2022 American Prize, Composition (Sym. No. 2, Percussion Orchestra)
Grand Prize, 2017 Solo and Chamber Timpanist’s Initiative Competition
Contemporary classical works for Percussion – a collection of modern percussion music and arrangements by composer David Avshalomov, with sound files and scores.
| Listen | Score | Title | Scoring | Dur. | Year |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | Allegro | glockenspiel, vibraphone, marimba, timpani (4-5 pedal) | 5' | 1972 | |
| Order This» | Colorful, rhythmic, motive-rich etude unfolding the potential of the pitched percussion quartet. Varied sonata form in diminished scale, built around opening motives; dance-like B tune in vibraphone. Bouncy changing meters and interweaving scale passages. First Prize, Aspen Festival Composition Competition 1972. | Notes» | |||
| Chiaroscuro | glockenspiel, vibraphone, marimba, timpani (4-5 pedal) | 5' | 1958/63 | |
| Order This» | Ringing monothematic etude in whole-tone scale, moderate speed; fugal middle. | Notes» | |||
| (ed. score) | | Concerto con Timpani (Battaglia) | timpani soli (6-7), strings, harpsichord continuo | 14' | 1992 |
| Order This» | Concerto, early 18th-century concertato style. May use hand-tuned drums. Fun to play and hear. Score is style-edited, with Baroque performance guidelines. (Written under the nom de plume G. F. Salomon) | Notes» | |||
| I. Intrada, Grave/ Allegro | 3'40 | ||||
| Ouverture (slow/fast/slow). Regal fanfare start/end. Rhythmic passages alternating between showy, busy soloist and ripieno, flashy drumming near the end. | |||||
| II. Largo sostenuto | 5'35 | ||||
| Slow, elegant, affect of mourning. | |||||
| III. Presto | 3'40 | ||||
| Rattling fast movement with longer solo passages, flashy wrap-up, echo ending. | |||||
| Diversion | violin, 5 pedal timpani | 5' | 1966 | |
| Order This» | Grand Prize, 2017 Solo and Chamber Timpanist's Initiative's Competition Dancy etude in repeating polymeters that unfolds from a bouncing, rhythmic motif. Simple, tonal, and popular. ABA form; lyrical middle with drums on the melody; brash ending. Written for my Harvard senior recital. See on YouTube | Notes» Composer Talk |
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| Drum Row | 5-8 unpitched percussion | 2' | 1980 | |
| Order This» | Final variation from Lifeboat Variations. Rhythmic chain of micro-variations on the pitch shape of "Row, Row, Row Your Boat," showing off the non-pitched percussion. Smash ending. Finalist, Korg contest 1989. | ||||
| Glockenspiel March | Band w/solo glockenspiel (or bell lyra) section (3) | 2'20 | 2002 | |
| Order This» | Sprightly, simple, honest, fun, old-fashioned gazebo novelty march. Big start, contrasts of choirs, soft-shoe sandpaper break, reprise given to the 3 glockenspiels (or bell lyras). Playfully pompous "I Love Lucy/Til Eulenspiegel" ending. | Notes» | |||
| (piano/vocal score) | | PRINCIPLES (mixed chorus, piano/6-7 percussion) | SSAATTBB, Bar. Solo | 32' | 1993-4/rev. 2022 |
| Order This» (full score) | | Same mixed chorus parts as the revised orchestral version, but with piano and percussion only | Lyrics» | ||
| NEW Symphony No. 2 "Lost Year (2020)" | Large percussion ensemble | 31' | 2021 | |
| Order This» | 2022 American Prize, Composition (3rd Place). A full-strength symphony, my most ambitious work so far for percussion. Reflective of our times. Commissioned by consortium of US concert bands and percussion ensembles. | FULL FORM PROGRAM NOTE | Short Note | ||
| 1. Masked Dirge (For the Victims of Plague) | 5'20 | ||||
| A slow, grim, lyrical ceremonial for a mass burial using diminished-scale monody over a low pedal tone for the start and end, with high bell punctuations. The middle a buildup to a big peroration tune with softer repeats. The reprise ending unresolved. | |||||
| 2. Interrupting Cow (Rondo Variations) | 5' | ||||
| A jumpy, rhythmic attempt to release the incredible tensions of our lives in the past few years. Playful–but dark. Polymeters permeate it. Dancy happy music bursts forth but ends. Each time the downward-leaping rondo theme returns it is varied, once in the non-pitched percussion. The ending is a co(s)mic prank. | |||||
