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It's All in the Cards is an instrumental chamber work consisting of three movements for ten percussionists encircling the audience. The total duration of the piece is approximately thirteen minutes. Much of the rhythmic and melodic material, as well as the form, was determined by shuffling and dealing a standard deck of fifty-two cards. Other computational procedures have been used to achieve the effect of sound moving from one spatial location to another, an effect on which must be regarded as an essential factor in performance of the work.

Devadasi is an abstraction of primitive dance rites for nine dancers and five percussionists. Though based on fertility rites and religious temple ceremonies, no actual representation of events is intended. It it approximately sixteen minutes and twenty seconds long, and is composed in six sections. Detailed choreography for the dancers is not included, but entrance and exit cues are shown, and the character of each dance is suggested by the music. Suggestion for lighting and costuming are also included in the score.

The writer of this master thesis was acquiring an education in classical percussion and deeply respecting the music genre named djent. He was so impressed by metal music that he taught himself how to use the notation programme Sibelius 7 and arranged a number of his favourite songs for the percussion ensemble so he would be able to play them. The following text supports and describes the process. A short analysis of 16 arrangements is included as well.

This document details the creation of a new type of multiple percussion solo from pre-composed percussion ensembles. The author transcribes three works for percussion ensemble by Lou Harrison (1917-2003): Suite for Percussion, movement I, Bomba and Simfony #13 so that they can be performed as percussion solos. Each composition requires a different type of solo version because of the diverse instruments and musical materials in the original scores. Learning to perform these new versions will expand the technical capabilities of a soloist and offers complex challenges not found in the original ensembles. The document includes complete scores and set-ups for each new solo version and discussion of performance practice and techniques to play each work. Although Harrison’s original works were conceived for amateur players, the solo versions require the skills of a virtuoso performer. The new versions confirm the artistic merit of Harrison’s work in a format both practical and satisfying to the solo percussionist. The project illustrates new methods for further developing percussion technique to enable ensemble works to be performed by soloists. The solo versions of Lou Harrison percussion ensembles presented herein result in new repertoire for the percussion soloist.

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In the mid 1990s, Swedish composer Fredrik Andersson composed not everything which happens is in the newspaper (1993), the lonelyness of Santa Claus (1994), and imagine there was nothing (1996). All three pieces share a number of compositional and stylistic elements while emphasizing the capabilities of their respective instrumentations to create mysterious sonic worlds that are unique in the percussion idiom. By examining specific concerns of each piece in detail, an understanding of Andersson’s presentation of musical challenges will result. Acceptable solutions to such challenges will be examined and compared, based primarily on the author’s analysis and experience encompassing multiple performances of each of the three works, along with supplementary information provided by various other sources. The results of this document will be significant within the larger percussion community in that they will serve to increase the visibility of the composer and increase exposure of works for percussion that are not only musically distinctive within the repertoire, but also contain a variety of exciting pedagogical, technical, and interpretive challenges that will contribute to the growth of any percussionist willing to engage them. It is hoped that such engagement will “de-mystify” Andersson’s music and inspire increased performance of his works.

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