Phage
General Info
Year of Published: 2000
Publisher: OU Percussion Press
Difficulty: Advanced
Duration: 00:09:30
Cost: $60.00
Movement
Movement 1: Host
Movement 2: Adsorption
Movement 3: Morphogenesis
Instrumentation
Player 1: Marimba
Player 2: Marimba
Player 3: Marimba
Player 4: Marimba & Suspended Cymbal (Medium) & China Cymbal
Player 5: Marimba & Suspended Cymbal (Medium)
Player 6: Vibraphone
Player 7: Vibraphone & Crash Cymbal
Player 8: Glockenspiel & Brake Drum & Xylophone
Player 9: Crotales & 3 Tam-Tams (shared) & Temple Blocks & Field Drum
Player 10: Castanets & Cabasa & 5 Concert Tom-toms & Suspended Cymbal (Medium Low) & Crash Cymbals & 2 Tam-Tams (shared)
Player 11: Tam-Tams (shared) & Chimes & Log Drum & Suspended Cymbal (Low)
Player 12: Maraca & China Cymbal & Bass Drum & 2 Tam-Tams (shared)
Player 13: 4 Timpani
Program Notes
Phage by Pat Muchmore is a programmatic work for percussion ensemble that depicts the infection of a bacteria cell by a T-4 bacteriaphage. This is a process where the infection is able to connect to a bacteria cell and inject its own DNA, effectively taking over the cell. All of this, in musical terms, is depicted with two motives. There is the 'host' motive which is depicted at the beginning in the marimba orchestra and 'phage' motive which appears later and slowly takes over the host. When the motives come together, it is a violent struggle as the two ideas struggle for dominance before both are eventually destroyed - depicted by the loud and destructive ending.