Songs of Venus, 2nd Edition (9 Solos for Vibraphone)

Songs of Venus was created to celebrate several of the women in Daughtrey's immediate and extended family. Represented are grandmothers, mothers, sisters, nieces, and now daughter, each having a unique and meaningful impact on his life. For the 2nd edition, all the solos were reworked for 3-octave vibraphone and made more playable by a wider range of players. A bonus solos was added to celebrate his daughter.

Genre: Vibraphone | # of Players: 1
Series: N/A
Level: Intermediate to Medium Advanced | Duration: 34:00 total

Instrumentation
Vibraphone (3-octave)

Program Notes
Songs of Venus was created to celebrate several of the women in my immediate and extended family. Represented are grandmothers, mothers, sisters, nieces, and now daughter, each having a unique and meaningful impact on my life. I tried my best to capture the essence of each of these wonderful people through simple, memorable melodies and textures. From a technical standpoint, each of the intermediate four-mallet solos stand alone as concert solos or may be combined with others in the collection to create a suite. However, the entire collection is not intended to be performed in one setting as a long 34-minute suite.

Notes on the 2nd Edition
I wrote this collection 10 years ago in 2015. My personal vibraphone is 3-1/2 octaves (extending down to C3) and I mistakenly thought the percussion community would embrace the extended range, much like it did with the 5-octave marimba. However, the 3-octave vibraphone has remained the standard. As such, I decided to revisit this collection on its 10th anniversary with fresh eyes and ears, having performed all of the solos during the past decade.

I painstakingly reworked all of the eight original solos for 3-octave instrument, occasionally simplifying passages to make them playable by a wider range of performers. Additionally, my daughter was born in 2016, so I composed a bonus solo dedicated to her to round out the collection.

Unconditional... (for my wife, Katie)
Blackberries & Chamomile (for my mother, Mary-Jo)
Sunrise Snapshots (for my sister, Heather)
Yin & Yang (for my nieces, Jessica & Colby)
Flour & Thread (for my grandmother, Frances)
Swirls of Decadence (for my sister-in-law, Cindy Ann)
Rosemary & Thyme (for my mother-in-law, Becky)
Boundless Vivacity (for my nieces, Sara & Lily)
Twinkle Toes (for my daughter, Penelope)