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Napalm Basket (Percussion Quartet)
Genre: Percussion Ensemble
# of Players: 4
Level: Difficult | Duration: 6:15
Publisher: C. Alan Publications | Copyright: 2020
Download mp3 | Click on images to left for score sample
Rating:
Price:
$40.00
Item #:
27320
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Notes & Instrumentation
Explosive in volume and energy throughout, Napalm Basket is a tasteful, challenging, and creative percussion quartet which is also an enormous amount of fun to play.
Genre: Percussion Ensemble | # of Players: 4
Level: Difficult | Duration: 6:15
Instrumentation
Percussion 1: Tam-Tam, 2 Low Woodblocks, Mini Mahler Box, 2 Small Metal Plates, Bongos, Hi-Hat, Small Suspended Cymbal, Crotales (2 octaves)
Percussion 2: Lion's Roar, 2 Low Toms, 4 Concert Toms [shared w/ Perc. 3], Large China Cymbal, Glockenspiel
Percussion 3: Small Bass Drum [shared w/ Perc. 4], Kick Drum, 2 Congas, 4 Concert Toms [shared w/ Perc. 2], 2 Brake Drums, Large Suspended Cymbal
Percussion 4: Large Bass Drum [optional], Small Bass Drum [shared w/ Perc. 3], 2 Medium-Low Log Drums, Large Metal Plate
Program Notes
I noticed that there weren't really any pieces out there that are just ridiculous and loud throughout without being way too long and having a soft middle section that doesn't really fit with the rest of the piece. So, Napalm Basket aims to be just that, while also being tasteful, challenging, and creative. Napalm Basket is explosive in volume and energy and is an enormous amount of fun to play.-C.M.
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Product Reviews
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Percussive Notes New Literature Review
When you see a piece in a concert program titled “Napalm Basket,” your heart rate should start to rise, because things are about to get intense. This 7-minute work is a well-written quartet that combines high volume, advanced rhythms, and perpetual motion into a performance that flirts with the edge of percussive chaos, but never boils over the edge. The piece is composed of a series of sections with one element in common: DRIVE. Each portion has one or two players laying down a fast, perpetual motor of sixteenth notes, or whatever energetic note quality is appropriate at the time, while another pair of players perform the main lines together. This prominent voice is either written in unison between the duet or is in an interplay that creates a complex composite rhythm. However, it should be noted that this main line is always discernible no matter how complicated it gets rhythmically.
This is important to mention because even though this piece implies high volume and near-violent playing, it is always controlled. The ability to create something this bombastic and rhythmically advanced without it sounding like untamed noise is one of its greatest strengths: the fire is raging and dangerous, but it is contained. The advanced rhythms are the most challenging aspect of the work. The players need to be familiar with gestures such as quintuplets and thirty-second notes, and be able to rapidly adjust their sense of pulse between duple and triple meters to keep up with the sometimes frantic time-signature changes. Also, the ability to participate in advanced rhythmic interplay (e.g., sixteenth-note splits) will be required so that many of the melodic lines and some driving motor rhythms can be executed properly.
Even though it is, as promised in the provided program notes, an incredibly loud piece, “Napalm Basket” is written in a way that is still musical and interesting. Cy Miessler has done a wonderful job in composing something that is big and exciting while containing it into a quartet that will be enjoyed by any audience.
Kyle Cherwinski
Percussive Notes
Vol. 59, No. 5, October 2021 Kyle Cherwinski on Jun 30th 2022
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