Race Against Time

SKU: CL.RWS-2039-01

A thrilling musical adventure for your young band musicians, Race Against Time is a fast and furious journey with an educational focus on the time signature. Driving in 4/4 time, your students will like the intensity and strength of the musical race. However, they will love their journey through the time tunnel with simple yet effective meter changes. Master educator Robert W. Smith has provided a perfect vehicle to teach and reinforce the time signature in a musically relevant setting.

SKU: CL.026-4909-01

Race Against Time from Rob Romeyn’s popular Atlantis: The Lost Continent is an exciting addition for flexible instrumentation to any concert program. Beautiful melodies, stark musical contrasts and bold drama all describe this stunning programmatic piece depicting the island nation that existed over 11,000 years ago in the midst of the Atlantic Ocean. The music begins as the fateful day ensues, reaching a stunning climax as Atlantis, its people and its humanity were swallowed by the sea. Solid scoring and consistent tempos make this an excellent choice for distance learning. Exciting!

SKU: XC.ICB1906FS

UPC: 812598031416. 9 x 12 inches.

Have you ever had one of those days? You’re about to! Step into a race against time as you attempt to escape with your life intact! The irony? It’s all your fault! After accidentally setting the buildings self-destruct sequence, you hurriedly search for an exit which leads to freedom. Blocked paths, obstacles, and a really snarky computer stand in your way of escape. Will you get out in time? Find out in Self Destruct! This piece uniquely includes downloadable sound drops to integrate electronic sounds into a modern concert band work.

SKU: CL.RWS-2039-75

SKU: XC.HCB1909

UPC: 812598031966. 9 x 12 inches.

Against the Clock is an exciting musical journey of a hero who has to save the day in a limited amount of time, reminiscent of film scores in almost every superhero movie. Composer Jay Coles brings a unique perspective to this highly accessible young band piece. Students will be griped by the excitement and race to save the day in Against the Clock!

SKU: PR.164002480

UPC: 680160038237.

This work is my second for a solo woodwind and a solo percussionist, following Firewing: The Flame and the Moth for oboe and percussion by nine years. The earlier piece followed a specific story line, and pitted the oboe against the percussionist as both adversary and lover. In Spirit Realms, my aim was not only to juxtapose the very different sounds of flute (plus alto flute and piccolo) against a large array of percussion, but also to attempt three different meditative spaces, each named for a different type of spiritual practice. The musical means of expression is very different for each of the three movements (as is the instrumentation), although they share a common scale-source: the looped pentatonic scale I have been developing over the last several years.   The first movement is called Prayer Tunnel, and is named for the Eskimo practice of solo meditation within a tunnel of ice blocks. This is said to be a means of overcoming demons within, and in my musical rendering it takes the form of an unaccompanied alto flute solo. The flute begins rather angrily, full of tension, but in the course of the solo passage manages to slowly unwind. The percussionist then plays the exact same music the alto flute had played....on seven tuned cymbals. Toward the end, the alto flute re-enters, its original meditation having fused with its mirror.   Kiva represents the circular, subterranean pit in which the Anasazi practiced their religion, a form of which still can be found in the Hopi tribes of the American southwest. These are not spaces for solo meditation, but rather a group meeting place in which only the sanctified are permitted. After an introductory invocation (dove call), the music begins. At first, it is flowing, in a repetitive double-five meter. It then traces several sections, with metric shifts forcing the pulse to race faster and faster, until it halves itself in the coda and returns to the exact pulse of the beginning. The flutist here uses the C flute, and the percussionist plays on both pitched (marimba) and unpitched instruments (various drums and struck sources).   Zendo is the meditation room used by Zen Buddhists. My music begins with another invocation (wind chimes, temple cup gongs, and temple blocks), then moves on to a slow subject stated by the flute. The subject is taken up by the vibraphone, and after several modulations and tempo changes, the flutist takes up the piccolo. The music continues higher and higher, and faster and faster (Zen meditation is NOT all about becoming lost!) until it breaks free at the very end. The percussionist is put through his paces in this movement, having to reach a staggering number of instruments in a short time.   Spirit Realms was commissioned by, and is dedicated to, the Armstrong Duo. -- Dan Welcher.