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Intermediate Masterworks for Marimba
Volume 2
Edited by
Nancy Zeltsman
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Cover photo by Liz Linder
Cover design by Stuart Cameron Vance
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FOREWORD
LIST
COMPOSER BIOGRAPHIES & PHOTOGRAPHS
MASTERWORKS
Louis Andriessen
Jude Carlton
Chen Yi
Fred Hersch
Betsy Jolas
Lyle Mays
Kaori Okatani
J. K. Randall
James Rolfe
Steven Stucky
Chinary Ung
Errollyn Wallen
Mouse
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FOREWORD
by Nancy Zeltsman
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WHERE DID THIS IDEA COME FROM?
Zeltsman Marimba Festival, Inc., founded in 2001, is an annual, two-week summer event that occurs in varying locations. It brings together 40 to 50 marimba-playing participants from around the world in a seminar environment. A series of public concerts celebrates its world-class faculty, with the aim of encouraging a wider appreciation for the marimba as a concert instrument. ZMF’s board and I already had in our collective mind that we might someday take on additional special projects, to be determined, as offshoots of the festival.
At the end of 2003, just before winter break, I had lunch with percussionist Nicholas Tolle (then a student of mine at The Boston Conservatory). We were discussing the shortcomings of the repertoire for marimba when Nick blurted out, “Someone should commission a bunch of intermediate-level marimba solos by serious composers.”
In an instant, I recognized the signi cance this could have for the repertoire, for marimba players, and maybe even the future of the instrument. “ZMF could do it,” I offered, absently, while coping with an internal avalanche of amorphous possibilities and rami cations. I already imagined this taking on huge proportions. I knew it would have greater impact if it did.
And so, through Zeltsman Marimba Festival, Inc., Project Coordinator Shawn Michalek and I launched ZMF New Music in October 2006. Its goal: to foster the creation, performance, publication, and recording of 24 intermediate-level concert pieces for solo marimba. Each composition is three to six minutes in length, scored for a marimba with a range of up to ve octaves (extending to the same low C of a cello).
The 24 new works are collected in Intermediate Masterworks for Marimba. Of these, 16 were commissioned works from some of the world’s most esteemed composers, and eight are winning entries of our own international composition contest. They are published in two volumes of twelve pieces each. We are honored for the collection to be issued by the internationally respected rm of C.F. Peters, which dates back to 1800 and published piano and chamber music of Beethoven, as well as his First Symphony.
The entire collection was premiered and recorded by the eight faculty members of Zeltsman Marimba Festival 2009 at Lawrence University in Appleton, Wisconsin. Both volumes of published scores and the double compact disc on Bridge Records were released by the end of 2009.
“HERE, THESE ARE FOR EVERYBODY!”
It came to me early on that the premieres should be shared. The seven marimbists I invited to join me are all performers who are dedicated to contemporary music and repertoire development, and whom I greatly admire for their musical intelligence and clarity of personal voice: Ivana Bilic, Thomas Burritt, Jean Geoffroy, Beverley Johnston, William Moersch, Gordon Stout, and Jack Van Geem.
I had a hunch that their various predilections would align well with the array of anticipated pieces. Matchmaking who-would-premiere-what was great fun for me. I’m grateful to these friends for going along with this and for their dedication in bringing these works to life.
We chose to release volume 1 on the same day as the Gala premiere concert (with volume 2 and the CD only a few months later). We waived the usual “term of exclusivity” (by which a commissioning body often has the sole rights to new works for a speci ed period).
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The idea was to get the pieces into many players’ hands quickly: ZMF 2009’s faculty members (named above, plus myself) are all active teachers who would rapidly disseminate the music to their students. Immediately releasing the books for sale would enable all students, teachers and professionals to dig into them as soon as possible.
“WHAT PIECE SHOULD I PLAY NEXT?”
Most of the substantial solo and chamber works for marimba are extremely dif cult—technically and musically—and predominantly in a contemporary musical language. They may include complex rhythms, unfamiliar elements and instructions in the score, and rapidly changing notes.
