Blackbird

Perc. quartet, c. 6’ (2018)

Writing this work for the University of Aberdeen Percussion Ensemble, a group of truly exceptional percussionists, thoroughly got me out of my comfort zone as a composer, given my relative lack of experience with percussion. My hope for this piece is that it gives the opportunity to let melodies flourish in instruments that don’t always get to show off their more melodic and harmonic tendencies, and provides a bit contrast to many more rhythmically-focused pieces in the repertoire for percussion ensemble.

I could say that the piece is named Blackbird because of the piece’s lyrical quality and focus on the “black and white” keys of the instruments, which is true, but the whole truth is that I first named it Blackbird because I missed Blackbird Bakery in my hometown when I was writing it.

Click here for perusal score.