Glory Medley

A mini suite that is based on 1) God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen” and, 2) “We Gather Together” an Austrian carol from the 17th century.The score is solid in part management but adds motifs of punctuation to add flavor. There are optional percussion parts for those who want to add more color to the performance.

Scored for various mallet instruments as well as general percussion. The piece begins with tutti percusion overlayed with vocal narrations giving a dramatic effect. The piece then explodes with a mallet ostinato and then joined with tutti mallets on the theme. Next, after a ritardando, the mallets present a calm thematic rendition supported by gentle effects of the other percussion. It builds to a strong climax and the ostinato returns with the theme to follow. The final section uses imitative devices with the general percussion becoming more active. Until it all leads up to a stirring conclusion.

This piece starts out in a plaintive style in the upper brass and then is responded in like kind by the lower brass. The second section transposes up a step and with more contrapuntal design giving more tension only to settle down to a sense of consolation.