A World In Us

Instrumentation
Bells & Crotales
Vibraphone 1
Vibraphone 2
Vibraphone 3 (bonus part)**
Chimes
Xylophone & Bells
Marimba 1 (4-octave)
Marimba 2 (4-octave)
Marimba 3 (4.5-octave)
Marimba 4 (5-octave)
Marimba 5 (5-octave, bonus part)**
4 Timpani, Sizzle Cymbal

Percussion 1: 3 Glass Bottles, Snare Drum, Hi-Hat, Ride Cymbal, Multi-Bass Drum, Ribbon Crasher, Bongos
Percussion 2: Sleigh Bells (shared), 4 Concert Toms, China Cymbal, Suspended Cymbal, Log Drum
Percussion 3: Tam-Tam, Concert Bass Drum, Sleigh Bells (shared)
Percussion 4: Bell Tree, Egg Shaker(s), 3 Glass Bottles (Perc. 1’s set-up)

**The piece was composed without these parts, but the addition of them enhances the orchestration.

PROGRAM NOTES

Commissioned by Chris Dial and the Elkins High School Percussion Ensemble (Sugar Land, Texas) for performance at the 2025 Midwest Clinic, A WORLD IN US is a celebration of friendship. The exciting 5-1/2 minute work takes its title from the following quote from The Diary of Anaïs Nin:

“Each friend represents a world in us, a world possibly not born until they arrive, and it is only by this meeting that a new world is born.”

The piece is dedicated to my friend of over 30 years and the guest conductor of the premiere, Jim Kirkpatrick. Although we both grew up in Durham, NC, we went to different high schools and didn’t meet until we were both auditioning at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro in percussion. We became fast friends during our formative college years and though we went different directions with our careers, every time we reunite, whether separated by weeks or years, it is as if no time has passed. It is a friendship that endures and I am truly grateful. To celebrate our long, rich relationship, I used one of my favorite compositional tools to indeterminately create motivic material to weave our names into the work – a serial alphabet.

KIRKPATRICK: 10 8 5 10 3 0 7 5 8 2 10 (C-Bb-G-C-F-D-A-E-Bb-E-C)
DAUGHTREY: 3 0 8 6 7 7 5 4 0 (Ab-F-Db-B-C-C-Bb-A-F)

The “Kirkpatrick” pitch set may be heard in the opening bars of the piece in the metallic keyboards, creating an overlapping tapestry of sparkling accompaniment. After the introduction, the pitch set is transformed into the uplifting, celebratory primary theme of the work. The “Daughtrey” pitch set offers a contrasting “B” theme answer to the primary pitch set. Other appearances of the “Kirkpatrick” set include its chromatic inversion, fragmentation, and transforming the numbers into time signatures. Additionally, one of the primary rhythmic motives of the piece was created by naturally speaking the first line of the Anaïs Nin quote and transcribing its rhythm.

I am so thankful to Chris Dial for asking me to write this piece for his ensemble, knowing that Jim, his high school band director and one of my oldest & best friends, would be guest conducting it at their Midwest Clinic performance.