Commissioned by the New Albany Symphony Orchestra with the generous support of the Johnstone Fund, the inspiration for the work was soloist Cameron Leach’s energy and virtuosity. The work is in four movements, each creating a different sound world. The first features the soloist on drums and marimba, the second on metallic instruments, the third on marimba and xylophone, and the fourth on drums and marimba again. The music traverses many different characters and energies throughout, from dynamic and extroverted to textural and layered in the night music of the second movement, to a whirlwind of anxious energy in the third. The premiere of the work on March 21, 2021, was the first in-person event of my music since the Covid-19 pandemic and serves as a marker in my memory for a return to the concert hall.
Full Instrumentation:
2 flutes (both double piccolo) 2oboes (second doubles English Horn) 2 clarinets (second doubles bass clarinet) 2 bassoons (second doubles contrabassoon) 2.2.1 (bass trombone) timp. 2 percussion (Player 1: 4 tom toms, snare drum, 2 bongos, tambourine, 1 wood block, suspended cymbal; Player 2: snare drum, large tam-tam, medium tam-tam, suspended cymbal, ratchet, mark tree, tambourine, maracas) solo percussion (bass drum, kick bass drum, 5 tom-toms, 2 bongos, snare drum, 5 wood/temple blocks, marimba, vibraphone, xylophone, crotales, glockenspiel), strings