Murmur by David Molk

Contemporary, Percussion Ensemble, Video | 0 comments

Murmur by David Molk
Performed by Sandbox Percussion: Jonny Allen, Ian Rosenbaum, Victor Caccese, Terry Sweeney

Video by Evan Chapman

ABOUT THE PIECE:
Murmur, was composed for SōSI 2015 (Sō Percussion Summer Institute). A quartet for two vibraphones, murmur features cardboard dowels from coat hangers standing in for more traditional mallets, creating a distinctive ‘thwack’ sound when striking the bars. The result is a blurring of pitch and noise, further explored through the use (or absence) of the pedal. murmur culminates in a chorale featuring ping pong balls and a bow, the percussive attack of the dowels now taken to a very delicate extreme.

I’m grateful to the murmur crew of SōSI 2015 for their incredible efforts and willingness to try the unconventional. Similarly, a very heartfelt thanks to Sandbox Percussion for their hard work and dedication on helping me to finalize murmur and bring it out into the world. They and Evan Chapman teamed up to create the incredible video featured here. Sandbox and Evan are a dream to work with—their unparalleled musicianship, professionalism, and enthusiasm is hard to beat. Plus, they’re totally great guys to hang with! Thanks to Vic Firth for featuring this video…perhaps we’ll see VF dowels or ping pong balls in the future? A final note—Andy Akiho introduced me to using dowels on steel pan during our first year of grad school together. Thanks man!

ABOUT THE COMPOSER:
Coming from a rock guitar background, Dave Molk embarked on jazz performance before shifting his focus solely to composition. Many of Dave’s works are for small ensembles and solo instruments, although recent efforts include orchestra, black box theater, and live-remixing/DJing. He writes mainly for pitched and non-pitched percussion, combining sinuous chromaticism with an energized rhythmic propulsion, expressive timbres, and a healthy dose of glitch. He DJ’s under the name Old Dirty Beathoven and plays the steel pan under the name Dave Molk (he needs to practice more). His current research is in software coding and EDM. Dave Molk is a doctoral fellow at Princeton University.

ABOUT THE PERFORMERS:
Brought together by their love of chamber music and the simple joy of playing together, Sandbox Percussion captivates audiences with performances that are both visually and aurally stunning. Through compelling collaborations with composers and performers, Jonathan Allen, Victor Caccese, Ian Rosenbaum and Terry Sweeney seek to engage a wider audience for classical music.
Sandbox made their New York debut in 2012 on the Concerts on the Slope series in Brooklyn. Following that performance, they accepted an invitation to become artists-in-residence of the series and have returned in each subsequent season. Later that year, Sandbox worked closely with composer James Wood on his masterpiece Village Burial with Fire at the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival. While at Norfolk, Sandbox played alongside the great Hungarian percussion quartet Amadinda – Aurél Holló, a member of Amadinda, later said about Sandbox: “With an array of skills, talent and freshness, these young artists seem to be pushing their limits up in the skies, as I realized listening to them at the Yale New Music Workshop. Sandbox Percussion is the promising group of the near future, battering right on your door.”

Last season, Sandbox gave twelve world premieres by composers such as Robert Sirota, Amy Beth Kirsten, David Crowell, Thomas Kotcheff, Alex Weiser, and Tonia Ko. Six of these were works by composition students at the Yale School of Music, and were featured on the New Music New Haven concert series. This past Spring Sandbox, along with flutist Tim Munro, performed the world premiere of Amy Beth Kirsten’s, They Might be Giants as members of a larger mixed ensemble, HOWL co-directed by Amy Beth Kirsten and Mark DeChiazza.