The Darkness Around Us
General Info
Year of Published: 2025
Publisher: Tapspace Publications
Difficulty: Advanced
Duration: 00:09:30
Cost: $48.00
Instrumentation
Player 1: Marimba & Tom Tom (High) & Bass Drum (Shared)
Player 2: Marimba & Tom Tom (Low) & Bass Drum (Shared)
Player 3: Vibraphone & Tom Tom (Medium) & Bass Drum (Shared)
Player 4: Xylophone & Crotales & Bass Drum (Shared)
Description
The Darkness Around Us by Ben Kressbach is an advanced quartet that pushes performers to explore extended techniques, shifting meters, and a heightened sense of ensemble awareness. Built around a centrally shared bass drum, the piece uses irregular time signatures, interlocking rhythmic layers, and constantly evolving listening environments to unify the performers in a ritual-like musical experience, partly inspired by the William E. Stafford poem, “A Ritual to Read to Each Other.”