William Penn, Olly Wilson, Russell Peck

Karyl Louwenaar, harpsichord; Leigh Howard Stevens, marimba; Phillip Rehfeldt, clarinet; Diane Ragains, soprano; Peter Middleton, flute; David Johnson, percussion; Aventino Calvetti, bassWilliam Penn writes:“Fantasy  is based on certain basic motives, 'exotic' and newly composed scales, vertical structures (like the 'fantasy' chord), and clusters of various types (fully saturated, gap, pentatonic, and pandiatonic). The linear construction of the piece was partially conceived as an alternation between 'white note' (pandiatonic), 'black note' (pentatonic), and various mixtures of white and black notes. Of the many rhythmic figures that were used, the most notable to me are the straight sixteenths (reminiscent to me of a John Coltrane rhythm solo — a constant perpetual motion), the syncopated 'boogaloo' rhythm, the grace note figurations and the Morse code.“Four Preludes for solo marimba was written especially for Leigh Howard Stevens as a virtuoso work. Mr. Stevens is one of the few mari