While never intending or studying to become a composer, CutTime Productions’ founding artistic director Rick Robinson, after transcribing the first two dozen symphonic works for the mixed octet CutTime Players, slowly began producing high-quality amateur compositions in 2003. All of these works cut across the grain of critical avante garde aesthetics to modernize and even Americanize the common practice period of German-romantic tradition 150 years before. They offer satisfying alternatives to the modern listener, whether new to classical music or not. Only two of the tracks below have been commercially recorded. And so, expect occasional mistakes and synthesized (MIDI) performances in the linked recordings. Robinson intends to offer them complete and free in the spirit of love and agape.
Original Variations on a Theme By Paganini for Unaccompanied Double Bass (1983)
Technically the first complete composition by Rick Robinson, he began writing this set of popular variations after securing his first quality double bass during his junior year enrolled at the Cleveland Institute of Music. Listen to his live performance via SoundCloud.
Double bassists may download and enjoy playing this highly-virtuosic work for FREE. The Challenge level is 10.
Essay No. 1 (After Sibelius) (2003)
Launching his composing career during his first decade transposing famous symphonic works for his first ensemble CutTime Players, Rick Robinson had a vivid dream with the beginning of this music after a famous quote of Jean Sibelius’ 3rd Symphony; a quote that suggests the main theme and plays a recurring role. This fully romantic-style work, the bold orchestration, contrast and emotional conclusion set a high baseline for his subsequent works. The key is basically C-major and the Challenge level for large orchestra is 9.
It is worth noting Robinson reduced this orchestration for CutTime Players+ to dramatize Martin Luther King’s famous “I Have A Dream” speech in 2003. That recording is not available.
Listen to the premiere by the Detroit Symphony Orchestra via this SoundCloud link:
Essay No. 1 (After Sibelius) 20:00
With the 2006 premiere, Detroit Free Press music critic Mark Stryker called Robinson “an armchair composer with promise and a taste for fleshy romantic textures and orchestration.”
Tom Wachunas of ClevelandClassical in 2022 described it: “The work is a complex continuous narrative, dense with contrasting motifs that sweep across a vast, intricately textured soundscape of constantly shifting colors and dimensions. Every section of the ensemble had a clear and strong voice in this emotional conversation, speaking in stirring crescendos, from gentle moments of euphoric reflection, into louder strident passages. Like navigating through dark storms, the orchestra sailed to a lovely parting of the clouds with eloquent finesse.”
Sextet for Strings in A-major (Mighty Love Suite) (2007)
Robinson’s first multi-movement work is a rich, melodic, memorable five-movement work for 2 violins, 2 violas, violoncello and double bass. It was created to start his second outreach ensemble CutTime Simfonica® and a story that describes the first five stages of romantic love, including dating, sex, infatuation, merging, and a marriage proposal. These are deeply emotional works with several lighter themes that include frequent humor, frolicking, an argument, and many obvious, dramatic surprises exploiting the richness of conventional composition techniques. This is one of the works to win Robinson a Kresge Artist Fellowship in 2010.
For sextet only, the complete length, taking all repeats, is 50-minutes. The Challenge level is 10.
Listen to a live performance by Chamber Music North on SoundCloud via these links:
Introduction 12:20 Encounters 10:00 Fun & Games with Pastorale 10:30 Serenade 6:00 Celebrations 11:30
Idyll for solo English horn and strings (2008)
This walk in a paradise garden illustrates Robinson’s talent for deriving meaningful expressions from very famous works. Gustav Mahler’s 9th Symphony offers the thematic and harmonic seed in D-major. A full quote from the Mahler forms the first climax, followed by a yearning section in alternating 5/4 and 5/8. This can be performed with English horn, 2 violins, viola, violoncello and double bass and should work with string orchestra. The solo part also works for tenor saxophone, clarinet, or bassoon. The Challenge level is 8.
Listen to a synthesized performance via this SoundCloud link:
Idyll for solo English horn 8:30
Gigue Rondo for solo oboe and strings (2008)
This very lively 6/8 gigue in rondo form (ABACABA) is another inspired derivative; this time from JS Bach’s 3rd cello suite. It is Americanized by a dreamy 2nd theme giving way to an extendable, improvisational “rock groove.” The middle section is a clever fugue juxtaposing 6/8 with hemiolas. The work is in G-major for solo oboe, 2 violins, viola, violoncello, and double bass. String orchestra should also work. Alternate solo instruments include viola, flute, clarinet, and alto sax. The Challenge level is 8.
