Angelic Voices

for Mallet Quintet

The metallic sound of the bells and vibraphones combined with the warm, woody sound of the marimbas expresses the wonder and mysteriousness of the angels who are ever-present in our lives. Fluctuating tonality, sweeping melodic lines and colorful chord progressions enhance the ethereal ambiance of the work.

Program Notes

Angelic Voices was commissioned by the Byron Center Band Program, Byron Center, Michigan, for the Byron Center High School Percussion Ensemble. The work is inspired by the angels who dwell around and within us. The first four stanzas of the poem The Angelic Voice by Victoria Heby expresses this quite well:

Angels are around us
every day, and every night
and you can hear their whisper
if you are in your delight.

They talk about the light that shines,
and darkness, which holds space
they complement each other
in the essence of Its grace.

The Light is everything that is
the knowledge that we know
the things that we appreciate
the seeds we like to sow.

The Darkness is potential
for future yet to come
the nothingness, and unexpressed
the Essence being home.

The metallic sound of the bells and vibraphones combined with the warm, woody sound of the marimbas expresses the wonder and mysteriousness of the angels who are ever-present in our lives. Fluctuating tonality, sweeping melodic lines and colorful chord progressions enhance the ethereal ambiance of the work.

Grade Level: 3
Copyright: 2018
Number of Players: 5
Duration: 5:15

Listen to Recordings

Sample PDF

Instrumentation

Bells
Vibraphone 1
Vibraphone 2
Marimba 1 (4.0-octave)
Marimba 2 (4.3-octave)