Meanwhile, off in another corner, are many catchy, pattern-based compositions comprised of simple, repetitive tunes and chord structures, usually in steady, even rhythm. They sound completely natural on the marimba, and some are wonderful works—even cornerstones of the repertoire. Percussionists are drawn to their “grooves.”
Many students grow up on the latter. It gets their hands moving and builds coordination. It’s fun. But such an exclusive diet limits growth as a musician, and it’s dif cult to nd your way from the latter to the former.
I was fortunate to have teachers who thoughtfully steered me to recognize the possibilities in myriad styles of pieces. This diversity widened my curiosity and provided the foundation on which I developed my musical judgment. So much rides on a teacher’s choice at the critical moment when a student is eager for a next-piece suggestion. It could open another window into the world of music or launch them in a new direction.
These pieces could also soar in the hands of advanced players or professionals and stimulate fresh programming ideas. In fact, presenters of major concert series may feel more con dent about promoting concert marimbists at major concert halls if they can offer audiences programs featuring more prominent composers such as these.
Since none of the commissioned composers are marimba players, they may offer us more broad-minded perspectives. They come from every genre of contemporary music, including popular and jazz backgrounds. Some are in uenced by music of other cultures. Some have made very interesting use of space in their new compositions—territory not always comfortable for percussionists.
SHORT STORIES
Essentially, these pieces are beautiful short stories, each an opportunity to delve into one style—one writer’s world—and soak it up in a just few pages. And then … you can try another! The breadth of styles represented here is impressive and was intentional: Shawn and I hoped for this to be a bouquet of many approaches, avors and paradigms. As a player’s repertoire grows, especially in terms of stylistic representation and knowledge, so does the player.
As Jack Van Geem points out, “Composers’ visions include new sounds and ways to variegate these sounds to create rich emotive textures. They include new sets of musical logic that teach us new ways of thinking. They expand us enormously by giving us music we must grow into.”
In describing to the commissioned composers what kind of pieces we sought, I cited Robert Schumann’s Scenes from Childhood (Kinderszenen) as a model. I played many solos in that collection as a student pianist when I was ten years old and was delighted to hear Vladimir Horowitz perform its famous Reverie (Träumerei) on a recital he gave in his 80s.
I believe Intermediate Masterworks for Marimba succeeds in offering music of inherent depth that one could strive to play artfully—and which may speak to minds and hearts—over many years.
HEADING UPHILL
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To our knowledge, the scope of this project is unprecedented. My stalwart collaborator was Shawn Michalek: Vice President of Zeltsman Marimba Festival, Inc., my personal assistant at ZMF, a composer, marimbist, and wearer of many other hats. It took nearly three years for us to get a handle on how this might work and muster the nerve to go forward.
ZMF New Music was nancially predicated on the idea of a “joint commission,” wherein a number of individuals pool resources, most often to obtain a single composition. We greatly expanded on this idea in terms of number of pieces and necessary resources. To further complicate the risk, fundraising took place concurrently with music being written so that a nished product could be achieved as quickly as possible.
Given all the interlocking facets of the project, developing a plausible timeline was daunting. Equally challenging was concisely and convincingly describing the intricate construct to potential sponsors. Ultimately, we were thrilled by the leap of faith and the af rmation of shared vision embodied in the contributions we received from close to 200 varied entities, representing many more individuals. All the major supporters are named below.
Additional generous contributions of a different kind came from the composers who submitted works to ZMF New Music’s Composition Contest. Their prize would be a premiere performance, publication, and recording, all in company with works by our commissioned composers. Over a period of 18 months, we received 150 pieces from 20 countries and selected 21 pieces as nalists. The eight winners were decided in July 2008 by a distinguished panel—William Kraft, Jack Van Geem, Amy Knoles, Peter Prommel and Orlando Cotto—along with Shawn and me.
Careful review was given to many of the works by both the faculty and participants of ZMF in 2007 and 2008. Shawn and I spent much additional time with the submissions. We often respond to rather different things in music, or scores, which turned out to be a real asset; it reassured me that every piece received thoughtful consideration. Lengthy discussions about certain pieces served to clarify our hopes and standards for the collection.
