TENDENCIES
for percussion ensemble
Publisher: C. Alan Publications (2025)
Composed: 2025
Duration: 3′
Difficulty: Medium
Instrumentation (4-10 players): 4.3-octave marimba, optional vibraphone, optional xylophone, optional glockenspiel
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Music operates on tendencies. Chords tend to resolve a particular way, rhythms tend to land on certain beats within a given meter, and melodic scale degrees tend to move from tension to release in a predictable manner. So, what if a piece of music leaned into those tendencies and exploited them intentionally?

This keyboard percussion ensemble with flexible instrumentation explores the tendencies of four scale degrees and two time signatures as it moves between four key signatures all hinging on a single pitch: C. The work opens in 3/4 time with repeated quarter-note Cs that serve as tonic for the first section set in C major (with a few hints of the relative A minor key). Shifting to 6/8 time with a constant eighth-note value, the repeated C now becomes the dominant of a little jig in F major. A brief transition brings the piece back to C, which now serves as the leading-tone to a passage in D-flat major that explores the major, pentatonic, and chromatic scales in this key. Repeated Cs in two voices in a two-against-three rhythmic relationship recast this pitch as the subdominant of G major, pivoting the work back to 3/4 for a classical sounding waltz. Another brief transition returns the piece to C major for a reprise of the opening passage and a brief coda that ends, of course, on C.

This work is playable by as few as four players on a shared 4.3-octave marimba with additional parts to bring the ensemble size up to 10 and the option to double any of these parts for larger ensembles. All parts are written for two mallets per player and are scored for shared instruments to limit equipment needs.

Tendencies was composed for and premiered by the members of the Chandler High School percussion class and the Highland High School Concert Band percussion section in Spring 2025.