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.

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".

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

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

Slip is a 2008
International Aliénor Harpsichord Composition Competition
award winner.

"...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, ìSlippingî ó scored for violin, harpsichord, and percussion [has] its own zany sort of beauty. Itís a madcap, half-demented romp through a potpourri of styles ranging from early-ë50s rock-and-roll, to Italian street song; from ë40s jazz to Japanese koto music in all of which the harpsichord is called upon to impersonate every imaginable plectrum instrument ó 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

View pages from the score to Slip
Listen to an audio clip of Slipping for violin, harpsichord, percussion
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Listen to an audio clip of Slip for violin and harpsichord
Purchase the scores Score and part for Slipping available from Activist Music for $35.00. Score and part for Slip available from Activist Music for $20.00.

Slipping is an adaptation of a 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, Los Angeles percussionist Dan Morris, and we had a great time adding live drumming from around the world to flesh out the idioms that breeze by in this onslaught of musical schizophrenia.

The piece was a blast to compose. 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 different plectrum instruments, including (and not limited to, as will be heard) dulcimer, koto, mandolin, 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.

Slip, page 1

Slip, page 7