A complementary division of labor developed quite naturally. Shawn received, catalogued, and initially reviewed all the composition contest pieces; logged all the donations and kept the books; wrote the lion’s share of grants; maintained the web site; sent out all the e-mailings; and designed the yers and ads. I communicated with the commissioned composers, the performers, key supporters, and our publicist; reviewed every composition contest entry; computer-engraved eight of the pieces; and did the nal editing and proofreading of the music and text for the publications. Total number of emails between us, and hours meeting and on the phone? Countless.
RAISING THE BAR
We asked the composers to write an “intermediate” piece, which is, of course, a subjective term. In my experience, an intermediate player can conquer an isolated challenge (like a big reach or a complex rhythm), but not a series of tasks, one after another, that are challenging in a lot of different ways. My ideal is for students to feel comfortably challenged without being discouraged. If I could practically sight-read a piece and immediately ‘get’ anything quirky, it was a good sign that the former would be the case.
But I discovered, as the pieces came in, many were not readily sight-readable. On the phone with Steve Mackey one day, holding the receiver between my chin and ear, and struggling to play some of his rst draft for him, I said, “This is actually pretty tricky!”
Steve responded, “I gure it’s for the intermediate-level player of the year 2050.”
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And what is wrong with that? The bar is raised with every generation of musicians. This collection might be instrumental in raising that (marimba) bar! To that end, we must cultivate students’ musical imagination, encourage their explorations, deepen their range of expression and uncover the characters, colors, and nuances they may never have considered. When players begin to strive for higher musical ideals, technical advancement will easily follow.
If these works are challenging to this generation, they likely will be appealing and well suited to the next. In the interim, I hope players will see the title of the book (which, incidentally, was coined by Cayenna Ponchione) and think, “If this is ‘intermediate,’ I’ve got work to do!”
FOR FUTURE GENERATIONS
This is a sophisticated and stunning collection of pieces. The composers range in age from 18 to 83, hailing from across the U.S. and a dozen other countries: Canada, Belize, England, France, Italy, Netherlands, Sweden, Israel, China, Japan, Malaysia and Cambodia.
We greatly admire the world of ideas encompassed in the works of the commissioned composers: Robert Aldridge, Louis Andriessen, Carla Bley, Chen Yi, Fred Hersch, Anders Hillborg, Betsy Jolas, Lyle Mays, Steven Mackey, J. K. Randall, James Rolfe, Gunther Schuller, Paul Simon, Steven Stucky, Chinary Ung, and Errollyn Wallen. And we are grateful for the impressive contributions from the contest winners: Jude Carlton, Ed Haddad, Darren Jones, Gaetano Lorandi, Osnat Netzer, Kaori Okatani, Alvina Tan and Derek Tywoniuk.
I predict that several pieces in each book will quickly become “hits” that everyone will want to play. Some time down the road, I suspect there will a second wave—possibly a third—of certain pieces nding sudden popularity. That speaks to the depth of this collection and the debt we owe the writers represented here.
Over the years, my experiences working with composers have helped me enormously to grow as a musician. (Incidentally, I’m told this works both ways; they learn a lot from us too.) And so, we included “Notes to the Performer” in the books (whenever they were offered) for advice directly from the composer. The “Program Notes” and composers’ biographies are suitable for concert programs.
Of course, wonderful messages await in the scores themselves. Many concepts are revealed through different approaches to notation you will see here. In that way, this collection offers a rich, old-school view of the world of music—with some of the most amazing musical minds of today leading us down the path to ever-deeper levels of expression as musicians.
Choosing to be a marimbist carries with it the opportunity to be a pioneer. (How cool!) My mission has been to elevate the level of artistry in marimba performance—to increase the instrument’s stature. The gateway to achieving those goals is repertoire. I believe that what people play is as important as how they play it. We have needed much more substantive and quality music to cultivate a more savvy, competent next-generation of musicians whose vehicle for expression happens to be the marimba. My driving ambition throughout this project was for this collection to help alter the entire complexion of the repertoire.
