Doors

Dave Hall

General Info

Copyright: 2011
Publisher: C. Alan Publications
Level: Intermediate
Duration: 00:09:30
Cost: $60.00

Instrumentation

Player 1: Crotales
Player 2: Vibraphone
Player 3: Vibraphone
Player 4: Glockenspiel & Tam-Tam
Player 5: Marimba & Triangle (Small) & Suspended Cymbal
Player 6: Marimba & Triangle (Large) & Suspended Cymbal
Player 7: Marimba & Suspended Cymbal & China Cymbal & Tam-Tam
Player 8: Marimba & China Cymbal & Suspended Cymbal (Medium) & Bass Drum
Player 9: Timpani
Player 10: Snare Drum & Wind Chimes & Ride Cymbal & Sizzle Cymbal & Hi-Hat & Tam-Tam & Concert Bass Drum
Player 11: Concert Bass Drum & 4 Concert Tom-oms & Bell Tree & Hi-Hat & Ride Cymbal & Sizzle Cymbal
Player 12 Bass Drum & Tam-Tam (on table) & Suspended Cymbal & Hi-Hat
Player 13: Piano

Program Notes

Doors was commissioned by the TCU Percussion Orchestra and composed in 2010. Dave Hall began to compose the piece by imagining a singular door opening in my mind (this can be heard in the first moments of the piece). This door led to a room with more doors, at which point Dave Hall would pick one and move to another room with more doors still. Dave Hall imagined each room as being affected by the previous rooms and reflective of the journey to that point. As motives from each room travel with the piece the sound of slamming doors can be heard, leaving the piece no option but to continue forward into more complex and sometimes disturbing realms. In this way the piece moves from light to dark, from innocence to experience. Instead of returning to simpler material, it continues to gather weight.

A reverent chorale appears in the middle and again at the end that is a harmonic summary of the entire piece. The chorale and the piece as a whole were composed as a requiem for Dave Hall's late father-in-law John Ruppel, who passed away unexpectedly in early 2010 as I had just begun to compose the piece. In an abstract way, Doors reflects the idea of appreciating and understanding a deeper form of beauty that can come only with experience, even though experience often comes at the price of such tragic events. As the piece progresses its own increasing darkness and complexity produce what I hope are the most clear and beautiful moments for the listener. The doors that continue to slam behind yield new doors ahead, illuminating the only direction we can go- forward.

Works for Percussion by this Composer

Amorphous Solid
Apocalyptic Etude
Archipelagos
Ascends the Sky
Disarchitecture
Doors
Escape Velocity
Innerludes
Liminality - Percussion 12
Pyroclastic Steam
Skylight
Slide
Surfacing
The Persistence of Memory
Tilted Spheres