Cross the Street, Immediately by Brant Blackard
by Brant Blackard
Instrumentation: Vibraphone with pedal down, Kick drum, Snare drum, Floor tom, Hi-hat, Cymbal stack (any combination of two smaller cymbals stacked on top of each other), Splash cymbal, 3 pieces of semi-resonant metal (muted gongs, metal pipes, earth plates, etc.), Tamborin (6 inch), Guiro-sticks
Cross the Street, Immediately was written in 2018 in Rochester, New York. The title refers to the electric street- crossing sounds heard in the city. The distorted, repeating sounds blare out of old speakers as five beats of mechanical 16th notes, followed by one beat of rest. This unnerving pattern always struck me as particularly brutal.
Having grown up playing drums in various metal bands, I find myself continually returning to the drumset for both inspiration and relief from the strict confines of composed art-music. I’ve always heard a connection, though often entirely unintended, between various extreme metal music and the dynamic/rhythmic intensity of works for multi-percussion. With this piece, I wanted to bridge idiomatic and naturalistic drumset playing with a through-composed work. The player should feel free to subtly improvise around the written grooves, allowing themselves to add or omit ghost notes, notes for kick drum, etc., when they feel it is appropriate.
The piece requires the use of “guiro-sticks:” sticks with ridges cut into them to allow the scraping of vibraphone bars and to scrape the sticks against each other. I’ve found that the Johnny Rabb “Rhythm Saw” sticks work best, but the player may find success making their own.
Learn More About The Composer
Upon purchase, you will receive a secure 24-hour link to the digital performance materials including:
Full Score in PDF format
View Perusal Score Here
by Brant Blackard
Instrumentation: Vibraphone with pedal down, Kick drum, Snare drum, Floor tom, Hi-hat, Cymbal stack (any combination of two smaller cymbals stacked on top of each other), Splash cymbal, 3 pieces of semi-resonant metal (muted gongs, metal pipes, earth plates, etc.), Tamborin (6 inch), Guiro-sticks
Cross the Street, Immediately was written in 2018 in Rochester, New York. The title refers to the electric street- crossing sounds heard in the city. The distorted, repeating sounds blare out of old speakers as five beats of mechanical 16th notes, followed by one beat of rest. This unnerving pattern always struck me as particularly brutal.
Having grown up playing drums in various metal bands, I find myself continually returning to the drumset for both inspiration and relief from the strict confines of composed art-music. I’ve always heard a connection, though often entirely unintended, between various extreme metal music and the dynamic/rhythmic intensity of works for multi-percussion. With this piece, I wanted to bridge idiomatic and naturalistic drumset playing with a through-composed work. The player should feel free to subtly improvise around the written grooves, allowing themselves to add or omit ghost notes, notes for kick drum, etc., when they feel it is appropriate.
The piece requires the use of “guiro-sticks:” sticks with ridges cut into them to allow the scraping of vibraphone bars and to scrape the sticks against each other. I’ve found that the Johnny Rabb “Rhythm Saw” sticks work best, but the player may find success making their own.
Learn More About The Composer
Upon purchase, you will receive a secure 24-hour link to the digital performance materials including:
Full Score in PDF format
View Perusal Score Here
by Brant Blackard
Instrumentation: Vibraphone with pedal down, Kick drum, Snare drum, Floor tom, Hi-hat, Cymbal stack (any combination of two smaller cymbals stacked on top of each other), Splash cymbal, 3 pieces of semi-resonant metal (muted gongs, metal pipes, earth plates, etc.), Tamborin (6 inch), Guiro-sticks
Cross the Street, Immediately was written in 2018 in Rochester, New York. The title refers to the electric street- crossing sounds heard in the city. The distorted, repeating sounds blare out of old speakers as five beats of mechanical 16th notes, followed by one beat of rest. This unnerving pattern always struck me as particularly brutal.
Having grown up playing drums in various metal bands, I find myself continually returning to the drumset for both inspiration and relief from the strict confines of composed art-music. I’ve always heard a connection, though often entirely unintended, between various extreme metal music and the dynamic/rhythmic intensity of works for multi-percussion. With this piece, I wanted to bridge idiomatic and naturalistic drumset playing with a through-composed work. The player should feel free to subtly improvise around the written grooves, allowing themselves to add or omit ghost notes, notes for kick drum, etc., when they feel it is appropriate.
The piece requires the use of “guiro-sticks:” sticks with ridges cut into them to allow the scraping of vibraphone bars and to scrape the sticks against each other. I’ve found that the Johnny Rabb “Rhythm Saw” sticks work best, but the player may find success making their own.
Learn More About The Composer
Upon purchase, you will receive a secure 24-hour link to the digital performance materials including:
Full Score in PDF format
