Commissioned piece by pianist jade Simmons. Open for all.

Hello YC'ers,

I have a commission for you all. It is a piece commissioned by pianist Jade Simmons (

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It concerns a piece for piano and percussion. These are the DETAILS:

'Instrumentation:

Opt. 1 (Jade) Piano with parts for extended technique and possibly small percussion items or hand drums

(1 percussionist) a Mallet instrument plus other small percussion items and African drums.

Opt. 2(Jade) Piano with parts for extended technique and possibly small percussion items or hand drums

(percussionist) Drumkit

Timing: 5 minute single piece up to a 10 minute piece with variations or movements

1. I love perpetual motion: think Lygeti etude no. 1 Desordre or no. 4 Fanfares, Steve Reich Electric Counterpoint

2. I don't mind moments of more exploratory, esoteric writing but not too long of a section.

3. Hard hitting accents, changing meters

4. I'm very interested in playing with extended techniques AND even actual percussion instruments, from bucket drumming with drumsticks to African hand drums.

5. I love bass and the lower register, a good bass line or ground would be much welcomed.

6. You can build to it and away from it but outright groove is essential for a large part of the piece.

My strengths are mixed meter, extreme mood change, percussive writing for the piano, octaves, broken octaves, my hands can divide meter well. For instance, I can play 3 against 4 or 4 against 5 between the hands. Have fun with things like plucking, strumming inside the piano, hitting the lid stick up against a downed lid, etc.

I absolutely can't wait to see what comes out of this. I already have a performance project for which this piece has the possibility of premiering. Very much looking forward to it all. Thanks again!

Jade Simmons

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DEADLINE:

There are two possibilties:

1. Jade has a residency in February at Ga Tech and could premiere the piece then but she would need it by mid-December to prep it with her percussionist. If you chose this do this, she would want to add electronics and/or sax to the mix which is an exciting prospect. She'll be performing with her trio Collide (piano,percussion, sax/electronics) as part of the residency.

DEADLINE: December 1st.

2. After February, the next performance possibility wouldn't be until next season, Fall 2012.

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If your piece is to be selected by Jade you are quartenteed a perfomance and recording (probebly video recording).

Since I secured this commission via the YoungComposersTube (YC youtube channel) this all is under the condition that I will upload the video to said channel.

If you are interested please respont in this thread.

i'm interested. What is the deadline?

She seems like an awesome person! I'm interested as well.

I'm down.

wut

I mean Jade (like she explains in the video I linked to) wants to perform music that is higly focussed on being rythmic, rather than melodic.

I'll give the full details when I recieve them from her. She said it would be today or tomorrow. So stay tuned.

i'm interested. What is the deadline?

I'll post all the futher details within a few days.

I'll give it a try.

I'm game, can't wait to hear the further details!

In

Why not.....sure.

The details are in! see OP.

When is the deadline?

Where do I send it to?

When is the deadline?

Where do I send it to?

I updated the OP again about the deadline.

Wait, so how does this work? Does Jade pick our pieces in the middle of December, or does she make a preliminary decision?

I emailed your question to Jade. I'll let you know when she responded.

Wait, so how does this work? Does Jade pick our pieces in the middle of December, or does she make a preliminary decision?

This is what Jade answered:

'I'm not sure how the submission process works, but I would need to be making a final decision in December. So if we go with the earlier deadline period, we could have submissions do Dec. 1, I would make a decision within 1-2 weeks.

I'm actually leaning towards the early period because I think it would e great exposure for the composer to have the piece premiered at Georgia Tech. It would also add to the practically non-existent rep for piano, percussion and sax!'

So.... Who's going to do it?

No promises, but I'll see what I can do.

i think I am, time permitting, that is.

for now I intend to write for alt sax, percussionist (doubling marimba and snare) and piano.

Jade asked me what ensembles you guys are writting for.

I already know what Jrcramer is writing for. How about the rest?

What kind of "African drums" are available to her and her performers?

I've mailed her your question. Hang in there..

Phil: Jade said: 'I don't own my own set so either I'll buy what I need or use whatever the presenter has. This will most likely be performed in the university setting where there will be music departments and percussion ensembles. So the more "standard" the better. Djembes, congas, bongos. A good assortment of low and high.

Gijs

I wonder, would Jade go for a TWO piano piece with percussion being 2 timpani, tom toms (one high, one low), tam-tam, xylophone.

This strays a bit from her OP as the piece does not use any extended techniques. However, it is balanced by the whole rhythmic drive and polyrhythyms in the piece. The percussion part can be done by one player and is not difficult, rather the individual piano parts present some challenges.

I think you know this piece as I posted a performance here which is underprepared but OK. Here is a link to my soundclick page and the recording is uynder metamorphosis:

http://www.soundclick.com/comporgan

Possibly the pianist could consider it for another concert. The work is just over 5 minutes and she could program a concert around the two piano percussion ensemble.

Let me know via email or pm me.

Chris

Gijs

I wonder, would Jade go for a TWO piano piece with percussion being 2 timpani, tom toms (one high, one low), tam-tam, xylophone.

This strays a bit from her OP as the piece does not use any extended techniques. However, it is balanced by the whole rhythmic drive and polyrhythyms in the piece. The percussion part can be done by one player and is not difficult, rather the individual piano parts present some challenges.

I think you know this piece as I posted a performance here which is underprepared but OK. Here is a link to my soundclick page and the recording is uynder metamorphosis:

http://www.soundclick.com/comporgan

Possibly the pianist could consider it for another concert. The work is just over 5 minutes and she could program a concert around the two piano percussion ensemble.

Let me know via email or pm me.

Chris

I mailed Jade your question.

Thanks Gijs so much.

Sorry to bump the thread, but the deadline is well overdue now and Jade wants to start rehearsing next week. Has anybody been working on the commission? And, if so, how far along are you?