Silhouettes (2004)
For solo marimba — in four movements
Dedicated with admiration and gratitude to Nathaniel Bartlett
Premiered by Nathaniel Bartlett on June 16, 2004, in New Jersey
Duration: 8 minutes
I: Like Toru Takemitsu crossed with Bill Evans
II: Like Stravinsky crossed with Thelonious Monk
III: Like Boulez crossed with Oscar Peterson
IV: Like Bartok crossed with Art Tatum
Program Note by the Composer
Silhouettes is a transcription for Marimba, made by Nathaniel Bartlett, of two movements of my solo guitar work, Dialogs, and of my Piano Etudes #2 and #4, which are part of my set of 8 Piano Etudes. I am indebted to Nathaniel and these works are dedicated with admiration and gratitude to him.
My favorite moment in any piece of music is the moment of maximum risk and striving. Whether the venture is tiny or large, loud or soft, fragile or strong, passionate, erratic, ordinary or eccentric...! Maybe another way to say this is the moment of exquisite humanity and raw soul. All art that I cherish has an element of love and recklessness and desperation. I like music that is alive and jumps off the page and out of the instrument as if something big is at stake.
My primary artistic concern is to communicate in an honest and passionate voice which can speak to people from all walks of life. I believe being faithful to my deepest inner promptings and creative urges offers me the best opportunity to communicate with any willing listener, irrespective of prior musical knowledge, professional training, or background.
One of my main artistic credos has for a long time been to do with examining small musical objects (a chord, a motive, a rhythm, a color, etc.) and exploring them from every possible perspective. The different perspectives reveal new musical elements, which I then transform and which in turn become the musical development. Thus my works take on a kind of organic, circular, self-referential quality, while at the same time, they clearly progress forward.
For 25 years, I have been listening to Jazz of all kinds. All of my music is influenced by Jazz and, in these short works for solo marimba, the perfumes of the influences are evident. Improvisation is a large part of my creative process. While in the end, all my music is fully notated, the process that leads me to my music is improvisatory and I write by ear, not by some outside dogmatic system. My music is also influenced by Takemitsu, Stravinsky, Boulez, and Bartok so I thought it would be fun to make compositions, as very small and modest homages, to the 8 composers listed in the titles of Silhouettes.
Movement I: Like Toru Takemitsu crossed with Bill Evans is elegant, refined, colorful and delicate in nature. Lush harmonies create a timeless floating, graceful arch that is introverted and soulful, abstract yet immediate and warm.
The second movement, II: Like Stravinsky crossed with Thelonious Monk is a punchy perpetual motion romp.
III: Like Boulez crossed with Oscar Peterson is three minutes of high energy in which 3 distinct layers of music crosscut one another in unpredictable, edgy, hiccup-like fits and starts.
IV: Like Bartok crossed with Art Tatum is also a succinct perpetual motion etude.
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