for timpani
Commissioned by Rick Kurasz.
Duration: 14 minutes
Available from HoneyRock Publishing.
Each movement of Timepieces addresses different features of playing the timpani. For example, in the first movement tuning changes are only made during rolls, while in the second they occur during the silences between notes. The third movement utilizes them on the decay of notes as ornamentive gestures. Other aspects that are isolated between movements are dynamic range, methods of striking, and texture.
While the techniques mentioned above make the piece appropriate as a set of etudes the primary compositional concern of Timepieces is to describe four different types of musical time. These include the foreground level of surface rhythm as well as the background levels of tempo, proportional relationships, and rhythmic character (precise, rubato, accelarando, etc.)