Ingram Marshall: In Deserto (Smoke Creek)

performed by Clogs

As the title suggests, this piece has to do with images of the desert. I was in Nevada a few years ago, and teaching a piece by Sibelius called Oceanides, a tone poem about the ocean. His piece is based around a germinating melody which has been haunting me ever since. I thought it would be an interesting idea to take a tune about the ocean and turn it into one about the desert.

—Ingram Marshall

About the composer

Ingram Marshall

Composer Ingram Marshall received a John Simon Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship in 1999 and an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts from his alma mater Lake Forest College. He has also received awards, grants, and commissions from the Rockefeller Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, Fromm Foundation, California Arts Council, Washington State Arts Commission, Connecticut Commission on the Arts, Aaron Copland Fund, and the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Marshall's work has been influenced by Sibelius, Indonesian music, Eastern European folk song, electronics, and most recently, American hymns. The resulting music seamlessly and gracefully combines all these sources into a generally reflective and increasingly elegiac music. Kingdom Come, a recent work for orchestra and tape, combines many of these sources.

His works have been performed by ensembles including the St. Louis Symphony with Leonard Slatkin, the Los Angeles Philharmonic New Music Group, Kronos Quartet, English hornist Libby van Cleve, Paul Hillier's Theater of Voices, and the American Composers Orchestra for their 1997-98 season at Carnegie Hall. Marshall's music can be heard on the IBU, New Albion, New World, and Nonesuch record labels.

About the performers

Clogs (L-R): Padma Newsome, Thomas Kozumplik, Rachael Elliott, Bryce Dessner Photo: Alec Hanley Bemis

Clogs is an improvisational chamber music ensemble featuring composer/violinist Padma Newsome, guitarist/composer Bryce Dessner, bassoonist Rachael Elliott, and percussionist Thomas Kozumplik. The quartet infuses contemporary classical music with the traditional rhythms and harmonies of folk music and the raw energy of rock to create an original repertoire that is both erudite and popular. Clogs has developed from the ground up, the rock band's model. By recording, playing in clubs, and touring, the ensemble has built a broad following, transcending the "contemporary classical" label. This season, Clogs celebrates its sixth year with a national tour featuring In Deserto, by Ingram Marshall.

Highlights of Clogs' past season include appearances at Tonic and Joe's Pub in New York City, Café du Nord in San Francisco, Kulturhuset in Stockholm, Reitschule in Bern, Brighton Festival with Australia's Dirty Three, Oxford Contemporary Music Festival; a 30-piece orchestral extravaganza in New Haven; residencies at The Walden School and the Hamden Public Library; and on-air performances on Amsterdam's VPRO and WNYC's New Sounds. Clog's Lullaby for Sue was featured on WNYC's Top 10 list of best new releases of 2003.