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The River is a groove-oriented piece by Seth Adams that depicts a trip down New Hampshire’s Ammonoosuc River, known for its beautiful waterfalls and chilly, clear water. The opening portrays a ride down the rocky waters, twisting and turning through a mountainous area. The music shifts to darker tones halfway through the piece, symbolizing a plunge underwater as the journey continues downstream, culminating in a percussive tumble down a rocky waterfall. A restatement of the beginning material follows, suggesting playful eddies and swift currents until the adventure finally slows to a stop at the edge of a quiet pool. This engaging work includes solo opportunities and skillfully exploits the wealth of timbres and techniques available in a percussion ensemble.
This piece comes as a professionally printed and bound score and includes individual parts in PDF format for printing or for tablet viewing.
“The River” is a pop-style percussion ensemble piece with rhythm section. This piece would be a good excuse to combine a jazz rhythm section with the percussion ensemble program.
The piece opens with a bass groove in the marimba and piano and is quickly followed by the percussion section (who are essentially playing the “drumset” part) and melody. The marimba parts require four mallets and are the most challenging parts in the piece. The timpani part is also challenging (with multiple tuning changes throughout), as it plays a lot of the same parts as the bass guitar. This part is written for four timpani, but could easily use five drums to help simplify some of the quick tuning changes. The middle section, called the “underwater section” by the composer, uses quasi-minimalist and polyrhythmic styles to create a beautiful texture and sonority. This builds to a short percussion solo with the recap of the opening material.
There are opportunities to open up sections of the piece for solos, especially in the percussion parts. If you want to program this piece, you’ll need good players on marimba, timpani, bass guitar, and piano. While the piece is marked medium-advanced, most of the parts are medium, with advanced timpani and marimba parts.
—Dave Gerhart
Percussive Notes
Vol. 52, No. 3, May 2014
The River is a groove-oriented piece by Seth Adams that depicts a trip down New Hampshire’s Ammonoosuc River, known for its beautiful waterfalls and chilly, clear water. The opening portrays a ride down the rocky waters, twisting and turning through a mountainous area. The music shifts to darker tones halfway through the piece, symbolizing a plunge underwater as the journey continues downstream, culminating in a percussive tumble down a rocky waterfall. A restatement of the beginning material follows, suggesting playful eddies and swift currents until the adventure finally slows to a stop at the edge of a quiet pool. This engaging work includes solo opportunities and skillfully exploits the wealth of timbres and techniques available in a percussion ensemble.
This piece comes as a professionally printed and bound score and includes individual parts in PDF format for printing or for tablet viewing.
“The River” is a pop-style percussion ensemble piece with rhythm section. This piece would be a good excuse to combine a jazz rhythm section with the percussion ensemble program.
The piece opens with a bass groove in the marimba and piano and is quickly followed by the percussion section (who are essentially playing the “drumset” part) and melody. The marimba parts require four mallets and are the most challenging parts in the piece. The timpani part is also challenging (with multiple tuning changes throughout), as it plays a lot of the same parts as the bass guitar. This part is written for four timpani, but could easily use five drums to help simplify some of the quick tuning changes. The middle section, called the “underwater section” by the composer, uses quasi-minimalist and polyrhythmic styles to create a beautiful texture and sonority. This builds to a short percussion solo with the recap of the opening material.
There are opportunities to open up sections of the piece for solos, especially in the percussion parts. If you want to program this piece, you’ll need good players on marimba, timpani, bass guitar, and piano. While the piece is marked medium-advanced, most of the parts are medium, with advanced timpani and marimba parts.
—Dave Gerhart
Percussive Notes
Vol. 52, No. 3, May 2014