As I hand this off to you, dear reader, my greatest hope is that this music provides endless hours of enjoyment and enrichment. Most great classical works have a back-story; speci c performers or patrons directly requested, commissioned, or inspired their creation. In that tradition, ZMF New Music provided a conduit through which marimba enthusiasts joined together to produce a varied and valuable collection of music for the instrument. These books are a fantastic testament to the camaraderie, dedication, and passion of so many marimba enthusiasts!
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My passion for, and obsession with, this project buoyed me through the many hours of work. It took over my life; but I will also miss it. It was a fantastic learning experience, and also tremendous fun—in large part because of sharing the journey with Shawn Michalek. Shawn and I made Every Single Decision About This Project together. Shawn: ZMF New Music would never have happened without your tireless commitment and work. Your sound judgment and integrity is a remarkable compass. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.
—Nancy Zeltsman
Artistic Director, Zeltsman Marimba Festival, Inc. Boston, Massachusetts
Nancy Zeltsman is founder and Artistic Director of Zeltsman Marimba Festival, Inc., and teaches marimba at The Boston Conservatory and Berklee College of Music. She has premiered over 125 solo and chamber works for (or including) marimba. Nancy is featured on seven marimba CDs, either as a soloist or in duos with Jack Van Geem (marimba) or Sharan Leventhal (violin, as Marimolin: 1985-1996). She has performed and presented master classes across the U.S. as well as in Europe, Japan and Mexico, and authored a marimba method, Four Mallet Marimba Playing: A Musical Approach for All Levels
THANKS
Nancy Zeltsman and Shawn Michalek wish to thank the many generous contributors to ZMF New Music; you made this possible! Our gratitude also goes to all the commissioned composers, everyone who submitted a piece to the ZMF New Music Composition Contest, Gene Caprioglio and Héctor Colón and the team at C.F. Peters Corporation, Nicholas Tolle, Cayenna Ponchione, Jack Van Geem, Steven Swartz, Linda Golding, Becky Starobin at Bridge Records, Bruce Davies, Lyle Mays, Samuel Z. Solomon, Mike Truesdell, and Jamey Haddad.
Shawn Michalek and Nancy Zeltsman, July 2009
Photo: claudiahansen.com
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We gratefully acknowledge the contributors who made this project possible:
BENEFACTOR
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In memoriam Joe and Martha Zeltsman*
National Endowment for the ArtsAccess to Artistic Excellence, 2009
The Sorel Organization
PARTNER
Clay Blackmore*
The Boston Conservatory
The Colburn School
Bruce Davies
Encore Mallets, Inc.
Korogi Co. Ltd.
Lawrence University Conservatory of Music
Shawn Michalek
Nanae Mimura
Yuya Misoo (bluemallet)
New Music Marimba
The Shillman Foundation
The University of Illinois Percussion Studio
The University of Texas at Austin
Jack Van Geem
Nancy Zeltsman
SPONSOR
BMI Foundation, Inc.
