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Percussion

Percussion Ensemble Favorites

percussion ensamble

Percussion Ensemble

Happy Mondays - Step On

Tubular Bells is an arrangement of the tune by Mike Oldfield used in The Exorcist.  This is a sample of the work that I did in arranging it for the Indiana University of Pennsylvania Percussion Ensemble to be used for the Spring 2013 Evening of Percussion and Dance concert.

Tubular Bells Percussion Ensemble Arrangement Sample

This high-energy feature for xylophone soloist is backed by a trio of three marimbists, all sharing one instrument.

Danza Furioso (by Jonathan Ovalle)

Featuring a balanced ensemble of keyboard and battery percussion, "Mercury Rising" is, in essence, a double fugue that gives all players the opportunity to shine. After a brief anticipatory introduction, the tempo picks up and the keyboard percussion introduces the primary fugue theme (or subject), with entries by the marimba, the xylophone, and then the vibraphone. The battery joins the excitement before taking over the fugue subject, featuring the snare drum and concert toms. By the time the timpani takes over the subject, all members of the ensemble have entered leading to a climactic explosion at m. 72. After a brief developmental 3/4 section, in which fragments of the fugue subject are strewn about the ensemble, intensity continues to build to the end of the piece, as the theme appears in its loudest and fastest presentation yet.

Mercury Rising - Daughtrey | Perc Ens (7 players) | Gr. 3

Truman State Percussion Ensemble performing "First Circle" by Pat Metheny.  Arr. Michael Kingan.  Vince Wallace, conductor

First Circle (for Percussion Ensemble) arr. by Michael Kingan, Conducted by Vince Wallace

Based on a colorful poem by Federico García Lorca with vivid imagery and a wonderful arc, "The Cry" is a work for 12 percussionists commissioned by the University of Oklahoma Percussion Orchestra, directed by Dr. Lance Drege. The work divides into 5 primary sections: 

Paisaje ("Landscape")
La Guitarra ("The Guitar")
El Grito ("The Cry")
Un Silencio Ondulado ("A Rolling Silence")
Tierra de Luz, Cielo de Tierra ("Earth of Light, Sky of Earth") 

Federico García Lorca was extremely interested in the Spanish gypsy music known as Cante Jondo (or "Deep Song"), which is the purist and most natural precursor to Flamenco music. It is filled with passionate melismatic singing and sparse guitar playing. Great care has been taken to differentiate between the more popular Flamenco form and Cante Jondo, always emphasizing that the latter is the purer and more serious of the two forms.

It is this struggle that is at the heart of "The Cry." The virtuosic melismatic singing is emulated throughout the ensemble in long flourishes that are full of twists and turns. The antiphonal castanet players help bring in the flamenco elements to the piece, as well as the sounds of flamenco dancers tapping, stomping and clapping in rhythm. Most important in composing this piece was that the beautiful words of García Lorca and the form of his poem are represented.

The Cry: An Andalusian Fantasy

Aboriginal Dreams - Ferris Advanced Percussion Ensemble

Sheet music available from Tapspace at http://www.tapspace.com.

Echo Funk (Jonathan Ovalle)

Tilted Spheres is named after a sculpture by Richard Serra, one of my favorite artists. He has prominent pieces in three places I've lived: Fort Worth, TX; Lincoln, NE; and Bilbao, Spain (although Tilted Spheres itself is actually installed in Toronto). I love the huge scale and industrial look of his sculptures, but they also have amazing acoustic qualities. A clap or a stomp will undergo different degrees of echo and timbral distortion, depending on how loud the sound is and the sonic vantage from where it is observed. This has always sort of blown my mind, so I set out to replicate the "Richard
Serra experience" in this piece.

The piece is a quintet for (mostly) non-pitched percussion instruments. After I completed the piece, it occurred to me that almost every instrument present had a circular shape. All of these different sized "spheres" interact in different combinations throughout the work to create a compelling rhythmic and timbral discourse. Tilted Spheres was commissioned by a consortium of professional, collegiate, and advanced high school ensembles and premiered by the Aledo Percussion Ensemble at the 2014 Percussive Arts Society International Convention in Indianapolis.
– DH

Tilted Spheres (percussion quintet) - Dave Hall

Lost Souls for Percussion Quintet

Power Struggle for Percussion Ensemble

Shock Factor for Percussion Quintet

Sheet music available from Tapspace at https://www.tapspace.com.

Tapspace Concert Literature

Five on Five (Stephen Primatic)

Colossus features a timpani soloist with accompaniment from seven percussionists, most of whom play multipercussion setups. The piece features strong themes throughout, with all voices painting a very well-orchestrated picture. The timpanist is featured both in a melodic role as well as in a more primal rhythmic role. Ultra-precise markings help spell out every nuance, and the form is well-paced. The concerto features a dramatic cadenza just before the main material recapitulates into an explosive conclusion. Colossus also won 3rd prize in the Percussive Arts Society composition contest in 2002 and makes a great showpiece to feature the timpanist in a way not often achieved.

