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Songs of Venus was created to celebrate several of the women in my immediate and extended family. Represented are grandmothers, mothers, sisters, nieces, and now daughter, each having a unique and meaningful impact on my life. I tried my best to capture the essence of each of these wonderful people through simple, memorable melodies and textures. From a technical standpoint, each of the intermediate four-mallet solos stand alone as concert solos or may be combined with others in the collection to create a suite. However, the entire collection is not intended to be performed in one setting as a long 34-minute suite.
Notes on the 2nd Edition
I wrote this collection 10 years ago in 2015. My personal vibraphone is 3-1/2 octaves (extending down to C3) and I mistakenly thought the percussion community would embrace the extended range, much like it did with the 5-octave marimba. However, the 3-octave vibraphone has remained the standard. As such, I decided to revisit this collection on its 10th anniversary with fresh eyes and ears, having performed all of the solos during the past decade.
I painstakingly reworked all of the eight original solos for 3-octave instrument, occasionally simplifying passages to make them playable by a wider range of performers. Additionally, my daughter was born in 2016, so I composed a bonus solo dedicated to her to round out the collection.
Unconditional... (for my wife, Katie)
Blackberries & Chamomile (for my mother, Mary-Jo)
Sunrise Snapshots (for my sister, Heather)
Yin & Yang (for my nieces, Jessica & Colby)
Flour & Thread (for my grandmother, Frances)
Swirls of Decadence (for my sister-in-law, Cindy Ann)
Rosemary & Thyme (for my mother-in-law, Becky)
Boundless Vivacity (for my nieces, Sara & Lily)
Twinkle Toes (for my daughter, Penelope)
– ND
