Percussion Ensemble (6
players)
SKU:
SU.80111701
For
Percussion Ensemble (6
players). Composed by
Meyer Kupferman.
Percussion, Percussion
Ensemble. Score & Parts.
Subito Music Corporation
#80111701. Published by
Subito Music Corporation
(SU.80111701).
Prometheus was
composed in the spring of
1975 during my stay in
Munich. The work was
conceived as a complete
scene for my opera, also
called Prometheus, in
which the percussionists
are on stage as the main
actors. With the help of
dancers, projections, and
a dazzling array of
lighting effects, the
opera re-enacts the story
of Prometheus. Earlier
and later in the opera
there are singing
soloists and a chorus,
and an orchestra of many
brass and wind
instruments added to the
percussion. Strings are
used only for a few
lyrical sections. The
percussion group is made
up of six players, five
of whom are surrounded by
a large phalanx of drums,
cymbals, gongs, bells,
wood, skin, metal and
mallet instruments. The
slide whistle is even
used to suggest the wind
on the high mountain that
Prometheus is chained to.
The sixth player is
represented by the four
timpani, and is somewhat
set apart from the others
because he is the musical
image of the
hero--Prometheus. The
timpani cadence is the
high point of the scene,
with the lighting
throwing everything on
the stage into a
silhouette, except for
the face and hands of the
timpanist. The work is
built around the concept
of a God choosing to
bring fire and energy to
mankind; he imparts the
gift of work and the
freedom for man to choose
his own destiny. The five
big bass drums explode in
stretto-like passages
suggesting the anger of
the Gods. Ultimately
Prometheus is punished,
but man once tasting
freedom, becomes the
winner. Prometheus was
composed under a
Guggenheim Fellowship and
was first performed by
Paul Price's Manhattan
School Percussion
Ensemble in
1976.Percussion Ensemble
(6 players) Duration:
13’30 Composed:
1975 Published by:
Soundspells
Productions.
