Aeolian Dreams
for percussion ensemble
Chris Roode composed Aeolian Dreams at a time in his life when he was preparing to move across the country and begin a new career. In his own words, the piece “interweaves the reflections I felt on leaving the old behind with the excitement and anxiety of new beginnings.” Chris wrote this piece with the beginning percussion ensemble in mind. With simple melodic content in the mallet parts and basic rhythmic ideas in the auxiliary percussion parts, this piece is ideal for the developing percussion ensemble.
This piece comes as a professionally printed and bound score and includes individual parts in PDF format for printing or for tablet viewing.
- Glockenspiel
- Chimes (optional)
- Xylophone
- Vibraphone
- 4 marimbas—(3) 4-octave, (1) low A
- 3 timpani
- Drums (snare drum, concert bass drum, concert tom)
- Cymbals & gongs (suspended cymbal, tam-tam)
- Accessories (tambourine, woodblock, triangle, brake drum, mark tree)
Reviews
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Joey Van Hassel –
“Aeolian Dreams,” was inspired by the composer’s mixed feelings as he prepared for a career change and cross-country move. The work begins with a driving rhythmic character, moves to a slow chorale section (allowing the mallet players to work on shaping, rubato, and rolls, amongst other things), and finishes with a return to the fast opening material. The mallet parts are accessible and engaging for beginners, as they are simple, repetitive, use a minimum of accidentals, and give each player a melodic role at some point. All mallet parts are written for two mallets and notated in treble clef (Marimba 4 has the option of reading in treble or bass clef). All the other parts are also quite accessible to the beginner, with the snare drum part being the most challenging, requiring a student adept at reading more complex rhythms and keeping steady time. The timpani part does not include tuning changes, which is a plus for a beginning ensemble. Chris Roode suggests that mallet parts can be doubled, and the auxiliary parts can be split up, making this work very conducive to larger percussion sections.
The score is very professional, including a suggested setup and a disc with parts and a recording. From a director and performer’s perspective, the pedal indications in the vibraphone part could be more clear and consistent, as could mallet indications in every part, which are sometimes included and sometimes not. In addition, the suspended cymbal in Percussion 2 is not always clearly marked, and it changes staff placement at one point in the score and part. Although these areas are intuitive and easily remedied by a teacher/professional, I would like to see a bit more consistency and clarity in a beginning percussion piece. Regardless, “Aeolian Dreams” does exactly what it sets out to do: serve as a great addition to a middle school band concert or even a percussion methods class performance.
–Joey Van Hassel
Percussive Notes
Vol. 57, No. 1, March 2019