Blaze
Blaze is a balanced percussion septet pitting the keyboards versus the battery instruments. It draws inspiration from the following Ralph Waldo Emerson quote, as in “trail-blaze” or a blaze on a trail: “Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.”
Medium: Percussion Ensemble (7)
Publisher: C. Alan Publications (Spring 2022 release)
Composed: 2021
Duration: 5:15
Difficulty: Grade 4
Instrumentation
Percussion 1 (bells, xylophone)
Percussion 2 (vibraphone, temple blocks)
Percussion 3 (4-octave marimba*, medium tom)
Percussion 4 (4.3-octave marimba*, kick bass laid flat)
Percussion 5 (4 timpani, China cymbal)
Percussion 6 (snare drum, bongos, hi-hat)
Percussion 7 (4 concert toms, suspended cymbal)
*Percussion 3 & 4 may perform on the same Marimba.
Program Notes
Blaze is a balanced percussion septet pitting the keyboards versus the battery instruments. It draws inspiration from the following Ralph Waldo Emerson quote, as in “trail-blaze” or a blaze on a trail:
“Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.”
The piece was commissioned by the departing Sydney Grammar School (Australia) 2021 Percussion Ensemble students Remy Alonso, Lars Hofflin, Luke Levison, Edward Meade, Daniel Sirmai, and Elliot Soh, on behalf of, and dedicated to, their conductor and teacher, Mr. Iain Scotland.
