PROGRAM NOTE
“Song and Dance” began its life as a nascent melody in the late eighties, employing a similar motivic cell as did three of my works written over a period of several years—East Wind, String Quartet No. 2 (Vistas), and Mirage. At the core of these three works is the simplest of melodic kernels: a note encircled by its two neighboring tones (and more specifically, a half step above and whole step below). At the time I envisioned writing a work for voice, oboe, and marimba, and had just begun it, only to drop it in favor of more immediate compositional assignments. Almost twenty years later, the vocal fragment finally evolved into the “song” of this work, played here by the soprano saxophone. But it seems that the “song,” all these years, had been waiting for its counterpart, a “dance.” Singing and dancing, two of humankind’s most basic and essential impulses, transcending time and place, reaching back to the earliest civilizations. The resulting composition “Song and Dance” moves back and forth between the two, delineating its various parts further with the use of both soprano and alto saxophones, partnered by mallet percussion instruments—mostly vibraphone and marimba, with bells added at the very end of the work. The song portions return to the same melody, varied and evolved over time, as new materials are introduced in the dance sections, affecting the presentation of the recurring song music.
My gratitude to the Network of New Music for commissioning this work and allowing me the freedom to choose its format and instrumentation.
—Shulamit Ran
INFORMATION
Commissioned by the Network for New Music with support from the Philadelphia Music Project,
an artistic initiative of the Pew Charitable Trusts, administered by The University of the Arts
Premiere: April 25, 2007
Haverford College, PA
Network for New Music
Duration: c. 13’
RECORDING
Recorded by Carrie Koffman, saxophones and Ben Toth, mallet percussion on Carillon Sky, Impermanence Records IMP 13
SHEET MUSIC
Available from your favorite sheet music seller, or directly from Theodore Presser.