Alex Shapiro, composer: Depth Sounding

Depth Sounding

A pensive, beautiful, powerful plunge.

(Tuba and Euphonium choir and prerecorded electronics).
Total duration ca. 8 minutes (2023).
Published by Activist Music (ASCAP).
One movement work.
Commissioned by Matthew Hightower, for the University of Kentucky Tuba-Euphonium Ensemble.
19 pages (score), 81/2" x 11".

NOTE: This piece is highly adaptable, and will work for ensembles of any size and personnel.

Premiered May 31, 2023 at Gammage Hall, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona,
at the International Tuba and Euphonium Association Conference by the University of Kentucky Tuba-Euphonium Ensemble, conducted by Matthew Hightower.

kelp forest



View pages of the score
Email Alex for perusal score code
Listen to the live recording of DEPTH SOUNDING
Watch

Listen to DEEP, for contrabassoon
Listen to DEPTH, for wind band

Email Alex for the access code to download a perusal score!

Score and parts available from Activist Music in a digital set for $70.00. Conductor score available in print for $35.00 or digital PDF for $15.00.

The original version of this piece, DEEP, was commissioned and recorded by Carolyn Beck. It uses the same audio track as DEPTH SOUNDING, but is set for the noble and profound solo contrabassoon. A few years later, I had the opportunity to expand the music, again with the same track but this time for symphonic wind band in a piece titled DEPTH, the first movement of my watery, ocean-based suite, IMMERSION. When Matthew Hightower commissioned me to create an adaptation of one of my works for a premiere at the 2023 International Tuba and Euphonium Conference, this piece was an obvious choice; my imagination rumbles with the vibrations of the mere thought of so many of these great instruments and their fabulous players on stage together, intoning this anthem to the sea. Inhale. Exhale.

Click the photo to watch Matthew Hightower conduct
the University of Kentucky Tuba-Euphonium Ensemble
in the premiere of DEPTH SOUNDING
at Gammage Hall, Arizona State University,
May 31, 2023.

(Click HERE to hear a better balanced mix
of their wonderful performance!)

"Alex Shapiro's new piece DEPTH SOUNDING was impactful and engaging. Rarely does one hear tuba-euphonium ensemble and electronics blended so masterfully."

— ITEA JOURNAL VOLUME 51:1, FALL 2023

Alex loves writing for low brass, and she's delighted that her enthusiasm takes up a little space in the Fall 2024 issue of the International Tuba-Euphonium Association's Journal. You can read her engaging conversation with tubist Michael Waddell by clicking HERE.

Related work:

DEPTH SOUNDING began life as a piece for solo contrabassoon and prerecorded track, titled DEEP, and has since been performed by many different low register instrumentalists:

DEEP

(Contrabassoon and Electronic soundscape).
Total duration ca. 8 minutes (2004)
Published by Activist Music (ASCAP).
Commissioned in 2004 by Carolyn Beck.
One movement work. 4 pages, 8.5" x 11".

Recorded in December 2004 by Carolyn Beck, contrabassoon;
Dan Morris, additional percussion.

Recorded in December 2006 by Leslie Lashinsky, contrabassoon;
Dan Morris, additional percussion.

Recorded in October 2007 by Marco Mazzini, contrabass clarinet.

Recorded in September 2018 by Cayla Bellamy, bassoon.

Audio clip of contrabassoon version performed by Leslie Lashinsky.

DEPTH

(Wind band and Electronic soundscape).
Total duration ca. 8 minutes (2011)
Published by Activist Music (ASCAP).

EVEN DEEPER

Total duration ca. 8 minutes (2014)
Published by Activist Music (ASCAP).
One movement work. 18 pages, 8.5" x 11".

under the sea

cellular structures

Deep is featured on Carolyn Beck's 2005 CD, Beck and Call, on Crystal Records CD 846. Click CD for more info.

Deep is featured on the 2007 Innova Recordings CD, Notes from the Kelp (innova 683), recorded by Leslie Lashinsky. Click CD for more info.

A version of Deep for bassoon is featured on the 2018 Mark Masters CD, Double or Nothing (Mark Masters 54263-MCD), recorded by Cayla Bellamy. Click CD for more info.

Depth Sounding, page 3

score, p.3

Depth Sounding, page 11

score, p.11