Music and Texts of GARY BACHLUND
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Concerto for Pitched Percussion and Strings - (2022)
Marimba, glockenspiel and vibraphone (motor off) are used in successive movements to trace through the development of themes -- a simple scale, a changing fugue subject and related episodes for the initial rondo. Beginning with the quiet lower register of the marimba, the first statements of the rondo ask the marimba to drive the rhythmic motor of a theme beneath. The adagio for the soloist may be a piacere, though the ensuing allegro should be strict.
The full ensemble sings out, as the simple use of scalar elements complicate the texture.
An episode between repetitions of the main rondo element introduce the theme to be worked into contrapuntal interplay.
As successive returns of the rondo theme and episodes play out, the marimba gives way to an adagio movement with the solo glockenspiel, pitched so many octaves higher. The fugue theme becomes restated and reworked, with the strings adding voices to the contrapuntal play. The stretto becomes more complex.
After the adagio with its solo glockenspiel, the vibraphone's metallic middle voices sing out with the fugue theme becoming further developed.. At the andante con brio, the rhythmic motor of repeated notes and the now lengthened fugue subject are further worked, the stretti more complex as the work progresses.
24 pages, circa 14' 30" - an MP3 emulation of the work is here:
The score and parts are available as a free PDF download, though any major commercial performance or recording of the work is prohibited without prior arrangement with the composer. Click on the graphic below for this score.
Concerto for Pitched Percussion and Strings
Marimba, glockenspiel and vibraphone