Bridge Records
Robert & Carolyn Buhts and Jane Reaves
Coe Percussion
DeMorrow Instruments
Eastman School of Music
Jean Geoffroy
Beverley Johnston
Takumi Kagaya
Momoko Kamiya
Pi-Hua Lee
Joe Locke & Pro-Mark Mallets
Marimba One
Mary Marsh*
Robert McCormick
Victor Oskam
Peter Prommel
Pustjens Percussion Products
Dane Richeson
Jeff Sass
Gordon and Christy Stout
Steve Weiss
Izzi Zeltsman & Renee Green*
CO-COMMISSIONER
Alonso Acosta
Robert Adney
Alabama Chapter of the Percussive Arts Society
Daniel Alameda
Dean Anderson
Thad Anderson
Andrew Andrzejac
Graeme Bailey & Cayenna Ponchione
Jeremy Barnett
John H. Beck
Joseph Beribak
Berklee College of Music
Percussion Department
Corey Bertelsen
Ivana Bilic
Matthew Bird
Jay Bordeleau
Sebastian Buhts
Robert Burke
Paula Burt
Brady Byers
The Calhoon Family
Mckenzie Camp
James Campbell
Casey Cangelosi
Chiao-Yuan Chang
Christine Chen
Kanako Chikama
Gary Cook
John Corkill
Manuel Costa
Aaron Cote
James Deitz
Ian Disjardin
Mark Ford
Bryant J. Fuhrmann
In memory of Adele & Alice Gammeter
Miguel Gonzales
Josh Gottry
John Grimes
Kendall V. Guischard
Elizabeth Guzman
Stanley Hecht
Heather Hill and Family
Lee Hinkle
Noriko Hirao
Doreen Hoang
Bodo Hoffmann
Hiroya Honda
Edward Hong
Chieh Huang
Carlos Johnson
Luanne Katz
Daniel Kennedy
Alexander Kim
Sean Kleve
Travis Knapp
Tatiana Koleva
Tomasz Kowalczyk
Yu-Chun Kuo
Saki Kurata
Setsuko Kutsuno
Morris Lang
Michael Lasley
Samuel Livingston
Ramon Lormans
Susan Martin Tariq
Marsha Meyer*
Michael and Lisa Michalek
Eric Millstein
Michael Mixtacki and Family
Michael Neumeyer
Josh Neyer
Fumito Nunoya
Asako Okamoto
Brian O’Neill
Jeffrey Otto
Eric Pancer
Patrons of ZMF 2007 - Appleton, WI
Dennis Petrunin
Michael Ptacin
Fred Redekop
University of Nebraska at Omaha Percussion EnsembleDr. Tomm Roland, Director
Ian Rosenbaum
Salazar Fine Tuning
Harold and Joyce Samuels
Marie Sato
Kurt Schleunes
Paul Schmidt
Robert Schulz
Charles Settle
Matthew Sharrock
Alison Shaw
Alexander Singer
Jonathan Singer
Aaron T. Smith
J.B. Smith
Samuel Solomon
Stephen Solook
Jonathan Szanto
Naoko Takada
Shiori Tanaka
Tanglewood Music Center
Percussion Section 2007
Sarah Tenney
Darrell Thompson
Nicholas Tolle
Michael Truesdell
UNLV Percussion Area
Robert Van Sice
Clara Warnaar
Laurent Warnier
Tracy Wiggins
David Wolf
Yuko Yoshikawa
Brian Zator
Sylvie Zakarian
Joseph Zeltsman
Stanley and Tina Zeltsman*
Xi Zhang
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Jude Carlton, residing in England, is completely immersed in music. When not playing or writing it, he nds himself listening to it, teaching it or conducting it. The three main ‘staples’ of his musical life are composition, percussion and piano. From 2003 to 2008, he attended the Junior Royal Academy of Music in London. He is now studying music at Cambridge University. Over the past year, Jude wrote incidental music for a production of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet and had a new orchestral piece performed in London. He also enjoys writing boogie woogies in silly time signatures and learning to play the squeeze box.
Louis Andriessen
Louis Andriessen is one of Europe’s most eminent and in uential composers and, in particular, a central gure in the Dutch contemporary arts scene. His music frequently combines propulsive energy, economy of material and distinctive sonorities dominated by pungent wind and brass, pianos and electric guitars. Oftentimes, his works show the in uence of Stravinsky. He has explored, in relation to music, the subjects of politics, time, velocity, matter and mortality in ve works for large ensemble: De Staat (1976), De Tijd (1981), De Snelheid (1983), De Materie (1985-88), and Trilogy of The Last Day (1996-97). A series of recordings of his music is available on the Nonesuch label. Andriessen teaches composition at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague. In 1999, he composed Woodpecker for marimba with wood blocks and temple blocks (one player), dedicated to Nancy Zeltsman, for the Tromp Muziek Concours.
