String Quartet #6, "The Urban" Track #1 At the conclusion of a very successful concert tour that brought The Amernet String Quartet with Maestro Kaufman as their guest artist, across the United States and into Mexico concluding with four concerts in New York City in the spring of 2005, the quartet commissioned Kaufman to write a new string quartet for them. The work was finished this summer and is a true tour de force for the ensemble. Kaufman said upon conclusion of his 6th String Quartet, "I wanted to write an eclectic composition that reflected the numerous strong qualities of this ensemble. Our trip to the "Big Apple" lingered strong in my mind and I could not but help reflect upon the city that I was brought up in and loved so much. This is a complex composition that on one hand stresses the beauty of the cities' skyline, parks, rivers & people through lingering solo lines and on the other hand the highly complicated nature of it's intellectual & business community as reflected in it's difficult Carteresque rhythmic layers of 3 against 4 against 5 against 6 or 4/5/6/7. New York City is a Jazz metropolis and that medium certainly played a strong role in my early years as a maturing trumpet player and composer. Jazz inflected phrases have therefore seemed to find a way into many of my compositions and this certainly holds true in the last part of The Urban Quartet. Fredrick Kaufman’s String Quartet #6, “The Urban,” was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize in composition by noted composer Lukas Foss in 2006. ThunderGate Suite, from the musical production, Kaminarimon Track #2 Kaminarimon, is a multi-cultural theatrical production, whose name is derived from an extraordinary arch in the center of Tokyo that is the entrance to one of Japan’s most prestigious Buddhist temples. The English translation of the word Kaminarimon is Thunder Gate. In a series of contrasting interwoven sections, Fredrick Kaufman presents a unique approach to fusing the wild sounds of Japanese instrumental music along with the passion generated by Spanish flamenco dance and it’s Gypsy oriented vocal/guitar tradition. Kaufman’s production of Kaminarimon is divided into four sections. The music on this recording, THUNDER GATE SUITE, is derived from the second part of the production and includes the sounds of three taiko drummers performing on an assemblage of Japanese drums ranging in size from 3 feet to 22 feet , a shaku-achi (Japanese flute) player, 4 flamenco dancers a gypsy singer and two guitarists. The percussionists are led by taiko drummer Ben Miller and his Fushu Daiko Ensemble. Jorge Alfano is the featured saku-hachi player with all vocals performed by the gypsy vocalist Yiyi (Francesco Javier Orozco). Sound Engineer for this recording was Vadim Chislov. Karen Fuller was principal consultant to the Artistic Director and Composer Fredrick Kaufman. Sam R.Weiss was the producer of this recording. ThunderGate Suite will be featured on all international flights of Continental Airlines In Flight Entertainment during May & June 2010. Yin & Yang: A Dialogue for Two Grand Pianos Track #3 Yin & Yang are regarded by the Chinese as being the balancing, harmonizing factors of the universe. They are opposite energies that are totally dependent upon each other to survive. Yin energy is always found inside of yang and vice versa. They always interact with each other just as the two piano parts do in my composition entitled, Yin & Yang. There are three elements that make up the composition Yin & Yang, two modified tone rows and a driving accented rhythm with it’s own dominating pitches. The pitches of the first tone row are initially presented in a quiet whole note introduction that is developed as the work evolves. These pitches are immediately presented in a highly energized unison section in four octaves that plays a dominant role throughout the composition. That highly charged rhythmic theme concludes in the final section of the work with a four-part fugue that leads to a recapitulation of the original theme. A second modified tone row appears a third of the way into the composition in the form of a gentle dialogue between both pianos and immediately goes through a transformation of several different moods. Throughout the work I have tried to present the two pianos with the yin/yang interdependency concept in mind. Most typical of this certainly appears in the rhythmic section of the composition where the two forces find themselves in a game of ping-pong utilizing a driving accented rhythm and the pitches of d flat and e flat plus several jazz oriented motifs as they forge ahead relentlessly. Yin & Yang is made up of numerous mood shifts in which I attempt to show off the beauty, energy and percussiveness of the piano. In order to achieve those moods I have utilized several twentieth century piano techniques including glissandos and tone clusters for colour and energy purposes. Yin & Yang was commissioned in 2003 by the Murray Dranoff International Two Piano Competition. The performers on this recording is the Tosheff Duo Piano Team. A Bud For Bloom Track #4 & 5 

A Bud for Bloom was commissioned by Sara Lambert Bloom on the occasion of her husband’s 80th birthday celebration at Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall in 1988. It was premiered by: Julius Baker, a former member of the Bach Aria Group and a 30-year veteran as principal flute with the New York Philharmonic; 
Richard Woodhams, principal oboe of the Philadelphia Orchestra and a former 
Bloom student; and the brilliant concert pianist of Tchaikovsky Piano Competition award winning fame, Susan Starr. 