Listen to the live premiere featuring oboist Sally Pituch with CutTime Simfonica via this SoundCloud link:
Gigue Rondo for solo oboe 9:30
Gitcha Groove On! (2009)
If his previous works might be called European-romantic styles, Robinson began to develop his American-romantic styles with this work that weaves urban pop and folk elements with common classical development techniques. This is his continuing effort to draw new American listeners into classical music through accessible simplicity and what should be familiar musical elements from popular culture. He introduces this work as “six orchestra musicians going club-hopping after playing a Brahms symphony, looking for dance grooves that are just as cathartic. Between each club they consider music history and the influences of popular and folk music on classical, such as fanfares, Romani and Latin.”
The work is in G-major and is available for string quartet (drums optional), string sextet (drums optional), and orchestra with single or double winds. The Challenge level is 7. The drums are optional, but add a lot.
Listen to two versions performed live via these SoundCloud links:
Gitcha Groove On! with CutTime Simfonica 10:00
Gitcha Groove On! with River Oaks Chamber Orchestra 10:00
Pork ‘n Beans (2009)
Perhaps Robinson’s most popular work, Pork ‘n Beans featured heavily in his club classical series 2010-2020. The music features a hot, funky counterpuntal 1st theme alternating with a spicy, Latin-inspired 2nd theme, as if they were bites of hot foods we chew on, until the heat builds to a crisis relieved by the sweet cole slaw of the slow section. The work has newcomers to classical music listening for and appreciating contrasting themes and dramatic development. It is ideal for music education and audience interactions as they can join the fun of music-making from their seats playing toy percussion such as eggshakers whenever the 2nd theme and its derivatives return.
The work also has a expandable “jam” section for optional jazz improvisation; else players will play the written solos. The work starts in d-minor and modulates frequently. The Challenge level is 9. Same as Gitcha Groove On! above, Pork ‘n Beans is available for string quartet (drums optional), string sextet (drums optional), and orchestra with single or double winds. Note the quartet version cuts the cole slaw section.
Listen to two versions performed live via these YouTube and SoundCloud links:
Pork ‘n Beans with CutTime Simfonica quartet 7:00
Pork ‘n Beans with CutTime Simfonica sextet premiere 9:00
Pork ‘n Beans with Michigan Philharmonic 9:07
Elegy (NAEBk1) (2009)
The sudden death of a DSO colleague’s charming wife (Kay Ellen Murphy) prompted this authentic expression of grief. You may notice Bach, Broadway and Jewish influences, as well as an Elvis quote in the orchestration. It began a series of several works for grieving lost loved ones that Robinson began calling “New American Elegies,” currently with 9 “books.” The work is in d-minor with the original for string sextet, and for orchestra double-winds. The Challenge level is 8.
Listen to the live premiere by CutTime Simfonica® via this SoundCloud link:
Elegy for string sextet 7:05
Elegy orchestrated in 2s 8:00 (premiered in 2019)
Highland Park, MI: City of Trees (2009)
Another big hit by Robinson made popular in the club classical series is this autobiographical work set in his gritty hometown within the city of Detroit. Henry Ford built a Model-T factory there and planted many thousands of elm trees as the housing infrastructure grew in the 1920s. By the time of riots in the late 1960s, however, these towering, well-trimmed trees needed to be cut down because of rampant Dutch elm disease, leaving the city nearly devoid of any trees. Robinson used this as a metaphor for the flipping demographics and newfound cultural rejection of mainstream education that left Highland Park scarred and even hostile to book-learning. A good student wakes up looking forward to school learning, but has to walk a gauntlet of bullies and under-achievers both to and from school. Bittersweetly, no one can take away that love of learning just by tearing up a book or two.
The episodic work begins in G-major, quickly turning to e-minor. Influences include hip-hop, gospel, “islander,” and jazz. Versions include string quartet, quintet and sextet, and then orchestra triple-winds. The Challenge level is 8.
Listen to two versions via these SoundCloud links:
Highland Park, MI: City of Trees with CutTime Simfonica 9:20
Highland Park, MI: City of Trees with Michigan Philharmonic 9:25
First Grief NAEBk2 (2011)
This deeply affecting modern elegy for his father features some jazz “improvisations” on its way to helping the composer and listeners let go. It is officially Book 2 of Robinson’s New American Elegy series. There are versions for string quartet and sextet with optional drums. The key is d-minor and the Challenge level is 7.
