Merce (1993)

Merce was written for the percussion ensemble at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque and its director, Chris Shultis. It is material for percussion ensemble allowing for a variable number of players and various selections and combinations, including repetitions and overlays, of seven parts: two solos, two duos, a quartet, a nonette, and a part for three or more players. The latter and the quartet are indeterminate with respect to the coordinations of groups of players; in the quartet durations of individual sounds (and coordinations dependent on them) are determined by the resonance of the sound materials, the time it takes a sound to fade to silence. Generally the images for making the music were of song and dance, some related to Pueblo Indian, some to the work of Merce Cunningham, for whom it is all intended as a small tribute.