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Allen Brings was born in New York City in 1934. He holds a bachelor of arts degree magna cum laude from Queens College, a master of arts degree from Columbia University, where he was a Mosenthal Fellow and a student of Otto Luening, and a doctorate in theory and composition from Boston University, where he was a student of Gardner Read. In 1962 he was a Naumburg Fellow at Princeton University, where he studied with Roger Sessions. He has twice served as chairman of the eastern region of the American Society of University Composers and is vice-president of Connecticut Composers. Each year since 1975 he has received an ASCAP Award. In 1988 he was awarded an Individual Artist Grant by the Connecticut Commssion on the Arts. His published compositions, which include works for orchestra, band, chorus, a wide variety of chamber ensembles, piano, organ, harpsichord, guitar, and voice, have been recorded by Navona, Capstone, Centaur, Contemporary Record Society, North/South Consonance, Arizona University Recordings, and Vienna Modern Masters. A pianist as well as a composer, Allen Brings has performed extensively both here and abroad especially in programs of music for piano, four-hands, with Genevieve Chinn, with whom he has recorded for Centaur Records, Orion Master Recordings, and Composers Recordings, Inc. He is also a co-author of A New Approach to Keyboard Harmony and has contributed articles to College Music Symposium, ComposerUSA, New Oxford Review, Society of Composers Newsletter, New Music Connoisseur, Contemporary Music Newsletter, and Adoremus Bulletin. Allen Brings is Professor Emeritus of Music at the Aaron Copland School of Music at Queens College of the City University of New York and a director of the Weston Music Center and School of the Performing Arts in Weston, Connecticut. Artistic Statement - "As a composer who is also a performer, I often imagine my music actually being performed while I am composing it, visualizing even the arm gestures that would be made by the string players. I am a composer who deals above all with sounds produced by living, breathing musicians, experienced in real time by willing, attentive listeners. "Although the musical language that I use is recognizably of my own time and place, I am also aware of its relationship to the musical language of the Western tradition as it has evolved from its earliest recorded beginnings. If asked which composers have influenced me most, I am more likely to cite Claudio Monteverdi or Heinrich Schütz than a twentieth-century master. "My music has always had a strong expressive content which I have tried to convey by clarity of melodic line and phrase structure. Whether writing for children or accomplished professionals, I have always tried to reward their efforts by writing only as many notes as are necessary and only notes that will continually captivate the ear while urging it forward to the end of the piece. The overall impression which I think my music conveys is rather like the waves of an ocean rising and falling in intensity while below a strong current bears everything above it to a not-entirely-unanticipated but completely-satisfying destination. "I take great pains in establishing a particular character for each piece and for each movement of a piece. That character, however, will almost always undergo transformations, most gradual, a few sudden. In certain pieces these transformations may seem unpredictable, almost improvisational; they reflect nevertheless