Ingram Marshall’s Soundtracks

This afternoon the San Francisco Public Library (SFPL) presented a video screening of two photography slideshows created by American photographer Jim Bengston. Both of these were created in 2013; and both were given soundtracks by American composer Ingram Marshall, who died at end of May last year. The title of the first video was “Alcatraz,” which was thirty minutes in duration. This was followed by “Eberbach,” whose duration was only eighteen minutes. Introductory remarks were provided by librarian John Smalley.

Cover of the New Albion recording of Ingram Marshall’s music for “Alcatraz” (from the Amazon.com Web page for this album)

“Alcatraz” is probably better known to readers, since Marshall’s music was recorded and released as a New Albion Records CD. While the eight movements basically aligned with the duration of Bengston’s slideshow, the CD included both “Prelude” and “Postlude” movements. Nevertheless, writing as one familiar with the CD, I was struck by how the music often served to reinforce the haunting imagery of the ruins of the prison as the structure now stands. “Eberbach,” on the other hand, took its title from a Cistercian monastery; and, as Smalley observed in his remarks, one can appreciate a dispiriting parallel between imprisonment and the isolation of monastic life. Indeed, the dark rhetoric of the “Eberbach” slideshow was distinguished by mournful saxophone scales, reflecting on a distant past with sonorities of the immediate present.

Taken as a whole, this made for a rather disquieting experience. Most of Marshall’s contributions amounted to a rich diversity of tape music techniques. As a result, there was almost a bit of “shock value” when he injected an elaborate piano arpeggio passage, which may well have been a sly nod to his colleague John Adams, who included that technique in his “Grand Pianola Music.”

Ironically, SFPL had previously presented this screening at the Richmond Branch on the same day that San Francisco Performances presented its tribute program for Marshall. I, for one, was glad to see that this benefit provided to the Richmond Branch finally found its way to the Main Library! However, it is worth noting that these screenings were made possible with permission from Starkland, a label that has received a generous amount of attention on this site!