Kowalski-Silhouettes

“Silhouettes” is a seven-minute, four-mallet work in five continuous movements, with near-constant meter changes and an abundance of fast notes working in tandem to display a figurative “chops required” warning on each of its nine pages. Thus, this is a solid choice for college and professional performances. This work features a variety of brief, discernable musical gestures, each frequently shifting the tonal center of the work, like a back-and-forth round of siblings stealing the TV remote in an effort to have the final say on what to watch, only to have the matter complicated further as more and more people show up, each with their own chance to steal the remote and their own unique takes on what to watch. Despite its complex nature, the piece is supposed to be fun, and it succeeds. There’s a great recording online and an excerpt ready to be viewed. If this sounds like your thing, check it out..