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Lightning Field (score)

Lightning Field (score)

  • Composer: Mackey, John
  • Grade: 3
  • Duration: 5:00
  • Genre: Concert Band
  • Publisher: Osti Music
  • Item No: GOMS-90036A


$45.00
Score
2 Flutes
Oboe(s)
Bassoon(s)
2 Clarinets in Bb
Bass Clarinet in Bb
Contra-alto / Contrabass Clarinet (optional)
2 Alto Saxes
Tenor Sax
Baritone Sax
2 Trumpets in Bb
French Horns
2 Trombones
Euphonium
Tuba
Piano (optional, but strongly preferred) - prepared, if possible, with light-weight chain
placed on the strings (see performance notes)
Percussion (11 players in total):
3 Thunder Tubes (can be purchased or made - see performance notes),
spread antiphonally behind the audience (left, center, right) if possible
Timpani
Xylophone
Marimba
Vibraphone
Tambourine
4 Tom-Toms
Triangle and 3 suspended cymbals (splash, China, suspended crash)
Bass drum

John Mackey's "Lightning Field" takes its title from a work of art by Walter De Maria. That work is a massive expanse of New Mexico desert, claimed and transformed by the artist via an installation of steel rods: planted in the earth and reaching toward the sky, they call down its power ? literally creating man-made lightning storms. Like them, Mackey's piece speaks to the ancient impulse to summon nature's power, and the magic such acts unleash. A sense of energy runs throughout the work, with the driving onstage percussion enhanced by the sound of thunder (provided by inexpensive hand-held percussion instruments called "thunder tubes") surrounding the audience.

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