Concerto No. 2

The incredibly rich timbral, sonic and articulative universe of percussion continues to nurture and inform the fabric of all of my music. The fast first movement’s (Feroce) large-scale design opens with the four soloists collaboratively playing a series of assertive bass drum and timpani gestures followed by sharp low register orchestral punctuations and rapid, spiky high register phrases in the piccolo and flutes. The slow second movement explores the deep resonant melodic and harmonic sonorities of the marimba. The third movement (Con Fervore) is fast and engages all of the drums, first as a collective ensemble followed by individual improvised solos. The final section introduces bucket drums in a spirited ’give and take’ of improvised cadenzas concluding, coda-like, with materials of the first movement. Joseph Schwantner