Listen to a sextet reading via this SoundCloud link:
First Grief with CutTime Simfonica 8:00
Music for Art As A Weapon: Five Scenes of Frida and Diego in Detroit (2015)
The 16 short movements that accompany the stageplay by Louis Aguilar revolve around the 1932 painting of the Diego Rivera mural in the Detroit Institute of Arts, Frida Kahlo, and Henry Ford. The music features a large number of contrasting styles, Mexican flavors, and emotional undercurrents. Because these are unlikely to be performed without the context of the play, Robinson is considering consolidating these works into a single concert suite for orchestra. The premiere LIVE recording here features a solo trumpet (Paul Roache) with the CutTime Simfonica string quartet and percussion. The Challenge level is 8. Social Suicide is a standalone work Robinson later used to engage the street poets of the Urban Requiem Project.
Listen to the live premiere from the pit via these SoundCloud links:
Overture 1:00 Scene 1 Arrival 1:00 Arrival Reprise :25 Walter Reuther Social Suicide (NAEBk3) 2:10 Jitterbug 1:00 Factory Symphony 1:00 Frida Disgusted 3:02 Frida’s Letter 2:35 Intense :20 Mourning :45 I Paint My Reality 1:12 Art As A Weapon :47 Debate Fugato 1:35 Curious Spectacle 1:30 Polacca 1:31 Ending :45 (Complete Art As A Weapon 25:00)
Model-T Magic (2018)
This short work Robinson composed for the dedication ceremony of the Detroit Skybridge imagines Henry Ford cranking up his prototype motor and going for a spin. Symbolically, he begins flying around the city in this car as skyscrapers rapidly rise beneath and they fly out of sight. One of two works originally written for his mixed octet CutTime Players, this one he then transcribed for string quartet and sextet with the essential drums that symbolize Ford’s heartbeat and the motor. The Challenge level is 8.
Listen to a live performance of the string sextet version via this SoundCloud link:
Model-T Magic with CutTime Simfonica audio only 3:00
Model-T Magic with CutTime Simfonica at DIA YouTube video 3:00
Breathe, Out (2018)
This short work Robinson also composed for the dedication ceremony of the Detroit Skybridge, which featured an interesting sequence of colored lights that blink on and off. As such, this music forms a meditative sequence of non-harmonic colors coming back around to consonance. It exists only for the mixed octet original. The Challenge level is 5.
Listen to the synthesized performance via this SoundCloud link:
Breathe, Out with MIDI 4:20
Phantom Detroit (2019)
Commissioned for the Art X Detroit series with a grant from the Kresge Foundation, Robinson partnered with the three poets of the Urban Requiem Project for a 3-movement work blending street poetry, a jazz piano trio, a solo jazz artist, and string quintet. The work focuses on issues of gentrification in the struggling city from the perspective of longtime residents seemingly forgotten or ill-fitted to the “new economy” growing around them. A variety of urban pop, jazz and other styles blend with classical for this emotional rollercoaster. The middle movement “Stuck” is a standalone blues-gospel hybrid for improvisational strings and drums. The challenge level is 7 and requires conductor.
Listen to the live premiere (sorry for the poor quality) featuring poets Virgil Taylor, Kevlar Afrika, Claretha “Peace” Bell, the D-Mac Jazz Piano Trio, jazz violist Leslie DeShazor, and CutTime Simfonica via these SoundCloud links:
Phantom Detroit 1 10:17
Phantom Detroit 2 “Stuck” 7:45
Phantom Detroit 3 10:05
Listen to a live performance of the string version of Stuck. 7:00
Let The Children Play Part 1 (NAEBk4) (2020)
The first of his Pandemic-era compositions actually began shortly after the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in 2012. Robinson became musically stuck a few minutes in, until seven-years later he became physically stuck at home during the first months of Covid-19. Taking the perspective of parents whose only child was killed in this most-shocking tragedy, this riveting narrative of hope, love, shock and determination seemed to raise Robinson’s expressive, dramatic powers to another level, esp. with the powerful coda that is continued in Part 2. It is written for the string sextet in the key of Bb-major. The Challenge level is 8.
Watch this 2022 public premiere by CutTime Simfonica via this YouTube link:
Let The Children Play Part 1 8:00
Funeral March (After Morricone) (NAEBk5) (2020)
Composed during the first summer of the Covid-19 pandemic, Robinson grew despondent over the massive deaths of millions around the world. And then the death of Italian composer Ennio Morricone suggested a dusty, “spaghetti western” scene to him. The work features many musical styles (including some jazz) and popular references (Autumn Leaves), as the recurring funeral cortege grows ever more intense to reveal the origins of the main theme. It is scored for string sextet and drums. An orchestration is planned. The initial key is g-minor. The Challenge level is 9.
