Shut Up and Dance

Shut Up and Dance (1994)

for symphony orchestra

2 fl (+ picc); 2 ob; 2 cl (+ b cl); 2 bsn (+ cbsn)
4 hn; 2 tpt; 2 tbn, b tbn; tba
2 perc; pno; hp
strings

Duration: 10 minutes

Commissioned by BBC, Radio 3

The musical language of Shut Up And Dance is heavily influenced by non-European ideas as well as ‘popular’ dance music. Deliberately, there is no attempt at combining the various strands: African and Brazilian rhythms glide past Indonesian gamelan with the whole supported by African drumming. In one continuous movement, the work remains in the same tempo throughout and consists of alternating verses and refrains. The refrains are scored for full orchestra exploring an endless sequence of chords which strive upwards underpinned by a full array of tom-toms in the percussion section.The title comes from the name of a New York nightclub and was composed in the summer of 1994.

First performed by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales with conductor Grant Llewellyn at St David’s Hall, Cardiff on 17 November 1994

Video

Score

shut-up-and-dance-orchestra3 Download

Audio

Shut Up and Dance – BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Grant Llewellyn 17.11.94 (premiere)

Shut Up and Dance – BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Clark Rundell 13.01.17 (revised version)

Orchestral parts

Orchestral parts available at the International Music Score Library Project (IMSLP)

and from Ty Cerdd – Music Centre Wales

Press

“Barber’s music, minimalistically Afro-Manhatten (the new work is named after a New York night-club), is candidly a child of the pick-up ensemble: easy-going, fun, slightly whacky in its ornamentation of (not quite maddeningly) naïve, repetitive melodic figures and rhythm.”
Stephen Walsh, The Independent, 19 November 1994

“Barber’s Shut Up and Dance, which was commissioned by the BBC and premiered by the orchestra in 1994, opened the programme quite brilliantly. Inspired by the rhythms and textures of both contemporary dance music and Balinese Gamelan, the piece has the rare virtues of being short in duration, continuously witty and intensely joyful. Though it’s relatively simple, the orchestra dispatched it with due decorum, and the moire effect of the tonal colours continued to shimmer in the mind’s eye long after its conclusion.” Phil Johnson, The Independent, 12 September 1997

17.11.94	CARDIFF	St Davids Hall	BBC NOW, Grant Llewellyn
10.09.97	CARDIFF	Vale of Glamorgan Festival	BBC NOW, Grant Llewellyn
23.09.98	CARDIFF	Coal Exhange	BBC NOW, Grant Llewellyn
05.01.14	ASCOT	LVS	Berkshire YSO, Jonathan Burnett
21.07.14	BUDAPEST	Karmelia Udvar	Berkshire YSO, Jonathan Burnett
13.01.17	CARDIFF	BBC Hoddinott Hall	BBC NOW, Clark Rundell
12.07.25	LONDON	Holy Trinity Sloane Square	New London Harmonia, Oi Ching Chan