Gorilla in a Cage

Gorilla in a Cage is dedicated to the composer’s aunt Edna Freedman who died of cancer at the time of the work’s inception, however the work is not a requiem. Unusual instruments like the Batonka – a twooctave set of tuned PVC tubes played with a foam slapper – are featured alongside more traditional mallet instruments and drums. Throughout, instruments usually associated with melody play drumlike figures, and the drums are used for their melodic possibilities. Tim Page writing in the Washington Post called it, ‘Unusually affecting in its outline and conception.’