Marionette (2012)
For clarinet, bassoon, trumpet, trombone, percussion, violin and double bass
7 minutes
Program Notes
Marionette was composed for Sleeping Giant’s collaboration with Ensemble ACJW. Tasked with creating a companion piece to L’Histoire du Soldat, each Giant crafted a very personal response to the Stravinsky. We called the collection Histories because through developing our responses it was as if we were all discovering our own personal histories with the work.
For my piece Marionette I approached L’Histoire like a puppeteer. I selected two beats of Stravinskian ephemera, and then cut, layered and reordered them to create something new. Geppetto-like, I carved musical phrases from this composite material. As the piece unfolds, the phrases develop in a tentative, somewhat awkward way, gaining confidence as they grow, yet never losing a sense of their intrinsic, mismatched construction. Eventually, the music fully embraces its jagged edges and rough hewn seams, reveling in its idiosyncrasies as it reaches a loud, boisterous culmination.
Marionette was commissioned by The Academy—a program of Carnegie Hall, The Juilliard School, and the Weill Music Institute in partnership with the New York City Department of Education.
Premiere February 10, 2012 Ensemble ACJW, Helen Filene Ladd Concert Hall, Zankel Music Center, Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, NY
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Select Performances
March 6-9, 2014 Next Act Theater, Milwaukee, WI. Present Music.
June 11, 2013 Blue Nile, New Orleans, LA. Members of the New Orleans Symphony.
June 2, 2012 Atlas Theater, Washington, DC. Deviant Septet.
May 24, 2012 Issue Project Room, Brooklyn, NY. Deviant Septet.
February 14, 2012 Weill Recital Hall, New York, NY. Ensemble ACJW.