Jude Carlton
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Chen Yi
Chen Yi is a Distinguished Professor at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. A proli c composer and recipient of numerous awards including the Ives Living Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, Ms. Chen blends Chinese and Western traditions, transcending cultural and musical boundaries. She has been commissioned by Yehudi Menuhin, Yo-Yo Ma, Evelyn Glennie, the Cleveland Orchestra, BBC, New York and Los Angeles Philharmonics, Seattle and Singapore Symphonies, St. Paul Chamber and many others. Chen Yi was the rst woman to receive a masters degree in composition in China in June 1986, at which point she presented an evening concert of her orchestral works in Beijing performed by the Central Philharmonic of China. Her composition teachers included Wu Zu-qiang, Chou Wen-chung, Mario Davidovsky and Alexander Goehr.
Fred Hersch
Fred Hersch is a versatile master of jazz piano, as well as a relentlessly probing composer and conceptualist. Described as “a poet of a pianist” by The New Yorker, he has released more than two-dozen albums as leader, twenty as collaborator and appears as a sideman on sixty more. His work as a composer is an integral part of all of his live performances and includes more than sixty recorded jazz compositions. Among his many honors are a 2003 Guggenheim Fellowship in Composition, two Grammy nominations for Best Instrumental Performance and a Grammy nomination for Best Instrumental Composition. As a composer of concert music, he has been commissioned by The Gilmore Keyboard Festival, the Opus 21 Ensemble, The Miller Theater at Columbia University, The Brooklyn Youth Chorus, The Gramercy Trio and many others. His concert music is published by Edition Peters.
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Lyle Mays
Lyle Mays is best known as the pianist/ keyboardist of the Pat Metheny Group which he founded with guitarist Metheny in 1974. Mays has composed proli cally for the PMG, both on his own and in collaboration with Metheny, often providing the complex harmonic and metric backbone of the group’s musical signature. Their most recent co-composition, The Way Up, can be heard on the Grammy Award winning thirteenth album by the Pat Metheny Group, released in 2005. In addition to Mays’ albums as a leader, Lyle Mays, Street Dreams, Fictionary, and Solo: Improvisations for Expanded Piano, some of his concert chamber compositions have been recorded including Somewhere in Maine, for violin, marimba and pre-recorded sounds (by Marimolin, with Nancy Zeltsman, marimba); and Twelve Days In The Shadow Of A Miracle for harp, ute, viola and synthesizer (by the Debussy Trio).
Betsy Jolas
Betsy Jolas came to the U.S. in 1940, completed her general schooling, then returned to Paris in 1946 to continue her studies with Darius Milhaud, Simone Plé-Caussade and Olivier Messiaen. Prize winner of the International Conducting Competition of Besançon (1953), she has since won numerous awards. From 1971 to 1974 Betsy Jolas replaced Olivier Messiaen at his course at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique of Paris and was appointed to the faculty in 1975. She has also taught at Tanglewood, Yale and Harvard, to name a few. In 1992 she received the Maurice Ravel Prix International and was named “Personality of the Year” for France. In 1994 she was awarded the Prix SACEM for the best première performance of the year for her work Frauenleben. Her works have been widely performed throughout the world and twelve have been recorded, several of which received grand prize gramophone awards.
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J. K. Randall
J. K. Randall has described himself as a “pitchfreak.” He was born in Cleveland in 1929, and lives in Princeton, NJ with his wife of 57 years, two dogs, a turtle, and a cat. He studied piano with Leonard Shure and composition with Herbert Elwell, Alexei Haieff, George Thaddeus Jones, and Milton Babbitt, and taught at Princeton University from 1957 until his retirement in 1991. In the early ‘60’s, he and Godfrey Winham inaugurated a computer music facility at Princeton, using a modi ed version of Bell Laboratories’ Music IV program. He has composed for piano, voice, violin and computer, marimba and violin (Svejk), saxophone and percussion, C-Sound, and most recently for Midi. Writing words, and especially words about, or re ective of, music, has been focal for Mr. Randall, as exempli ed in Compose Yourself and Being About Music (2 volumes, with Benjamin Boretz). Words, scores, and CDs are available on the Open Space label.
