Chamber Music Marimba,
alto Saxophone
SKU:
PR.114423770
Composed
by Stacy Garrop. Set of
Score and Parts. 16+12+16
pages. Duration 11
minutes. Theodore Presser
Company #114-42377.
Published by Theodore
Presser Company
(PR.114423770).
UPC:
680160688579.
When
RoseWind Duo’s
Clifford Leaman and Scott
Herring commissioned me
for Silver Linings, we
could not have
anticipated that we would
be in the middle of the
COVID-19 pandemic when I
composed the piece. In
the early summer of 2020,
when the three of us met
virtually to discuss
possible topics, we had
all been in lockdown for
several months; the
causes and effects of the
lockdown were at the
forefront of our
discussion. In themidst
of daily tragedies, I had
been seeing news stories
using the words
“silver
lining†to describe
unexpectedly positive
situations arising from
our global situation,
ranging from small
effects (i.e. people
having time to work on
projects they never could
get around to doing) to
global ramifications
(resurging animal
populations in areas
where they’re no
longer challenged for
space with
humanity).Silver Linings
consists of two
movements. Groundhog Day,
the first movement, is
slow and brooding. It
embodies the strong
feeling of déjà vu
that so many of us
experienced early on into
lockdown, as we seemed to
live the same day
repeatedly with minor
variances to our
schedules. There are two
main musical gestures:
the first opens the piece
as a slow, ascending
minor chord which is a
representation of
uncertainty, and the
secondis a falling minor
scale. These gestures
depict how our lives were
reduced to the basic
building blocks of life
– wake up, eat,
work, eat, sleep –
as our daily activities
and livelihoods were
suddenly knocked down.
These same two gestures
are utilized in the
energetic second
movement, Making
Lemonade, except that
they are spun around to
reveal their silver
linings: the minor chord
falls to sound centered
and decisive, and the
minor scale rises as it
bubbles with activity.
Among the seeds of
despair are also
foundseeds of hope, and
the saxophone and marimba
explore this hopefulness
with great vigor and
excitement.
Clifford Scott
