Standup Shadow

Mark Ford

General Info

Year: 1989
Duration: c. 14:00
Difficulty: (see Ratings for explanation)
Publisher: Innovative
Cost: Score and Parts - $0.00   |   Score Only - $0.00

Instrumentation

Player I - IV: marimbas(2), vibraphone, xylophone, snare drum, timpani, cymbals, gongs, crotales, tom-toms

Narrator

Program Notes

premiere: February 1989, East Caroline University Percussion Ensemble

Review

"Standup Shadow" is a contemporary percussion quartet with a backstage narrator (not seen by the audience) and five surprise performers in the audience who each perform one crotale at a climactic portion of this ten-minute composition. Each performer of the basic percussion quartet requires a moderately-large multiple-percussion setup with player 1 functioning primarily with a marimba (4 1/3-octave; four-mallet technique necessary), player 2 performing on xylophone plus accessory percussion, player 3 performing on second marimba (4 1/3-octave) and vibraphone (both with four-mallet technique), and player 4 performing on five timpani plus a large multiple-percussion setup. Of critical importance to the success of "Standup Shadow" is the off-stage narrator (who is amplified with a microphone), who must stylize the mood of an almost "e.e. cummings"-like text (original from Ford as well). A conductor is optional, and the quartet also makes verbal sounds: such as the opening "hissing" sound that is imitated by brush strokes on drumheads. The music is dramatic and must be carefully rehearsed to create an improvisational interplay. This work will contrast the traditional percussion ensemble literature quite nicely, and it reveals a pensive, almost cerebral side of the typically humorous Ford compositional personae (e.g., "Head Talk"). Ford's attention to compositional detail and his involvement of unannounced audience members and an unseen narrator brings a surreal, avant-garde atmosphere to "Standup Shadow." - Jim Lambert, June 1998

Recent Performances

To submit a performance please join the TEK Percussion Database

Works for Percussion by this Composer

Afta-Stuba! - Percussion Trio - 1 Marimba
Cabasa (Ford) - Percussion Quintet
Head Talk - Percussion Quintet
Heads Up! - Percussion Quintet
IE2 - Percussion Ensemble (15 Players)
Motion Beyond - Marimba
Nightwatch - Percussion Sextet - Steel Band w/ Rhythm Section
One-Eyed Jacks - Percussion Sextet
Polaris - Marimba
Ransom - Marimba
Standup Shadow - Percussion Quartet; Narrator
Stubernic - Percussion Trio - 1 Marimba
Stubernic Fantasy for Orchestra
Stubernic Fantasy for Wind Ensemble