Manhattan Beach Music Whirlwind - Blackshaw - Concert Band - Gr. 1

Author/Composer:

BLACKSHAW, JODIE

Instrumentation:

CONCERT BAND

Genre:

FESTIVAL

Grade/Level:

1.0

Model #:

220365MAN

Composer: Jodie Blackshaw
Format: Score and Parts
Instrumentation: Concert Band
Level: 1


Whirlwind by Australian composer Jodie Blackshaw was the unanimous winner of Category 1 -- Beginning Band of The Frank Ticheli Composition Contest in the spring of 2006, sponsored by Manhattan Beach Music. The work is an innovative approach to composing for musicians of limited ability. Technical demands are minimal.

The melodic material employs only four notes, concert pitches A - C - D - E, voiced in each instrument's easiest register, and used to construct a simple, wistful tune that appears unaltered as solos, in two-part canon and in four-part canon throughout the piece. The most complicated rhythms are eighth notes, except for some snare drum figures in sixteenths. However, around these uncomplicated elements, Blackshaw has created an unusual and appealing soundscape that employs "home-made" instruments (waterglass chimes and various kinds of rattles), and "whirlies" (lengths of corrugated plastic pipe that are spun by the player to generate sound) in addition to the customary band complement.