Maslanka-Montana Music: Three Dances for Percussion (SP)-2V/C/3M/BM/4T/P/PN/CB

Montana Music: Three Dances for Percussion is one of a series of pieces with the title Montana Music. These are separate pieces with no musical crossover, yet they all spring from a single root point which I feel to be the powerful spirit of life emanating from the Montana land. This spirit as I perceive it is a rich and complex thing: it is the vibrant life force with all its earth manifestations, yet along with it there is a sharp element of pain and urgency. My response to this force has been a deepened sense of the quality of the moment, a better understanding of the need to experience the moment fully, and then to release it without regret, and a deeper sense of the timeless as perceived through the shifting patterns of sound in time.

- David Maslanka

• Number of players: 9 (+ 1 for third movement)
• Difficulty: Advanced