William Susman

Works by William Susman

Biography

American composer William Susman has created a distinctively expressive voice in contemporary classical music, with a catalog that includes orchestral, chamber, and vocal music, as well as numerous film scores. In addition to his work as a composer, he spearheads the contemporary ensemble OCTET and Belarca Records. AllMusic calls him an exemplar of "the next developments in the sphere . . . [of] minimalism," and textura describes him as “not averse to letting his affection for Afro-Cuban, jazz, and other forms seep into his creative output.” His music has earned praise from The New York Times for being “vivid, turbulent, and rich-textured,” from Gramophone as “texturally shimmering and harmonically ravishing,” and from Fanfare for being "crystalline . . . and gloriously lyrical."

About the music

Susman’s training as both a jazz and classical pianist was influential in his evolution as a composer. His academic training in composition grounded him in the traditions of mid-century modernism, and he was particularly fascinated by the sounds and techniques of Xenakis and Ligeti. He became increasingly dissatisfied with the expressive and formal limitations of post-war modernism, though, and began to incorporate more diverse elements and influences – free jazz, Afro-Cuban techniques, as well as other non-Western traditions – in what has become his recognizably American and individual voice. His music uses an eclectic array of devices, from medieval isorhythm and hocket to Afro-Cuban clave and montuño rhythmic patterns. With this toolkit, he crafts a bold sound world both familiar and complex, with highly energetic grooves and hypnotic modal-based harmonies.

Quiet Rhythms

Quiet Rhythms is a monumental piano cycle that brings together traditions he has spent a lifetime studying: the harmonic language of jazz, the rhythmic pulse of Latin music, the circling melodies of minimalism, the complex structures of medieval fugues, the ingenious simplicity of the American Popular Songbook. New patterns are constantly emerging: repetitive isorhythms shift, layer, and unlock new colors, Afro-Cuban clave and montuno rhythms bring life and movement to the canvas.

In this way the music fits the shape of Susman’s hands: a musical mélange born from a deeply personal and visceral experience of these wide-ranging traditions. Interweaving melodies, chords, and patterns evolve and devolve one note at a time, the music’s subtle and incremental changes enhanced through the quiet nature of the music. Repetition gradually turns to transformation.

Quiet Rhythms is comprised of four books of piano music, each one a set of 22 short pieces: 11 Prologues and 11 Actions. Similar to a book, each prologue acts as a preface for the story to come: a simple but stirring introduction, a glimpse into the musical world about to unfold.

Quiet Rhythms is united in its sense of quiet introspection, its lush pastel colors, its soft syncopations. The works are not harmonically loud, but they are dynamic. The pulse ebbs and flows: the music is at times delicate, reflective, even meditative—at other times fervent, urgent, and hypnotic.

The music’s “quietness” then is less about volume than it is about connecting with the inner voice; listening in those fragile, delicate moments where quiet prevails. As the composer describes it: “a rarefied tightrope between vulnerability and sublimity.”

-Maggie Molloy (excerpt from the album liner notes Quiet Rhythms Live at Spectrum NYC)