Maze (Percussion Quartet)

The title Maze is reflected in the roller coaster of emotions we experience as we navigate through our lives. Like a lab rat running through a maze, the musical gestures throughout this 3-minute percussion quartet oscillate between feelings of intense agitation and bursts of joy, echoing life’s confusing maze-like structure, where the only constant is change.

Genre: Percussion Ensemble | # of Players: 4
Series:
Level: Medium Advanced | Duration: 3:00

Instrumentation
Score (8.5"x11" stapled booklet)

Vibraphone
Marimba (4.3-octave)

Percussion 1: Xylophone (3.5-octave with 4 mallets), Crotales (1 octave with 2 bell mallets and at least 1 bow), Triangle (pair of triangle beaters)

Percussion 2: Chimes, Suspended Cymbal, Glockenspiel (2 hard cord mallets, 1 drum stick, 1 chime mallet, 2 bell mallets)

Program Notes

The title Maze reflected in the roller coaster of emotions we experience as we navigate through our lives. Like a lab rat running through a maze, the musical gestures throughout this work oscillate between feelings of intense agitation and bursts of joy, echoing life’s confusing maze-like structure, where the only constant is change. Approximately 1/3 of the way through the work (at Rehearsal C), the rapidly shifting landscape of emotions transitions to a more meditative section, representing an extended period for reflection situated in contrasting feelings of an awe/reverence and fear/uncertainty of the mysteries of life. This period of reflection ends at measure 108, as we are jolted back into the survival mode of navigating the maze and accompanying roller coaster of shifting emotions. The state of fluctuating feelings only comes to an end in the last 3 measures of the work, when the unified rhythms and tonal gravity around perfect 5ths and octaves bring about a cathartic emotional release. It is in these brief, final moments of clarity and peace that we finally escape from the uncertainty of the maze in our lives that has been holding us captive.