Where Now Rusts The Iron?
General Info
Year: 1994
Duration: c. 8:00
Difficulty: Grade IV-V (see Ratings for explanation)
Publisher: Brixton
Cost: Version II: Score and Parts - $42.50 | Score Only - $0.00
Movements
Instrumentation
Player I: Timpani (4), orchestra bells, tubular bells (shared with perc. 2), and finger cymbals
Player II: Two anvils (metal pipes may be substituted), and tubular bells (shared with perc. 1
Player III: Xylophone, and suspended cymbal
Player IV: Vibraphone and suspended cymbal
Player V: Marimba
Player VI: Two suspended cymbals, tam-tam, wind chimes, and bell tree
Voice
Flute
Cello
Program Notes
WHERE NOW RUSTS THE IRON? (1994) by Howard J. Buss is a dramatic tribute to the composer’s grandfather who, like many ironworkers in his day, worked under brutal conditions with the dream of making life better for future generations. “A moving work touching our communal soul.”[1]
Two Version:
Version for high voice & piano B346
Version for high voice, flute, cello, and six percussion B346E
Text:
“Where Now Rusts the Iron?”
Homes now stand where once the foundry coughed.
Countless tons of iron -
wheels and pans,
boilers and pipes,
latches and plates.
Countless train loads of hardware
shrieked from the pounding, grimy world within.
Iron converted from life itself,
energy given form.
Precious moments, days, and years
poured into molds and sealed
amid the ashes and dust,
always ashes and dust,
suspended in life-stealing air.
The graves of the workers overlook this place,
their fam’lies spread afar.
Season come and go, yet frozen in mem’ry
are the days of youth spent in toil, hope, and purpose.
Where now rusts the iron once cast by pounding hearts,
releasing the dreams, the souls,
invested in tough, cold metal?
The foundry still stands among the houses,
coughing on smoke-laden air.
Invisible as the iron once made,
its souls as mist remains.
- Howard J. Buss
Copyright © 1994 by Brixton Publications
Commercial Discography
Recent Performances
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Works for Percussion by this Composer
A Day In The City - Marimba
American Pheonix - Percussion Quartet; Bass Trombone or Tuba
Atmospheres - Multiple Percussion; Trumpet
Behind The Invisible Mask - Multiple Percussion; Bassoon
Boom Time - Multiple Percussion; Trombone
Capriccio (Buss) - Multiple Percussion; Clarinet; Trombone
Coexistence - Percussion Quartet; Clarinet
Crossroads - Percussion Octet; Trombone Choir
Currents - Percussion Trio
De La Madera - Marimba; Oboe
Dream Sequence - Percussion Quartet; Trombone
Escapade - Percussion Quartet; Saxophone
Impromptu - Marimba; Clarinet or Sop. Saxophone
Incantation - Multiple Percussion; Trumpet
Into Each Life - Multiple Percussion; Flute; Cello; Piano
Kaleidoscope (Buss) - Multiple Percussion; Flute
Modern Times - Percussion Quartet; Flute/Piccolo; Narrator
Mysterious Exit - Percussion Quartet; Flute/Piccolo
Night Tide - Marimba; Trombone
Overture for Percussion - (Buss) - Percussion Ensemble
Rendezvous (Buss) - Multiple Percussion; Trumpet(4)
Rite of Passage - Marimba; Flute
Scenes From The Holy Land - Multiple Percussion; Flute
Sci-Fi Percussives - Percussion Ensemble(12)
Sky Blossoms - Multiple Percussion; Flute
Sonic Fables: "Lessons from Aesop" - Multiple Percussion; Brass Quintet
Spanish Memoirs - Percussion Quartet; Trumpet
Stellar Visions - Marimba; Flute
The Big Bang (Buss) - Percussion Sextet; Piano
There Is A Season - Percussion Duo; Clarinet
Two Caprices - Marimba; Flute; Oboe
Wave Train - Marimba; Flute
Where Now Rusts The Iron? - Percussion Quartet; Soprano; Flute; Cello
Additional Resources
References