Equipoise

Daniel Adams

General Info

Year: 1998 (Score); 2001 (Siwe)
Duration: c.
Difficulty: (see Ratings for explanation)
Publisher: Studio4
Cost: Score and Parts - $30.00   |   Score Only - $0.00

Movements

I. One
2. Two
3. Three

Instrumentation

Marimba; Vibraphone
Saxophone

Program Notes

premiere: 10 February 2001, Muncie, Indiana, U.S.A., Eddie Rich, saxophone, Daniel McCloud, percussion

The term equipoise refers to a state of balance or counterbalance. The work was composed in 1998 for the saxophone/mallet duo of Gottfried Stoger and Errol Rackipov. The parts for the two players are balanced through the alternation of solo and accompaniment textures with counterpoint. The formal design of Equipoise is based on the evolution of fully notated sections into improvised passages. Each movement includes passages in which one performer improvises on a given group of pitches while the other provides an ostinato-like pattern using a complementary set of pitches.The first movement, the slowest and shortest of the three, opens with a high-register vibraphone solo followed by a passage in the low register of the tenor saxophone. In the middle section, the saxophone improvises on motives introduced in the vibraphone part. The movement ends with the vibraphone in the low register and the saxophone in the high register, a juxtaposition of their respective positions in the opening section.Movement Two is characterized by the two players taking turns playing ostinato patterns and improvised sections, Written at a medium tempo, it opens with an alto saxophone melody accompanied by an ostinato in the marimba part. The final section consists of counterpoint based on previously introduced motives as the mallet player alternates between marimba and vibraphone.Movement Three is the longest, most complex, and rhythmically dense of the three. Beginning with a slow soprano saxophone solo, it suddenly increases in tempo with the abrupt entrance of a loud polyrhythmic passage played on the marimba. The rhythmic interplay between the soprano saxophone and the marimba continues until the mallet player switches to vibraphone to play an ostinato over which the saxophone improvises. Thematic materials are developed through complex contrapuntal activity between the saxophone and vibraphone. The dense counterpoint is interrupted by a section in which the saxophonist plays an ostinato while the vibraphone improvises chordal structures. As the movement builds to a climax, both players improvise simultaneously on a pattern of interlocking rhythms and rapid meter changes. The movement concludes with a coda based on its opening materials.

Recent Performances

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Works for Percussion by this Composer

Alloy - Percussion Trio
Ambience (Adams) - Percussion Septet
Andalusian Haiku - Percussion Duo
Between - Marimba; Flute
Camaraderie - Timpani; Percussion Septet
Collage - Multiple Percussion; Piano
Concerto for Euphonium and Percussion Quintet - Percussion Quintet; Euphonium
Dissolve - Percussion Octet
Echogenesis - Percussion Quartet
Equipoise - Multiple Percussion; Saxophone
Five Elementary Etudes - Multiple Percussion
Focus - Vibraphone; Bassoon
Isorhythmic Concerto - Multiple Percussion; Wind Ensemble
Khromas Diabolus - Percussion Quintet; Trombone
Lignumvitae - Percussion Trio
Performance Studies for Two, Volume 1 - Snare Drum
Protagonist - Tom-tom; Percussion Trio
Reverberations - Timpani
Road Traversed and Reversed - Marimba Duo
Shadow on Mist - Multiple Percussion; Flute
Shadow on Mist (Ensemble) - Percussion Quintet; Flute
Stratum - Marimba Quartet
Syzygy - Marimba; Violin
Talea - Percussion Sextet
Tamboo Bamboo - Steel Drum; Percussion Orchestra
Three Movements for Unaccompanied Marimba - Marimba
Three Subtropical Vistas - Marimba, Vibraphone, Voice
Times Two - Percussion Duo
Twilight Remembered - Multiple Percussion; Flute
Two Antiphonal Portraits - Percussion Ensemble (12)
Variation sans theme - Snare Drum
Windward Passage - Marimba, Vibraphone, String Quartet