Revisiting a Percussion Ensemble: The Chaser and the Chased

[sanyarem]

Hello everybody!

First: bah, sorry this appeared on the forum twice. The site seems to have been throwing a hissy fit when I posted.

Just recently I've been motivated to start writing for percussion again. (A lot of which has to do with Century High School's discovery and eventual performance of Dreamscapes) Much of said motivation has been directed towards revisiting older ensembles and making changes to them. One ensemble I felt could be greatly improved was The Chaser and the Chased. Which, I think, was actually the first percussion ensemble I had posted here on these lovely forums years ago. It originally was written before I owned GPO, then underwent a conversion to GPO. With the very helpful comments and tips from everyone here, I decided it had two flaws: 1. It was repetitive 2. It was too short. Well, I felt these flaws could be fixed with a contrasting middle section.

As far as specs go, this is for 9-players, and is a bit on the tougher side. It is written primarily in 7/8, 4/4, and 5/4 times, though there is a small section of 6/8. The Timpani, Snare Drum, and all the mallets (except the bells) are GPO. The auxiliary percussion (Percussion 1 and 2) and bells are Virtual Drumline.

You can hear this on soundclick here:

http://www.soundclick.com/bands/defa...&content=music

Or follow the score on youtube here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WvHQbJtisqw

Thanks for listening, and I hope you enjoy!

[Plowking]

Really enjoyed it - looking at the score while its playing is great too. The title suits it - to me it sounded like the marimbas were being chased by the other pitched percussion.

I'd say it'd be a difficult one to perform :-)

[rbowser-]

Yaaah, you're back with more fun percussion, Michael - I love it! Kind of a percussion Flamenco going on--Hope the school performs this and you can post another video!

Randy

[sanyarem]

Really enjoyed it - looking at the score while its playing is great too. The title suits it - to me it sounded like the marimbas were being chased by the other pitched percussion.

I'd say it'd be a difficult one to perform :-)

Thanks! That's pretty much exactly what I was going for. The idea was that the two main themes would sound as a chaser and a chasee... I considered The Hunter and The Hunted, but that just seemed to specific, and I wanted something that allowed for a more generalized interpretation.

Yaaah, you're back with more fun percussion, Michael - I love it! Kind of a percussion Flamenco going on--Hope the school performs this and you can post another video!

Randy

Thanks Randy! In fact, the percussionist that discovered Dreamscapes really wants to play this one, too, but he isn't sure when he'll be able to do it.

With my new job (and through a connection at Yamaha, i.e., my dad ), I'm hoping to be able to save enough money to purchase a Marimba sometime this spring. I feel much much more comfortable writing for mallets if I at least have something I can use to double-check what I've written, so hopefully I'll be posting more percussiony stuff soon!

[trentpmcd]

I really enjoyed this. It's an interesting idea and sounds great. When I see "Percussion Ensemble" I think along the lines of Varese but this is much more accessible. A lot of fun.

[sanyarem]

I really enjoyed this. It's an interesting idea and sounds great. When I see "Percussion Ensemble" I think along the lines of Varese but this is much more accessible. A lot of fun.

Thanks Trent, I'm glad you liked it. I've never really been one to write music that is very unorthodox, if that is how you would want to classify the work of Varese, not because I do not think his is a valid style of music, but because I just am more comfortable with this style of percussion ensemble, if you would call it a style. Heh, reading that sentence back in my head seems to mean almost nothing, but maybe it will make sense to you!

Anyways, thanks, I'm glad you liked it!

[fastlane]

That was fun to listen to. You sure keep up the musical momentum.

I think this would be something that would work well in the middle of a concert to liven things up a little, wake up the audience.

Good luck with this!


Phil

[sanyarem]

That was fun to listen to. You sure keep up the musical momentum.

Thank you very much, Phil! I always have a difficult time writing something that is upbeat for a duration longer than 10 seconds. That is part of the reason I wanted to write something like this in the first place all those 4 or 5 years ago. (Unbelievable how time flies!)

Thanks for listening!

[Frank D]

Hi Michael,

I really loved this piece, very energetic and I'm sure fun to play live! The compound meters, which can sound forced sometimes, sound very natural and just add to the excitement of your work. I'm a big fan of Don Ellis, Hank Levy, Lalo Shiffrin, and some of the Brubeck compositions ... all masters of the compound meter.

Thanks for posting the score as well; a great way to get inside your piece and for us to learn about your music.

Best regards,

Frank

[sanyarem]

Hi Michael,

I really loved this piece, very energetic and I'm sure fun to play live! The compound meters, which can sound forced sometimes, sound very natural and just add to the excitement of your work. I'm a big fan of Don Ellis, Hank Levy, Lalo Shiffrin, and some of the Brubeck compositions ... all masters of the compound meter.

Thanks for posting the score as well; a great way to get inside your piece and for us to learn about your music.

Best regards,

Frank

Thanks very much Frank! I'm glad you feel this doesn't sound forced. Though I wanted this to sound intense, I wanted to lean towards the light and quick side than the heavy/forced side. I really enjoy writing for compound meters, and a lot of times, it's the only way I can get myself to write something upbeat like this. I feel I was actually fairly slow at learning compound meters, as I was never really taught how to count them, but after hearing and playing some pieces written with them (Take Five and the Mission Impossible theme to name a couple by those you mentioned ), I really took a liking to them and use them frequently in percussion.