Excerpt from Randolph Pitts' large work "Der Schatten eines Traumes"
(The Shaddow of a Dream) for large orchestra, chorus, soprano
soloists and electric guitar. (2019) The entire work is
dedicated to Helen A.
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Randolph Pitts, "Concerto for Piano and Orchestra"
dedicated to Anita DeFrancesco (2022)
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Randolph Pitts, "Das Buch der Blauen Rose" (The Book of the Blue Rose)
for three sopranos, chorus, speaker, lare orchestra, organ,
tape and electronics. (2019) Dedicated to Cristie Strongman
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Randolph Pitts became interested in contemporary music while growing up in the Washington DC. area. During that time he was active as an amateur bassoonist and contrabassoonist, performing regularly with many ensembles, including the Arlington, Virginia Civic Symphony and the Montgomery/Prince Georges County [Maryland] Light Opera Association Orchestra. Since then he has been a member and patron of a number of organizations devoted to "classical" music, including the American Composers Forum and the Friends of the Arnold Schoenberg Institute.
Pitts was was always interested in writing his own music -- his earliest efforts date from his high school years -- and beginning in around 2005 he finally decided to take composing seriously, indulging in the freedom to experiment which his status (or lack thereof) as a self-taught amateur composer afforded him. Most of Pitts' pieces employ twelve tone technique in various ways, including pitch multiplication and, on occasion, derived rows. Several of his works, including the three highlighted above, use row material based on musical cryptograms of the names of beautiful women. He has found that there is a strong correlation between the beauty of a woman and the beauty of the tone rows derived from her name.
The American composer Ross Lee Finney once described music as "a mosaic of gestures," a statement which Randolph Pitts believes is highly applicable to his compositions, culminating in his Piano Concerto of 2021, which he feels is the ultimate manifestation of the concepts and feelings that motivated him to compose.
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Among his favourite composers are, first and foremost, Arnold Schoenberg and his students (Anton von Webern, Alban Berg, Hanns Eisler, Roberto Gerhard, John Cage, Adolph Weiss, Hans Erich Apostel, Nikos Skalkottas, Edward Steuermann, Richard Hoffmann, etc.), Theodor Wiesengrund Adorno, Claude Ballif, Jean Barraqué, Johanna Magdalena Beyer, Earle Brown, Ornette Coleman, Julian Carrillo, Roque Cordero, Luigi Dallapiccola, Paul Dessau, Eric Dolphy, Alberto Ginastera, Bill Hopkins, Erich Itor Kahn, Ernst Krenek, René Leibowitz, Luo Zhongrong, Elisabeth Lutyens, Bruno Maderna, Gian Francesco Malipiero, Donald Martino, Ernst Hermann Meyer, Charles Mingus, Darius Milhaud, Luigi Nono, Charlie Parker, Barbara Pentland, George Perle, Henri Pousseur, Priaulx Rainier, Alan Rawsthorne, Wallingford Riegger, Hilding Rosenberg, Peter Schat, Artur Schnabel, Humphrey Searle, Ruth Crawford Seeger, Roger Sessions, Ralph Shapey, Seymour Shifrin, Cecil Taylor, Sir Michael Tippett, Fartein Valen, Matthijs Vermeulen, Claude Vivier, Rudolf Wagner-Régeny, Stefan Wolpe, Bernd Aloïs Zimmermann, Gilbert Amy, Milton Babbitt, Alain Bancquart, Luciano Berio, Gerald Busby, Frank Michael Beyer, Simon Bainbridge, Sir Harrison Birtwistle, Pierre Boulez, Martin Boykan, Peter Brötzmann, Elliott Carter, Gloria Coates, Frank Corcoran, Mario Davidovsvky, Christoph Delz, Joël-François Durand, Pascal Dusapin, Henri Dutilleux, Philippe Fénelon, Brian Ferneyhough, Michael Finnissy, Beat Furrer, Fritz Geißler, Alexander Goehr, Roman Haubenstock-Ramati, Hans Werner Henze, Jörg Herchet, Philippe Hurel, Andrew Imbrie, Betsy Jolas, Günter Kochan, René Koering, Ulrich Leyendecker, Dame Elizabeth Maconchy, Ursula Mamlok, Claus-Steffen Mahnkopf, Finn Mortensen, Thea Musgrave, Serge Nigg, Mauricio Pauly, Matthias Pintscher, Aribert Reimann, Marga Richter, Fausto Romitelli, Andrew Rudin, Friedrich Schenker, Christfried Schmidt, Gunther Schuller, Wolfram Schurig, Camillo Togni, Peter Westergaard, Hugh Wood, Charles Wuorinen, Rolv Yttrehus and Ruth Zechlin.
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Click on the Image Above and the Image Below for Original Artwork
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Music Lists and Playlists:
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Click on the maestro below for a list of my favorite symphonies:
| Click on the diva below for a list of my favorite operas:
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Playlists from my "Lendall Pitts" YouTube Channel:
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Classical Music:
| Jazz:
| Popular Music:
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