Man, I really need to get better at updating this site. A lot has been going on and consequently my already limited attention-span has been drastically reduced. There’s a new job potentially happening, a new collaboration that may call for a new piece with Cascadia Composers, some arranging work for Steam Radio Syndicate… etc, etc. All good things, in the end.
The point here isn’t to whine though, it’s to announce the completion of a brand new percussion duet that I’m quite excited about. It was written for Seattle’s RE:Percussion Duo (Andrew Angell and David Soloman, respectively), and, if all goes according to my master plan, it will be premiered in mid-August. This will be the first solely percussion piece I’ve written. I’ve written extended works that feature percussion before (one with soprano, cello, and percussion trio), but never with percussion as the main focus. The instruments featured are ‘high’ and ‘low’ resonant metal pipes, 2 toms, vibes (4-hands), 2 triangles (high and low), 8 tuned flower pots, and 7 suspended glockenspiel bars. Metallic pulses are a central idea throughout (this piece was partially inspired by David Lang’s Anvil Chorus), though the closing sections are much warmer and mellower. A single rhythmic motive is heard through the entire work in various guises; it’s dissected, varied, augmented, diminished, and ornamented within and around a wide variety of rhythms derived from Morse code (there aren’t any secret encoded messages, though; the Morse code was used primarily to generate motives by selecting letters from pitches). The form is a rough ternary with some extended transition periods, and the piece lasts around 9 minutes as a single movement.
I still need a title.
Jay Derderian 