Fruits and Veggies, Full Percussion Ensemble for 15-30 Players

Fruits and Veggies

Full Percussion Ensemble for 15-30 Players

Composed by Eric C W Peel

Moderate · 5 minutes

$80.00

Whether it be good & evil, Yin & Yang, or really just two different types of healthy foods, life wouldn't be complete without nature's polar opposites.

Composed of the four traditional show movements (opener, ballad, drum break, and closer). Tension between these polar opposites is creatively built and released throughout the show, but all at the right times.

Both battery and pit get their fair share of features, reinforcing the whole polar opposite idea. If you want your next ensemble to feature polyrhythmic ideas where one group of instruments oppose another, this is the show for you!

Mvt 2: the pulse is cut in half and the ensemble is transitioned into a “Slow Part”. At this point, most of the unpitched percussion takes a break. Pitched folks expand upon the piece’s thematic chord progression and melody, giving the audience just barely enough of what’s likely now keeping them at the edge of their seats. The energy is focused up in the higher-pitched voices and it is this variation of the theme where the most advanced voicings with the most layers can be heard. A bright, heavenly style. Then the mood turns quickly, similar to how the weather can turn dark and dangerous in a heartbeat. The bass guitar is given a 16 bar feature while the rest of the ensemble supports with groovy and atmospheric textures. Towards the end of the bass feature, the rhythmic percussion layers in with accelerating and crescendoing 16th notes and the piece transitions into a very likable style.

Mvt 3. And that style is a classic drum and bass groove. Another variation of the theme! It’s similar to “Lightning” only there is none here because this is a “Dust Storm”! Ever seen a Mad Max movie? This is how I feel the world will become if we humans keep up our destructive habits. Nothing but dust storms. There is beauty in them at least. The second half of this section is almost identical to the first half except for it’s end being on the happier side, well because the dust cleared! And we are then transitioned to night.

Mvt 4. The “Outro” is all about the stars. And see, Arizona is one of those states with one of the greatest remaining populations of Native Americans. These are the people who first saw these crystal clear desert night skies, going back thousands of years. I can imagine they looked much prettier in the past than now, but at least Arizona is still a wonderful place to look at the stars today. So it’s fitting that a section representing “Spirit” be here. “The Milky Way” and it’s billions of stars are then audified with many different metal textures. One of the coolest things about stars is that they actually sing! Well, astronomers can at least convert telescopic video of a single star into audio and a very cool but somewhat spooky sound is produced. A sample of this is included as a treat for the audience at the very end!

Full instrumentation is listed below. Need a different arrangement? See here.

WHAT YOU GET...