Tour de Force
General Info
Year of Published: 2023
Publisher: C. Alan Publications
Difficulty: Advanced
Duration: 00:08:15
Cost: $54.00
Instrumentation
Player 1: Glockenspiel
Player 2: Xylophone & Crotales
Player 3: Vibraphone 1
Player 4: Vibraphone 2 & Chimes
Player 5: Marimba 1
Player 6: Marimba 2
Player 7: Marimba 3
Player 8: Marimba 4
Player 9: Timpani & China Cymbal
Player 10: Snare Drum & Bongos & Hi-Hat & Mounted Opera Gong & Ride Cymbal & Splash Cymbal
Player 11: Multi-Bass Drum & 3 Tom Toms & Marching Snare Drum & Large Zil-Bel & Sizzle Cymbal
Player 12: Concert Bass Drum & Kick Drum & Djembe & Ribbon Crasher & Brake Drum & Large Tam-tam
Program Notes
I’ve been focusing on writing a lot of music with a dedicated architecture in recent years. Tour de Force is not that kind of piece. It is an orchestrated piano improvisation that is haphazard, jarring, and abrasive at times. Through composing this piece, I learned that these structures that I’ve written for so long have started to permeate my improvisations even when I’m trying to avoid them. Perhaps my mind is trying to constantly reinvent the framing of these “-isms” so that they come out in fresh new ways every time. This has taken on the form of episodes throughout the piece, all of which reflect a softer and subdued start to a new musical process. These episodes are followed by bombastic sections of resonant metals and pounding drums. This battle of contrasting sections exists through the entire eight minute and fifteen second duration of the piece. Nearing the end of the work, the episodic material starts to coalesce with the bombastic material to create an impressive, albeit entirely superficial ending. This piece, at its most fundamental level, music with no substance or narrative composed for the mere sake of sounding sophisticated.
Tour de Force turned out to be not only a piece that requires elegant technique and musicality but also a relentless mental exercise of ensemble awareness, timing, and endurance. My biggest goal was to compose a piece that would contribute to the percussion ensemble repertoire, and to create one so bold that it would truly live up to its name. Tour de Force was commissioned by the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley Percussion Ensemble for their 2023 Texas Music Educators Association Showcase Performance.
Works for Percussion by this Composer
Aequilibrium - Percussion Quintet
Concerto for Piano & Percussion Ensemble - Piano & Percussion Octet
Electric Cathedral - Mallet Station & Percussion Quartet
Into the Void - Percussion Quartet & Choir
Sentinel - Percussion 14 & Concert Band
Sonatina for Percussion Ensemble - Percussion 12
Tour de Force - Percussion 12