 Although the work is divided into 2 movements, all activity in the composition is 
a metamorphosis of the motif presented in the first four measures. The first 
movement dramatically explores and develops these materials harmonically, 
melodically & rhythmically. However, all energy appearing in this movement is 
meant as a prelude to the fugue that starts off the second movement. 
This movement is a combination of Baroque counterpoint, Mahleresque passion 
of old Vienna & jazz motifs, all reflecting Kaufman's impressions of what Robert Bloom 
was really all about. Meditation For A Lonely Flute Track #6 In 1971 I moved my young family to Israel where I had accepted a position as an Assistant Professor of Composition at the Rubin Academy of Music in Jerusalem. Life was exciting and wonderful and we loved living in a country where cultural activities reigned supreme. Tickets for the Israel Philharmonic concerts were perpetually sold out and there where more museums, dance companies, orchestras, chamber concerts, art colonies, debates and philosophical energy being explored by a country smaller than the state of Rhode Island but with as much activity as the largest metropolises in the world. All of this came to a crashing halt when Israel was invaded on two fronts by Egypt and Syria on the High Holy days of Yom Kippur, hence what became known as the Yom Kippur War of 1973 ensued. For 10 days the war raged and at it’s end I found myself sitting in the Sinai Desert with my new found army friends waiting to get back to my family in Jerusalem. I remember sitting on a sand dune watching a band of scavenging saluki dogs roam the area in search of food & was struck by the gracefulness of these elegant animals. I remember watching sagebrush skipping along unobstructed and the perpetual white noise sound of wind whipping over the sand that eventually permeated every pore of your body. But there was also a beauty about the serenity of the dessert that I will never forget. I wrote “Meditation for a Lonely Flute” shortly after my return home. In it, I attempted to reflect & recapture the mood I felt while seated on that lonely sand dune in the desert. The composition was featured in a documentary film shortly thereafter and was given a special award by the Ministry of Culture. “Meditation for a Lonely Flute” is available through the Theodore Presser Company of Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania. The beautiful sounds of the flutist on this recording are by Adeline Tomasone. Wild Wind Track #7 For many years I have been fascinated with the dexterity and sound capabilities of the clarinet family. I have therefore written several works that explore the flexibility of this instrument… i.e., Concerto for Clarinet and Strings, Clarinet Quintet, 5 Moods for Winter (harp, percussion & Bb clarinet), The Wooded Forrest (Clarinet Ensemble), Nodus and Sudon (both for a clarinet and piano). Wild Wind is a tour de force for bass clarinet that was written for the true master of the that instrument, Henri Bok. When I first heard Henri in concert I knew that there wasn't anything I could write for the bass clarinet that he couldn't play. I therefore felt that I could express my most inner thought and that they would be performed as I perceived it. This is a passionate, uninhibited, urban composition that takes full advantage of the technical possibilities of the instrument. Wild Wind explores the outer ranges of the instrument, is modal at times, jazz oriented at other times, makes full use of numerous extended techniques including, amongst other things, extensive knowledge of alternate fingerings, flutter tonguing and the capability to sing and perform at the same time. Inner Sanctum 
 Track #8 I have always been partial to the elegant sounds of the Violoncello. 
I find its mysterioso quality intriguing and have written some of my most 
personal works for that instrument. In 1985, when both of my parents passed away within six months of each other, 
I found it difficult to carry out the traditions of a normal mourning period as dictated by Jewish law. Instead, I wrote a Concerto for Cello and String 
Orchestra, entitled, “Kaddish.” Kaddish is the Jewish prayer for the dead. 


 In the mid 1990’s, when I was commissioned to write a work in remembrance of 
the six and a half million souls whose life was needlessly taken away from them 
in the Holocaust, I once again chose the cello as my means of expression in a 
work entitled “Lachrymose”, A Concerto for Cello and Symphony Orchestra. 
Lachrymose is the Latin word for a tear. 

 In Inner Sanctum, I feel that I have finally comes to grips with my feelings about 
religion and am now able to move on to other plateaus. 
I have always found a particular freedom when writing for string instruments 
and have therefore written a considerable number works for that family. In Inner 
Sanctum, I have employed numerous string techniques such as glissando, 
pizzicato, double & triple stops & natural harmonics throughout the 
composition. The music begins with a plaintive cry in the form of two long 
glissando from the lowest note on the cello through two octaves coming to rest 
on middle C & D respectively. This is followed by an Eastern European style of 
Jewish melody that keeps reoccurring throughout the work. Mid way through 
this tour de force for solo cello, the music becomes quite frenetic and after a 
wild exploration of sound and flowing lines the work once again returns to the 
soulful melody and draws to a peaceful ending with a final pizzicato, 
designating the period at the end of a long sentence. The performer on this recording is Andres Diaz.