Broscious-Jabal al Qal'a II CELLO/4 PERC VERSION (SP)-V/M /P/VC

Jabal Al Qal'a (literally translated Castle Hill) is a tourist location in Amman, Jordan that includes Roman Ruins, an early Byzantine Church, a Mosque, and a museum housing artifacts from the region (including the Dead Sea Scrolls). Since living in Amman, the transcendent prayers of the Islamic religion have become peaceful moments of my routine day. The opening of Jabal Al Qal'a is based on these prayers and the way the sound bounces around the city. It should be performed freely and the relationship between the rhythms of the vibraphone and the cello should not be exactly followed. The rhythms are written mainly to ensure that the two voices do not line up. In the rhythmic sections of the piece, the cello is always to be heard. In these sections, the percussionists (on the arabic instruments) are free to improvise and embellish the basic rhythm, as this is the common practice for this style of music. Special consideration should be taken from section D to E in the riq part to gradually increase the embellishment of the rhythm so as to build in intensity.

Originally composed for cello and percussion duo, I later arranged Jabal Al Qal'a II for cello and percussion quartet. The cello part, and the instrumentation remains the same in both versions. However in the quartet version, each percussionist plays only one instrument, as opposed to changing between instruments, as in the original version.


-Tim Broscious

Number of players:5
Difficulty: Advanced

Instrumentation

Player 1: Cello
Player 2: Vibraphone, marimba (shared w/player 3)
Player 3: Marimba (5 octave)
Player 4: Riq
Player 5: Doumbek