IV. Echo... (echo)
Here is the full performance of the fourth movement of Five Petite Movements, by Chris Roode.
To hear your individual part please scroll down!
The Full Performance
The Individual Parts
Part 1: High Percussion 1
Part 2: High Percussion 2
Part 3: Low Percussion 1
Part 4: Low Percussion 2
About the Piece
From the publisher: Written for beginning percussion ensemble with approximately one month of experience, Five Petite Movements by Chris Roode is a great way to showcase new percussionists in performance. You have the option of choosing only a selection of movements (1–2 minutes each) or the entire suite (8 minutes). Additionally, different performers may be assigned to the movements to create a mini percussion ensemble concert.
Scored for four or more players, parts may be doubled, tripled, or otherwise multiplied to accommodate the group’s size. Available for purchase here.
From the Percussion Pal team: With each of the movements of this piece, we started by asking what kind of sounds do we want, especially in the movements that are open instrumentation and allow for flexibility. In this movement, we chose to go with a vast range of sounds: a tile, woodblock, frying pan, and cowbell. This choice was born out of the tradition of “found sound“ instrumentation in the percussion music of composers like John Cage, Lou Harrison, Paul Lansky, etc. The only instruction we were given from the composer was High and Low Percussion, in a similar pairing to both III. Tambourine Duel, and parts of I. Four Fun for Drum.
The technical challenges in this movement come from two places: having the ability to play a well paced decresendo and starting rhythmic patterns on both strong and weak beats. Most players have a tendency to make a decresendo sound like a few loud notes and a few soft notes, cutting out the middle dynamics in an effort to get soft. We would encourage performers to isolate each decresendo pattern out of the context of the piece and work on moving through every dynamic between forte and piano (or whatever other dynamics are present in the score). The other challenge of this movement is being able to count through rests and come in on the correct beat confidently. We suggest a similar method to II. Light Steel, Heavy Metal: have all performers circle up on a similar playing surface and play through difficult passages slowly to build an understanding of how each part works together.
If you have any questions or comments about this, please don’t hesitate to contact us so we can talk more about this awesome piece!