Commissioned by Nathaniel Bartlett

This composition provided me with an opportunity to explore the remarkably wide range of textures, timbres and playing techniques available on extended five octave marimbas. In the hands of virtuoso soloists employing contemporary four mallet techniques the marimba often no longer sounds to my ears like an idiophonic percussive instrument, but rather can create an extraordinary breadth of subtle colors, phrasings, expressive gestures and nuances that at times are almost suggestive of vocal, string instrument or piano performance techniques.

A particuarly prominent element within Precipice is the utilization of various types of tremolos (rolled notes and chords) that are possible between the mallets of the two hands. Some chorale-like passages, for example, feature continuous alternations or transformations in tremolo technique, so that two intertwining patterns emerge: the progression of melodic intervals and chords, and the changing ways in which these pitch patterns are arpeggiated, articulated and modulated. Nathaniel Bartlett, a brilliant young marimba virtuoso who commissioned the piece, offered many valuable performance and notational suggestions

Many of the computer-generated sounds, especially during the latter half of the piece, were derived from sampled recordings of Nate playing isolated tones on his marimba. Often, however, this may not be readily apparent. By digitally altering the frequencies, durations and attack/decay characteristics of these tones, and through granularization -- slicing variously pitched sampled tones into tiny frag- ments, then stringing and inter-cutting hundreds of these sound grains per second into timbral "necklaces" -- it is possible to create pulsating or glistening sound colors that to me have a haunting richness and depth.

Live performance of this work was conceived for four channel playback of the computer part at high (96 kHz 24 bit) audio resolution, which increases the clarity and extends the soft end of the dynamic range of recorded sounds. Spatialization of the computer-generated sounds to "virtual" locations throughout the hall was accomplished by means of processing techniques derived from ambisonic formulae first developed in England - procedures very different from ping-pong, cinema-style surround sound procedures that are more common in the U.S. A stereo version also is available.

PDF score excerpt

An MP3 audio excerpt for this piece will be available soon on this page.

SACD recording: In August, 2006 Albany records released an SACD album featuring Nathaniel Bartlett that includes Precipice as a feature work. The album also is entitled Precipice.

The hybrid, three layer SACD disc contains three versions of the album, enabling us to play the album on three otherwise incompatible types of audio systems:

1. on normal compact disc players (44.1 kHz sampling rate, 16 bit)
2. on SACD players connected to stereo speakers, resulting in "high definition stereo" (equivalent to a higher sampling rate and bit depth, resulting in greater clarity, definition, depth and "realism" in the sounds and more "air" or "spaciousness" in the recording ambience
3. on SACD players connected to multiple loudspeakers, such as a 5.1 or quadraphonic surround speaker array; this is the preferred listening format, although at the present the least common, due to its higher cost; on a high quality SACD multi-speaker playback system the audio quality may approach that of a live concert performance.

Score publication The performance score for Precipice is scheduled for publication in the autumn of 2006 by Leigh Stevens' Keyboard Percussion Publications

This work was premiered by Nathaniel Bartlett on March 30, 2004 on a faculty recital I gave at Eastman's Kilbourn Hall. As of August, 2009 he had performed the piece on 104 concerts throughout the US.

A video of Nathaniel Bartlett performing a portion of this work is available on YouTube
A quicktime video of a performance at (SCENE) Metrospace, an alternative art and performance space in East Lansing, Michigan can be viewed here and here.
An mp3 can be downloaded at napster and a RealPlayer version can be found here
Reviews of Bartlett's "Precipice" SACD disc can be read online at Audiophile Magazine, at answers.com, at Barnes & Noble editoral reviews and at SA-CD.net

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