Composer: Theodore Wiprud

Where to get the music:: Contact Theodore Wiprud at ted@theodorewiprud.com.

Instrumentation:

Perc 1

chimes - middle c, g above
4 almglocken (C#, F#, G, B below middle c)
brake drum
Chinese cymbal
large suspended cymbal
temple blocks
bongos
log drum (2 pitches)
guiro
maraca

Perc 2

vibraphone
rute (two bunches of sticks)
tambourine
large suspended cymbal
xylophone
cabasa
castanet
glass wind chime

Perc 3

small suspended cymbal
Chinese cymbal
wind gong
bass drum
marimba
2 congas
vibraslap
crotales (C, D, E, F# -share with perc 4)
rute (2 bunches of sticks)

Perc 4

sizzle cymbal
small tam-tam
Chinese cymbal
medium tam-tam
chains (medium-heavy, about 4 feet long)
3 tom toms
woodblock
wind chime of wood or shell
bass drum
crotales (share with perc 3)
steel drum (range: middle c up to F 11th above)
large tam-tam

Duration: 32 minutes

Information on the music:

PERFORMANCE NOTE

Dark Love was originally composed as part of a multimedia production of abstract art and percussion, itself titled Dark Love. This work can be played in a regular concert setting, but makes an even bigger impact if experienced together with the Black Paintings that inspired it. Presenters may either rent slides of the paintings from the artist, or stage the performance with the paintings alongside the musicians, as in the original production. For more information about previewing the paintings, renting slides, or producing a full staging, please contact Allemar Music.

PROGRAM NOTE

Pat Lipsky’s Black Paintings are extraordinary to me because they open themselves to the viewer over time and convey such powerful emotion in purely abstract terms. In both ways they work like music, and from the first time I saw them, I began thinking of how they might sound. Percussion would clearly be the medium of choice. These paintings deal in color, rhythm, and form -the very qualities in which percussion excels. Melody and functional harmony are not in the Black Paintings. They are not representational; they do not illustrate situations or emotions. Instead they simply are; they mysteriously embody mood and emotion with great subtlety and complexity. Their music is both austere and intimate; formal and mercurial; monochrome and polychrome.
Each painting is both an imposing sensory experience and a deep psychological statement. They are large geometric works, eight feet tall in diamond form; heavy ridge lines describe deceptively curving grids; an indescribable array of shades of black fill the spaces and bleed off the edges. As a triptych, in the order in which Pat painted them, the three convey a powerful inner journey. The first movement ("Dark Love") is scored almost completely for metals. The movement is obsessive, given to vertigo, finally overwhelmed by an astonishing, glowing patch of color. The second movement ("History") is scored mainly for woods and skins, a warmer palette of sound. A deeper, more regular stratum pulses behind a ruffled surface. The third movement ("In Memoriam C.G.") includes most of the instruments heard already with the addition of a steel drum. Here the grid is most regular, the colors most jewel-like, the effect like stained glass. In place of the obsessive few pitches of the opening movement are tall, colorful, ringing chords, seeking this painting’s calm, its profound reflection, its awe. - Theodore Wiprud

ABOUT THEODORE WIPRUD
(233 words)
Summer 2007

Born 1958 in Washington, DC
Resides in New York

Theodore Wiprud is a composer who also plays important roles as concert presenter, educator, and music executive. His compositions are known for the impact they make on performers and audiences, reflecting his constant interaction with both adult and young musicians and listeners from the New York Philharmonic, where he currently serves as Director of Education, to classrooms and community venues.

Wiprud’s music frequently deals with spiritual experience: orchestral music (such as Hosannas of the Second Heaven) and chamber music (String Quartet No. 1, Refining Fire and String Quartet No. 2, Intimations and Incarnations) responding to Dante’s Divine Comedy and similar works; choral music on texts from diverse religious traditions; and percussion scores like Anima and Dark Love. Other pieces involve American literature, including American Journal, based on Robert Hayden’s poem, and A Georgia Song, a setting of Maya Angelou. His Saxophone Quartet has been described as “a work of substance, rewarding to perform, and warmly received by audiences.”

Wiprud earned his bachelor’s degree in biochemistry at Harvard and his master’s in theory and composition at Boston University, where he worked with David Del Tredici. We was a Visiting Scholar at Cambridge University as a student of Robin Holloway, and a composition fellow at the Aspen Music School studying with Jacob Druckman and Bernard Rands.

For more information on Theodore Wiprud visit his webbsite by clicking here.