tape (audio) playback

Composed in memory of David Gamper, who was Schwartz's student at Bowdoin College from 1964 through 1970, this work is to be performed simultaneously with a CD (Audio) recording of sounds created by Gamper. The background recording features a collection of sounds created by Gamper during his college years that have been assembled, edited, and processed by Schwartz into an accompaniment for a live performer. The score is a set of instructions for the performer, including improvisation notes from the composer.  David Gamper (1945-2011), Bowdoin class of 1967, was a composer-performer-sound artist, among others, was a member of the highly influential Deep Listening Band along with Stuart Dempster & Pauline Oliveros.

Benedetto sia 'l giorno e 'l mese e l'anno              Blessed be the day and the month and the year
e la stagione e 'l tempo et l'ora e 'l punto             and the seasons and the time and the hour and the moment

redbird express (2010), for solo digital media, is an aural whirlwind journey through the internationally and topographically rich neighborhoods pierced by the No. 7 train of the New York City subway system Flushing Line. This line was the last in New York to see the World’s Fair era cars retired in 2003. Painted a red hue, the cars were nicknamed “Redbird.” After their retirement nearly 1300 retired Redbird cars were sunk off the US coastline to create artificial reefs. As a child, the composer visited the 1964 World’s fair in New York and was allowed by a conductor to push the button that opened the Redbird train’s doors upon arriving at the fair in Queens. Little did the composer know his fascination with these trains would turn musical 45 years later while visiting the city for the first annual New York City Electroacoustic Music Festival.