods, 1992; In, Sigh'd and Out, 2 pianos, 1994; Faust Sonata (Laffen und Pfaffen), 1995; Invention in A major; Étude in C major; Variations; Theme and 3 Variations

ORGAN: Vicissitudes, 1996; Chorale Prelude in D minor; Trio in C major (also arranged for 3 flutes); Three Movements

ARRANGEMENTS: Chorale Prelude in D minor (Johann Sebastian Bach), clarinet, bass clarinet/bassoon, French horn, trumpet; When in Our Music God is Glorified (hymn descant, Sir Charles Villiers Stanford), mixed chorus; Nearer, My God, to Thee (descant, Lowell Mason), violin; Away in a Manger, oboe, chime chorus; How Long, O Lord? (E.H. Thiman), chime chorus; Musette II (Johann Sebastian Bach), chime chorus; Canonic Variations on the Spiritual Go Tell it on the Mountain, flute, oboe, clarinet, French horn, bassoon; Hymn and Descant Variations: ‘Abide with Me’, mixed chorus, violin descant

INTERNET: Rehearsal (incidental music), synthesized contrabass clarinets, tenor saxophone, strings, percussion, 2000 (please visit the website of this composition at: rehearsal.uiuc.edu)

WORKS IN PROGRESS: Two Songs for Tenor and Piano (texts by George Meredith, Herman Melville); Certain Songs on Certain Sonnets (text by Sir Philip Sidney), bass-baritone, French horn, cello, piano, percussion; To Sleep, Care-Charmer Sleep (texts by John Keats, Samuel Daniel), double mixed chorus, piano; Andante Pastorale, clarinet/viola, piano; Concert Piece in A, flute, piano; Duo for Violins in D minor; untitled, 16 French horns, 2 tubas, percussion; untitled, multiple percussion; More Touching is the Death-Bed than the Bier (text by Charles Tennyson-Turner), soprano/tenor, flute, English horn, bass clarinet, vibraphone

(Last updated on June 17, 2002)