Hillslope Evolution

John David Cope

General Info

Year: 2022
Duration: 00:06:10
Difficulty: Advanced
Publisher: C. Alan Publications
Cost: $48.00

Instrumentation

Player 1: Glockenspiel
Player 2: Vibraphone 1
Player 3: Vibraphone 2
Player 4: Marimba 1
Player 5: Marimba 2
Player 6: Marimba 3
Player 7: Marimba 4
Player 8: 5 Timpani Player 9: Hi-Hat & 4 Tom-toms & Snare Drum & China Cymbal
Player 10: Suspended Cymbal & 3 Woodblocks & Bongos & Vibraslap
Player 11: Bass Drum & 2 Triangles & Tam-Tam
Player 12: Piano

Program Notes

The entire idea for this piece was for me to push past my limits as a composer and try new and innovative compositional techniques. Basically, I wanted to use musical ideas and strategies that I was always told never to use because they simply did not fit the mold of most music. To do this, I used the F# locrian scale consistently throughout the work, used a non-traditional tetrachord as the center of the piece, used serialism and a 12-tone row in a non-educational setting, flooded the piece with mixed meter, and emphasized timbral writing over melodic and harmonic writing.

"Hillslope Evolution represents the changes of erosion rates that form the slopes of hills and mountains over time. These changes are inevitable and occur at irregular rates, but the slopes are always being altered and morphed into something new. Similarly, this piece depicts the changes that occur irregularly over time.

Recent Performances

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Works for Percussion by this Composer

Inner Groove
Hillslope Evolution