the many states of mind that we can observe in ourselves or indeed that I observe in myself. "I confess without apology to being a serious composer who writes serious music. At a time when music often has no greater purpose than to provide an agreeable or hypnotic accompaniment to quotidian activities, my music needs to be listened to actively without distraction in order to be enjoyed; at a time when music is also viewed by some as little more than a demonstration of theories bearing only the most tenuous connections to music as it is actually heard, my music prefers to be experienced as an art, not as an analog of number-sets. "Like Monteverdi, Henry Purcell and Arnold Schoenberg before me, I too am a bilingual composer. One piece might be distinguished by an energetic interplay of chromatic lines in a lean, uncompromising harmonic context while another might be exclusively diatonic with long, lyrical lines that even I often have difficulty banishing from my mind. Depending on my expressive intentions, the language I choose will fluctuate widely between these extremes. "In a century which has seen bewildering changes in musical fashions, composers have often discarded as unworthy works composed early in their careers. Although I have sometimes chastised them by revising or rewriting them, I have never cast off any of my offspring, and, perhaps because none of them was ever written to follow a current fashion, all of them seem to me as fresh today as anything I have just written. I recommend all of them without reservation therefore and will never wish that I had composed them differently." Allen Brings

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Title	Ensemble Type	Composed	Duration	Media
Rhapsodic Interplay	Chamber or Jazz Ensemble, Without Voice	2012	00:04:58
Short Sonata	Chamber or Jazz Ensemble, Without Voice	2012	00:10:08
Grotesqueries	Chamber or Jazz Ensemble, Without Voice	2012	00:07:15
Monodies for Solo Bassoon	Solo instrument, non-keyboard	2011	00:09:43
Consorts	Chamber or Jazz Ensemble, Without Voice	2011	00:07:48
Consorts	Chamber or Jazz Ensemble, Without Voice	2011	00:07:48
Monodies for Solo Oboe	Solo instrument, non-keyboard	2011	00:08:37
Monodies for Solo Trumpet	Solo instrument, non-keyboard	2011	00:08:23
Linescape	Chamber or Jazz Ensemble, Without Voice	2011	00:08:00
A Brief Encounter	Chamber or Jazz Ensemble, Without Voice	2011	00:03:38
A Second Brief Encounter	Chamber or Jazz Ensemble, Without Voice	2011	00:02:27
Duologue 13	Chamber or Jazz Ensemble, Without Voice	2011	00:05:12
Duologue 14	Chamber or Jazz Ensemble, Without Voice	2011	00:06:01
Merely in Jest	Chamber or Jazz Ensemble, Without Voice	2011	00:08:08
Two Encores	Keyboard	2010	00:06:26
Reflections on three paintings by Paul Klee	Chamber or Jazz Ensemble, Without Voice	2010	00:06:50
Three Masques	Chamber or Jazz Ensemble, Without Voice	2010	00:10:58
Duologue 12	Chamber or Jazz Ensemble, Without Voice	2009	00:05:16
Quartet for Oboe & Strings	Chamber or Jazz Ensemble, Without Voice	2009	00:10:06
4 Meditations sur	Chamber or Jazz Ensemble, Without Voice	2009	00:12:19
Images	Chamber or Jazz Ensemble, Without Voice	2009	00:10:00
Due Canti, Due Scherzi	Chamber or Jazz Ensemble, Without Voice	2009	00:08:23
Not a Trifling Matter	Keyboard	2008	00:00:50
Concertino for oboe & strings	Orchestra	2008	00:10:22
Motetus (sine verbis)	Chamber or Jazz Ensemble, Without Voice	2008	00:07:00
Duologue 10	Chamber or Jazz Ensemble, Without Voice	2008	00:04:17
Duologue 11	Chamber or Jazz Ensemble, Without Voice	2008	00:04:17
