Philip Carlsen

Vibraphone and Marimba

Composer's Note:

This piece is inspired by English change-ringing, a tradition going back centuries which involves systematically and mathematically changing the order of bells as they're being rung. I used a traditional change-ringing pattern called "Grandsire Triples" as my road map for the piece. It begins, as do all change-ringing performances, with "rounds," where the bells are rung in order, 1234567. Then three adjacent pairs of bells switch places, giving 2135476. The next set of switches gives 2314567, and so on, in a string of seventy specific permutations until the bells come back into rounds again. Along the way, the piece explores several contrasting moods, and offers plenty of rests where the listener's ear can focus on the lingering vibrations of the instruments. The technique of dead strokes allows the vibes player to selectively dampen individual notes from a clangorous cluster, in effect drawing out three- or four-note chords that were "hidden" in what was previously an undifferentiated wash of sound.