Peace of Mind (2013 rev. 2020)
for percussion ensemble of eight players (8′)
Peace of Mind was influenced by two very unrelated sources: the music of Edgard Varèse and the Art Ensemble of Chicago’s “Ancestral Meditation”. In the piece, long periods of time are filled only by delicate percussion playing over a sustained marimba chord. Periodically, the meditative mood is interrupted by dense, energetic blocks of sound that disappear as unexpectedly as they appeared, leaving the drone of the marimba still sounding.
Sam Hoyland 