(b. 16 November 1919, Tallinn – d. 19 January 2014, Toronto, Ontario).
Canadian composer, born in Estonia, of interdisciplinary works that have been performed throughout the world.
Mr. Kasemets initially studied at the Eesti Muusika- ja Teatriakadeemia – Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre in Tallinn, then at the Staatliche Hochschule für Musik und darstellende Kunst Stuttgart.
He is also active in other positions. He worked as a conductor, pianist and writer in Hamilton, Ontario and Toronto in the 1950s and organised the series for contemporary music Men, Minds and Music in Toronto in 1962–63. He founded the Isaacs Gallery Mixed Media Concerts in Toronto in 1965, served a director and planner of the Toronto Festival of Arts and Technology in 1968 and founded the publication series for contemporary music Canavangard in the late 1960s, which he also edited.
He taught experimental art at OCAD University in Toronto from 1971–87, where he was visiting lecturer emeritus from 1987–2014.
Mr. Kasemets lived in Canada from 1951–2014 and became a citizen of Canada in 1957.
SELECT LIST OF WORKS (early style, 1952–64)
ORCHESTRAL:
Recitative and Rondino, string orchestra, 1954
Concerto, violin, orchestra, 1957
Sinfonietta, 1959
Passacaglia, flute, violin, orchestra, 1959
CHAMBER MUSIC:
Recitative and Fugue, 2 cellos, 1955
Quintet, flute, oboe, clarinet, French horn, bassoon, 1957
Sonata concertante, violin, viola, cello, piano, 1957
1 + 1, 2 recorders, 1964 (version of work for piano)
CHORAL:
Two Songs, male chorus, 1957
VOCAL:
Visions, speaker, orchestra, 1953
Poetic Suite, soprano, piano, string orchestra, 1954
The Thousand Nights and One Night, voice, piano, 1954
Canciones, voice, flute, guitar, 1956
Two Symphonic Songs, voice, piano, 1956
Three Songs from Atlantic Provinces, voice, piano, 1950s
Three Miniatures, voice, piano, 1960
Five Songs for Children, voice, piano, 1964
PIANO:
Six Preludes, 1952
1 + 1, 1960 (also version for 2 recorders)
SELECT LIST OF WORKS (mature style, 1961–2007; note that the composer prefers a chronological listing)
1960s:
Haiku (texts from haiku from Japan [translated by Harold Gould Henderson]), voice, flute, cello, piano, 1961
Squares, piano 4 hands, 1962
5x5, 2 pianos (both + percussion), 1963
Communications (text by e. e. cummings), any number of voices, any number of speakers, any number of actors, any number of dancers, any number of players, 1963
Trigon, 1/3/9/27 players, 1963
Cumulus, any player/ensemble, fixed media, 1963–64
Timepiece, any player, 1964
Cascando, any player/any number of players, 1965
Calceolaria, any number of players, 1966
Contactics, any number of players, audience/dance troupe, 1966
Variations (on Variations [on Variations]), voice, any player, fixed media, 1966
Octode, fixed media, 1967
Octagonal Octet and/or Ode, any 1–8 players, 1967
Tt, computer, 1968
Synergetic, fixed media, 1969
Portrait: Music of the Twelve Moons of the I Ching: The Sixth Moon, piano, 1969
1970s:
Guitarmusic for John Cage, any number of guitars (with conductor [using projectors]), 1975
Elaborations on Erratum musical of Marcel Duchamp, any ensemble, 1975
Rites of Rights No. 1, percussion ensemble, 1977
In Support of Justice Thomas Berger: (Rites of Rights No. 2), any ensemble, 1977
David and David and Larry and James, 4 players (voices, instruments, synthesizers, microphones, mixers, amplifiers, loudspeakers), fixed media, 1977
