Indigo is a groovy piece that experiments with breaking apart a drum set and dividing it up through a chamber keyboard ensemble. The intent of the work is to allow the audience to sit back and enjoy a pleasant chord progression that requires challenging coordination from the players in the ensemble. With each player balancing between a part of a drum set and a marimba or vibraphone, it takes a high level of execution on all four parts to allow the music to sound ‘in the pocket.’ Indigo features full ensemble playing, an Ad. Lib vibraphone solo, groovy drum beats, and much more. My hope is that the percussionists who take on this piece of music enjoy the process thoroughly and give the audience a great show. The title of the piece was simply inspired by my favorite color.

Palpitations is a challenging marimba duet comprised of sweeping arpeggio passages, groove centered melodies, and echoing rhythms that work together to create a bigger picture to the listener. I landed on the title Palpitations when writing the beginning section of the piece. Although the music remains in a simple meter, the pulse is felt differently throughout, and the echo effect between the marimbas creates an unsteady feeling that constantly builds and releases tension. The following section of the duet begins much more stable and develops a groovy bassline and melody. As soon as the pulse stabilizes, it is thrown off into odd- meter licks that give the feeling of an entirely new tempo. In the 3rd section of the piece, the two players begin to create their own ‘echo chamber’ that develops and expands throughout. When writing this section, I imagined falling asleep listening to a heart monitor, where the imagination would take a single tone and expand on it until it became something different entirely. With moments of stability and instability, Palpitations has the opportunity to create a thrilling listening experience to the audience.

Remnants is a challenging work for percussion orchestra that explores the many timbres achievable in a conventional large ensemble setup. With many musical layers to this piece, there is the constant intention of maintaining growth and decay, leading to full, driving moments as well as delicate piano playing that draws the listener’s ear in. The melodic intention of the work was to create an array of short and fragmented melodic figures that overlap yet fit together diatonically and harmonically, creating moments of familiarity and earning the appropriate title, Remnants. The ensemble stays firmly rooted in C Phrygian and explores the unique relationship between the C7 and DbM7 chords, allowing the sparse melodies to seamlessly transition through the harmonic progression of the piece.

Full of colorful harmonies and beautiful melodic passages, Insomnia is a challenging, yet rewarding addition to any percussion recital.

Genre: Duet for 2 Marimbas | # of Players: 2
Level: Medium Difficult | Duration: 6:30

Instrumentation
Marimba 1 (5-octave)
Marimba 2 (5-octave)

Program Notes
Insomnia is a challenging duet consisting of colorful harmonies meant to portray the free and flowing nature of the human spirit. The challenge in performing the piece lies in lining up fast permutations and phrasing a rubato melody that at times is played in tandem with the fast permutations. When executing these musical ideas at a high level, an enjoyable experience is created for the performers and audience. Insomnia was written in dedication to Cody’s late father, Ben Holmes.

Rayleigh is an engaging marimba piece that allows the player to enjoy the process of creating musicality on the marimba. With many contrasting styles and some difficult passages, this an excellent developmental solo for the intermediate player.

Genre: Marimba (4-mallet) | # of Players: 1
Level: Medium Difficult | Duration: 5:10

Instrumentation
Marimba (4.5-octave)

Program Notes
Rayleigh is a tonal solo written with the intention of drawing different colors out of the marimba with contrasting rhythmic and melodic passages. The name ‘Rayleigh’ itself refers to the light phenomenon of Rayleigh Scattering, which accounts for the color of the sky. When writing this solo, I often thought of sunsets and how the colors uniformly changed from warm to cool as they traveled further from the Sun. In my solo, there are several of these contrasts apparent where the style abruptly, yet smoothly changes while maintaining the same tonal center and melodic material. The composition begins with a heavily ornamented chorale and ends likewise with a smooth beautiful passage that fades away similarly to the dark colors of the sky.