A Carol v1	Chorus, with or without Solo Voices	2008	00:01:47
A Carol v2	Chorus, with or without Solo Voices	2008	00:01:31
In memoriam II	Chamber or Jazz Ensemble, Without Voice	2007	00:02:17
In memoriam II	Orchestra	2007	00:02:17
Four Canonic Etudes for Flute Duo	Chamber or Jazz Ensemble, Without Voice	2007	00:07:54
Quintet	Chamber or Jazz Ensemble, Without Voice	2007	00:13:00
Duologue 9	Chamber or Jazz Ensemble, Without Voice	2007	00:05:14
Three Canonic Etudes for Bassoon Duo	Chamber or Jazz Ensemble, Without Voice	2007	00:06:29
Triette	Chamber or Jazz Ensemble, Without Voice	2007	00:07:59
Three Episodes	Chamber or Jazz Ensemble, Without Voice	2006	00:09:22
Four by Donne	Chorus, with or without Solo Voices	2006	00:08:14
Two Songs	Voice, Solo or With Chamber or Jazz Ensemble	2006	00:04:45
Three Sonnets After The Portuguese	Voice, Solo or With Chamber or Jazz Ensemble	2006	00:05:29
In Memoriam	Orchestra	2006	00:05:24
Ludus Cannarum	Chamber or Jazz Ensemble, Without Voice	2005	00:06:56
Five Poems of Gerard Manley Hopkins	Voice, Solo or With Chamber or Jazz Ensemble	2005	00:11:24
String Quartet	Chamber or Jazz Ensemble, Without Voice	2005	00:18:00
Three Studies	Keyboard	2005	00:07:38
Sonata Breve	Chamber or Jazz Ensemble, Without Voice	2005	00:07:58
Antitheses	Chamber or Jazz Ensemble, Without Voice	2005	00:04:49
Hommage a	Keyboard	2004	00:04:50
Duo	Chamber or Jazz Ensemble, Without Voice	2004	00:12:54
Pastorale	Chamber or Jazz Ensemble, Without Voice	2004	00:04:51
Two Movements	Solo instrument, non-keyboard	2004	00:03:50
Ludus Tubarum	Chamber or Jazz Ensemble, Without Voice	2004	00:05:29
Ludus Nervorum	Chamber or Jazz Ensemble, Without Voice	2004	00:06:20
Duette	Chamber or Jazz Ensemble, Without Voice	2003	00:05:56
Tres Caprichos	Solo instrument, non-keyboard	2003	00:06:32
Variations On Vom Himmel Hoch	Chamber or Jazz Ensemble, Without Voice	2003	00:06:18
Variations on Vom Himmel Hoch	Keyboard	2003	00:06:18
Duo For Clarinet & Piano	Chamber or Jazz Ensemble, Without Voice	2002	00:11:39
Introduction and Roundelay	Orchestra	2002	00:04:13
Divertimento A3	Chamber or Jazz Ensemble, Without Voice	2002	00:05:55
Duo	Chamber or Jazz Ensemble, Without Voice	2002	00:12:52
Concertino in D	Orchestra	2002	00:07:15
Duologue 8	Chamber or Jazz Ensemble, Without Voice	2002	00:09:11
Ten Conceits	Keyboard	2001	00:08:03
Duologue 7	Chamber or Jazz Ensemble, Without Voice	2001	00:06:30
Duologue 5	Chamber or Jazz Ensemble, Without Voice	2000	00:05:18
Concerto da camera No. 5	Orchestra	2000	00:09:20
Duologue 6	Chamber or Jazz Ensemble, Without Voice	2000	00:05:00
Duologue 4	Chamber or Jazz Ensemble, Without Voice	1999	00:04:31
Duologue 3	Chamber or Jazz Ensemble, Without Voice	1999	00:04:36
Duologue 2	Chamber or Jazz Ensemble, Without Voice	1999	00:04:51
Duologue	Chamber or Jazz Ensemble, Without Voice	1998	00:04:52
Three Aphorisms	Chamber or Jazz Ensemble, Without Voice	1998	00:06:32
Short Symphony No. 2	Orchestra	1998	00:12:26
Vision fugitive	Keyboard	1998	00:03:46
The Lament of Rachel	Chorus, with or without Solo Voices	1997	00:07:40
The Power of Your Love	Chorus, with or without Solo Voices	1997	00:01:40
Bring Us, O Lord God	Chorus, with or without Solo Voices	1997	00:01:28
Peroration	Solo instrument, non-keyboard	1996	00:05:00
Caprice	Chamber or Jazz Ensemble, Without Voice	1996	00:06:38
Two Badineries	Solo instrument, non-keyboard	1996	00:06:53
Short Symphony No. 1	Orchestra	1996	00:13:43
Aria da capo	Solo instrument, non-keyboard	1995	00:05:44
Trio	Chamber or Jazz Ensemble, Without Voice	1995	00:18:28
