"Tangling Shadows" is published by C. Alan Publications and is available from Steve Weiss Music.

Just the other day, my percussion quintet Sizzle! was performing live by the Exclamation! Percussion Ensemble (directed by Delaina Oberman) and dancers at the Flint School of Performing Arts. The performance piece, titled Random Velocity was choreographed by Flint Youth Ballet ballet mistress and FYB alumna, Elizabeth Philippi. More info...

Coming up on March 15, 16 & 17, my marimba/piano duet, Almost Beyond, will be performed on Dance Concerts at High Point University, choreographed by Cara Hagan. Unfortunately, I will be out of town for two of the performances, so they will be dancing to a live recording.

Lastly, Cara & I have paired up students from her Dance Composition class and my Music Composition Seminar class to produce little 1-minute vignettes to be performed at the end of the spring semester. We're leaving up to the students whether the music or dance should come first or whether it should just be an organic process. I'm really excited to see what they churn out.

Looking forward to being proactive about creating more dance collaborations in the future.

"Spun" is published by C. Alan Publications and is available for purchase through Steve Weiss Music.

I had been wanting to write a piece for solo marimba and percussion quartet since playing pieces like Minoru Miki's "Marimba Spiritual," Michael Burritt's "Shadow Chasers" and Lynn Glassock's "Off Axis" in my formative years as a performer. The pressure of composing for a fairly well-established genre combined with writing to please 23 other percussionists started to get to me before I put pen to paper.

Every composer/writer/artist type has his/her own creative process. After a seemingly never-ending spell of writer's block 2 years ago, I wrote an entry about climbing out of the dark compositional abyss as I finally sorted out the first movment of my vibraphone concerto. Fortunately, I've been able to sidestep those problems since then by writing more regularly and modifying/streamlining my process. In this case, I stumbled across the phrase "halcyon days," which refers to a period of peace and tranquility, in a book I was reading and was delighted to discover its Greek mythological origins. The story of Alycone & Ceyx is rooted in love, death, sacrifice and, as in all stories from Ovid's Metamorphoses, transformation (as illustrated in the painting above with Alcyone changing into a kingfisher). 

Here's a recording electronically generated by sounds available in the Virtual Drumline 2.5 library. Feel free to click on the blue line below the sound wave to make comments about specific moments in the music on SoundCloud.com.

Halcyon Days for solo marimba & percussion quartet by Nathan Daughtrey

"Halcyon Days" received its world premiere on November 17, 2011 at California State University-Long Beach (Dr. Dave Gerhart) with Andrew McAfee as the marimba soloist. It will be available for sale to the rest of the world in the summer of 2012 from C. Alan Publications.

Every year at PASIC I realize how much I talk about (er… annoy people with my posts about) running on Facebook (and here I go again). One of the first things out of people's mouths when I haven't seen them for a year is "Man, you've been running a lot, huh?" It has become something that defines me and I'm okay with that. Let me tell you why though. A couple of years ago, I mused about Why I Think All Classical Musicians Are Pre-Programmed to Be Runners, talking about how similar the disciplines are, whether you are preparing for a marathon or a recital. Potayto, Potahto.  

While in Indianapolis this past weekend, more of the career & networking benefits of running became apparent. Over the summer, I volunteered to organize the PASIC Fun Run, which in the past has occurred on Friday morning at 7:00 a.m. during the convention. Historically, the attendance has been rather poor and I was determined to improve on that, so I expanded from one morning to three and plastered the social networks (tweeted with hashtags, created FB events, harassed friends & "friends" on their FB walls) to get the word out. 

What we ended up with was a terrifically eclectic group of percussionists each morning that had this common thread of running (and drumming). Where else are you going to hop from conversations with percussion professors from New Mexico, Missouri, Connecticut, Texas & South Carolina to the President-Elect of PAS to husband/wife drummer/percussionist for actor/musician Gary Sinise's Lt. Dan Band? We didn't set any speed records. We didn't run terribly far. We did have a lot of fun, meet new people and talk about anything from marathons to the new Schwantner Percussion Concerto to the mess at Penn State to our upcoming concerts & recitals. Even people who didn't join us for the runs each morning used topic of the Fun Runs as a conversation ice-breaker since I had posted about it so much leading up to the conference.

In the clinic I co-presented with Josh Gottry at the convention, I encouraged the young percussionists & budding composers in the audience, in the spirit of networking, to approach performers and composers they might have put up on a pedestal. They're all people. I think any two people can have at least one common thread that can break the ice – be it percussion, sports, politics or even… 

Running.

Good for your health. Good for your career.

Concerto for Vibraphone & Wind Ensemble (full score to peruse)
Solo Vibraphone w/ Wind Ens | 4-mallet | 15:00 

The Cry
Percussion Ensemble | 12 players | 11:00

Edge of the World
Keyboard Percussion Quintet (w/ opt. aux. perc.) | 4:00

Encantada
Solo Vibraphone | 4-mallet | 4:30 

The Sacred Marimbist, Volume 2
Solo 4.3-octave Marimba | Hymn Arrangements | 4-mallet | 25:00-35:00

Spun
Keyboard Percussion Ensemble | 8 players | 8:30

Topsy Turvy
Young Percussion Ensemble | 6-14+ players | 2:40

Everything can be found at the C. Alan Publications booth in the exhibit hall (Booth #227-231). Hope to see you there!

