Dioramas for Prepared Vibraphone

for solo prepared Vibraphone (2012 – )

Remember those shoebox dioramas we made in Elementary School?  Those quaint handmade relics of a pre-digital world?  I always found them inspiring–a chance to imagine a complete world with limited resources.

This collection of works emerged from my continued interest in mallet percussion, and embracing a wider timbral territory.  I have always been fond of John Cage’s Sonatas and Interludes for Prepared Piano, and this piece owes a dept of inspiration to Cage’s fierce vision as expressed in that piece.

There are currently two Dioramas, with plans to add as many as eight more for a full collection of 10.