urban turban
(2001)
Written for Duo Vertigo
Arranged for Duo Koleva / van Otterloo
Flute, bass clarinet and piano
Arranged for Kaida
Alto saxophone, guitar and piano
Mixed quartet
violin
bass clarinet
contrabass
marimba
Arranged for Non Sequitur
Duration: 8'
Available on Tools (KLR 011)
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"... the rhythmical quicksilver of Ned McGowan's Urban Turban."
- Guido van Oorschot, Volkskrant
Two marimbas:
Score available from Donemus Publishing
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