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On June 11, 1962, three American criminals, Clarence Anglin, John Anglin, and Frank Morris, attempted to escape from the Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary on Alcatraz Island, San Francisco, California. The inmates fabricated dummy heads from a mixture of soap, toilet paper and real hair, and left them in their beds to fool the prison officers making their nightly counts. They burrowed through the concrete walls of their cells with spoons, climbed through the service corridor and ventilation shaft to the roof, scaled the fence and inflated a raft made from the prison's standard issue raincoats and contact cement. The prisoners entered the San Francisco Bay and attempted to paddle to freedom through frigid waters and strong currents. The FBI’s investigation was unable to determine whether the three men successfully escaped or died in the attempt. ALCATRAZ for Concert Band follows their fate from sentencing to incarceration to escape.
New Music Review featured in THE INSTRUMENTALIST MAGAZINE: "This creative & intriguing work is excellently scored with a cinematic flair. The first portion of the piece is slow, ominous and foreboding with dramatic contrasts of texture and dynamics. Changing meters and repetitive figures from the vibraphone add a sense of uneasiness and uncertainty. A sudden presto reflects a more frantic mood with driving percussion lines, continued changing meters, and bold sustained passages that build in intensity until the music suddenly softens as the piece fades to silence, leaving the listener to contemplate the escapee's fate. |
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