Sonic Adventures for Percussion Ensemble: each
Composer: Riley Steve
Sonic Adventures for Percussion Ensemble was created as a supplement to current repertoire that addresses a continuing need for pedagogical literature that is approachable by and entertaining for elementary and intermediate level percussionists. The six works in this collection were written to introduce percussionists to many of the techniques and challenges they will encounter on their journey to becoming fine musicians. The pieces would be ideal for the junior high school or high school band director/percussion instructor who is searching for percussion music of varying levels. College instructors may also find some of the more difficult works challenging and discover useful teaching points in the less difficult works for their pedagogical classes and/or younger, less experienced students.
The six pieces in this compilation are graduated in level of difficulty. The compositional approach for these works is to slowly introduce issues of technical difficulty for each percussion instrument. Often, percussion literature written for the elementary percussionist introduces technical challenges for the young players too early in their development. As a result, addressing fundamental issues that apply to all beginning musicians sometimes gets overlooked. Therefore, the less difficult pieces in this collection focus on aspects of musicality, counting, and logistics, while the more difficult pieces delve into technical issues such as snare drum technique, 4-mallet technique on keyboard percussion instruments, timpani tuning/pedaling, and instrument-specific techniques (e.g. thumb rolls on tambourine, open/closed sounds on triangle, etc.).
Each piece in this collection contains a page entitled Pedagogical Focus Points (PFPs). These are a list of explanations and goals for the conductor regarding the pedagogical issues that each work attempts to impart. The conductor is encouraged to share these points with the students in the ensemble, so that they will be aware of the techniques and challenges of their own part/instrument, and teh other parts/instruments as well. This collection is meant to help serve the percussion community as both a teaching tool and a vehicle for bringing the audience closer to the performers.
