Dietz-Die Glocke-B

Die Glöcke was commissioned by percussionist Timothy Shuster and the piece is dedicated to him. The title in German means “The Bell,” which is a fitting title for a solo glockenspiel composition. It is also the name of one of Germany's supposed “Wunderwaffe” (Miracle Weapon) devices which is associated with Nazi Occultism, antigravity, and free energy research. I became more interested in composing music that was more tonally centered and wrote 12 movements for a total of 30 minutes of music or a song cycle for glockenspiel. Performers may feel free to mix and match the pieces or only perform several movements at a time.

• Number of players: 1
• Difficulty: Intermediate/advanced
• Instrumentation: Glockenspiel (3.3-octave, C3 to E6); with some octave displacement, most of the solos are playable on the more standard 2.5-octave model.