we don't march anymore
Andrea La Rose
About this work:
There's quite a handful of people who attend UMass Amherst simply because they want to be in the marching band, and, if they're in the drumline, especially to work with Thom Hannum. As a result of this phenomena, I met a lot of people involved in drum corps, while I was a music education major at UMass; my housemate at the time even dated (and eventually married the same...) a drum corps guy. While I find marching band/drum corps style percussion writing often overdone and not always particularly musical, it's difficult to deny that what these people do with just a snare drum is nothing short of amazing. From the exposure I was getting to this style of drumming, I was inspired to write a fife and drum corps piece, but my way. By this point, I wasn't much interested in marching, myself. I thought that using drum corps style snare writing would make a nice substitution for a whole drum set, and if that were the case, the piccolo couldn't simply play little folk tunes. Oh, and the drum corps guy that my old housemate married? He premiered the piece...
Year composed: 1995
Duration: 00:02:00
Ensemble type: Chamber or Jazz Ensemble, Without Voice:Other Combinations, 2-5 players
Instrumentation: 1 Piccolo, 1 Other Percussion Instrument(s)
Instrumentation notes: other percussion = snare drum