Notes and Editorial Reviews
The Moores School Percussion Ensemble serves as the cornerstone of the Department of Percussion Studies at the University of Houston. Directed by Dr. Blake M. Wilkins and established in 1997, the ensemble’s selection as a winner in the 2003 Percussive Arts Society International Percussion Ensemble Competition and its appearance at the 2003 Percussive Arts Society International Convention distinguished the ensemble as a premier collegiate percussion ensemble. Winning the competition again in 2006 marked the ensemble’s second such success in consecutive opportunities, and its selection once again in 2010 solidified its reputation internationally as a leader in percussion performance. The ensemble has also emerged as a leader in the
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advancement of new music for the medium. In the fall of 2002, the Moores School Percussion Ensemble initiated a commissioning project to encourage new works for large percussion ensemble. Since the inception of this project, the ensemble has commissioned twelve major works from such composers as Donald Grantham, Pierre Jalbert, Rob Smith, Marcus Karl Maroney, and David Heuser. Their third recording on Albany Records includes a selection of superlative new works for percussion ensemble that surround the classic Ionisation by Edgard Varèse. - Albany Records
Review:
"The entertaining album offers a wide variety of percussion music from a forward driving performance of the classic Ionisation by Edgard Varèse (1929) to the undulating, serpentine melodies within Dancing With Snakes by Blake Wilkins (2010). Mallet instruments such as marimba predominate in the album as a whole, often falling into intricate dance-like rhythms or murmuring in the background, though many of the pieces also explore a variety of sounds without pulse, and there are moments of sustained coloristic effects, repose, and quiet gradual progressions. By contrast, Christopher Deane's The Manes Scroll, was commissioned to use only keyboard percussion instruments. Stephen Hartke's Percolative Processes was commissioned to serve as accompaniment to the Los Angeles Natural History Museum wherein visitors heard its evocative and strange sounds in their headphones while appropriately viewing exhibits in the Hall of Minerals and Gems. Anyone who loves percussion music will enjoy this release, but it also has enough variety to appeal, in smaller doses to those less familiar with a percussion ensemble but appreciative of imaginative modern music. All the pieces, by nine different composers, communicate moods, effects and emotions pretty directly."
- Greg La Traille,
ArkivMusic.com
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Works on This Recording
1.
Dancing with Snakes by Blake Wilkins
Conductor:
Blake Wilkins
Orchestra/Ensemble:
University of Houston Percussion Ensemble
2.
Everywhere Entangled by Stephen Andrew Taylor
Conductor:
Blake Wilkins
Orchestra/Ensemble:
University of Houston Percussion Ensemble
3.
The Manes Scroll by Christopher Deane
Conductor:
Blake Wilkins
Orchestra/Ensemble:
University of Houston Percussion Ensemble
4.
Ionisation by Edgard Varèse
Conductor:
Blake Wilkins
Orchestra/Ensemble:
University of Houston Percussion Ensemble
Period: 20th Century
Written: 1929-1931; USA
5.
Push by Stephen Gorbos
Conductor:
Blake Wilkins
Orchestra/Ensemble:
University of Houston Percussion Ensemble
6.
Invisibles Pass By by Yo Goto
Conductor:
Blake Wilkins
Orchestra/Ensemble:
University of Houston Percussion Ensemble
7.
Percolative Processes by Stephen Hartke
Conductor:
Blake Wilkins
Orchestra/Ensemble:
University of Houston Percussion Ensemble
8.
Kinetikus by David Crumb
Conductor:
Blake Wilkins
Orchestra/Ensemble:
University of Houston Percussion Ensemble
9.
Sturm und Drang by Justin Merritt
Conductor:
Blake Wilkins
Orchestra/Ensemble:
University of Houston Percussion Ensemble
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