Comix Trips
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Subtitle: A Divertimento for Chamber Ensemble
General Info
Year: 2008
Duration: c. 21:00
Difficulty: VI (see Ratings for explanation)
Publisher: Carl Fischer
Cost: Score and Parts - Rental
Movements
1. Leaping Lizards - 4:30
2. Holy Moly – 4:05
3. Good Grief – 5:38
4. What, Me Worry? – 6:40
Instrumentation
Full Score
Flute
Oboe (doubles English horn)
Bassoon
B-flat Soprano Clarinet
String Bass
Piano
Viola
Percussion
(percussion detail desired)
- Vibraphone
Errata
None discovered thus far.
Program Notes
Commissioned by the contemporary ensemble, Relâche, Comix Trips is fun —and extremely virtuosic. Paul Lansky is one of America’s best-known pioneers in computer music and he was famously sampled by Radiohead on their Kid A album. Lately, he’s received praise from the NY Times and others for his acoustic compositions, like Comix Trips, which takes its inspiration from famous comic strips and characters like Little Orphan Annie (“Leaping Lizards!”), Captain Marvel (“Holy Moly”), Peanuts (“Good Grief”), and Alfred E. Newman (“What, Me Worry?”).
The Times article begins, “After 35 years immersed in the world of computer music, the composer Paul Lansky talks with wonder about the enormous capacities of primitive objects carved from trees or stamped from metal sheets: violins, cellos, trumpets, pianos. ‘To create the sound of a violin — wow!' he said in a recent interview. “I can’t do that on a computer.’” Lansky also has said, “Here I am, 64, and I find myself at what feels like the beginning of a career. I’m interested in writing for real people at this point...[Earlier in my career] I wanted to be a filmmaker rather than a playwright. That is, I was interested in creating the finished product rather than in creating scripts or other people to execute.” Now, Lansky is discovering the joy of creating scripts for living players, and the thrill of hearing an audience react to the enthusiasm of human performers playing his creations. He has come to wonder whether the future success of a piece of music depends on the pleasure musicians take in playing it, the implication being that a piece with no performers has a built-in obsolescence. Holy Moly!
- Program Note by University of Maryland Wind Orchestra concert program, 12 July 2015
Awards
- Comix Trips has been recommended as interesting, serious and distinctive music by members of the World Association of Symphonic Bands and Ensembles (WASBE).
Media
(Needed - please join the WRP if you can help.)
State Ratings
None discovered thus far.
Performances
To submit a performance please join The Wind Repertory Project
- University of Maryland Wind Orchestra (Michael Votta, Jr., conductor) – 12 July 2015 - WASBE Conference, San Jose, Calif.
Works for Winds by This Composer
- Comix Trips (2008)
- Concerto for Percussion and Wind Ensemble
- Day Trips (2010)
- Long and Short of It, The (2015)
- Touch and Go (2012)
Resources
- Lansky, P. (2008) Comix Trips: A Divertimento for Chamber Ensemble [score]. Carl Fischer: New York.
- Paul Lansky, Carl Fischer