B.Mus., University of Southern Mississippi (1981)
B.Mus., Manhattan School of Music (1983)
M.Mus., Manhattan School of Music (1984)
D.M.A., Manhattan School of Music (1987)

Principal teachers: Ludmila Ulehla, John Corigliano, Elias Tanenbaum

Deolus Husband was a composer who wrote more than two dozen mature works. Most of his works are vocal, often with multiple instruments and dramatic texts. Three of his last works were specifically for theatre or dance and at least two uncompleted works, Moonstruck and Orestes' Aria, were also intended for the stage. Many works also feature the bassoon, whether solo, like the Concerto for Bassoon Movement I (which is the given title, not a posthumous indication) or in chamber music settings. This emphasis was surely the result of the fact that the composer's companion was Edwin Alexander (deceased), a bassoonist and the leader of the Fiati Chamber Players which commissioned and premiered four of Husband's works.

While Husband is remembered as a lively personality, many of his works, both vocal and instrumental, have a distinctly morbid character. But rather than being a result of illness in his final years, themes of death began in his undergraduate work (the Dickinson settings) and continued up until his final years when lively themes enter into play. Indeed, his last completed work, Why I Live at the P.O., to a text by Eudora Welty, is probably his only work that could be described as comic!

Deolus Husband died of AIDS in New York at the age of 30 on November 13, 1989.

—Joseph Dalton

WORKS:

ORCHESTRA

Concerto for Bassoon Movement I
for: solo bassoon, 2(picc), 2,2,1,4,2,2,1,5perc,hp,strings
date: 1982

Dirge for Small Orchestra
date: c. 1981
note: work is included in 1981 undergraduate dissertation

Tainted Trees for Vocal Quartet & Orchestra
for: 2,2,2,4,2,2,1,4perc., hrp, pn/cele, strings, solo sop, mezzo, ten, bar
date: 1984

    The Lotus-Eaters... (Alfred, Lord Tennyson)
    A Poison Tree... (William Blake)
note: score reads: "to my teacher Ludmila Ulehla"
selected performances: The Manhattan Philharmonia, Patrick Flynn, conductor, Borden Auditorium, Manhattan School of Music, New York 4/19/85

Three Sketches for Orchestra
for: picc, 2,2,3,2/4,3,3,2,perc,pn,hrp,strings
date: unknown
note: probably an early work since the score has a Mississippi mailing address on it.

SOLO VOICE WITH INSTRUMENTS

The Angel
for: soprano, oboe, bassoon, piano
date: 1984
duration: 10:00
text: poem by William Blake
premiere: Fiati Chamber Players, 6/28/84

Four Women
for: soprano, flute, oboe, bassoon, violin, cello, percussion, harpsichord
date: 1986
duration: 19:00
The Widow's Lament in Springtime (William Carlos Williams)
    Rapunzel... (Sara Henderson Hay)
    Here Are My Black Clothes... (Louise Glück)
    Grandmother in the Garden... (Louise Glück)
note: see also Three Poems of Louise Glück
premiere: Fiati Chamber Players, 3/18/86
performances: Cheryl Bensman-Rowe, soprano, memorial concert, Bronx, NY 3/25/90

Milkweed and Summer
for: soprano, flute/alto flute, oboe/English horn, clarinet/bass clarinet, bassoon, piano
date: 1989
duration: 16:00
dedication: "for Edwin"
    ...the air fills... (instrumental)
    The Inlet (Louise Glück)
    ...the pod rattles...
    Milkweed (James Wright)
    ...the seaweed hisses
    Summer (text by?)
premiere: Fiati Chamber Players, Merkin Concert Hall, New York 2/23/89

Ringing the Bells
for: soprano, two mezzo-sopranos and tape
date: 1985
text: poem by Anne Sexton
note: location of tape part: ?

Rue of W. B. Yeats
for: baritone, flute, clarinet, cello, piano
date: 1986
duration: 17:00

The Coming of Wisdom with Time
    When You Are Old
    In Memory of Eva Gore-Booth and Con Markievicz
    Brown Penny
    The Lament of Old Pensioner
    After Long Silence
premiere: Manhattan School of Music, New York 12/3/86

Three Poems of Louise Glück
for: soprano, flute and piano
date: 1989
    Brennede Liebe (--1904)
    Here Are My Black Clothes
    Grandmother in the Garden
note: see also Four Women
recorded (Here Are My Black Clothes): Veronica Burke, soprano, Sudden Sunsets: Highlights from the Benson Series, Downtown Music Productions, Leonarda Records LE 354 (forthcoming)

Two Funeral Songs on Poems by Emily Dickinson
for: soprano, flute, oboe, viola, cello, guitar, percussion, piano
date: unknown
    I felt a funeral in my brain
    There's been a death in the opposite house

SOLO VOICE WITH PIANO

Five Songs on the Poems of Emily Dickinson
for: voice and piano
date: c. 1981
    Why do they shut me out of Heaven
    It might have been lonelier
    I can wade grief
    I've seen a dying eye/ I like a look of agony
    Somehow myself survived the night
note: score included in 1981 college thesis

Song on a Poem of Thomas Hardy "An August Midnight"
for: baritone and piano
date: unknown
note: score is grouped in one folder with and in same notation style as the piano works Hommage à Milhaud and Hommage à Brahms

Songs to Texts of Harry Cohen
for: treble voice and lead sheet (chord chart)
date: score copyrighted 1982
    You Gotta Sing
    Listen To Me
    With You
    Dreams Of Yesterday
    I'll Be With You
    How Do I Say Goodbye?