I'm honored to now have to my piece Ellipsis performed by the EMF Percussion Ensemble during this landmark season.

EMF Percussion Ensemble Concert
Wednesday, July 27, 2011
4:00 p.m.
Dana Auditorium, Guilford College (Greensboro, NC)
General Admission: $9 

Many thanks to John Shaw, principal percussionist with the Florida Orchestra & percussion instructor at St. Peterburg College, and Eric Schweikert, principal timpanist with the Fort Wayne Philharmonic & Director of Percussion at EMF for including my music on the program.

Naturally, I jumped at the opportunity when Rick and Jenn Elliott contacted me about a commission for flute and marimba. I had already written pieces for clarinet/marimba, oboe/vibraphone and alto saxophone/marimba.  Those reedy wind instruments blend extremely well with the mellow woodiness of the marimba. Honestly, you don't have to work that hard to make them sound good together. When preparing to write for flute and marimba, I listened carefully to the qualities of the different registers of both instruments and how I might play them off one another. I recall falling in love with the lower register of the flute (lower half of the treble clef staff) and finding ways to have that rich, breathy sound emerge out of the marimba playing in the same register. In fact, this is how the piece opens.

The title of the duet, An Extraordinary Correspondence, comes from the subtitle to the book "Griffin & Sabine" by Nick Bantock. This groundbreaking book appeals to our (taboo) voyeuristic desires to read the mail of others. The story follows two people who have never met that start writing to one another because Sabine shares Griffin's "sight." He's an artist and she can see what he draws and paints as it is happening. As their relationship unfolds, they quickly find that they are actually living in parallel worlds. I followed the arc of the story pretty closely, having the marimbist play the role of Griffin and the flutist play the role of Sabine. 

Listen

An Extraordinary Correspondence
(download the electronic realization)

Rick and Jenn Elliott will perform the world premiere of "An Extraordinary Correspondence" on August 7, 2011 at Trinity Episcopal Church in Hamilton, OH. The piece will be published by C. Alan Publications and available to the rest of the world in June of 2012.

Resource Lists

Works for Flute & Marimba
1958: Tanner, Peter - Diversions for Flute & Marimba
1977: Wilder, Alec - Suite for Flute & Marimba
1984: Klatzow, Peter - Figures in a Landscape
1997: Farr, Gareth - Kembang Suling
1997: Tanabe, Tsuneya - Recollections of the Inland Sea
2001: Gillingham, David - Five Fantasies of Natural Origin
2002: Hasenpflug, Thom - 5 Mornings for Flute and Marimba

Works for Flute & Percussion
1958: Wilder, Alec - Suite for Flute & Bongos Nos. 1 & 2
1964: Harrison, Lou - Concerto #1
1966: Dahl, Ingolf - Duettino for Flute & Percussion
1974-80: Adams, John Luther - Songbirdsongs
1994: Parker, Philip - Beneath the Canopy

Flute & Percussion Performance Duos
Armstrong Duo (Eleanor Armstrong, flute & Dan Armstrong, percussion)
McCormick Duo (Kim McCormick, flute & Bob McCormick, percussion)
Tambous Duo (Holly Stackhouse, flute & Theodore Frazeur, percussion)
Verederos Duo (Jessica Johnson, flute & Payton MacDonald, percussion) 
Marc Grauwels & Sarah Mouradoglou
Michael Haldeman & John Samuel Roper
Richard & Jennifer Elliott 

Bibliography & discography of works for flute and percussion compiled by flutist Larry Krantz:
http://www.larrykrantz.com/fltperc.htm

My first contribution, titled Topsy Turvy, is meant to conjure up the magical sights and sounds under the big top of the circus. The piece features very flexible instrumentation and also provides the opportunity to 1 or 2 students to be in the spotlight playing percussion "toys," such as siren whistle, slide whistle, slapstick, duck call, ratchet, vibraslap, flexatone, brake drums, or cowbells. It is playabale by as few as 6 players or as many as 14.

Topsy Turvy will receive its world premiere on May 10, 2011 by the Braxton Craven Middle School Percussion Ensemble, directed by Chris Ferguson and Lindsey Eskins.

look inside

Topsy Turvy Score

listen

6 Player Version | 14 Player Version
(Use the fastforward button to skip to the next track)

Instrumentation

Bells & Toys (double with Vibraphone)
Xylophone & Toys (double with Marimba)
Optional Vibraphone
Optional Marimba 
Timpani (2 drums)
Snare Drum & Woodblock (double with Bongos)
2 Concert Toms & Suspended Cymbal (double with Temple Blocks)
Bass Drum & Acme Police Whistle (double with Low Tom)
Optional Toys (extracted from other players' parts) 

More information...

Downtown Dash is published by C. Alan Publications and available from music stores worldwide.