Skeleton Key-SAMPLE

BRIAN NOZNY

SKELETON KEY

for four or more percussionists

Skeleton Key by Brian Nozny © 2022 Tapspace Music (BMI). All rights reserved.

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TSPCE23-011

PROGRAM NOTES

Skeleton Key was composed during the early summer of 2014 just before my first year of teaching at the Birch Creek Music Performance Center in Egg Harbor, Wisconsin. Written at the request of Ben Wahlund, his idea was for a large ensemble piece that could use a number of different “found instruments” unique to Birch Creek (everday items whose function isn’t musical in nature).

The piece was written with generalized sounds in mind, and then once I got to Birch Creek (which is situated on an old farm with the barn as the main performance space), I had the chance to hunt around for various sounds that might work. The final piece ended up using pieces of scaffolding, wheelbarrows, planks of wood, sheet metal, and gardening tools, just to name a few.

—Brian Nozny

PERFORMANCE CONSIDERATIONS

The opening measure with the improvisation can be eliminated or extended to the director’s taste.

Directors are also welcome to thin out the number of players per part in certain sections to expand the textural and dynamic range of the piece. Even though the piece is written with four parts, the instrumentation suggestions are merely guidelines, and the number of players used is entirely up to the discretion of the director.

Here are some examples of ways in which you could adjust this piece to fit your own needs:

• Placing repeats in places to extend the length of the piece

• Expanding or reducing the number of players in various sections to reflect the dynamics or form of the work

• Opening up sections of a piece over which students or guest artists may improvise

• Having players change instruments within their given family as the piece progresses

• Adjusting the form of the work to start big, small, or however best fits the performance

PLAYERS AND INSTRUMENTATION

Skeleton Key requires 4 or more players with the following instrumentation suggestions:

1. High metal - Any sort of high sound such as:

• Small pot/can

• Brake drum

• Triangle (resting on a table)

• Glass bottle

2. Low metal – Dark, lower pitched metallic sounds such as:

• Metal trash cans

• Circular saw blade

• Large pieces of metal siding

• Gongs laid flat on a table

• Darker-sounding ride cymbals

3. High drum – While the description says “drum,” really any item (as long as it is not metal) can be used here, such as:

• Small plastic containers

• Small pieces of wood

• Woodblocks

• Drums (higher pitched/smaller in size)

4. Low drum – Similar to the “high drum” instruments, these don’t need to necessarily be drums, but rather just larger items that are not metal.

• Plastic trash cans

• Plastic containers

• Large wooden crates

• Large drums (i.e., bass drum, floor tom, low/dampened timpani)

SUGGESTED MINIMUM SETUP

Level: Med-Easy

Commissioned by Ben Wahlund and dedicated to the percussion students at the 2014 Birch Creek Music Performance Center

SKELETON KEY

Approx. playing time: 2'50" BRIAN