Shadowgraph, 5 for Creative Orchestra

Shadowgraph, 5 was composed by George Lewis for the AACM Big Band in 1977, and may be played by an ensemble of any size or instrumentation, from solo performer to large orchestra. No conductor is required. While the composer suggests a duration of approximately 10-20 minutes, the piece can be performed in just a few minutes or drawn out to marathon length.

Rather than playing from a conventional score or measures of staff notation, every member of each instrument groupincluding a Saxophone Group (woodwind instruments), Bass Group (string instruments), and moreimprovises freely from a grid (or ""module"") of 16 different written instructions or musical sketches appropriate to that group.

As the title implies, this is the fifth in a series of Shadowgraph pieces, all five of which were composed for ""creative orchestra,"" between 1975 and 1977. These performance materials, available for purchase, were revised in 2012 to include a module for Electronics Group.