Bounce
ensemble picc., 2 fl., 2 ob., 2 bsn., Eb cl., 3 Bb cl., Bass cl., SATB sax quartet, 3 tpts, 4 hns, 3 tbns, euph, tba, pno, timp. + 5
percussion
Perc. 1: Glockenspiel, whip
Perc. 2: Marimba
Perc. 3: Tam-tam, 4 toms (graded)
Perc. 4: Triangle, bass drum
Perc. 5: 5 wood blocks (graded), xylophone
written summer 2019
duration 6 minutes
Runner Up in the 2020 Red Note Composition Competition
Finalist in the 2020 Dartmouth Wind Ensemble Composition Competition
I remember being utterly baffled the first time I saw a marching band/color guard perform (though ‘perform’ is an altogether inadequate word for the kaleidoscopic spectacle they put on). I had the impression of being surrounded and clobbered into submission with clubs of blazing brass fortissississimi as machinegun snares tore holes in the air over sweeping marimba slashes - here a snatch of John Williams, there a Taylor Swift chorus, then the piercing shriek of ten piccolos ripping a high C while bass drums (plural!) split the earth itself apart. Every passage was huge, every tutti thunderous, every percussion break exhilarating. It was like Hannibal leading an army of elephants over the Alps - the kind of display designed to strike fear into the hearts of whichever foolhardy football rival dared set foot on their territory.
With Bounce, I wanted to capture just a mite of that dazzling bravura in concert. The piece shares its title and main motifs with a Pierrot piece I wrote as a younger composer, though it is far from a mere arrangement (only 20 bars from the original are directly transcribed). Instead, Bounce reimagines the original’s wild virtuosity and gleeful polyrhythmic pyrotechnics as a band showpiece, using its driving rhythms, rapidfire sequential modulations, and whirling melodies to propel it to Drum Corps heights.