No Discipline

A difficult piece for marimba (solo or four hands) and kick bass drum. From 2008 through 2015 I was very fortunate to teach private composition lessons to a student named Alex Williams, the son of two prominent Indianapolis musicians, Sandy and Pam Williams – Alex was that kind of student who was interested in and could speak intelligently about nearly everything. A very fine musician himself, he was an excellent percussionist who was able to perform very difficult, thorny atonal-based marimba works by the time he was fifteen years old. Needless to say, when he asked me to write a piece for him (as he had written a double bass duo for David Murray and myself), I was quite pleased to do so. Since Alex also had a strong interest in pop music (esp. Bon Iver and other more sophisticated contemporary artists), I thought it might be fun to write something for him based on some aspect of pop music. King Crimson has long been a favorite progressive rock group of mine, and their Discipline album from 1981 features two songs, Discipline and Indiscipline, which utilize polymetrical and minimalist material throughout. NO DISCIPLINE was composed as a ‘tip o’the hat’ to these two pieces (and indeed Frippertronics), and named after an embarrassingly common tenet of my play/work life, that of having a plan and then... well..... wandering away from it.... The work is a virtuosic piece for a soloist who must maintain independent lines between each hand, while also playing a Brufordesque kick bass drum part with one foot. (Of course, the piece can also be performed by two players on one marimba as well......