Includes score and parts.
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Review from Percussive Arts Society:
Five Islands
Paul Damian Hogan
“Five Islands” for cello, percussion, and piano is an avant-garde chamber work composed of five short vignettes played as one continuous piece. Each “island” has its own distinct mood and flavor. Since there are no performance notes included with the score, it is up to the performers to create a meaningful interpretation.
The first island has alternating sustained and short sounds made up of mostly cluster chords. The timbre is gritty and dissonant, with a lot of syncopation and hocketed rhythms. The second island is bluesy, groovy, and sultry with changing time signatures and flowing lines broken up by sudden rests. The third island is in a moto-perpetuo style with the three players trading lines and swapping runs up and down the ranges of the instruments. This changes into stacked polyrhythms that move to a unison melody before dwindling down into an immediate segue to the fourth island. This is like a slow, dreamy version of the first island with similar closed position and cluster chords. The parts have long sustains with bowing on the vibraphone. The last island begins in unison before moving to hocketed syncopation. The sounds are short staccato, pizzicato, and no pedal.
“Five Islands” is a bit reminiscent of Lou Harrison’s “Varied Trio.” The “islands” are distinctly different but cohesive. This piece requires a great deal of musicianship, technical proficiency, and ensemble playing skills from all of the performers. Unlike many similar chamber pieces, however, it only requires a single instrument from the percussionist, which increases the playability and portability a great deal. “Five Islands” would be a great addition to a chamber music recital or new-music concert series for advanced players. —Marilyn K. Clark Silva, 2020
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