Ceaseless Staircase

Matthew Kilby

Medium-Advanced Quintet for Marimba and Percussion

6 players

Instrumentation: Solo Marimba — low A (optional low F), Glockenspiel, 2 Vibraphones, Percussion — bongos, djembe, pandeiro (or tambourine), ribbon crasher, snare drum (w/ brushes), water triangle (or triangle w/o water)

M.C. Escher’s Ascending and Descending (1960) depicts a series of faceless figures trudging up and down never-ending stairs. The feelings of disorientation and monotony this visual work conjures in many have been quite cleverly bottled and made palatable in Ceaseless Staircase by Matthew Kilby.

Written for an experienced marimba soloist and percussion quintet, the piece employs various harmonic and rhythmic devices that depict a sense of unending routine; however, Kilby has accomplished this with sparks of musical energy that make it anything but tedious to perform or listen to.

Ceaseless Staircase ships as a fully bound score and includes individual parts in PDF format for either printing or tablet viewing.