Kaori Okatani
Kaori Okatani, born in Wakayama City, Japan, is a composer and pianist who teaches at Kobe Jogakuin University in Japan. She earned her Bacheolor of Music in Composition from the same institution, and her Masters degree from the Ecole Normale de Musique de Paris. Ms. Okatani has received commissions from Orchestre de Flutes Français, Ensemble Octandre, Ensemble EAR, and her music has been performed internationally. Music she composed for lm was recorded by Octuor de France in Paris. She won the International Jeunesses Musicales Competition prize in composition (Belgrade). As a pianist, she performed a Haydn concerto with the Kansai Philharmonic Orchestra at the age of 13, and went on to win many prizes including 2nd Prize at the U.F.A.M. International Music Competition in Paris. Visit her web site at: www.geocities.jp/paris_raf ne.
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James Rolfe
Toronto composer James Rolfe has been commissioned and performed by ensembles in Canada (including Continuum, Esprit Orchestra), the U.S. (Bang on a Can All-Stars and Cassatt Quartet), Europe (Ives Ensemble, Nash Ensemble, and Nieuw Ensemble), and New Zealand (175 East). He is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2000, the K. M. Hunter Music Award in 2003, the 2005 Louis Applebaum Composers Award, and the 2006 Jules Léger Prize for New Chamber Music. He has received grants and commissions from The Canada Council, The Ontario Arts Council, The Toronto Arts Council, The Laidlaw Foundation, Opera Ca, and CBC Radio. Mr. Rolfe has written for chamber ensemble, orchestra, choir, voice, and the operatic stage. Swoon was premiered in December 2006 by the Canadian Opera Company, which has since commissioned a new opera to be premiered in 2012. In 2001 he composed The Connection for solo marimba/ speaker for Nancy Zeltsman.
Steven Stucky
Composer Steven Stucky was awarded the 2005 Pulitzer Prize in Music for Second Concerto for Orchestra. He has written commissioned works for many of the major American orchestras and ensembles. In 2008, Mr. Stucky composed Four Postcards for marimba and wind quintet. Mr. Stucky has taught composition at Cornell University since 1980 where he serves as Given Foundation Professor of Composition. He is also active as a conductor, writer, lecturer and teacher. Stucky’s relationship with the Los Angeles Philharmonic is the longest such association between an American orchestra and a composer. Appointed Composer in Residence in 1988 by André Previn, Stucky is now Consulting Composer for New Music, in which capacity he works closely with Esa-Pekka Salonen. He studied at Baylor and Cornell universities with Richard Willis, Robert Palmer, Karel Husa, and Burrill Phillips. He lives in Ithaca, NY.
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Chinary Ung
Chinary Ung, born in Takeo, Cambodia became an expert in Khmer music and a master of the roneat-ek, the Cambodian xylophone. He came to the United States in 1964 where he studied clarinet at the Manhattan School of Music, and then composition with Chou Wen-Chung and Mario Davidovsky at Columbia, and with George Crumb at Tanglewood. Among his many honors and awards are a Grawemeyer Award for Music in 1989 for Inner Voices (recorded by the American Composers Orchestra under Dennis Russell Davies), and the Kennedy Center Friedheim Award in 1989 for Sprial (recorded by Aequalis Ensemble). In addition to many recordings of his compositions, he has also annotated and featured his Cambodian xylophone playing on the Folkways and Khmer Studies Institute labels. He is currently Professor of Composition at the University of California, San Diego.
