Sonic Adventures
General Info
Copyright: 2006
Publisher: C. Alan Publications
Difficulty: Elementary to Intermediate
Duration: 00:22:00
Cost: $60.00
Movement
1. Four Aces
2. Opening Night
3. Timesliding Towards Twirling
4. The Changing Hands Rag
5. Ancient Tower Bells
6. Percintegration
Instrumentation
Four Aces
Player 1: Glockenspiel
Player 2: Snare Drum
Player 3: Bass Drum
Player 4: Crash Cymbals
Opening Night
Player 1: Glockenspiel
Player 2: Tambourine & Triangle
Player 3: Suspended Cymbal
Player 4: Snare Drum
Player 5: Bass Drum
Timesliding Towards Twirling
Player 1: Xylophone
Player 2: Marimba
Player 3: Snare Drum & Cowbell
Player 4: Tenor Drum & Suspended Cymbal
Player 5: [[[Temple Blocks]] & Triangle
Changing Hands Rag
Player 1: Xylophone / Marimba
Player 2: Tambourine & Triangle & Maracas
Player 3: Tambourine & Triangle & Maracas
Player 4: Tambourine & Triangle & Maracas
Player 5: Snare Drum & 10" Splash Cymbal
••Players 2, 3 & 4 share instruments
Ancient Tower Bells
Player 1: Glockenspiel / Vibraphone
Player 2: Tam Tam & Xylophone / Marimba & Crash Cymbals
Player 3: Triangle & Finger Cymbals & Chimes
Player 4: Tambourine & Maracas
Player 5: 2 Concert Tom Toms & 18" Suspended Cymbal & Wind Chimes
Player 6: 3 Timpani & Large Suspended Cymbal
Percintegration
Player 1: Glockenspiel & 23" Timpani & High Snare Drum
Player 2: Vibraphone & 26" Timpani & Medium High Snare Drum
Player 3: Marimba & 29" Timpani & Medium Low Snare Drum
Player 4: Marimba & 32" Timpani & Low Snare Drum
Player 5: 4 Concert Tom Toms & Bongos & Suspended Cymbal & Mark Tree & Headless Tambourine & Spring Drum
Player 6: Bass Drum & 2 Woodblocks & Cowbell & Crash Cymbals & Suspended Cymbal & Maracas
Program Notes
Sonic Adventures for Percussion Ensemble was created as a supplement to current repertoire that addresses a continuing need for pedagogical literature that is approachable by and entertaining for elementary and intermediate level percussionists. The six works in this collection were written to introduce percussionists to many of the techniques and challenges they will encounter on their journey to becoming fine musicians. The pieces would be ideal for the junior high school or high school band director/percussion instructor who is searching for percussion music of varying levels. College instructors may also find some of the more difficult works challenging and discover useful teaching points in the less difficult works for their pedagogical classes and/or younger, less experienced students.
The six pieces in this compilation are graduated in level of difficulty. The compositional approach for these works is to slowly introduce issues of technical difficulty for each percussion instrument. Often, percussion literature written for the elementary percussionist introduces technical challenges for the young players too early in their development. As a result, addressing fundamental issues that apply to all beginning musicians sometimes gets overlooked. Therefore, the less difficult pieces in this collection focus on aspects of musicality, counting, and logistics, while the more difficult pieces delve into technical issues such as snare drum technique, 4-mallet technique on keyboard percussion instruments, timpani tuning/pedaling, and instrument-specific techniques (e.g. thumb rolls on tambourine, open/closed sounds on triangle, etc.).
Each piece in this collection contains a page entitled Pedagogical Focus Points (PFPs). These are a list of explanations and goals for the conductor regarding the pedagogical issues that each work attempts to impart. The conductor is encouraged to share these points with the students in the ensemble, so that they will be aware of the techniques and challenges of their own part/instrument, and the other parts/instruments as well. This collection is meant to help serve the percussion community as both a teaching tool and a vehicle for bringing the audience closer to the performers.
Works for Percussion by this Composer
A Delivering - Timpani
Aware of Discussion - Percussion Octet
Collinear Dancer - Multiple Percussion
Declarative Stances - Percussion Octet
Duality Intrinsic - Marimba, Piano
Elegy for Alpha - Marimba
Eye Irascible - Percussion Octet
Goodbye and Go Begin - Percussion Octet
Re-Entry - Multiple Percussion
Sonic Adventures - Percussion Quartet / Percussion Quintet / Percussion Sextet
Spanesque Oscilliations - Percussion Quartet
Vortices for Drum Set and Percussion Sex(y)tet - Drumset; Percussion Sextet
Weather Movement I: Springwind - Percussion Octet
Weather Movement II: Storm Warning and Dance - Percussion Octet