Whole Earth Music, fixed media, 1978
1980s:
Celestial Timescapes, computer, fixed media, 1980 (may be performed with Zodiacanons and Ragtime: an Intercultural Timescape)
Zodiacanons, 1–12 players on any chromatic instruments, 1980 (may be performed with Celestial Timescapes)
Ragtime: an Intercultural Timescape, ensemble from Asia/India, ensemble from Europe/North America, 1981 (may be performed with Celestial Timescapes)
Earthspin: a Timescape for Gordon Monahan, piano, fixed media, 1982
Counterbomb Renga (text by Jonathan Schell), 1982–83 (collaboration with more than 100 musicians and poets from Canada and the USA)
conNotations, any ensemble, 1983
lOOking fOr jacksOn mac lOw in the cOncise OxfOrd dictiOnary (pOemusic), speaker, organ, ostinato ad libitum, 1983
Yi Jing Jitterbug: 50 Hz Octet, any 8 winds/bowed strings, 1984
Yi Jing Jitterbug: Soloctet, any wind instrument/bowed string instrument, fixed media, 1984
4-D I Ching, fixed media, 1984 (also version as What do You have to Say about This?, fixed media, 1987–88)
Piece for Peace (texts by Mahatma Gandhi, Laozi, Albert Einstein, Black Elk [English translations]), any number of chanters, any number of speakers, any number of instruments capable of sustained tones, 1985
Tangovariables on the word Tango, piano, 1986
Geo(sono)scope (sound installation, after R. Buckminster Fuller), 1986
Vertical Music: In remembrance of Morton Feldman, any 7 players, 1987 (also version for 2 pianos, 1987)
Vertical Taps for Morty, snare drum, 1987
Marce(ntennia)l Circus C(ag)elebrating Duchamp (text by John Cage), 1987
Duchampera (music-theatre work, text by the composer, after Marcel Duchamp), any number of voices, any number of speakers, any number of actors, piano, ensemble of glass instruments, fixed media, lights, 1987
Spectrascapes (sound installation), 1987–88 (also version as Studies for Spectrascapes, fixed media, 1987–88)
Counterpoints for Philip Corner, any ensemble, 1988
Portrait: Music of the Twelve Moons of the I Ching: The First Moon, columbine (invented instrument), amaranth (invented instrument), 1988
Portrait: Music of the Twelve Moons of the I Ching: The Second Moon, amplified cello, 1988
Portrait: Music of the Twelve Moons of the I Ching: The Third Moon, percussion, 1988
Portrait: Music of the Twelve Moons of the I Ching: The Fourth Moon, clarinets (1 player), 1988
Portrait: Music of the Twelve Moons of the I Ching: The Fifth Moon, gamelan, 1988
Calendar Round: Kaisernietzsche, guitar, percussion, 1989
Calendar Round: Megalcides, speaker, fixed media, 1989
1990s:
Calendar Round: Malcgolmstein, violin, 1990
The Eight Houses of the I Ching, string quartet, 1990 (also version for 12 strings, 1993)
Marklewake, more than 1 voice, more than 1 player, 1990
'Harmonices Mundi' of Johannes Kepler, violin, fixed media, 1990
Hexagram No. 16, piano, 8 sine-wave oscillators, mixers, loudspeakers, 1990
Lun(h)armonics, 6 sine-wave oscillators, mixers, loudspeakers, 1990
Canonic Creationchants, any number of high voices, 1991 (may be performed with Timetrip to Big Bang, Big Bang and Back)
Requiem Renga, small orchestra (2 percussion, 15 strings), 1992
Palestrina on Devil's Staircase, 2 voices, 3 violins, 3 cellos, 1993
Timetrip to Big Bang, Big Bang and Back, fixed media, 1994 (may be performed with Canonic Creationchants)
Pythagoras Tree, piano, 1994
3/7 D'Un Morceau en Forme de Poire, piano, 1995
Feigenbaum Cascades, piano, 1995