Errollyn Wallen
Errollyn Wallen, born in Belize, gave up her training at the Dance Theater of Harlem, New York to study composition at universities in London and Cambridge, England. She is as respected as a singer-songwriter of pop in uenced songs as she is a composer of contemporary new music. Ms. Wallen has been commissioned by music institutions from the BBC to the Royal Opera House and has performed her songs internationally. Recordings include two albums of songs: Errollyn and Meet Me at Harold Moores, both featuring her vocal/piano performance; and the classical solo album The Girl in My Alphabet The Errollyn Wallen Songbook published by Peters Edition comprises twelve of her celebrated songs for voice with piano accompaniment. Her lm Falling (made with Dan Farberoff and choreographer Henri Oguike) was short-listed for the VideoDansa Barcelona International Prize 2009. In June 2007, Wallen was awarded an MBE for her services to music in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list.
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Mouse Running by Louis Andriessen
Program Note
Mouse Running was commissioned by Zeltsman Marimba Festival, Inc. through the special project ZMF New Music. Gordon Stout premiered Mouse Running on July 5, 2009 at Lawrence University in Appleton, Wisconsin, and recorded the piece for the double-CD, Intermediate Masterworks for Marimba (Bridge Records). Instructions for downloading one’s own individual score appear in volume 2 of Intermediate Masterworks for Marimba, a collection of 24 concert pieces published in two volumes (C.F. Peters Corporation).
Notes to the Performer (from Louis Andriessen – Amsterdam, August 2009)
Following a request from Nancy Zeltsman, I thought of writing an etude for marimba solo which would be generated by a computer program. The instructions I gave to the computer programmer, Johan van Kreij, along with compositional parameters, were roughly as follows:
A mouse at the top of a mountain (the highest note of the marimba) sees an enemy approaching. He starts running as fast as he can (N.=76) down the other side of the mountain (a random chromatic scale). He is smarter than his enemy and does not take the shortest way: sometimes he turns left or right or goes backwards a little. Sometimes he runs on the spot for a while (repeated notes) or he waits (some rests) very quietly with a trembling heart. After further twists and turns he arrives in his little hole in the nick of time (after three minutes).
The program generates the music randomly: each version is different in every detail. In other words, each performer will produce his or her own Mouse Running. You may like to try generating a number of different versions to choose from.
A Note of Advice (from Nancy Zeltsman)
Notice the occasional use of a treble clef with a small “8” hanging off the clef. This signi es to play the music an octave higher than is designated by a typical treble clef.
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Mouse Running
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Drawing by Marit Törnqvist
Louis Andriessen (2008)
Summary (from Johan van Kreij)
MouseRunning is an application that will generate a score of the marimba solo Mouse Running. Each time Mouse Running is used, it will create a unique score. The uniqueness is indicated with a version code (for reference). MouseRunning can create a score in either A4 or US Letter format; the user is given this choice when the application is launched.
MouseRunning is not able to generate a score document directly. Instead it generates an html page where all the coding is combined, along with the images, to form the layout of the score. The html code can be read and printed within any web browser. MouseRunning has been created with the software MaxMSP from Cycling ’74 (www.cycling74.com).
How to Install MouseRunning
Visit http://www.boosey.com/mouserunning
For technical assistance please contact: info@louisandriessen.nl
ISUU Version
For perusal only
Remember, Marimba by Errollyn Wallen
Program Note
Before starting this piece, I spent some time considering the history of the marimba. I decided to try to imagine–and to try to capture–some of the secrets and ghosts of this marvelous instrument’s origins.
The piece typi es my love of rhythmic and melodic patterns that weave together in often asymmetric ways, all the time keeping in mind the centuries’ journey of wood. Towards the end of Remember, Marimba, I take and extend a theme (played on the marimba) from the second movement of my Concerto for Percussion and Orchestra, thus continuing the notion of memory and recollection to the history of my own music.
–Errollyn Wallen
Remember, Marimba was commissioned by Zeltsman Marimba Festival, Inc. through the special project ZMF New Music. Thomas Burritt premiered Remember, Marimba on July 5, 2009 at Lawrence University in Appleton, Wisconsin, and recorded the piece for the double-CD, Intermediate Masterworks for Marimba (Bridge Records). The printed music appears in volume 2 of Intermediate Masterworks for Marimba, a collection of 24 concert pieces published in two volumes (C.F. Peters Corporation)
For perusal only
Errollyn Wallen (2009)