Playbook is a collection of sound games for standard and homemade percussion instruments. As a composer who often works as an elementary school music teacher, I wanted to make a set of pieces flexible enough to function in a variety of ways - as concert music, as activities between friends, as games that students could easily learn and play in the classroom. Some of the pieces are completely written out, some are vaguely open-ended, and some are completely taught by rote -- similarly, some of the 'rules' at play are easier to determine than others. Regardless, they are all rooted in the sheer curiosity and unabashed joy of what can happen when people make noise together.

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This nine-movement work was the original impetus for many future projects exploring game-based performance and teaching. For more information about these other "Playbook" projects, click here.

 

Playbook was commissioned by Third Coast Percussion as part of their 2016 Emerging Composers Partnership.