Recordings:
The following compact disc recordings are available commercially; click on the CD images for details of each album, as well as purchasing and streaming information. Additional audio and video recordings are available on YouTube and Soundcloud:
Transition & Apotheosis: Society of Composers, Inc., Vol. 35 (Navona NV6612, 2024). Features ten works by SCI composers, including Der Saus und Braus — character study after Elias Canetti (2017), performed by pianist Redi Llupa.
Improbable Encounters: Music of Joseph Klein (innova 873, 2014). This two-disc retrospective (CD and DVD) of works composed over nearly 30 years features performances by Helen Bledsoe, Christopher Deane, James Rodgers, Thomas Bloch, Andreas van Zoelen, Elizabeth McNutt, Eric Nestler, the Elgart/Yates Guitar Duo, and others.
Music from the University of North Texas Center for Experimental Music and Intermedia; Consortium to Distribute Computer Music (CDCM), Vol. 39 (Centaur CRC-3219, 2012). Includes Zwei Parabeln nach Franz Kafka (2006), conducted by Henry Gibbons and featuring Jeffrey Snider (narrator).
Facets 3: New American Music for Trumpet (Crystal CD-768, 2009). Features works composed for and performed by trumpeter John Holt, including Die Königskünderin (“The King-Proclaimer”) — character study after Elias Canetti, for solo trumpet (2006).
Equipoise: Music of Joseph Klein and William Kleinsasser (innova 611, 2005). Includes Occam’s Razor — seven studies for ten players (1994-99) and Der Leichenschleicher — character study after Elias Canetti, for solo contrabass (1997); featuring performances by bassist Todd Markey and the UNT Nova Ensemble.
CEMISonics: The Threshold of Sound; Consortium to Distribute Computer Music (CDCM), Vol. 27 (Centaur CRC-2407, 1998). Features works composed at the UNT Center for Experimental Music & Intermedia (CEMI), including Dog (after W.S. Merwin) for female voice, bassoon, and intermedia (1997), performed by Heidi Dietrich Klein and Kristen Wolfe Jensen.
Pathways: New Music for Trombone (Mark MCD-1629, 1998). Features works composed for and performed by trombonist Andrew Glendening, including Pathways: Opposing Forces, for trombone and chamber orchestra (1993), performed with the UNT Nova Ensemble.
Critical response to Improbable Encounters:
“Joseph Klein gives us the accumulated creativity of 30 years worth of works in his near-retrospective Improbable Encounters. … Pathways: Interior Shadows for its 21 minutes of modernist drama and vivid soundscaping is particularly worth hearing in its own right. … a good impression of a composer who does not stand still but is ever moving forward.” — Greg Edwards, Gapplegate Classical-Modern Music Review (March 2014)
“Here’s a special treat for the avant garde, contemporary classical fan. This CD-DVD combo set is a career retrospective of Klein reaching back 30 years, turning this into an audio catalog d’etre. Mainstream pop for people you just don’t get, this stuff is pretty out there.” — Chris Spector, Midwest Record (February 2014)
“There are no particular rules that [Klein’s] compositional path follows…. [B]esides the apparent range of orchestrations (trombone, flutes), there are incorporated such handy devices as rubber hoses, balloons, chains, hammers, plastic buckets, and various music boxes, from which are produced an atypical ‘classical’ sound—the kind once known to be used by [German industrial band] Einsturzende Neubauten during the ’80s. In any case, it is very interesting music that defies the classical and modern principles, and is closely associated with the electroacoustic and experimental scene, as well as a large part of the noise avant-garde. Recommended for unusual music lovers and those seeking new challenges.” — Terapija [original article in Croatian] (March 2014)
Critical response to Equipoise:
“I haven’t a clue what Joseph Klein’s music has to do with philosophy beyond titling this chamber piece Occam’s Razor, but it really doesn’t matter. The music just sounds good. … Like a sonic tickling with counterpoint gone awry, the first movement is a dizzying euphoria that’s actually enjoyable to listen to. Of course composers will be composers and if you’re into the head-trip, go right ahead and read Klein’s liner where he gushes all about the math behind the music. You know you want to…” — New Music Box (September 2005)
“[Literary] references aren’t essential to an appreciation of [Klein’s] Occam’s Razor, but they help underline its confident polyvalence and heighten its very real excitement. The most impressive ensemble work I’ve heard from a young composer in a long time….” —Bryan Morton, The Wire (December 2005)