Cyclus

Austin Theriot

General Info

Year of Published: 2020
Publisher: OU Percussion Press
Difficulty: Advanced
Duration: 00:13:10
Cost: $60.00

Instrumentation

Player 1: Glockenspiel
Player 2: Crotales
Player 3: Xylophone & Splash Cymbal & 3 Tom Tom
Player 4: Vibraphone 1 & Tam-Tam(shared)
Player 5: Vibraphone 2 & Tam-Tam(shared)
Player 6: Marimba 1 (5-octave) Player 7: Marimba 2 (5-octave) Player 8: Marimba 3 (5-octave) Player 9: Marimba 4 (5-octave) Player 10: Chimes & Bass Drum
Player 11: Claves & Bell Tree
Player 12: Suspended Cymbal
Player 13: Mark Tree & Egg Shaker & Suspended Cymbal
Player 14: Triangle & Suspended Cymbal & 3 Timpani

Program Notes

Cyclus is a product of my long-standing interest in musical canons, puzzles, fractals, and mathematical patterns. I'm fascinated with musical ideas that seem to go somewhere only to begin again where they started, and I admire music that grows organically out of a single, small idea into something larger than itself. Cyclus comprises five sections played without pause, each centered around a portion of a single musical canon. This canon, which I wrote beforehand, is never explicitly state in the piece, but each movement explores a section of its melody. The melody itself has some interesting characteristics: when played backwards and upside-down, it harmonizes itself. Additionally, as the melody progresses, it gradually cycles through every key before ending back where it started, like a musical Möbius strip. This canon is the seed from which the rest of the piece grows. I hope that the interested musician will look for the numerous musical "games" and canonic constructions in the piece, but I trust that the music stands quite strongly in its own right – no audience should need to know its logic to perceive its heart.