Ki no Uta   (2007-2008)

Solo Percussion, Electronics

Commissioned by Gwendolyn Burgett
Available on Boomslang: New Music for Marimba (Blue Griffin Records 189)

(excerpt)

Program Note

Ki no Uta ("Wood-Song") was written with the idea of exploiting the expressive potential of wooden instruments typically associated with more purely coloristic, rhythmic, or punctuating roles. In addition to marimba, the percussionist plays temple block, güiro, and claves; these small instruments attempt to "sing" expressively while the marimba typically remains reticent, speaking primarily in sustained tremolo chords. The electronics consist of modified sounds of a shō (Japanese mouth organ), almglocke, cymbal, and violin, as well as human vocal sonorities, which are difficult to perceive until near the work's end at which point the echo of a sixteenth-century motet's harmonies can be heard. As the work progresses, the electronic textures become denser while the percussion's material becomes more bare, culminating in a subsumption of the soloist in a sustained, gently repetitive harmonic stasis that that fuses nearly imperceptibly with the marimba's final extended tremolo.