Sheet music available from http://www.tapspace.com

Colossus (Eric Rodis)

Written for the Phantom Regiment percussion ensemble, Rochambeaux was awarded first prize in the 2001 DCI percussion ensemble competition. The dominating 7/8 feel, flashy keyboard runs, and ethnic modalities drive the three distinct sections of this groove-based work.

As an option, an 11th player may be added as a featured marimba soloist. There is a separate part for this optional soloist which can be featured over an elongated treatment of the slower, middle phrase. Other solos may be traded among some (or all) other performers during the 6/8 African section ensuring that no two performances of this piece will ever be the same. Certain to garner audience appeal!

Sheet music available at http://www.tapspace.com


Rochambeaux (Brian S. Mason)

No One Knows - Queens of the Stone Age

Waltz For A Rainy Day (Alex Stopa)

Luminescence (percussion ensemble 10-12) - Nathan Daughtrey

Nathan Daughtrey with the James Madison University Percussion Ensemble, Michael Overman, conducting.  Commissioned by Dr. Lisa Rogers (percussion professor at Texas Tech University), the first movement of the Concerto for Vibraphone and Percussion Ensemble received its premiere in November 2009 at the Percussive Arts Society International Convention (PASIC) in Indianapolis by Lisa Rogers and the Brazoswood High School Percussion Ensemble, directed by Eric Harper. It will be premiered in its entirety at the International Society for Music Education (ISME) Conference in Beijing, China in August 2010 by the Texas Tech University Percussion Ensemble, directed by Allan Shin, with Dr. Lisa Rogers as the vibraphone soloist. 
Notes: 
One of my favorite sources of inspiration for my compositions is poetry – especially that of Pablo Neruda. It's so passionate and filled with vivid imagery that it's just a blast to try and portray his words with music. I knew from the outset that Lisa Rogers (the commissioning party) wanted a 2-movement concerto, so I decided to try and find two poems with opposing themes and stumbled upon Neruda's collection "Ode to Opposites." I chose "Ode to Nighttime" and "Ode to Enchanted Light" which pit night against day.  For the first movement, Night’s Song, I tried to depict this mysterious, starry night that gradually turns dark and rainy. The phrases that really spoke to me and shaped the music were “behind daylight,” “you thrash around the sky,” “you run wild over the savage flow of rivers,” and rain and darkness are the blade of a singing sword while stars, or jasmine petals, gaze from blackened heights.” I love how Neruda describes daylight as being born nighttime, so I decided to make the movements attacca so that the second movement, Enchanted Light, bursts forth out of the first movement.  The second movement is much more sparkly and bright, depicting the “light dropping from the top of the sky.” The “cicada sending its sawing song high into the empty air” even makes an appearance when the ensemble vibraphone player places pennies on the bars and then bows those bars with optional help from a sizzle cymbal. Motives and themes from the first movement return in several spots throughout the second movement helping to unify the work. The soloist gets a workout as well in the tour-de-force second movement, unlike the much more introspective first movement.

Concerto for Vibraphone and Percussion Ensemble

Sheet music available from Tapspace at www.tapspace.com.

Coming of Age (Chad Heiny)

Aether (Francisco Perez)

Percussionist, composer, & educator Nathan Daughtrey (b. 1975) is a musical chameleon who uses his wide-ranging talents to adapt comfortably to a variety of environments. As a performing artist and clinician for Yamaha percussion, Vic Firth sticks & mallets, Zildjian cymbals, and Black Swamp accessories, he has performed and given masterclasses and clinics throughout the United States and across three continents. Nathan has recorded two solo marimba albums to date – "Spiral Passages" and "The Yuletide Marimba" – as well as several chamber music albums, including a recent collaboration with euphoniumist Brian Meixner titled "Praxis."

With over 60 publications for percussion ensemble, concert band, orchestra, chamber ensembles, and soloists as well as an ever-growing number of commissions, Nathan balances his performing with composing, and to great acclaim. He is the only composer in the history of the Percussive Arts Society International Composition Contest to procure both 2nd and 3rd place in the same year with his percussion ensemble works "Limerick Daydreams" and "Adaptation," respectively. Nathan's compositions appear regularly on performances at PASIC, the Midwest Band and Orchestra Clinic, the Bands of America National Percussion Festival, and in concert halls and other performance venues around the world. His works have also been recorded on several albums by respected performers, including the FSU Percussion Ensemble, the Showa Wind Symphony conducted by Ray Cramer, the RoseWind Duo, and Mississippi State University. Additionally, three of his compositions for wind ensemble have been featured in three volumes of "Teaching Music Through Performance in Band."

As an educator, Nathan served as a Visiting Lecturer of Percussion for three years at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, where he taught applied percussion and conducted the Percussion Ensemble. He also served as a sabbatical replacement at the University of Oklahoma, where he taught undergraduate and graduate percussion students and conducted the world-renowned OU Percussion Orchestra. Dr. Daughtrey is currently a Visiting Lecturer of Percussion and Music Composition at High Point University (NC), where he teaches applied lessons, directs the percussion ensemble and works in collaboration with the School of Communication and Department of Dance.

Nathan remains active within the Percussive Arts Society serving as a member of the Composition Contest Committee, organizing the PASIC Fun Runs on behalf of the Health and Wellness Committee, and editing the keyboard percussion articles for Percussive Notes.