Percussion Concerto (2010)

for percussion soloist with orchestra, chamber ensemble, or unaccompanied

LISTEN

Movement I. Portraits

Movement II. Landscapes

Jeremy Brunk, percussion
Millikin-Decatur Symphony
Michael Luxner, conductor

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PROGRAM NOTE

Percussion Concerto, commissioned by a consortium of twenty-five percussionists from the United States and Europe, was composed in late 2009 and early 2010 during sabbatical leave from Western Illinois University and as part of an artist residency at Petrified Forest National Park. The work comprises two movements—titled Portraits and Landscapes—that may be performed together (in either order) or individually. Fast-paced and extroverted, Portraits is scored for a solo multi-percussion set-up of non-pitched instruments with minimal sustain accompanied by winds, brass, and strings. In this movement, short segments of highly differentiated musical materials are transformed and repeated before and after a central solo cadenza. Slower and more contemplative, Landscapes features solo vibraphone, crotales, and long-ringing non-pitched metallic instruments accompanied only by orchestral strings. Longer strands of melodic and harmonic material are gently interrupted three times by a virtuosic refrain in the solo part.