Robert Savage was a composer who spoke in diverse languages — the dance rhythms of the Caribbean zydeco, Chopinesque keyboard flourishes, the lilt of 1930s and '40s American popular song, Stravinsky's ostinati, the pulsing patterns of Minimalism - fusing them into a post-modern voice all his own. Savage's broad compositional vision reflects his persona as a seeker - outwardly traveling to the Middle East, Latin America, and Europe; inwardly reaching toward the essence of Buddhist Enlightenment and finding ultimately creative expression in the face of AIDS.

Born of American parents in Saudi Arabia, Savage came to the United States as a teenager. He received a BA in music from Columbia University in 1975 where he studied with Jack Beeson. In subsequent years he studied privately with Ben Weber, Ned Rorem, David Diamond, John Corigliano, and David Del Tredici. Intensely engaged by the natural world from childhood, Savage took lengthy solo hiking trips in the 1970s and '80s in Central and South America, the Pacific Northwest, Florida, and the Southwestern mountains and deserts. These explorations not only provided compositional inspiration, but they also introduced Savage to indigenous musical forms. The zydeco, a popular dance form he encountered in a year's stay in New Orleans, became an important rhythmic force in his works.

A student of Zen Buddhism, Savage founded a Buddhist meditation group for persons with AIDS at the Gay Men's Health Crisis in New York City. During a stay at Zen Mountain Monastery in Mount Tremper, New York, he also wrote several essays published in the Monastery's journal, The Mountain Record, which relate his Zen practice to his experiences of nature.

—Severine Neff (adapted from liner notes) (used with permission)

WORKS:

ORCHESTRA

An Eye-Sky Symphony
for: orchestra
date: 1988
duration: 15:00
    The Eye-Sky
    During Fire
    Endless Spring
recorded: Polish Radio National Orchestra, J. Suben, conductor, Robert Savage: An Eye-Sky Symphony, CRI CD 790
note: first movement originally titled "Breakthrough," "Dark Night of the Soul" and later "Jalal."

CHAMBER

Elegy
for: cello and piano
date: 1988
duration: 6:00

Frost Free
for: clarinet and piano
date: 1987
duration: 6:00
recorded: Musicians Accord, Robert Savage: An Eye-Sky Symphony, CRI CD 790

Rhapsody and Meditation
for: violin and piano
date: 1984, 1985
duration: 19:00
note: originally titled Two Pieces for Violin and Piano with movements reversed (Adagio and Andante)

Rondo, Op. 9
for: solo flute
date: 1983
duration: 10:00

Sudden Sunsets
for: flute, bass clarinet, violin, cello, piano
date: 1989
duration: 14:00
recorded:
Musicians Accord, Robert Savage: An Eye-Sky Symphony, CRI CD 790
Downtown Music Productions, Leonarda Records LE 354 (forthcoming)

Sweet Sorrow
for: oboe and piano
date: 1986
duration: 5:00

Theme and Variations, Op. 5
for: oboe and bassoon
date: 1982
duration: 11:00

Trio, Op. 3
for: clarinet, violin, cello
date: 1977
duration: 20:00

Tune From Mount Tremper
for: solo flute
date: unknown
duration: 3:00

PIANO

AIDS Ward Scherzo
for: piano
date: 1992
duration: 10:00
note: composed at Lenox Hill Hospital, New York
recorded: Sarah Laimon, piano, Robert Savage: An Eye-Sky Symphony, CRI CD 790

Amazonian Barcarolle
for: piano 4-hands
date: 1984
duration: 7:00

Chaconne, Op. 7
for: piano
date: 1982
duration: 10:00
note: written at The MacDowell Colony

Cowboy Nocturne, Op. 2
for: piano
date: 1975
duration: 3:00
recorded: David Del Tredici, piano, Robert Savage: An Eye-Sky Symphony, CRI CD 790

Dance of Avoidance
for: piano
date: 1992
duration: unknown
note: the 18-page score has no final double bar.

Disco and Elegy, Op. 6
for: piano
date: 1982
duration: 8:00

Four Seasons
for: piano
date: 1991
duration: 19:00

Jungle Salon
for: piano
date: 1988
duration: 10:00

Nervous Liturgies
for: piano
date: 1993
duration: 6:00
note: last composition

Six Little Preludes for Piano, Op. 1
for: piano
date: 1974
duration: unknown (8-page score)

Sonata No. 1 "The Taconic"
for: piano
date: 1990
duration: 23:00
note: score bound together with Sonata No. 2.

Sonata No. 2 "The Peconic"
for: piano
date: 1991
duration: 20:00
note: score bound together with Sonata No. 1.

Sonatina in D, Op. 4
for: piano
date: 1979
duration: unknown (7-page score)

Three Escapist Nocturnes
for: piano
date: 1992
duration: 12:00

VOICE

Five Poems of Gerard Manley Hopkins
for: soprano and piano
date: 1982
duration: 14:00

Florida Poems
for: soprano and piano
date: 1984
    Nomad Exquisite
    Indian River
    Two Rivers in Dense Violet Light
    Of Mere Being
    O Florida, Venereal Soil
    Fabliau of Florida
text: Wallace Stevens
duration: 15:00
recorded: Christine Schadeberg, soprano, Sarah Laimon, piano, Robert Savage: An Eye-Sky Symphony, CRI CD 790

In the Blue Ridge
for: medium voice and piano
date: 1988
text: Richard Foerster "A Spell in the Late Winter for Robert Savage"
duration: 8:00

UNCOMPLETED WORKS:
Various sketches in archive

WRITINGS:
Articles, under the name Robert Genjin Savage, for The Mountain Record, Zen Mountain Monastery, Mount Tremper, New York (1991-92):
The Woods Are No Escape; Wilderness Camping As A Retreat; The Avatamsaka On A Rotten Log; Death: As Common As Life; Internal Ecology; What's the Opposite of Practice: An Artist's Perspective on Self-Imposed Limits; Review of The Eye Never Sleeps by Dennis Genpo Merzel; Review of The Practice of the Wild by Gary Snyder; New York City Community Begins AIDS Outreach.

DISCOGRAPHY:
Robert Savage: An Eye-Sky Symphony: Cowboy Nocturne, Sudden Sunsets, Florida Poems, An Eye-Sky Symphony, AIDS Ward Scherzo, Frost Free, performances by Musicians Accord, David Del Tredici, piano, Sarah Laimon, piano, others. Composers Recordings, Inc. CRI CD 790.
"Sudden Sunsets," Downtown Music Productions, Sudden Sunsets: Highlights from the Benson Series, Leonarda Records LE 354 (forthcoming).

BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Composer brochure available from Rosalie Calabrese Management (see Resources).

PERFORMING RIGHTS AFFILIATION:
ASCAP

RESOURCES:
For collection of scores, and parts for An Eye-Sky Symphony:
Rosalie Calabrese Management
Box 20580
Park Station West
New York, NY 10025-1521
(212) 663-6620
fax (212) 663-5941

For some scores, and parts for Sudden Sunsets:
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:
(Ms.) Pat O'Hara (friend)
2 Washington Square Village
New York, NY 10012
(212) 674-0832

OTHER CONTACTS:
Larry Osgood (friend)
Box 575
Germantown, NY 12526
(518) 537-3504