C. Alan Publications Aboriginal Dreams - Barrett - Percussion Ensemble

Composer: Roland Barrett (b. 1955)
Format: Score and Parts
Instrumentation: : Percussion Ensemble (13 Players)
Level: Medium Difficult

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 colour, grace and unstoppable energy.
Duration: 11:50

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.