composition / percussion ensemble / limerick daydreams

limerick daydreams

Medium: Percussion Ensemble (10 players)
Publisher: C. Alan Publications
Composed: September 2004
Duration: 12:00
Difficulty: Grade V

Instrumentation:
Player 1 (bells, tambourine)
Player 2 (chimes, snare drum, xylophone)
Player 3 (4-octave vibraphone, temple blocks)
Player 4 (4-octave vibraphone, 2 bongos, 2 congas)
Player 5 (4-octave marimba, medium concert tom, tam-tam)
Player 6 (4.3-octave marimba, medium low concert tom)
Player 7 (4.3-octave marimba, low concert tom)
Player 8 (5-octave marimba, low concert tom)
Player 9 (wind chimes, suspended cymbal, small china cymbal, sandblocks, triangle)
Player 10 (bass drum, tam-tam) 

look inside

Limerick Daydreams Score

listen

UNCG Percussion Ensemble
Cort McClaren, director

watch

University of Oklahoma Percussion Orchestra
Lance Drege, director

notes

Dedicated to Dr. Cort McClaren and the UNCG Percussion Ensemble, Limerick Daydreams was the 2^nd Place Winner of the 2005 Percussive Arts Society International Composition Contest. The 12-minute work scored for 10 percussionists is based on the Irish reel, Highway to Limerick. The work opens rather mysteriously with fragments of the tune in the keyboard instruments and echoes of a bodhran (a traditional Irish drum) emulated by a dampened bass drum. A raucous drumming section ensues and gives way to the first full presentation of the reel in the xylophone. What follows is a series of melodic, rhythmic, and harmonic transformations of the Irish tune – some quite playful, some beautifully melancholy, and some majestically resolute.

review (excerpt)

"In recent years, Nathan Daughtrey has distinguished himself as an accomplished marimba artist. Now he deserves recognition as an outstanding composer, having won both second and third place in this year’s contest with Limerick Daydreams and Adaptation, respectively. Daughtrey’s compositional style is such that he has the ability to unify a piece around a small number of melodic and rhythmic ideas that undergo constant variation. Throughout the remaining sections of the work this folk tune is skillfully crafted, being set in novel harmonies, sometimes simple and diatonic, sometimes chromatic and dissonant. Textures are constantly changing, as is the level of tension. Toward the end of the work the piece becomes extremely complex, both musically and technically."

- Mario Gaetano, Percussive Notes (October 2005)