Chorale for Percussion (2024)

Composer note
Chorale for Percussion, as one might expect, seeks to be a chorale written for percussion instruments rather than voice. It consists of four sections in which the players largely share the same rhythms, separated by two solos and one duet. Each of the four sections features a timbrally similar subset of the full instrumentation (drums, “clicks,” grains, and metals), and the duet and solos transition between these sub-instrumentations. The large-scale structure of the piece is derived from a single rhythmic phrase, which itself is featured at the climax of the piece.

Many of my compositions derive structure and interest from pitch and harmony, so I deliberately challenged myself to avoid this tendency with Chorale for Percussion by using only indefinitely pitched instruments (such as cymbals). Rather, timbre and rhythm are emphasized as the core structural elements (although some aspects of relative pitch do remain).

— Dmitri Volkov