Labyrinth

Item details

• Description +

  • Duration: 9 min.
    
    Stankovych believes that a composer cannot create music in isolation from his cultural lifeline, and tries to maintain that lifeline with his audience.

• Instrumentation +

  • Percussion Ensemble
    
    Soloist:
    Marimba (5-octave)
    
    Player 1:
    2 Bongos
    2 Wood-Blocks
    Tam-Tam
    Bell Tree
    Cowbell
    
    Player 2:
    2 Octobans
    2 Congas
    2 Chinese Gongs
    2 Metal Pipes
    
    Player 3:
    Bass Drum
    Tom-Tom
    2 Codo Drums
    Chinese Gong
    2 Metal Pipes
    Flexatone
    
    
    

• About the composer +

  • The Ukrainian composer Yevhen Stankovych is one of the most outstanding figures in the world of music at the end of the 20th century. The collapse of the U.S.S.R. gave him the opportunity to establish contacts with the world, resulting in recordings of his music by various companies and the performance of his works by performers in other countries, bringing him wide recognition as one of the most individualistic and eminent composers of our time.
    

• Reviews +

  • Review (Percussive Notes, May (59) 2012)

    According to Amazon, customers who liked “Shadow Chasers” by Michael Burritt also liked “Labyrinth.” There are, in fact, many similarities between the two aforementioned pieces, including rhythmically fragmented melodic lines, drum and metallic punctuations, and incessant motion and energy from every voice in the ensemble. “Labyrinth” is the only all-percussion piece from this successful Ukrainian composer, whose primary compositional voice resides in orchestral, stage, and choral works.  
    
    Lasting just under nine minutes, the piece for four-mallet marimba soloist and three percussionists is driving and active at the beginning, but sparse and song-like at the end. The second half of the piece, listed at quarter note = 52, requires the marimbist to perform the melody with multiple one-handed rolls in conjunction with arpeggiated chords while one percussionist performs the same melodic material on a bowed flexatone. The resultant music creates a very sedate ending that stands in stark contrast to the melodic pulsations found at the beginning. With percussion parts that can be handled by most college performers, those looking to take their marimba chops on the road should consider incorporating this piece into their tour.  
    
    —Joshua D. Smith
    
    
    
    

    Li Biao, soloist and prof. at the "Hans Eisler" Berlin music academy & Beijing Central Conservatory

    "Mr. Stankovych's labyrinth invites you into an exiting and unique musical universe. Having both slow mystifying passages and fast virtuosic sections makes the Labyrinth very interesting and complete as a composition. Seeing the excellent layout of the sheet music immediately encourages you to start playing and I guarantee you will love every second of it".
    
    
    Jia Jia Qiao, the Beijing Central Conservatory
    
    "Having got the pleasure performing this piece at numerous occasions makes me believe that this piece will play an important role in the percussion literature. It's violent yet extremely sensitive at the same time. You would have to be a good musician to be able to perform this mysterious Labyrinth".

     

• Credits +

  • Front cover artist: Olga Rapay
    Photo: Ronni Kot Wenzell
    Front cover graphics and layout: Johan Svitzer
    Copyright © Edition Svitzer 
    Printed in Copenhagen, Denmark

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