About this dossier

What this dossier holds

This dossier follows the work of Frederick Tillis, the American composer, performer and teacher born in Galveston, Texas, on January 5, 1930. Entries are filed under four headings. Composition follows commands, forms and the forces a score asks for. Performance follows jazz, ensembles and the rehearsal choices that carry a piece from the stand to the stage. Teaching follows theory, improvisation and the methods that make a musical idea usable in a room. Words follows poetry, publications and the conversation between language and sound.

Who keeps it

A small editorial desk keeps the dossier. Its work is to read, to compare and to file, and it signs what it publishes. Each entry is written to be used: a reader preparing an evening of listening, a player learning a part, a teacher building a term, a researcher chasing a title and a year.

How an entry is written

An entry starts from a question a reader would ask, and it is answered with the material the desk has read. Where a fact comes from an archived page, the entry says which page and which year. Where a title, a force or a date is uncertain, the entry says so and shows the reading it followed. Entries are dated when they are filed and revised when a source changes.

How to read the dossier

Start with the heading closest to what you need. Each entry carries a short summary, then the sections a reader can jump to, then the sources read for it. The headings are cross-referenced, so a work discussed under composition can open into the ensemble that played it, the class that studied it, or the poem behind it.