Night Rhapsody

I
wrote Night Rhapsody in 1980 at the request of Leigh Stevens for his
Town Hall (New York City) debut. The work was well received, I think
partially because it was a near perfect fit for his, then, newly
developed techniques and abilities.  In effect, Leigh and the
piece were on the same wavelength due to my having witnessed his
developments first hand.  Now quite a few marimbists are doing
what it seemed only Leigh could do all those years ago.  One of
the striking (pardon the pun) examples of that evolution is the
playing of Ji Hye Jung. The piece is often correctly perceived as
having been composed with the intention of creating a difficult
work.  That is because both Leigh and I wanted to showcase the
things which were, at that time, unique to his playing. There is a
long history of virtuosi commissioning composers to feature their
particular abilities and technical discoveries. The technical hurdles
may sometimes distract players from the musical aspects of the
composition, an issue which was recently addressed very well by Tom
Burritt in his internet series on the work. A youtube comment stated
that I obviously did not understand the difficulty of the work since
I am a jazz pianist.  Well, not only am I also a percussionist
with a conservatory degree (Eastman ’75), but I knew exactly what I
was doing and, moreover, I did it deliberately and at the request of
the commissioning artist.
I
am delighted to see a new generation of players taking on Night
Rhapsody, both its technical and musical demands. Playing such works
requires devotion to the marimba. I chose a different path,
ultimately focusing on self-expression through jazz piano
performance, but I appreciate and admire the developments in
percussion which I still play from time to time. Of course, I
continue to compose works in both the jazz and classical genres.