Concerto da camera No. 4	Orchestra	1994	00:12:35
Fantaisie	Chamber or Jazz Ensemble, Without Voice	1994	00:07:52
Digressions	Chamber or Jazz Ensemble, Without Voice	1994	00:04:26
From Psalterium Davidicum	Chorus, with or without Solo Voices	1994	00:12:24
Five Bagatelles	Chamber or Jazz Ensemble, Without Voice	1993	00:07:25
Chimeric Fantasy	Chamber or Jazz Ensemble, Without Voice	1993	00:09:37
Six Praeludia	Keyboard	1993	00:11:26
Vocalise	Keyboard	1993	00:05:00
Shout Joyfully to God	Chorus, with or without Solo Voices	1993	00:01:37
Berceuse	Solo instrument, non-keyboard	1992	00:01:30
Mountain Song	Chorus, with or without Solo Voices	1992	00:02:00
Mountain Song	Voice, Solo or With Chamber or Jazz Ensemble	1992	00:02:00
Sonata a quattro	Chamber or Jazz Ensemble, Without Voice	1992	00:15:00
Courante	Solo instrument, non-keyboard	1991	00:03:00
O God Whose Voice	Chorus, with or without Solo Voices	1991	00:01:00
Getting around	Chorus, with or without Solo Voices	1991	00:05:37
Serenade	Orchestra	1991	00:09:01
Dedications	Keyboard	1991	00:06:29
Sonata	Solo instrument, non-keyboard	1991	00:09:37
Elegy	Voice, Solo or With Chamber or Jazz Ensemble	1991	00:12:17
Elegy	Voice, Solo or With Chamber or Jazz Ensemble	1991	00:12:17
Sinfonia da camera	Orchestra	1990	00:21:00
The Maid of Ascolat	Chorus, with or without Solo Voices	1990	00:01:30
Verses	Solo instrument, non-keyboard	1989	00:04:00
Sonatina	Chamber or Jazz Ensemble, Without Voice	1989	00:05:48
Three Holy Sonnets	Chorus, with or without Solo Voices	1988	00:10:30
Scherzi musicali	Orchestra	1987	00:07:30
Four Studies In Temperaments	Chamber or Jazz Ensemble, Without Voice	1987	00:07:00
The Lord's Prayer	Chorus, with or without Solo Voices	1987	00:00:49
Cantiga	Solo instrument, non-keyboard	1986	00:04:00
Concert Piece	Chamber or Jazz Ensemble, Without Voice	1986	00:06:30
Couplets	Solo instrument, non-keyboard	1986	00:03:30
Three Airs on anonymous 17th century verses	Chorus, with or without Solo Voices	1986	00:05:00
Fantasy Piece	Keyboard	1986	00:09:07
Terzett	Chamber or Jazz Ensemble, Without Voice	1986	00:11:09
Tre esercizi	Keyboard	1986	00:10:44
Threnody	Solo instrument, non-keyboard	1985	00:05:21
Three Lais	Solo instrument, non-keyboard	1985	00:05:30
Concert Piece	Chamber or Jazz Ensemble, Without Voice	1985	00:08:00
Etchings	Solo instrument, non-keyboard	1984	00:07:00
Missa Simplex	Chorus, with or without Solo Voices	1984	00:04:31
Trio	Chamber or Jazz Ensemble, Without Voice	1984	00:11:23
Colloquies	Chamber or Jazz Ensemble, Without Voice	1984	00:05:22
Symphony	Orchestra	1984	00:23:50
Three Movements	Chamber or Jazz Ensemble, Without Voice	1982	00:05:30
Quintet	Chamber or Jazz Ensemble, Without Voice	1981	00:12:30
Lamentationes Jeremiae Prophetae	Chorus, with or without Solo Voices	1981	00:12:30
Lamentationes Jeremiae Prophetae	Band	1981	00:12:30
Sonata After Vivaldi	Chamber or Jazz Ensemble, Without Voice	1981	00:13:26
Canticle	Chamber or Jazz Ensemble, Without Voice	1981	00:05:14
Alba II	Chorus, with or without Solo Voices	1981	00:01:24
Mass	Chorus, with or without Solo Voices	1980	00:11:44
Five Pieces (1980)	Keyboard	1980	00:13:20
Sonata da chiesa	Solo instrument, non-keyboard	1980	00:11:31
Five Hymn Flourishes	Chamber or Jazz Ensemble, Without Voice	1980	00:04:00
Eclogue	Solo instrument, non-keyboard	1979	00:04:30
Three Fantasies	Chamber or Jazz Ensemble, Without Voice	1979	00:07:30
Quintet	Chamber or Jazz Ensemble, Without Voice	1979	00:09:30
Two Strains	Chamber or Jazz Ensemble, Without Voice	1979	00:02:30
Tre Madrigali Concertati	Voice, Solo or With Chamber or Jazz Ensemble	1978	00:09:00
