Concerto for World Percussion Ensemble is scored for Percussion Quartet plus Soloist. No longer confined to popular and folkloric music, world percussion is now being featured in orchestral works, chamber music, Broadway and beyond. I wrote the Concerto as an educational piece to help students get ready for the current concertizing world.
The piece is in five main sections, each with a specific teaching goal in mind:
1) Call and Response: To get students comfortable playing Cajon, Dumbek, Djembe and Riq
2) Independence Section: To play either shaker or cymbal in one hand and drum in the other
3) Gypsy Koshlama: To learn and embellish a Middle Eastern rhythm in 9
4) Ratio Section: To internalize complex ratios and cross rhythms. All on frame drums, players play a groove in 7 while vocalizing varying ratios from 1:1 to 16:1
5) Melodic Section: Drummers ad lib rhythms based on melodic material from the Marimba and Vibraphone. All players solo in this final section.
Instrumentation:
Soloist: Cajon, Riq, Dumbek, Tar, Bodhran
Player 1: Cajon, Shaker, Tar, Marimba, Sound Effects
Player 2: Dumbek, Shaker, Tar, Sound Effects
Player 3: Djembe, Shaker, Tar, Sound Effects
Player 4: Riq, Ride Cymbal, Caxixi, Tar, Vibraphone
