Raise the Roof (Orchestra Version)
General Info
Year of Published: 2003
Publisher:Boosey & Hawkes
Duration: 00:13:00
Instrumentation
Solo
Orchestra
Woodwinds: 2 Flutes & Piccolo & 2 Oboes & English horn & 2 Clarinets & Bass Clarinet & 2 Bassoons & Contrabassoon
Brass: 4 French Horns & 3 Trumpets & 3 Trombones & Bass Trombone & Tuba
Strings: Violin 1/2 & Viola & Cello & Double Bass
Composer's Notes
Raise the Roof brings the timpani into the orchestral foreground as the foundation of a grand acoustic construction. I have composed music that gives the timpanist the rare opportunity to play long expressive melodies, and a tour de force cadenza. The timpanist uses a wide variety of performance techniques: extensive use of foot pedals for melodic tuning of the drums, placement of a cymbal upside down on the head of the lowest drum to play glissandi rolls, and striking the drums with regular mallets, wire brushes, maraca sticks, and even bare hands.
Another compositional building block in Raise the Roof is a brooding theme reminiscent of a medieval plain chant, first heard in the timpani and the flutes and later in the strings and tuba. This theme is repeated and passed around in canons and fugues and other permutations throughout the orchestra, to create elaborate patterns as in a gothic cathedral.
I have also composed a lively, pulsating melody for the orchestra combining rock and latin rhythms. The music is a cascade of major and minor triads, like laying down bricks and stones to build up a ‘wall of sound.’ Raise the Roof rises toward a crescendo of polyrhythms and dynamic contrasts, allowing the orchestra to construct a grand new space for performing music of the past, present, and future.
World Premiere Detail
Date: 16 October, 2003
Place: Symphony Hall, Detroit, Michigan
Soloist: Brian Jones
Orchestra: Detroit Symphony Orchestra
Conductor: Neeme Jarv
Recent Performance
Works for Percussion by this Composer
Solo
Mountain Paths – Marimba; Piano
Concerto
Dreamachine – Multiple Percussion; Orchestra
Raise the Roof (Orchestra Version)
Raise the Roof (Concert Band Version)
UFO (Concert Band Version – Multiple Percussion; Band
UFO (Orchestra Version) – Multiple Percussion; Orchestra
Percussion Ensemble
Lex – Percussion Quartet; Violin; Synthesizer
Lounge Lizards - Percussion Duo; Piano (2)
Shaken, Not Stirred – Percussion Trio; Bass Guitar
Used Car Salesman – Percussion Quintet