works
Anaphalaxis
for guitar, piano, bass, drums, and percussion
Duration: ca. 6'00"
This piece was sort of a workshed piece that allowed me to explore some ideas related to rock-chamber music. Basically, it was an exercise for me in notation, not to mention the incorporation of unusual instruments into an ensemble (the arco double bass, for example, or the Latin percussion and marimba).
Anyway, it begins with an ostinato on the guitar accompanied by a simple four-note theme in the dorian mode on the bass. This theme is then given the full "ballad" treatment by the piano later on. The music quickly builds into a savage 5/4 rhythm which features a number of my characteristically violent meter changes; after this section is an extended percussion soli between the timbales/brake drum and set which gradually diminuendos into a return of the ballad theme from earlier, at which point the piece--like a lot of rock songs--ends rather unexpectedly.