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Difficulty

Primary Instrumentation

Number of Performers

Suggested Performance Venue

Instrumentation

• Piano (two players = four hands)
• Tape and digital-delay system
• 4 Timpani
• 3 Tom-toms
• snare drum
• 3 Suspended Cymbals (bowed) (small, medium, large)
• Vibraphone (bowed)
• Glockenspiel
• Flexatone
• Chimes
• Tam-Tam (large)
• Bass Drum (large)
• Conch Shell

Brief Review

Performance Notes

The piano parts are very rhythmic and virtuosic at times, and at other times calm and beautiful. The pianists are required to "share" the pedals and are quite often crossing voices and/or strumming the strings of the piano, which makes for some difficult choreography. However, being that the composer is also a pianist, he has written the parts very well and has given very good instructions in the score to help execute the piano parts easily and properly.

The percussion part is written in two staves and was originally written for two percussionists; however, the composer makes note that the part can be performed by one percussionist -- although I'd recommend that it should be performed using two percussionists. If a single percussionist performs the work then I would suggest altering the composer's suggested instrument setup dramatically to make the instruments more accessible to a single player.

The tape part and electronic effects can be controlled by one of the piano players or perhaps an extra (fifth) performer.

Additional Information

Click here to view and download the SuperCollider program that I wrote to emulate the digital-delay system using a Macintosh computer. I used this program for performances at Arizona State University.