In a Landscape by John Cage - Marimba Literature Library

About the piece:

In a Landscape by John Cage was written for the dancer Louise Lippold in 1948. The structure of the piece follows the rhythmic patterns dance of the choreography for which it was composed.

A modal composition, the patterns alternate between a mode in B and a mode in G. With the use of both the soft and sustain pedals, Cage creates music that seems to suspend time. There is clearly an aesthetic indebtedness to Erik Satie. The score notes that the piece may be played on the harp or piano. It is adapted here for marimba.

About the performer:

Percussionist Michael Compitello is guided by his passion to create new art through collaborations with composers, performers and artists in all media. He has worked with composers David Lang, Helmut Lachenmann, John Luther Adams, Nicolaus A. Huber, Alejandro Viñao, Marc Applebaum and Martin Bresnick on premieres and performances of new works, and has performed as a chamber musician and soloist with the Ensemble Modern, the International Ensemble Modern Academy, and with members of the Bang on a Can All-Stars and So Percussion. Michael has appeared in diverse locations such as the Darmstadt Summer Course, Frankfurt's ROT Neue-Musik festival, The Kurt Weill Festival, the International Festival of Arts and Ideas, the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival and the Banff Centre.

As an orchestral musician Michael has performed with the Lucerne Festival Academy Orchestra, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, the Annapolis Symphony Orchestra and the Aspen Festival Orchestra, and with conductors Pierre Boulez, Marin Alsop, Reinbert de Leeuw, David Zinman, James Conlon, Brad Lubman and Gustav Meier.

From 2009 to 2010, Michael performed and studied contemporary chamber music with the Ensemble Modern and the International Ensemble Modern Academy in Frankfurt, Germany on a Fulbright Grant from the US Department of State. He attended the New Music Workshop of the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival in 2006 and 2009, was a fellow at the Bang on a Can All-Stars Summer Music Institute in 2006 and 2007, and in 2009 attended the Banff Centre's "Roots and Rhizomes" percussion residency.

Michael's belief in the important role of music in contemporary culture has led him to a variety of outreach projects, including "NaturPassagen," a multi medium project with the members of the Ensemble Modern in Frankfurt's Bettinaschule, directed by British music education experts Paul Griffiths and Fraser Trainer. Michael has also participated in the Yale School of Music's acclaimed "Music in Schools" program, where he worked with grade- and middle-school students in both the "Music and Book Writing" project, a collaboration between students at Vincent Mauro elementary school and composer Jacob Cooper, and with Jazz combo Pearl City as part of the "Music and Creative Writing" project, where students used a new composition as inspiration for writing a multi-chapter story.

Michael earned a BM in Percussion from the Peabody Conservatory and an MM from the Yale School of Music, both as a student of Robert van Sice. in May 2012 he received an MMA degree from Yale, the residency portion of the school's DMA degree.