Frank Russo

Hello.

If you're getting this email it's because you are on subscriber on N1M and have listened to my music.

Today, I've downloaded 3 recordings. The first is Hommage to John Lennon for solo flute. This is a recording from around 1984 at a concert of my music performed in New York City. The performer is Carol Wincenc, flutist. The next two recordings are the first and second movements from my String Quartet. There is a third movement but I did not include that here. I wish I could give you the names of the performers. They were from the Manhattan School of Music in New York City. They really did a great job given 1 or 2 rehearsals before performance.

Note: The recordings are from master cassettes and were transferred to CD only recently. At times you can hear the loss of tone quality, but the idea still comes across.

I hope you enjoy listening to them.

Yours,

Frank Russo, Composer

I've downloaded today a version of my most recent composition. It was originally written for soprano but it hasn't been performed yet so I can't present to you the vocal version. The text is from Psalm 57, King James Version and that's where the title comes from. The original score is written for drum, cymbals, triangle, harp, soprano (clarinet this version), violin and cello. The meter is 7/8. This piece was dedicated to Nancy Steffa posthumously.

Today I'm adding the third movement to the string quartet I wrote back in 1982. After it's first performance I didn't really look at it again until late 2021. It sat in a drawer, then a box in storage. The I took a look at it again and said, 'Why hasn't this been looked at in so many years?' So what I did is tweak it, rewrite it, expand some ideas to it, while trying to keep it simple and elegant. I hope you like it. Give me some feedback.

Again, thanks for listening to this music.

Hello.
I've been looking at some of my earlier works that have been in paper format only. This piece, LUMEN, was written in the late 1980s into the 1990s. I can't tell you when I actually started it or finished it but it was the only piece in the 1990s that occupied a great deal of time.
One would say I was trying to find my own language, my own sound, and at the same time trying to find meaning in life. During these difficult years was the AIDS crisis with the loss of many friends.
LUMEN is a discovery of trying to see light through music. The musical language may be uncomfortable to some and/or disliked by others. I ask that if you listen to the piece try to listen to the entire piece. Close your eyes and imagine looking through a prism focused on some source of light -- a candle, light or sun.

I am adding today a composition I wrote in the early 1990s for voice and piano. This version is for viola and piano.

A little history about this piece. While I was living in Manhattan, NY during the 1990s there were many artists and friends who were dying from AIDS. It was a very difficult time emotionally and spiritually. I wrote 4 songs to the poetry of Perry Brass. These songs were performed once in California back in the 1990s. I don't have a recording of that performance. But I love this song. I tried to find the right instrument to bring out the pathos and beauty of the melody and I thing the viola does that well. Enjoy.