Hendrix-Bahrah (SP)-P

Bahrah (pronounced "bay-ray") by Brandon Hendrix for percussion quartet. Bahrah is the literal translation of the Hebrew phrase "to create." The idea for this composition was to take certain important themes from the Creation narrative in the Bible and turn them into musical motives, and then use these motives to develop musical material.

The process of turning events from the book of Genesis into musical material was fairly straightforward. By simply taking the transliteration of certain key words and breaking them up into syllables, the composer could then base the motives on 1) the rhythmic syllabification and 2) the natural Hebrew inflection. The work as a whole is not intended to symbolize the Creation. It simply represents the primitive and raw forces that were used in the creative act. Of particular importance is the motive for "God," which is represented in the log drum and is featured throughout the work as a sort of recurring theme.
Duration: 4'30"

Instrumentation:
Percussion 1 - congas, claves, maracas, temple blocks, suspended cymbal (shared with Percussion 3)
Percussion 2- conga, bongos, temple blocks, woodblocks, tom-toms
Percussion 3- claves, tom-toms, suspended cymbal (shared with percussion 1)
Percussion 4 - log drum, maracas, woodblocks, temple blocks