Windows of the Maloca

If you are looking for an engaging piece to reinvigorate your high school or college percussion ensemble, look no further than “Windows of the Maloca” by Jim Casella. This percussion ensemble has plenty of notes to keep your performers busy, while balancing the “chops” with stunning harmonies sure to send a chill down their spines. This piece gets the toes tapping with an unfaltering groove that alternates an ostinato pattern of 7/8, 7/8, 7/8, 6/8.

Casella begins this drum corps inspired piece with a single snare drum playing on the rim, but gradually adds to the texture until you have all 14 musicians playing in and around the ostinato in an unrelenting percussive texture that continually morphs for the entirety of the 5 1⁄2-minute work.

This work features involved mallet parts with unique hand and hip muffling that is clearly explained in the performance notes, as well as percussion solos for temple block and timpani. In addition, several aggressive, percussion-heavy moments feature an intricate interplay between the various percussion parts. The djembe and shekere parts are straight forward and user-friendly for performers with no previous experience and a strong rhythmic foundation. The mallet parts all contain advanced two-mallet passages with the xylophone, vibraphone 1, and each of the four marimba parts all containing frequent use of four mallets. The timpani part requires tuning throughout but is playable on four drums.

“Windows of the Maloca” will present some challenges for a younger ensemble, with its use uncommon subdivisions, and a brief section where the mallet parts split a thirty-second-note run; however, the added difficulty is well worth the reward and would provide a great learning opportunity.

–Quintin Mallette
Percussive Notes
Vol. 56, No. 2, May 2018