Alex Shapiro, composer: Slipping

Slipping

(Violin, Harpsichord, Percussion).
Total duration ca. 9 minutes (2006)
Published by Activist Music (ASCAP).
Adapted from "Slip," commissioned in 2001
by violinist Robin Lorentz.
One movement work. 20 pages, 8.5" x 11".

Recorded in February and August 2006
in Los Angeles, California
by Robin Lorentz, violin,
Kathleen McIntosh, harpsichord
and Dan Morris, percussion.

Audio clip performed by Robin Lorentz, violin,
Kathleen McIntosh, harpsichord,
and Dan Morris, percussion.

View pages from the score to Slipping
Listen to an audio clip of Slipping for violin, harpsichord, percussion

Listen to an audio clip of Slip for violin and harpsichord

Watch!
Purchase the score Score and part for Slipping available from Activist Music: $35.00 print, or $25.00 digital.

Slipping is an adaptation of a comedic 2001 duet titled "Slip," commissioned by Robin Lorentz as a gift for her friend and partner in musical crimes, Kathleen McIntosh. In this new incarnation, I called up my pal, gifted Los Angeles percussionist Dan Morris, and we had a great time adding live drumming from around the world to flesh out the myriad genres that breeze by in this onslaught of musical schizophrenia.

Since the violin is found in all corners of the globe, I decided to make the harpsichord a chameleon as well. I turned it into a host of different plectrum instruments, including dulcimer, koto, mandolin, rock n' roll keyboards, guitar and bouzouki, setting it in every idiom except the expected baroque style to which it is so often tethered. Throw in some Cuban montuno rhythms for a little variety, and suddenly the piece is a world tour for anyone with attention deficit disorder.

This bit of whimsy was written with the intent of giving Robin and Kathy something that would be unexpected at the close of their otherwise respectable concerts. Quite ironically, the first few lighthearted measures were written on September 10th, 2001. After the horrors in New York City the following day, Robin called me up and made it clear that given the circumstances, it would be absolutely fine with her if I felt instead like writing a very serious piece. Thinking about it for a moment, I replied that no, I wanted to continue in this upbeat direction, perhaps as a bizarre antidote for my grief. During the rest of that stunned month, there were times when the television glared silently in the corner of my studio with its constant images of devastation, as I irreconcilably wrote these giddy passages.

I'm a New Yorker. I grew up in Manhattan and watched the construction of the World Trade Towers when I was a little girl. As those edifices tumbled from hatred 29 years later, I thought of the people of all nationalities who perished that sunny morning. But New Yorkers are resilient, and composing this internationally-tinged piece may have been my way of declaring that to best honor those who have lost their lives, the rest of us should live ours to the fullest extent, for whatever time we're given. Just as these musical styles slip suddenly from one to another, life can slip from one reality to the next. As Ram Dass said, be here now.

Slipping is featured on the 2007 Innova Recordings CD, Notes from the Kelp (innova 683). Click CD for more info.

Slip, for violin and harpsichord, is featured on the 2007 DC Records CD, La Discordantia, recorded by Antonio D'Andrea and Maria Clotilde Sieni. Click CD for more info.

ASCAP

Stream

Download

Hear Alex discuss the making of Slipping, in this ASCAP Audio Portrait interview (3:04):

Slip (the version for violin and harpsichord)
is a 2008International Aliénor
Harpsichord Composition Competition
award winner.

Email Alex for the access code
to download a perusal score!

Enjoy this video of violinist Karen Bentley Pollick
and harpsichordist Jonathan Salzedo
performing Slip, a version of this piece
without percussion,
in Palo Alto, CA, Spring 2012:

"...a good deal of [Notes from the Kelp] is flat-out fun. Hear the opening Slipping, a work for violin, harpsichord, and "very mixed" percussion in which the harpsichord imitates a worldwide variety of stringed instruments in a rollicking, upbeat ride." *— James Manheim, All Music Guide*
"...the opening comic piece, "Slipping" -scored for violin, harpsichord, and percussion [has] its own zany sort of beauty. It's a madcap, half-demented romp through a potpourri of styles ranging from early-'50s rock-and-roll, to Italian street song; from '40s jazz to Japanese koto music in all of which the harpsichord is called upon to impersonate every imaginable plectrum instrument - except the Baroque harpsichord. A thoroughly delightful frolic." *— A.C. Douglas, Sounds & Fury*
"[Slipping] is a musical romp through many different styles, all of which are foreign to the harpsichord. We hear a crazy mixture of tango, Middle-Eastern, Cuban, and many other styles, skillfully melded together in a mosaic that also features Dan Morris performing on hand drums.. — *Tom Morgan, Percussive Notes*
*"Alex creates nine minutes of, well, fun. There's serious writing (and enormous technique and a great ear) involved, but more than anything, it's an entertainment.* — *Dennis Bathory-Kitsz*
"...[Slipping] is a lot of fun and quite unexpected. I can't think of any other recent work that does this." — Barry Schrader, composer; professor, CalArts

Slipping, page 1

Slipping, page 10

Slipping, page 15

Also available as:

Slip

(Violin and Harpsichord).
Total duration ca. 9 minutes (2001)
Published by Activist Music (ASCAP).
Commissioned in 2001 by violinist Robin Lorentz.
One movement work. 14 pages, 8.5" x 11".

Slippery

(Flute and Guitar).
Total duration ca. 9 minutes (2015)
Published by Activist Music (ASCAP).
Commissioned in 2015 by Bas Duo: Elyse Knobloch and Peter Press.
One movement work. 19 pages, 8.5" x 11".