Bang on a Can

"A is For..." is an arrangement of an electronic work of the same name from a set of pieces included on my CD "Alphabet Book" (Bridge Records 2002). Evan Ziporyn suggested the arrangement. The piece consists of a series of musically framed, spoken and spelled out 5-letter words all beginning with the letter A. (The pieces on the Alphabet Book CD all play various games with spoken letters and numbers.) The order and sense of the series of words is not arbitrary and tells a story, albeit an elliptical one. For the instrumental version I added a new opening and closing to create a somewhat more theatrical presence. It was a very interesting experience to move from an electronic realm to an instrumental realm, and I'm grateful to Evan for making the suggestion. It's put new ideas into my head. -Paul Lansky