Caboo (Percussion Quartet)

This challenging quartet focuses on frequent interactions of polyrhythms and quintuplets, with a small instrumentation allowing for a variety of programming options.

Genre: Percussion Ensemble | # of Players: 4
Level: Medium Difficult | Duration: 6:30

Instrumentation
Percussion 1 (5 graduated Cowbells)
Percussion 2 (5 Temple Blocks, Whip)
Percussion 3 (5 graduated Small Drums)
Percussion 4 (Cajon, 2 Ankle Shakers)

Program Notes
Caboo was written in 2006 for the Maelstrom Percussion Ensemble (Bob Accurso, Tiffany Nicely, Ted Reinhardt, and Kristen Shiner McGuire). The title refers to the originally intended instruments – cajon and three sets of boobams. It was discovered that the boobam sounds (produced on MalletKATs and TrapKATs at first) did not offer enough variety in timbre to make the voices and polyrhythms speak clearly. Players 1 through 3 were then changed to contrasting timbres of metal, wood, and skin. The five voices within each group reflect the prevalent use of quintuplets and other five-note groupings in this quartet.