Watch this 2022 public premiere by CutTime Simfonica via this YouTube link:
Funeral March for Morricone 12:15
Romance Indeed (2020)
This lighthearted, romantic work brought great relief during the first year of the Covid-19 pandemic. Girl (violin I) meets boy (viola) at the college library and they have this meandering conversation after it closes. Inspired by Robinson’s great patron Mrs. Barbara Van Dusen, their conversation goes much further, however, combining elements of Mozart, Prokofiev and Schumann. For string quintet (2 vln, vla, vc, bass), the key is D-major and the Challenge level is 9.
Watch this 2022 public premiere by CutTime Simfonica via this YouTube link:
Romance Indeed 7:35
Essay No. 2 (Never Forget) (NAEBk6) (2021)
Written directly for large orchestra during a time when it was forbidden to be in the hospital with loved ones dying of Covid-19, Rick Robinson created a highly-charged elegiac drama, complete with a song for honoring them. (Chorus: “Never forget I love you. I will remember you! And forever will I carry you inside me evermore!”) Rather a set of variations on the very opening, the music bids us to break out the pictures and videos, and tell stories, to share, laugh and cry so they live on through us. The starting key is Bb-major and the Challenge level for orchestra is 8. The work includes humor, exuberance, and catharsis. (3333.4331 Timp strings)
Listen to this synthesized performance via this SoundCloud link:
Essay No. 2 (Never Forget) 11:15
Let The Children Play Part 2 (NAEBk7) (2021)
A dramatic follow-up elegy with another Sandy Hook victim-family raising other children including a toddler born since. The parents have to navigate extremely difficult emotions while fighting a court battle against the gun manufacturer and the conspiracy theorist lying that their kid’s death was fake. The opening picks up with the coda of Part 1 (in Bb-minor), and continues it to a 2nd theme (“I miss him every day”). This leads to lighter moments when the kids will be kids, through heavy memories, the song/pledge Never Forget, and eventually a vision of the missing children in a heaven-like grace. But this music is not for the feint of heart. An orchestration is likely. The Challenge level is 8.
Watch this 2022 public premiere by CutTime Simfonica via this YouTube link:
Let The Children Play Part 2 12:30
Percy’s Farewell (NAEBk8) (2021)
While Dr. Percy Licardo Moore passed away back in 2018, Robinson kept his promise to write him “a little piece with his name on it.” Dr. Moore was a beloved ecumenical studies professor at Wayne State University, and art collector, who befriended the composer in his final years, when they had many deep discussions over dinner and little shopping trips as his body was giving out to cancer. Moore’s autobiography can be purchased on Amazon. The music is soulful, inquisitive, mystical, and celebratory, scored for the string sextet (2 vln, 2 vla, vc, bass). The key is e-minor and the Challenge is 6.
Watch this 2022 public premiere by CutTime Simfonica via this YouTube link:
Percy’s Farewell 8:45
Chaconne: For Interesting Times (NAEBk9) (2021)
In reaction to the increasing devastation both natural and man-made seen around the world, Robinson suddenly burst forth with his most powerful elegy in the form of a Baroque chaconne . This stoic music laments the current state of the world and a harder future coming, all while appreciating what we are losing. He composed both a sextet version alongside the orchestration (3333.4331.4 perc strings). The powerful theme shocks us and the subsequent eight variations are repeated with various instrumentation. The key is b-minor throughout, and the Challenge level is 6.
Listen to both versions via these YouTube and SoundCloud links:
Chaconne: For Interesting Times with CutTime Simfonica and film 10:30
Chaconne: For Interesting Times with synthesized orchestration 10:30 (premiered April 2023)
Concertino for solo and orchestra (2023)
This commission by Allegheny College premiered on April 29, 2023 with bassist Kobe Coleman and the Allegheny College Civic Symphony.
Listen to a MIDI draft via this SoundCloud link:
Concertino for solo double bass and orchestra MIDI draft 8:00
This is the end of the complete portfolio of Rick Robinson’s compositions. Be sure to download the latest CutTime® eCatalog that includes most if not all of these works, most of the transcriptions and arrangements for CutTime Players and CutTime Simfonica®, and a few other customized arrangements. Robinson’s chamber compositions (inc. standard string quartet) are available for purchase, while several orchestrations are available as rentals.
Always contact info@cuttime.com for rental details and pricing.