Bibliography

Articles and Chapters on the Composer and Feature Interviews in Recorded Media (selected)

An interview with the composer. (read full text here)

Kyle Gann's appreciation of Zaimont's music describes her music as "subtle, vigorous ... elegantly professional [and] deeply felt" and the range in her works as "capable of thorny abstraction, but also of light atmosphere and humor." He concludes that "in some ineffable way, they all sound like her, and all very musical."

(read full text here)

Two-hour program featuring music by and interviews with Judith Lang Zaimont. (Zaimont’s “The May-fly” also used as title music for the entire three-volume series, broadcast 2002, 2003, 2004.)

"Zaimont is sensitive and articulate, and her descriptions of the composing process will answer some questions which may lurk in the reader's mind about how a ragtime piece is created, and how this compares with other forms of musical creation. Here you will find a discussion about tempos, for example, always a contentious issue among musicians. I can think of only a few people who would be able to discuss these matters as clearly and intelligibly as Judith Lang Zaimont."

Zaimont’s post-competition observations about her experience as Honored Composer in the American Composers Invitational competition, a new element for 2001 in the Van Cliburn International Competition.

(Read the full interview: Page 1 - Page 2 - Page 3 - Page 4 - Page 5 - Page 6 - Page 7)

"Composer Judith Lang Zaimont's contributions to the chamber literature for wind instruments, especially the product of the last 15 years, well exemplify the harmonic richness and attention to elaborate surface structures characteristic of the composer's music in general. With the exception of two early flute solos and a more recent duo and trio favoring the oboe, the clarinet is a central contributor to this repertoire. This article will focus on Zaimont's chamber works, especially the five quintets for mixed ensembles featuring the clarinet.

Zaimont's musical language, while very much her own, can be traced to two wide streams of musical influence. First, there is a strong underlying connection with the French tradition, most especially with those composers who helped to shape the musical world during the first half of our century, Debussy, Ravel, and that sometimes Frenchman, the Russian Stravinsky. Second, she has clearly absorbed a wide range of American idioms, to include the American symphonists from the 1940s and '50s, as well as aspects of Tin Pan Alley and Jazz. Her music routinely makes virtuosic demands of the players, yet, for the most part, these are grounded in traditional musical techniques....

... The sensitivity to color so characteristic of "...3:4,5..." is a quality we have found in all of Zaimont's compositions. Add this to a sure sense of musical drama wedded to a wonderfully intuitive sense of form, and a high level of instrumental virtuosity always in service of musical ends, and we find the voice of a composer who has thrived on American eclecticism. For the woodwind player, and the clarinetist in particular, here lies a wealth of contemporary music to explore.”

Description of composer's style, individual works for piano, and discography.

"Composers who are excellent pianists themselves instinctively tap into the piano's best resources. The works they create for the keyboard, feel, as well as sound, good. The piano music of Judith Lang Zaimont is a fresh example of this phenomenon. These sure-handed pieces are colorful, expressive, and inviting."

1-hour program featuring Zaimont’s music and commentary.

Books / Articles by Zaimont

Discussing the conception and composing of In My Lunchbox (the 2003 commissioned work for the Music Teachers Association of California).

(read full text here)

Rationale and framework description for two new new-music initiatives being launched in 2003 by the College Music Society. Earlier version of this talk given as Keynote Address in March 2003 for the Rocky Mountain regional chapter of CMS, and in condensed form as “Bolstering the Music of Our Time”:

(read full text here, also excerpt below)

Across the United States, we’ve heard concerns expressed repeatedly and separately - by composers and those performers who regularly program more recent music - about how to approach newer works, particularly as to whether a specific performance will turn out to be an awkward encounter or a stimulating experience. Equally, we encountered dismay at the limited frequency of performance of this repertoire (in aggregate). In today’s era, where newer music is simply called “contemporary,” it is enlightening to remember that Rachmaninoff, Berg, Stravinsky, Poulenc, Prokofiev, Gershwin and Copland were also chronological “contemporaries,” whose individual styles we now readily understand and keep distinct in our thinking and performance approach. Living composers also deserve to be approached and comprehended in the same manner, as the individual voices they are. What is needed is to provide an avenue of approach to the common goal of bringing these new notes truly to life that simultaneously respects both performers’ and composers’ points of view. Let’s begin from the premise that collaboration between composer and performer needs to take place -- mind-to-mind, sensibility-to-sensibility -- even across stretches of time and place. • No performer would wish to prepare and perform a particular new (or unfamiliar) piece with the mindset of an assigned task: Artists must and should have the freedom to choose their repertoire. • And no composer should belatedly discover that a rendition of one of their works reveals fundamental misunderstanding of the music’s nature: Composers need a means by which to distinguish their individual style and to pinpoint a manner of performance lineage that most readily suits their music.

Keynote Speech for March 2002 "Minnesota Classical Music Listening List" (Augsburg College), and October 2002 Keynote Address (Symposium on Women Composers -- Millsaps College, Jackson, MS). Earlier version River Falls, April 1999. Reprinted in condensed form in Sounding Board, the journal of the American Composers Forum, Volume 26 #7, July 1999; feature essay pps. 1, 6-7, 11.

(read full text here)

(read full text here)

International symposium on women and musical creativity

(read full text here)

Requested essay for Minnesota Composers Forum

Keynote Address for the Biennial Convention of Sigma Alpha Iota (music fraternity), delivered in Cincinnati - August 1993; also re-printed in Fall 1994 Newsletter of Women in Music - American Federation of Musicians newsletter. In revised form, delivered as an address before Minneapolis chapter of American Association of University Women (AAUW) - March 1995.

Originally an invited paper delivered at the National Museum of Women in the Arts, Fall 1988

See 'Awards as Author'

A project for the International League of Women Composers