Blaze of Metal (String Orchestra Opt. Drums Gr. 4)

Your upper level orchestra students will be shouting “ORCHESTRA ROCKS!” as they tear out on this heart-pounding, hardcore, heavy metal feature written specifically for strings! Written in D minor, including an optional but essential drum set part, every section gets to shred while crushing rhythmic ostinatos and melodic passages just as reminiscent of Vivaldi as they are of Metallica! Your students – and their bow arms – will never be the same!

Genre: String Orchestra + Opt. Drums | # of Players: 8-8-5-5-5
Series: Ruby Orchestra Series
Level: 4 | Duration: 3:30

Instrumentation
Conductor's Score (8.5"x11" booklet)

Violin I
Violin II
Viola
Cello
Bass
Optional Drum Set

Program Notes
Everything about this piece screams HEAVY METAL: the tempo, the articulations, the rhythms, and the drum part. It is simply INTENSE… and likely unlike anything your upper level students have ever performed! This is not an arrangement, but rather, a heavy metal piece written specifically for string orchestra. As a kid who grew up in the 80s, this kind of music takes me back to some great years!

I have been teaching orchestra for over 27 years, and my favorite thing to hear is when students say, “This class rocks!” So I set out to create a piece of music that did exactly that! I wanted to give every section of the orchestra a chance to really rock out – especially on sixteenth notes… even the basses. I feel like (and hope that) I achieved that goal with this piece. The drum set part, while optional, really does complete this piece. I would highly recommend having a drummer for this selection, even if they improvise and only use the written music as a guide.

This selection is really going to challenge your students, especially their stamina. There are a lot of sixteenth note patterns which require accuracy in articulation for every single section of the orchestra. It might even be a good idea to have your students do some physical warm-ups before and a little stretching after playing so that they are able to use their arms the rest of the day!

Be sure to have extra bows ready to go, especially at concert time, because if any piece of music is going to tear the hair off of your bows, this is it!

– Bryan Sanguinito