Beyond Twilight
for percussion quartet
Beyond Twilight by Thomas R. Marceau is a quartet for mallet keyboards, drums, and cymbals. Constructed of moments inspired by early science fiction films, ethereal grooves, and rock and roll music, the piece invites the listener to imagine a clear night sky while scanning for movement … whether it be from a shooting star, a satellite, or something else.
Antiphonal writing and layered melodic fragments form wistful textures, while drum- and cymbal-only sections interject and quicken the pulse. A high level of listening and player independence is necessary. Of the four parts, the marimba is the only one requiring 4-mallet technique.
Beyond Twilight ships as a fully bound score and includes individual parts in PDF format for either printing or tablet viewing.
- Glockenspiel
- Xylophone
- Vibraphone
- Marimba — low A
- Percussion — bass drum, snare drum, 3 toms, 4 cymbals
Reviews
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Jason Baker –
“Beyond Twilight” is a twinkling and cheerful piece that utilizes minimal resources in various creative ways. Each performer plays a keyboard percussion instrument in conjunction with nonpitched sounds, often giving the music a much larger effect than that of the four players for which it is composed.
The work shifts between recurring sections in varying tempos and feels, but it always maintains a sense of wholeness and continuity, including a hocket-like cymbal feature before the final section. All parts are playable with two mallets with the exception of the marimba part, whose four-mallet scoring consists of idiomatic, often repetitive permutation-based writing that would be accessible to an intermediate player. While none of the parts are especially difficult by themselves, very few moments of rhythmic unison exist in the piece, necessitating a strong sense of confidence by each player. This orchestration creates the often swirling textures that engage the listener throughout.
Like any “mallets plus percussion” piece, the performers or director will need to be careful in regard to balance between the two families of instruments — adapting mallet choice and stroke types, or adding muffling to drums in order to help the orchestration seem homogenous and intuitive. In addition to its inclusion on advanced high school or intermediate college programs, “Beyond Twilight” could be a practical choice for traveling ensembles due to the availability of the common instruments used and the accessible, audience-friendly nature of the music.
—Jason Baker
Percussive Notes
Vol. 63, No. 1, February 2025