| 3. Farewells (Portraits) | 10' | ||||
| A slow walking gallery tour through musical portraits of individuals lost to the Great Plague of 2020, as lyrical extended solos in marimba, vibraphone, glockenspiel, piano, and ringing metal keyboards, ending with a big, heartfelt harmonized tutti cadence. Accompaniments include “effects” (bowed crotale, cymbal, and tamtam, wind machine). To start and end, a quiet, mournful chorale in marimbas. | |||||
| 4. (I want you to) PANIC | 10'30 | ||||
| Music to express–but not purge–the stresses of living in a world gone nearly mad, with a call to action around climate change. A rhythmic multi-themed bent sonata form with interruptions, changes of mood, many new melodies, and urgent tutti warning outbursts. The mad, driven extended coda builds up overpowering manic energy. (Dedicated to Greta Thunberg.) | |||||
| Temple Goddess (Angkor Wat) | 5-6 percussion: glockenspiel, xylophone, marimba, optional vibraphone, 2 tam tams (flat), timpani (4) | 1' | 1994 | |
| Order This» | Quick Asian-flavor prelude, gongs/timpani ostinato with busy unison pentatonic melody in all mallets, speeding up to bright ending. | Notes» | |||
| Listen | Score | Composer | Title | Scoring | Dur. | Order |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Schumann | Prophet Bird | 5 pitched percussion (glockenspiel, xylophone, vibraphone, marimba, timpani; optional chime) | 3' | Order This» | |
| Bach | Sinfonia, Cantata 29 | marimba (or xylophone) solo (or duet) with concert band | 3'15 | Order This» | |
| Debussy | Feu d'artifice | 10-12 percussion, mostly pitched | 5'15 | Order This» | ||
| Debussy | NEW La Cathedrale Engloutie | 12-13 percussion, mostly pitched | 5'20 | Order This» | |
| Bartok | Grasshopper's Wedding | 6 percussion | 1'45 | Order This» | ||
| Bartok | Song of the Feast | 5 percussion | 1' | Order This» | ||
| Bartok | Bear Dance | 6 percussion | 1'45 | Order This» | ||
| Bartok | Interrupted Melody (Mikrokosmos 83) | 5 percussion | 1' | Order This» | |
| Bartok | Notturno (Mikrokosmos 97) | vibraphone (or marimba), timpani | 1'45 | Order This» | ||
| Bartok | Melody in the Mist (Mikrokosmos 107) | 5 percussion | 1' | Order This» | |
| Bartok | From the Island of Bali (Mikrokosmos 109) | 5 percussion | 2' | Order This» | |
| Bartok | Clashing Sounds (Mikrokosmos 110) | vibraphone, marimba | 1' | Order This» | |
| Bartok | Variations on a Folk Tune (Mikrokosmos 112) | 5 percussion | 1' | Order This» | |
| Bartok | Bulgarian Rhythm (Mikrokosmos 113) | 6-8 percussion | 1' | Order This» | |
| Bartok | Triplets in 9/8 (Mikrokosmos 118) | vibraphone, marimba | 1' | Order This» | |
| Bartok | Fifth Chords (Mikrokosmos 120) | 5 percussion | 1' | Order This» | |
| Bartok | Staccato (Mikrokosmos 124) | timpani, vibraphone, marimba | 1'15 | Order This» | ||
| Bartok | Boating (Mikrokosmos 125) | timpani, vibraphone, marimba | 1'25 | Order This» | ||
| Bartok | Time Change (Mikrokosmos 126) | 6 percussion | 1' | Order This» | ||
| Bartok | Alternating 3rds (Mikrokosmos 129) | 5 percussion | 1' | Order This» | ||
| Bartok | Unison (Mikrokosmos 137) | 6 percussion | 1'25 | Order This» | ||
| Bartok | Bagpipe (Mikrokosmos 138) | 6 percussion | 1'20 | Order This» | ||
| Bartok | Merry Andrew (Mikrokosmos 139) | vibraphone, marimba | 1' | Order This» | ||
| Bartok | 2nds & 7ths (Mikrokosmos 144) | 6 percussion | 4' | Order This» | ||
| Bartok | Ostinato (Mikrokosmos 146) | 6 percussion | 2'15 | Order This» | ||
| Bartok | Bulgarian Rhythm 1 (Mikrokosmos 148) | 6 percussion | 1'45 | Order This» | ||
| Bartok | Bulgarian Rhythm 6 (Mikrokosmos 153) | 6 percussion | 2' | Order This» | ||
| Schoenberg | Op. 19 no. 1 | 4-5 percussion | 0'45 | Order This» | |
| Schoenberg | Op. 19 no. 2 | 4-5 percussion | 0'46 | Order This» | |
| Schoenberg | Op. 19 no. 4 | 4 percussion | 0'30 | Order This» | |
| Schoenberg | Op. 19 no. 5 | 4 percussion | 0'20 | Order This» |