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"Ned McGowan, a composer and flutist, proved there's still plenty of life in old-fashioned virtuosity with "Bantammer Swing", a playful, athletic concerto for his unwieldy contrabass flute."
- Steve Smith, New York Times

urban turban

(2001) 


Two marimbas

Written for Duo Vertigo
 

Alto saxophone and marimba

Arranged for Duo Koleva / van Otterloo
 

Flute and marimba

Flute and piano

Flute, bass clarinet and piano

Arranged for Kaida

Flute, violin and piano


Alto saxophone, guitar and piano


Mixed quartet

violin 
bass clarinet
contrabass
marimba

Arranged for Non Sequitur

Duration: 8'


Available on Tools (KLR 011)


     



"... the rhythmical quicksilver of Ned McGowan's Urban Turban."
    - Guido van Oorschot, Volkskrant







Two marimbas:
Score available from Donemus Publishing




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Alto saxophone and marimba:
Score available from Donemus Publishing






 


Flute and marimba:
Score available from Donemus Publishing






 



Flute and piano:
Score available from Donemus Publishing






 



Flute, bass clarinet and piano:
Score available from Donemus Publishing






 



Flute, violin and piano:
Score available from Donemus Publishing






 



Alto saxophone, guitar and piano:
Score available from Donemus Publishing







Program notes:
Written around ten years ago, Urban Turban contains many compositional ideas I later explored in many works. As with most pieces, the writing process begins with a single idea which, as it is being worked out, leads to the next. With Urban Turban that first idea was to compose a fast theme that passes through various different harmonic and meteric areas. The nature of that material - a burst of notes and rhythms within a short amount of time - asked for a strong contrast to follow it. . . . which became silence, placing a focus on the theatrical aspects of live performance. Throughout, the special color of unisons plays a reocurring role. Some of Urban Turban’s other inspirations are music from the Balkans and India, jazz, John Cage, Loos, Rudiger Meyer, Musicquantics, serialism and the note E.

Available on:
Duo Vertigo One (KLR 009)
Tools (KLR 011)

"Urban Turban (2001), for two marimbas, sets quite strongly contrasted material in a sequence that unfolds unpredictably but that makes its own sense in retrospect. The opening section is a bubbly melody that arises from a mixture of different Balkanesque scales and meters. This stops surprisingly and gives way to a sparse texture of single notes set into floating silences. The music reacquires momentum in the form of a melody over a modulating tone-row, which at one point goes into accelerando mode (the ability to speed up in synch with another player is a virtuoso skill and always enjoyable to witness), eventually reaching fast runs of sixteenth notes. This is followed by an extended recap of the opening material."


- Bob Gilmore