Aboriginal Dreams

Set in 5 movements – Ritual, Rain, Sacred Earth, Pintubi Dance and Fire – Aboriginal Dreams is intended to offer brief glimpses of the Aboriginal culture. Beautifully scored and full of color, grace and unstoppable energy.

Program Notes

Commissioned by Rick Minnotte and the Mt. Lebanon High School Percussion Ensemble (PA), the five-movement Aboriginal Dreams offers brief glimpses of the Aboriginal culture. The first movement, Ritual, is introduced with powerful triplets and works into a sixteenth feel often breaking into passages of syncopated unison rhythms. The second and shortest movement, Rain, as the title suggests, starts gently and ripples with fast layered triplets ending as gently as it starts. The third movement is called Sacred Earth, Sacred Sky and has a peaceful, relaxed character loaded with rich harmonies in the mallet instruments supported by cymbal effects in the battery. Pintubi Dance is next and uses fun techniques such as bursts of thirty-second-notes and hand clapping to enhance the head-bobbing groove. The piece finishes with a movement appropriately named Fire. It starts with an out-of-meter timpani solo and explodes into a fast, primal melody. As the movement surges forth, the phrases get passed between the mallets, timpani, and battery leading to a huge four-note ending.

Grade Level: 4
Copyright: 2009
Number of Players: 13
Duration: 11:50

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Instrumentation

Bells & Vibraslap
Xylophone & Singing Bowls
Vibraphone
Marimba 1 (4-octave) & Wind Chimes
Marimba 2 (5-octave)
Chimes & Woodblock
Timpani (5)
Percussion 1 (Wind Chimes, Snare Drum, Bongos or Congas, Suspended Cymbal, Woodblock)
Percussion 2 (Log Drum, Temple Blocks, Suspended Cymbal, Bass Drum, Rainstick)
Percussion 3 (5 Toms, Anvil or Brake Drum, Gong, Claves, Rainstick)
Percussion 4 (Tambourine, Cowbell, Suspended Cymbal, Triangle, Large Drum Head, Rainstick, Bongos or Congas, Woodblock, Anvil or Brake Drum)
Percussion 5 (2 Suspended Cymbal, Crash Cymbals, Woodblock, Wind Chimes, Triangle, Anvil or Brake Drum, Rainstick, Gong)
Percussion 6 (Sizzle Cymbal, 2 Suspended Cymbals, Tambourine, Anvil or Brake Drum, Water Gong, Temple Blocks)