Tale of the Dragon was designed to address musical elements often overlooked in selections commonly performed by young musicians. Designed for large elementary ensembles with no member limits, it is an inclusive piece intended for many uses.
It calls for Orff-style pitched instruments, as well as unpitched instruments and employs elements that are bound to help students develop valuable skills. In this case the tempo is quite slow, which always provides unique challenges for young players in performance. Also, the element of dynamics and how they affect the music will play a major role in helping students identify with the story being told through performance.
This piece comes with a full, bound score and includes a CD-Rom containing an audio recording and all individual parts available for printing.
Tale of Dragon Reviews
George Frock
Reviewed in Percussive Notes July 2010
“This ensemble for young percussionists includes both melodic and un-tuned percussion instrumentation. Keyboard instruments include bells, two xylophones, and five bass bars tuned to B, D, E, F, and G. The non-pitched colors include wood and metal colors. The only drums required are a tom-tom and bass drum. The composer presents two suggested instrument arrangements and recommends that additional pitched instruments be placed across the back of the setup.
The ensemble opens with a brief statement between the tom-tom and bass drum and quickly presents the main melodic figure on the xylophones. This statement is composed of double stops of open 4ths and is modal in sound. This opening statement is followed by a brief interlude on the non-pitched instruments, then returns to the same melodic tune, but this time adding the bells.
The piece lasts only two minutes, but the creative combination of having the melodic and thythmic textures will not only provide excellent training but will sound good to audiences. There are only single-note figures required for the drum sounds. The notation of double stops on the melodic instruments will provide excellent training for young students.
Tapspace includes a CD that enables one to download the parts and also contains a recording of the piece.”
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Instrumentation
Triangle, Zils (optional), claves, maracas, vibra slap, temple blocks, tom-tom, gong, bass drum, glockenspiel, xylophone, one small marimba (4 octave), one bass marimba (range = low C to G)*.
*NOTE: if two marimbas aren’t available, both marimba parts may be played by sharing one 5-octave marimba (low C)