Music of the First Eleven Primes, piano, 1995
...FUTURE is PAST is NOW is..., any 4–7 players, 1996
OPazERA (trans[form]l[iter]ation, text by Octavio Paz), 1996–97 (cumulative work; its seven sections may be performed separately: John Cage/Octavio Paz Conjunction, voice, piano, 1996; Joan Miró/Octavio Paz Conjunction, speaker, percussion, film, slide projections, 1996; The Constellation of Virgo, voice, piano, vibraphone, marimba, 1996; Sunstone, voice, pianoharp [invented instrument], percussion, film, slide projections, 1996; Blanco, female voice, male voice, 2 pianos, percussion, 1997; OPJreSCTnga, clarinet, violin, cello, piano, 1997; Homage and Desecrations, voice, speaker, piano, prepared piano, percussion, 1997)
fraCtal fibONaCciERTO, piano, small orchestra (18 players), 1997
Mus(ost)ic for Barbara, piano, 1997
...and sounds sink back into silence (text by Martin Bartlett), voice, piano, 1997
On mere being (text by Wallace Stevens), voice, piano, 1997
Stanstars, piano, 1997
SoUNdFLOWER Triplet, voice, piano, 1998
777, large orchestra (70 players), 1998
Ariannaira (scenario, after Jorge Luis Borges, Ovid, Claudio Monteverdi), voice–speaker, piano, visual medium ad libitum, 1999 (one section may be performed separately: The House of Daedalus, piano)
Echoes of a Life: Chronologue, piano, 1999
QM for MC: Quantumatrix for Merce Cunningham, speaker, piano, 1999
Numbers/Digits, speaker, piano, 1999
2000s:
Airs and Mirrors of Robert Creeley, voice, piano, 1997–2000
from 'Useful Knowledge' (text by Gertrude Stein), speaker, piano, 1999–2000 (two sections may be performed separately: Music of the First Hundred Natural Numbers, piano, 1999; BiB – Business in Baltimore, piano, 2000)
STiME: SpaceTiMemoryEchoes (text by James Joyce), 2000 (cumulative work; its five sections may be performed separately: 43'33", any voice/player [playing in 4 spaces]; 4'33"2, any 4 voices/players [playing in 1 space]; 4'33" fractals, any number of voices/players; 4'33" PrimeTimeFractals, any number of voices/players; [4 x 4]'33" Sirens, any number of speakers, any number of players)
Diaries and Letters of Ruth Crawford Seeger, 2 speakers, any number of players, 2000
Linda in Agnes, Agnes in Linda, any number of speakers, any number of players, 2001
musiXenia (musical gift-giving/-receiving ceremony), any 6–10 players, 2001
LSP! (remembering Michael J. Baker), voice, piano, 2001
Signs (text by Robert Creeley), 2 speakers, any 2 players, 2001
F i r e l i n e – music of the first thirteen primes (text by David Libeskind), voice, piano, 2001
AL and alpha/beta – Algorithms and Alphabets: A Symphosium, 2 voices, any 4 players, 2001
E and T S T and B – Einstein and Tagore seeking Truth and Beauty, 2 voices, any 4 players, 2001
thousand and one thunderletters, piano, 2001
Calendar Round: Rixax, percussion, 2001
AQM – Anarchart with Quantumandala, 1998–2002 (cumulative work; its ten sections may be performed separately: QM 8x11+11x8, piano, 1998; QM 4x7x4, violin, 1998; QQ – Quantumquotes with MM – Musicmandala, speaker, piano, 1998; QM 7x4x7, viola, 1999; QM 4x7+7x4, cello, 1999; QM 4x13x4, marimba, 1999; QM 4x9=6x6, vibraphone, 1999; QM 2x13+13x2, accordion, 2000; QM 2x13x2 – Anarchy Really Does Have a Future, voice–speaker, 2000; AQ – Anarchquotes, speaker, 1998–2002)
The Liberties of Susan Howe (pOemPERA, libretto by Susan Howe), female voice–speaker, 2 female speakers, piano, fixed media, film (by Pierre Tremblay), 2007