Night Shore Op.34

The Night Shore by Sys65 has ambiance of full moon that wants to sets over tranquil, radiant marine life of the Caribbean. In other words, it reminds me of life "under the sea", per say. With it percussive, haunting, melodious theme, and lackadaisical atmosphere. It's not all of the above (which i have stated), however, that attracts me to this wonderful composition. No, it is the harmonic vocabulary which works well with the intoxication(not in the negative use here) that draws any ears to dream of beaches. This is why I believe he choose mallets and other percussion instruments....It fits the "Night Shore" in his musical, aural imagination! And I concur with his choice. Well done. I am sure that there are other areas that others will write about when they listen to your composition, sir! But, I choose this path, because I favor musicality and aurality of the piece of review. Two thumbs here.

Thanks for your comment,

lackadaisical ? that's very new word to me

Well, a work for percussion instruments only is like sort of limiting area to work, honestly works for only percussion use to end in nothing but an strange piece, that people try to find something nice or interesting but it often is just nothing, so I called for as most of pitched instruments as I could, I didn't want to make just a piece of noises, also with the timpani as the bassline, I had a reduced area to move, so I didn't try anything weird and wrote something clear like water, no doubt of what is happening there, things like F#m, D, F#m, Bm, D, F#m etc, just I did set a quite demanding usage of mallets, but always took care of not to write nonsense, I was very focused on percussion some years ago, actually like 15 years ago, I studied and researched a lot on percussion, because it has always been an important part of my orchestration, now that I had to write a piece for percussion only (first time I do it) it shows that research time wasn't in vain, I'm not a pro percussionist but I could say I can "think" like one...

...anyway, I'm glad you liked it, I have to say that Latin Smooth Jazz / Bossa Nova harmonies always works very pleasant, for all ears, quite safe material to use, this piece had no room for experimental adventures, which is what I have seen most of the times with solo percussion works. I only know 1 piece, for 4 players too, just it does have 4 marimbas, is called "Hook" by Graham Fitkin, that piece is even better than mine, superb, just I've found some bad performances, there's one by a mexican percussion quartet called "Tambuco" these guys play it wonderfully, just let me find the video.

Thanks again.

Mis respetos, cuate...!

This piece makes a very original use of percussion instruments (I'd never thought of using them this way). As these kind of instruments are intrinsecally rhytmic, they allow for a very nice Latin American flair. You're indeed a very resourceful orchestrator.

This piece is attractive in its conception and well-structured but I think there are some technical difficulties which might have to be considered in live performance. These are mostly in regards to the mallet percussion writing where more than one note must be played at a time. This is particularly so in the vibraphone after the point at which you instruct the player to use four sticks. You quite frequently write the interval of a third in each hand which is very difficult to perform accurately when holding two sticks. Fourths-octaves are much easier for the player when this technique is used. In addition, when the mallet instruments have to play the same line in octave semiquavers there may be some loss of legato effect due to the hand having to strike many notes in quick succession rather than alternating between the hands, and it may become tiring for the players. The timpanist would be advised to use hard sticks in order to maintain the clarity of the rhythms you write for the instrument. I am not sure how accurate the changes from F-F#-G can be executed whilst playing as the player will have to trust the tuning gauge and not be able to test the drum by ear.

The piece had a good sense of motion from the different rhythmic pulses you write. Also, all the players had an equal and important part in the texture.

Hey thanks for commenting,

Well, the competition was started by nickstix91, he's a Professional Percussionist, he said it is difficult, but not impossible, to be honest I say this is the kind of difficulty a player wants, demanding, but not to the point of nonsense, I don't think 3rds are very difficult, Yes, m.80 in vibraphone is the most difficult part in this piece, because of the 3rds, of the speed and the length of the passage, but is all in "white keys" all you have to do is focus your brain in left hand, and right plays by itself.
Anyway, I would be willing to make some changes if there is something really incoherent.

About trusting in the timpani tuning mechanism, well I assume it can be trusted no ? I don't know of cheap kettledrums, all are well constructed and very expensive (unless one of you tell me there are already cheap chinese kettledrums with bad quality) in that case that's not a composition problem, is half a tone only, timpanist should make the test before the performance, to see and feel how much to move the pedal.

There's only one thing I haven't solved, Vibes suposse to start with 3 mallets, and in m.9 will play with 2, so he might drop one to the floor ?

in short, I think this piece require some very well trained team, or they can even damage the marimba or the vibraphone, but I think marimba is more to be careful,
Also, I've seen more difficult pieces or arrangements or orchestral piece much harder to play than this.

There are other details, in recording the multi percussion part in performer 4, the triangle won't sound that much, because is played with wood sticks.

Austenite, on 27 December 2011 - 09:56 PM, said:

Gracias compadre

Amazing! What did you use to write this? I always want to write more for percussion but finale sucks w/ perc.

Thanks.
I used Sibelius, but I assure you, is the same mess, I do all this in the old fashion, 2 notes per note, one to be printed, and the other in different position and hidden (the one actually sounds) still I had to re-make the recording in Cubase where everything is easier.

very nice!

Thanks