Capriccio	Orchestra	1977	00:05:30
Fanfare	Keyboard	1977	00:01:01
A Herrick Suite	Chorus, with or without Solo Voices	1977	00:07:30
A Herrick Suite	Chorus, with or without Solo Voices	1977	00:07:30
Petite Suite	Keyboard	1976	00:05:14
Alba I	Voice, Solo or With Chamber or Jazz Ensemble	1976	00:02:00
Variations on a Solemn Theme	Keyboard	1975	00:03:45
Tre Sonetti Di Michelangelo Buonarroti	Voice, Solo or With Chamber or Jazz Ensemble	1975	00:08:00
Concerto da camera No. 1	Orchestra	1975	00:10:30
Planh	Solo instrument, non-keyboard	1975	00:02:30
Scherzetto	Solo instrument, non-keyboard	1975	00:01:30
Concerto da camera No. 1	Keyboard	1975	00:10:30
Tre sonetti di Michelangelo Buonarroti	Voice, Solo or With Chamber or Jazz Ensemble	1975	00:08:00
Sound pieces : for voices and noises	Chorus, with or without Solo Voices	1974	00:04:30
Concerto da camera No. 3	Solo instrument, non-keyboard	1974	00:10:00
Dithyramb	Solo instrument, non-keyboard	1974	00:03:00
Concerto Da Camera No. 2	Chamber or Jazz Ensemble, Without Voice	1974	00:10:30
Concerto da camera No. 3	Orchestra	1974	00:10:00
Four Canons	Chamber or Jazz Ensemble, Without Voice	1974	00:04:30
Kaleidoscope	Unspecified Instrument(s)	1974	00:02:34
Canzonet	Voice, Solo or With Chamber or Jazz Ensemble	1973	00:02:42
Three Quartets	Chamber or Jazz Ensemble, Without Voice	1973	00:06:30
The Apparition	Chorus, with or without Solo Voices	1972	00:04:00
Descant	Solo instrument, non-keyboard	1972	00:02:30
Ricercar	Solo instrument, non-keyboard	1972	00:03:00
Prosa	Solo instrument, non-keyboard	1972	00:02:30
Lament & Dance of Celebration	Band	1972	00:02:05
Three Inventions After J.S. Bach	Chamber or Jazz Ensemble, Without Voice	1972	00:03:18
Three Inventions After J.S. Bach	Chamber or Jazz Ensemble, Without Voice	1972	00:03:18
Sonatine	Keyboard	1972	00:06:32
Processionals with fanfares	Band	1972	00:02:40
Altaforte	Chorus, with or without Solo Voices	1971	00:02:00
Altaforte	Chorus, with or without Solo Voices	1971	00:02:00
Divertimento	Chamber or Jazz Ensemble, Without Voice	1971	00:04:00
To an Unborn Pauper Child	Chorus, with or without Solo Voices	1971	00:06:00
To an Unborn Pauper Child	Chorus, with or without Solo Voices	1971	00:06:00
Variations	Band	1970	00:05:00
Essay	Band	1970	00:04:00
Shall I Die for Mannis Sake?	Chorus, with or without Solo Voices	1969	00:05:00
Four Graded Pieces for Younger Pianists	Keyboard	1968	00:02:42
Duo Concertante	Chamber or Jazz Ensemble, Without Voice	1968	00:12:21
Four Pieces	Chamber or Jazz Ensemble, Without Voice	1963	00:11:00
Sonata	Keyboard	1961	00:18:30
Canzone	Chamber or Jazz Ensemble, Without Voice	1960	00:05:00
Notturno	Orchestra	1960	00:05:30
In Paradisum	Chorus, with or without Solo Voices	1957	00:01:00
Concerto for Orchestra	Orchestra	1957	00:16:00
Passacaglia, Interlude & Fugue	Keyboard	1956	00:13:00
Passacaglia, Interlude & Fugue	Keyboard	1956	00:13:00
Three Songs of Blake & Donne	Voice, Solo or With Chamber or Jazz Ensemble	1956	00:09:00
Sonata	Solo instrument, non-keyboard	1956	00:22:00
Suite	Chamber or Jazz Ensemble, Without Voice	1956	00:10:00
Burlette	Chamber or Jazz Ensemble, Without Voice	1956	00:06:00
Song	Orchestra	1956	00:05:00
Sonata	Chamber or Jazz Ensemble, Without Voice	1955	00:18:00
Variations on an American Folk Song	Keyboard	1954	00:03:00
Missa Brevis	Chorus, with or without Solo Voices	1954	00:04:00
Cor Jesu Trinitatis	Chorus, with or without Solo Voices	1954	00:02:30
A Cradle Song	Orchestra	1954	00:02:00
Never Seek To Tell Thy Love	Orchestra	1954	00:02:00