Medium Easy
6 Players
Duration 7:30
INSTRUMENTATION
Vibraphone 1
Vibraphone 2 (w/Bells)
Chimes
Marimba 1 (4-octave w/Crotales)
Marimba 2 (4.3-octave w/Bells)
Marimba 3 (Bass or 5-octave)
PROGRAM NOTES
Based on the perpetual development of two intertwining melodic ideas, From This Viewpoint, is a mesmerizing work for keyboard percussion sextet. The piece opens with a simple vibraphone statement of the primary melodic idea over a low marimba sustain. The idea is then highlighted with the crotales and bells as it is traded between wood and metal instruments. It is allowed to shift modally, yet uses exclusively the seven natural pitches. Approximately one-third of the way into the piece, the second melodic idea enters in the bells and crotales and is immediately set in canon with the marimba, vibes, and chimes. The piece gradually builds in intensity as the tempo accelerates into a sixteenth-note underlying marimba ostinato. The two primary ideas combine with this ostinato and each other before ultimately dying away into one final statement of the opening phrase, again in the vibes and low marimba.
ABOUT THE COMPOSER
Josh Gottry’s (b. 1974) first composition, Irrelevant for solo marimba, earned him an ASCAP Young Composer Competition grant in 1995. Since that time, he has been selected for numerous ASCAP Plus awards and has created over thirty published works that have been performed extensively at universities, junior high and high schools, and multiple national conferences. Mr. Gottry earned his BM in Percussion Performance at Northern Arizona University and his MM in Composition at Arizona State University. He is currently an adjunct professor of music at Chandler-Gilbert Community College, teaching percussion and composition as well as courses in music history and theory. Additionally, he maintains a private percussion studio and performs regularly throughout Arizona as a soloist and participant in various local ensembles.
Mr. Gottry is a member of the Percussive Arts Society (PAS) and the American Society of Composers, Authors, & Publishers (ASCAP). He is a clinician for Mike Balter Mallets, Pro-Mark Sticks, and Yamaha Percussion. Mr. Gottry currently serves as President of the Arizona State Chapter of PAS and is a member of the PAS Education and Composition Committees. He has been published several times in Percussive Notes and presented a keyboard percussion clinic at PASIC 2007.
