Ups and Downs

Item details

• Description +

  • For many years, musician and composer friends Ulf Dageby and Daniel Berg have had philosophical conversa-tions and exchanges of letters about music and art. The conversations have often been about the sacred score in relation to the musician who will play the piece, how important it is that a composer works closely and together with a musician to achieve a result on a high musical and artistic level. The conversations therefore led to a joint composing of the score and a tape part written by Ulf.

• Instrumentation +

  • Marimba and Tape

• About the composer +

  • Ulf Dageby is a Swedish rock musician, song writer and composer with a Master of fine Arts in Composition. He’s been composing a lot for TV and movie like the criminal series of BECK and the list of works for theater is very long. During the years he’s been working close to symphony orchestras and chamber music groups.
    
    For the Swedish audience he’s probably best known as a rock star with a long list of records, both solo and together with the Swedish group Nationalteatern.
    
    Daniel Berg is a Swedish composer, musician, and professor in classical percussion. He combines the role of writing music with being a versatile musician and teaches solopercussion and chamber music at the University College of Music in Gothenburg, Stockholm and Örebro in Sweden.
    
    As a composer Daniel has written a lot for percussionpublished by Edition Svitzer like his Arctic Nights for percussion Quintet and Images for percussion duo and Concerto for Trombone and Percussion.

• Reviews +

  • Review (Percussive Notes, February 2025)

    This new marimba solo with tape accompaniment is a collaboration in which Ulf Degeby created the tape part and Daniel Berg created the marimba score. It came about through correspondences in which they discussed the relationship between the composer and the performer.

    The marimba part requires four mallets and utilizes double vertical, single independent, single alternating, and double lateral strokes, as well as double vertical rolls. The tape part serves as ambient sound behind the marimba part, which leads to some interesting notes in the score. For example, the marimba part does not begin until “ca. 1:35” in the tape part, which gives the piece an aleatoric feel. Other notes include “repeat this bar until the next chord in the tape.” There are no strict rhythmic cues given, and the speed of the marimba part, which is notated, may fluctuate, leading to different interpretations on when to change to different sections.

    The piece begins with slow rolled chords and builds rhythmically as the work moves on. Mixed meters are used throughout, so the performer should be adept at switching between duple and triple meters, as well as some odd meters.

    Overall, this piece is a very interesting listen as the marimba part interacts with the tape part in an almost non-traditional way. The sustained, sometimes ghostly chords underlying odd-meter sixteenth-note sections give a sense of uneasiness at times. This work would go well in a senior or master’s level recital and is sure to please audiences of all types.

    —Josh Armstrong

• Credits +

  • Enamel Painting: Bengt Berglund
    Printed in Copenhagen, Denmark
    Copyright © Edition SVITZER 
    www.editionsvitzer.com
    With support from Koda’s Cultural Funds

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