Brass Quintet (shares themes with The Thrill of the Orchestra)
One minute 10 seconds
To purchase this contact:
Eble Music Co. (319) 338-0313
String Quartet (shares themes with Playing with Style)
Don’t Tread On Me begins in a formal Mozart-ian way, but quickly develops its true rock n’ roll character with bluesy swinging style. Special feroce string crossings give this piece its insistent, pulsing energy. The rhythms are straightforward and everything is idiomatic, making this piece sound more difficult to play than it is. The easy-going American feel of this piece, as well as its short, but sweet length, makes it a nice inclusion on many programs.
duration: 3’30”
(1995)
Don’t Tread On Me is Movement I of the 3-Movement string orchestra piece Signs of Life II, and is also available for string quartet.
To purchase this contact:
Eble Music Co. (319) 338-0313
Recordings: Rackham String Quartet
For organ and drum set (optional)
1976.
5 minutes
To purchase this contact:
Eble Music Co. (319) 338-0313
This concerto for three percussionists has been performed across America – by the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Cincinnati and Indianapolis Symphonies and many others. The opening is a paraphrase of the composer’s Lift-Off for percussion, reviewed by the N.Y. Times as “the hit of the evening . . . smashingly propulsive.”
The Smashingly Propulsive opening drum cadenza
The entertaining spectacle of performance by interwoven percussionists makes this piece ideal for video productions, and performances have been broadcast nationwide-The West Virginia video production won first prize in the prestigious Houston International Video Competition in the live music category.
Excerpt #1
Excerpt #2
Finale
Lift-Off! for percussion trio (or multiples of three)
Lift-Off! was written in 1968, and like the music itself, has gained momentum ever since! It carries the listener on a cathartic, pulsing journey of percussion brilliance.
7′ 30″
“the hit of the evening … smashingly propulsive”
New York Times
To purchase this contact:
Steve Weiss Music (215) 659-0100
Eble Music Co. (319) 338-0313 www.eble.com
Percussive Arts Society review
Saxophone Quartet
Written in 1976, Drastic Measures endures as a classic in the genre. Deeply bluesy and rich with soul, this work has enjoyed continued performances.
Russell Peck’s Composition Notes:
“During my brief university teaching career I came into contact with excellent saxophonists at Northern Illinois University who had a quartet and wanted a piece from me. That’s how I came to write Drastic Measures in 1976. A year later I went to the School of the Arts in North Carolina where James Houlik had a great saxophone studio and a wonderful student quartet that became the New Century Saxophone Quartet. I touched up the piece for them and that became its final form.”
“The first movement is slow, lyrical and polyphonic, highlighting the serious capabilities of the ensemble. The virtuosic second movement is more blues, jazz, and rock-oriented, and highly energized, even including slap-tongue accents. It’s also rhythmically complex. What maintains the classical integrity of the piece despite the popular flavor in the second movement is its tight formal coherence. A three note motive heard as an accompaniment figure at the very opening of the first movement becomes the basis for the whole piece, reaching several climactic expressions in the second movement.”
9′ 45″
To
purchase this contact:
Eble Music Co. (319) 338-0313 www.eble.com
Dorn Publications (508) 359-1015
“playful
… fresh”
Wall Street Journal
For string orchestra
Don’t Tread On Me begins in a formal Mozart-ian way, but quickly develops its true rock n’ roll character with bluesy swinging style. Special feroce string crossings give this piece its insistent, pulsing energy. The rhythms are straightforward and everything is idiomatic, making this piece sound more difficult to play than it is. The easy-going American feel of this piece, as well as its short, but sweet length, makes it a nice inclusion on many programs.
duration: 3’30”
(1995)
Don’t Tread On Me is Movement I of the 3-Movement string orchestra piece Signs of Life II, and is also available for string quartet.
The original version of The Upward Stream with orchestra has been performed throughout the United States, as well as in Berlin, Warsaw and other European cities, and Canada, Czech Republic, England, South Korea, and Taiwan/R.O.C.
The Symphonic Band arrangement of The Upward Stream
was premiered by the Indiana University Symphonic Band,
February 5, 2013.
The writing of this concerto, which premiered in 2000, was inspired by the largest commissioning consortium to date in music history—39 orchestras. It was also sparked by interest among timpanists based on the composer’s well-known percussion concerto The Glory and the Grandeur and percussion trio Lift-Off. It is visually stimulating due to the unusual variety of mallets and brilliant sticking. Harmonic Rhythm requires 5 drums (4 standard sizes plus a piccolo drum).
A primary feature is the melodic writing for the timpani, which shows the instrument’s expressive range extending into areas of surprising lyricism. There is powerful action, too, of course, with jazz and rock influences, leading to a very big ending.
Section I: excerpt
Section II: beginning-excerpt
Section III: beginning-excerpt
Section IV: excerpt
Section IV: excerpt-end