Two Songs (Dickinson)
for: voice and piano
date: c.1981
    As imperceptibly as Grief...
    The Morns are meeker...
performances: Manhattan School of Music, New York 11/11/81

CHAMBER

The following four chamber works are contained in A Collection of Original Compositions, published by The Honors College, University of Southern Mississippi, Hattiesburg, MS (1981):
    Preface for Brass Octet
    Sonata for Flute & Piano
    Sonata for Bassoon & Piano
    Five Movements for Wooodwind Quintet
(The collection also includes Five Songs on the Poems of Emily Dickinson and Dirge for Small Orchestra).

Brief Essays
for: clarinet, horn, cello, percussion
date: 1987
duration: 12:00
    Louisbourg: August 84
    Dialogue & Rounds
    Pensive... with an afterthought
premiere: Burgett Ensemble, Deolus Husband, conductor, The First and Second Church, Boston 11/8/87

Sinfonia for Nine
for: flute, oboe, clarinet, horn, bassoon, violin, cello, 2 perc.
date: 1982

Sonata for Clarinet & Piano
for: clarinet and piano
date: unknown

Sonatina: Trio for Oboe, Bassoon, Piano
date: 1984

String Quartet Movement I
for: string quartet
date: unknown

Sunday Morning
for: oboe and guitar
date: 1984
duration: 6:00

Xotiq
for: 2 trumpets, horn, trombone, tuba, piano, 3 perc.
date: 1986
duration: 6:00
note: inspired by the work of Frida Kahlo
premiere: Manhattan School of Music, New York 12/4/86

THEATRE/DANCE

Divertissement
for: oboe, clarinet, horn, bassoon
date: 1987
duration: 9:00
premiere: Toronto, 1/8-9/88
note: score to dance "Octapas" by Bengt Jorgen/Ballet Jorgen; score reads: "for Bengt Jorgen."

Pas de Deux
for: violin, cello, 2 perc., offstage piano, tape
date: 1986
premiere: International Dance Course, Guildford, England 8/5/86
note: a collaboration with choreographer Jeanin van Boven of Antwerp; score includes dance cues.

Psalm
for: actress (spoken voice), solo guitar, piccolo, bass clarinet, percussion
date: 1986
duration: 8:00
text: from Song of Solomon
premiere: Manhattan School of Music, New York 12/4/86

Why I Live at the P.O.
for: soprano, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, piano
date: 1988
duration: 20:00
text: short story by Eudora Welty
premiere: Fiati Chamber Players, Wave Hill, New York 3/13/88

SOLO INSTRUMENT

Hommage à Brahms
Hommage à Milhaud
for: solo piano
date: unknown
note: score is grouped in one folder with and in same notation style as Song on a Poem of Thomas Hardy

Essay for Piano
for: piano
date: 1985

CHORAL

Bonnie George Campbell
for: SATB and piano 4-hands
date: 1981
text: "Old Scot Ballad"

ELECTRONICS

From A Faraway Place
for: electronic tape
date: 1982
note: cassette in archive reads "MSM Studio" (Manhattan School of Music)

UNCOMPLETED WORKS:
Fireflies
for: orchestra

Four Days from the Diary of Virginia Woolf
for: small chorus (SSAATTBB) and woodwind quintet
I - Saturday 27 March, 1937
date: unknown

From C.P.E. Bach - Sonata in G Major W. 56/2 (Kenner und Liebhaber II,2)
for: flute, clarinet, violin, bassoon, harpsichord

Moonstruck
for: vocal octet (SSAATTBB) and percussion
note: score includes staging and choreography notes

Nocturnes
for: mezzo-soprano, clarinet, viola, piano
date: 1989 (final work)
I -This Life (Rita Dova)
second movement was to be a setting of "Two Figures in Dense Violet Night" (Wallace Stevens)
III - Night on Hatchet Love (Denise Levertov)
note: written for violist David Cerutti
performances: Kristin Nordeval, soprano, memorial concert, Bronx, New York 3/25/90

On Such a Night
for: voice

Orestes' Aria
for: bass, percussion, strings

Song for a Trouvere
for: tenor, piccolo/flute, percussion, trumpet, horn, trombone, violin
texts: by composer
date: unknown
I - War and Love
second movement uncompleted
III - At the Beach

Manuscript book containing the following:

Scripture for Chorus & Piano
for: SATB and piano
text: from New Testament

A Child's Grace
for: voice, piano
text: Robert Harrick

Miniver Cheevy
for: voice and piano
text: Edwin Arlington Robinson

Psalm 117
for: voice and piano

String Quintet (?)
Sketch for 2 trumpets and 2 trombones
And other sketches (unidentifiable)

WRITINGS:
Thesis for B.Mus., University of Southern Mississippi (April 1981).
Thesis for D.M.A., Abstract on the Thesis Four Women, Thesis Advisor: Jane Weidensaul.

DISCOGRAPHY:
"Here Are My Black Clothes," Veronica Burke, soprano, Sudden Sunsets: Highlights from the Benson Series, Downtown Music Productions, Leonarda Records LE 354 (forthcoming).

BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Unknown

PERFORMING RIGHTS AFFILIATION:
ASCAP

RESOURCES:
New York Public Library for the Performing Arts
40 Lincoln Center Plaza
New York, NY 10023-7498
www.nypl.org

Mimi Stern-Wolfe
Downtown Music Productions
310 East 12th Street Apt. 2H
New York, NY 10003
(212) 477-1594
dmpmimi@msn.com
www.downtownmusicproductions.org

MUSICAL EXECUTOR:
Maury Newburger (friend)
263 West End Avenue Apt. 22B
New York, NY 10023
(212) 874-2969
maurynew@hotmail.com

OTHER CONTACTS:
Unknown