Repurposing of Orchestral Chamber Works for the Modern Percussion Ensemble

The practice of music arranging has been in existence for centuries. With respect to percussion, transcriptions of classical works were the initial source of repertoire expansion during the 1930s, beginning with the marimba. Since that time percussion arrangements have evolved to encompass works from jazz, pop, and world musics, and have grown to include various instrumentations of differing sizes. However, it is not nearly as common to encounter a percussion arrangement of a living composer's music. This treatise seeks to propose three new percussion ensemble arrangements of classical works from living composers, with a focus on non-percussion chamber works by minimalist composers and the subsequent re-orchestrations of these works into the percussion ensemble medium using both small and large instrumentations. The works presented in the treatise areEight Linesby Steve Reich,Metamorphoses 1-5by Philip Glass, andPhrygian Gatesby John Adams. Initially, a brief historical perspective will be given on the history of minimalism along with a biographical sketch of each composer, the musical and cultural influences present in the aforementioned pieces, and finally how minimalist music transfers to percussion instruments. Compositional styles, instrumentation, performance ramifications, and issues with respect to transcription and orchestration will then be examined. In addition, logistics regarding stage setups involving the percussion instruments in each arrangement will be discussed, as they affect the performance of each work. Full scores of each arrangement conclude each chapter as evidence of research based upon musical analysis, rehearsals, performances, and personal recordings.