Percussion Works

Amores Montuños (2008)

For Patricia and Greg Zuber. Premiered at the Malletech Leigh Howard Stevens Summer Marimba Seminar.

This work is also available at Steve Weiss Music.

Instrumentation: flute and marimba (10:00)
First Performance: Ashbury, NJ, Trinity Church, June 15, 2010
Patricia Zuber, flute and Greg Zuber, Marimba
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Marimba Montuño (2002)

Dedicated to multi-percussionist Joseph Gramley, who has performed this work frequently in concert and at master classes throughout the US. Recorded on Joseph Gramley's CD Global Percussion.

It challenges the performer with 4-mallet technique combined with contrapuntal montuño rhythmic figures. The following liner notes by Thomas Mallon from Joseph Gramley's CD Global Percussion:

Marimba Montuño owes its harmony to the Fibonacci series and its pulse to Afro-Cuban rhythms, particularly the montuño, a motif that's repeated continually in the same pitch and voice. "I compose in small sections or chunks and then organize the sound into a fixed order," says Susman. The end result is rhythmically supercharged—a test of dexterity and speed for the marimbist.

Gramley's unflagging ability to play the rhythms simultaneously in both hands—a relatively new feature of 4-mallet marimba technique and composition—led Susman to dedicate the finished Marimba Montuño to the performer. But even before that Gramley had made the work his own. "I usually know within the first page if something I want is a keeper. Marimba Montuño is that kind of piece."

This work is also available at Steve Weiss Music.

Instrumentation: marimba (9:00)
First Performance: Nardin Park United Methodist Church, Farmington Hills, MI
Joseph Gramley, marimba
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Three Different Keyboards (2001)

Accordion, marimba, and piano all use keyboards but their sound and the way in which they are produced are vastly different. Watch the performance on YouTube.

This work is also available at Steve Weiss Music.

Instrumentation: accordion, marimba and piano (7:30)
First Performance: The Green Mill, Chicago, April, 2009
Presented by Accessible Contemporary Music: Stas Venglevski, Bayan Accordion; Matt Peters, marimba; Amy Wurtz, piano
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Exposé (1989)

The first performance used 2 xylophones in place of the violins creating a mallet percussion ensemble piece with piano.

This work is also available at Steve Weiss Music.

Instrumentation: 2 violins, 2 marimbas, piano (9:00)
First Performance: San Jose State University, 1990
Anthony Cirone, cond.
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Floating Falling (1987)

Commissioned by André Emelianoff

This work is also available at Steve Weiss Music.

Instrumentation: cello and timpani (8:00)
First Performance: New York, Merkin Concert Hall, 1987
André Emelianoff, cello and Jonathan Haas, timpani
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Trailing Vortices (1986)

Based on the concepts of fluid mechanics, Shepard Tones, Fibonacci series and the photos found in Milton van Dykes "An Album of Fluid Mechanics". The excerpt heard here features the Netherlands Radio Orchestra (formely VARA) under the direction of Ernest Bour.

The percussionist is featured on glockenspiel, tam-tams, gong, and drums.

ASCAP Award (New York) Gaudeamus Award (The Netherlands) Commissioned by the Fromm Music Foundation

Instrumentation: fl, eng hn, cl, bsn, hn, trpt, tbn, perc, pno, 2 vn, vla, vc, vb. (15:00)
First Performance: Aspen Music Festival, 1987
Stephen Mosko, cond.
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Exchanges (1982)

This work features the percussionist and in many ways is a percussion concerto for small ensemble.

Percussive Arts Society Award

This work is also available at Steve Weiss Music.

Instrumentation: fl, cl, trpt, tbn, btbn and percussion (8:00)
First Performance: San Jose State, 1987
Tom Rance, percussion soloist; William Susman, cond.
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Waves (1982)

Any number of improvisers can perform this work which includes a "backdrop" of vintage FM synthesis sounds created at CCRMA in 1982.

Suggested instrumentation is for a percussion ensemble or soloist consisting of tam-tams, gongs, and assorted metal objects that ring when struck or rubbed complementing the computer-generated bell sounds many of which appear to be exploding.

View a recent performance at The Stone in NYC with Demetrius Spaneas, winds and William Susman, piano.

The computer-generated sound background is included on an audio CD along with performance instructions.

This work is also available at Steve Weiss Music.

Instrumentation: computer-generated sound and improvisers (11:00)
First Performance: San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, 1983.
William Susman, piano
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