Meditation

for solo marimba and electronics

Ian T. Jones

Level: Med-Advanced

Duration: 8:00-13:00

Release Date: 2022

Product ID : TSPCS22-002

Price: $16.00

Item #: TSPCS22-002

Formats Available:

About delivery methods

Download Audio

Description

Ian T. Jones describes Meditation as "an art piece written to allow listeners, or the performer, to meditate." With an unconvential score layout, much of the piece is improvisatory in nature, reminiscent of works by Terry Riley and Steve Reich. The three sections each feature different types of indeterminacy, with repeat counts and section durations largely being up to the performer. With this in mind, Jones further describes the piece as "a study of one's self."

A central feature of this work is the use of a multi-track looping pedal in the middle section. After establishing a simple ostinato on the first track, the performer layers in patterns from a number of measures floating on the page. The order and extent to which they introduce the patterns is entirely up to choice. This technique culminates in an otherworldly, swirling soundscape, before the performer fades back to the acoustic instrument and moves on in the piece. Jones has crafted a special experience for performer and audience alike, with each performance being truly unique to the moment!

Meditation ships as a printed, professionally-bound folio with a full-color cover.

Instrumentation

Solo Marimba — 5-octave*
Looping pedal
Amplification system

*possible on low-A marimba with some alterations (indicated in score)

Reviews

Written to encourage (or elicit a sense of) meditation from audience members, this 8- to 13-minute piece is built almost entirely on overlapping sixteenth-note patterns and improvisatory elements that are played over the top of these looping ideas. With almost all of the notes based on the natural keys of the marimba, and with patterns centered around major seconds, thirds, and perfect fourths, it is easy as an audience member to get “lost” in the aural atmosphere that is created when these pitches blend together, morph, and shift from one pattern to another, and complement each other while creating pulsing harmonies.

From a technical performance standpoint, the actual note playing is not difficult. The entire piece can be played with two mallets, and there is nothing more complex than sixteenth notes at quarter note = 112. The challenge comes when you factor in the electronic prep work required, and the subsequent acoustical/volume balance adaptation that will come in a recital hall, as well as the melodic/pattern improvisation that happens in the middle of the piece.

Having said that, once a performer lives within the compositional and electronic world of this piece for a few practice sessions, it should be very easy to understand the composer’s intent, and equally as easy to put an individual performance stamp on a recital stage.

—Joshua D. Smith
Percussive Notes
Vol. 60, No. 4, August 2022