Shadowman

Shadowman was written for the Nexus percussion ensemble and the University of Toronto Symphony Orchestra. It was commissioned by Michael Koerner. The piece celebrates soldiery, or rather the futility of soldiery. The five percussionists are divided: two players impersonate the Forces of Darkness; two the Forces of Light; while one, dressed in a tattered military uniform, impersonates the individual soldier as he drums his way through victory and defeat on the battlefield.

The orchestra accompanies this crusade of courage and folly with a number of tunes from military musical history. In the end, the soldier, mentally deranged, plays a variety of toy instruments and even tries to teach a teddy bear to play a toy drum. The valor and pathos of soldiery is exemplified in the piece, but the anti-war theme is unmistakable throughout the work. To my regret, the work has not achieved the popularity I had hoped for. We need more anti-war demonstrations in music. For a full discussion of Shadowman see the introduction to the full score or the article printed in the collection Papers, Arcana. R. Murray Schafer