Composer
Vocal & Opera
Minerva: Times Change (2019)
Opera – about 2 hrs
In this touching & campy "new Baroque opera," Niccolo Seligmann's recitatives connect Handel arias into a story of gods & humans spanning centuries. Will Warrior Princess Bracciana avenge her mother's violation? Can Walt compose his way out of slavery? Can a new app teach people—and gods—to love? Premiered by Into the Woods Productions in Richmond VA, June 2019.
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Fallen Angel (2019)
Monody for voice & any instrument – about 5 min
Originally written for bass-baritone Jonathan Woody, this wistful vocal solo uses original text to narrate the resilient queer romance between a human and a fallen angel, set on a cold, rocky island after an unidentified cataclysmic climate event. The score is formatted like medieval monody: a single line and stemless noteheads, to allow for maximum freedom for an accompanist playing any instrument.
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Cyclical Gratitude (2019)
Hymn for vocal consort – about 3-8 min
Originally written for vocal ensemble The New Consort, this piece expresses gratitude for the microbiome inside each of us, reframing the first-person experience of bodily decomposition as a gift to our microscopic kin. Each singer chooses from a set of options for each "phase" based on their neighbor's choices, progressing through phases organically as a group. Sounds different with each performance.
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Instrumental Music & Tunes
Excerpts from Kinship (2020)
Viola da gamba solos – about 15 minutes
Select transcriptions from Niccolo Seligmann's 2020 viola da gamba improvisation album, Kinship (Split Log Productions.) Kinship expresses multispecies resistance to extractive capitalism & white supremacy. This music calls on settlers to reframe our relationships with our other-than-human kin, work that must include Indigenous sovereignty and self-determination.
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Renaissance Dance Collection (2020)
Dance tunes for any instrument – 8 tunes
These dance tunes are based on 15th-and 16th-c. Italian & Burgundian "balli" and "bassadanze," written as part of Alkemie's program Sweet Friendship & Sacred Monsters' program La Gelosia! The balli in this collection have sections in different proportions of the same tactus. The bassadanze in this collection are "tenors" to be improvised over, as were the historical models.
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A Sett of Tvnes in the Celtick Tradition (2019)
Tunes for bass viol & Celtic players – 6 tunes
The original tunes in this collection are written in the Celtic tradition with a bass viol player in mind. Tunes are typeset in font EMS_Serenissima (free, from EarlyMusicSources.com), based on the look of 17th-c. movable type printing. Excerpts from this collection can be found in treble clef by searching for Niccolo Seligmann on the-session.org.
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Poetry & Libretto
The American Promise (2020)
About Time (2011-2020)
Full-length performance libretto excerpts below
Art song texts
Who are
The People?
The Promise
of Peace
The Long
River
Fallen
Angel
Now the Lark
is Silent